Dinner at Home

Tag: Lunch

  • Goodliffe’s Bistro Loughborough

    With the other half down at some boat show in London and my older daughter doing Duke of Edinburgh stuff my younger daughter and I decided to venture in to Loughborough for a cheeky lunch!

    We headed towards Goodliffe’s which is just off the main street and has a relaxed informal atmosphere. We were seated immediately and the staff were friendly and helpful. It was very busy with families, couples, single diners as well as people having a quiet drink at the bar. The menu is varied offering sandwiches, paninis, small plates (with lots of tempting options) as well as many mains including steaks, burgers, sausage and mash and fish and chips. Specials are also offered on a daily basis.

    Scarlett ordered mussels in a garlic and white wine sauce accompanied by french fries  (£10.95) and I ordered a potato cake with poached egg, chorizo, asparagus and a hollandaise sauce (£6.45). We couldn’t resist a garlic ciabatta as well to dip in the mussels sauce!

    The food came promptly and was really tasty. The poached egg was perfect, the potato cake was crispy and the hollandaise was just right. My daughter loved the Scottish mussels which were big and juicy and the sauce was perfect for dipping.

    The overall experience was really enjoyable and we will certainly be returning. I noticed they do Tapas and live music on a Friday night – I might just book us in in the near future. Thoroughly recommended.

  • Pasta Puttanesca

    Pasta Puttanesca

    Pasta Puttanesca

    Perfect for a quick lunch if you fancy something spicy, tasty and comforting. This makes enough for one person but obviously you can double up for a speedy lunch for two. You need anchovies from a jar rather than those little tins. The traditional recipe uses black olives but I prefer green – either is good. I like the seeds left in my birds eye chilli as I like this really spicy but you can remove the seeds for a more family – friendly version.

  • Leftover Roast Chicken Soup

    Leftover Roast Chicken Soup

    Leftover Roast Chicken Soup

    You will never throw a roast chicken carcass away once you have tried this recipe – in these days of austerity it is a brilliant way of creating a whole new meal for next to nothing.

    Don’t worry if there is not much meat left after your Sunday dinner – it will still make great soup. You can really chuck in any root vegetables you have – there is no set recipe.

  • Tasty Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

    Tasty Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

    Tasty Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

    This is a really tasty quick lunchtime treat if you have half an hour spare. Equally it works well as a dinner party starter served on a slice of toasted ciabatta with some fresh rocket. Don’t feel you need to adhere religiously to the recipe – I tend to use whatever we have in the fridge (although our fridge seems to be pretty well stocked most of the time!) Feel free to use ham instead of bacon, cheddar instead of gruyere etc and if you don’t have the chorizo it will still be tasty. If you can’t get Portobello mushrooms ordinary field mushrooms are a good substitute.

  • The Dun Cow, Dunchurch, Rugby

    Today I had the pleasure of meeting up with an old flatmate from my uni days at Goldsmith’s College – we hadn’t seen each other for eighteen years so we had a lot to catch up on. We decided on the Dun Cow in Dunchurch village just near Rugby in Warwickshire as it was convenient for both of us.

    It was very busy when I arrived so was relieved that my friend had booked a table. This is a traditional country pub with warm fires, lots of beams and generally cosy. It seemed perfect.

    We were seated immediately but alarm bells started ringing when the family next to us were complaining about having waited an hour for some food. With this in mind we ordered immediately and got on with eighteen years of catching up. Unfortunately everything took forever to come and we were amused at the waitress who spent her entire time apologising for the terrible service.

    Jools had the calamari to start whilst I had the beer battered mushrooms. Both were very pleasant but were were famished after waiting 45 minutes. We both had gammon, egg and chips for main – again, very nice and only brought to the table after asking for them , again with an apology.

    Overall the Dun Cow is a warm, cosy (obviously busy!) pub / restaurant that is well priced with nice food. Sadly the poor service let it down and I will not be returning.