Apricots In Manchester

This weekend we’ll be busy, so I’m turning to an old favourite from Nigella Lawson. Nigella will feature several times in this challenge, but this seems like the right time for Nigella Express.

The book was published in 2007 when I had two small children and a fairly demanding job, so anything with the subtitle “Good Food Fast” was always going to be appealing. There was a TV series too of course, with Nigella dashing home and showing us all kinds of short cuts to host a quick dinner party on a Wednesday night. I’m sure there was an episode which involved her doing some meal preparation with her coat on because she couldn’t even be bothered to take it off. That may sound silly, but I really have come home after working and picking up the children and by the time I’d got them inside, helped them get their coats and shoes off and got them a drink or whatever, then actually taking off my own coat and hanging it up really did seem a step too far. Anyway, I loved watching this on TV, especially the section at the end which involved Nigella coming down to the fridge in her dressing gown to finish up some leftovers.

I don’t think I ever did host a Wednesday night dinner party, but I know there were several recipes in here that saved us from yet another dish of stir fry or pasta in sauce. I’m looking forward to revisiting this.