OK I have to admit that we haven’t actually been food shopping this week. It is a normal weekend thing, that I plan out what we are going to eat for the week, and then we go and shop for everything that we can get early. It never used to be like that. BD (before Drake) we would go to the local organic place at least once every two days.. If you listen to Danika, it was once a day, and often to multiple places, wasting an evening food shopping.. I obviously flatly denied this.. but really knew it to be true.. We spent far too much time food shopping, and I knew that was going to have to change once Drake was born. Oddly enough, I actually prefer it this way. Why oddly? I love food shopping nearly as much as cooking. Nothing excites you about food more than seeing it in its raw state, and coming up with new ways to use it. Nothing apart from Drake that is. A baby changes everything, and priorities go out the window. I still love food shopping, but given a choice between shopping daily, and more organised weekend shopping, and being able to play with Drake more.. well, it is an obvious choice really, the little nugget wins hands down.

 So, a lack of food. I had a bulb of fennel, two zucchini (courgette to us Brits) and a red pepper. I also had a bag of frozen shrimp. Not my favorite thing I have to add, but on days like this when there is naf all in the fridge, it does come in handy. It was a nice evening, so firing up the BBQ was in order. The veg is sliced, tossed in oil, and bunged on the grill. I didn’t want just grilled veg’s wacked on a plate.. I felt like a nicer presentation than that. So, I came up with this little cylinder of joy. Just chopped roasted veg, piled into a 4″ round, and stacked up on a plate. Between each layer is a little roasted garlic and parsley. All this is pressed down to form what you see above! As one veg was done on the grill, I would pull it off, and chop it up grill side, as to keep an eye on everything else. First was a layer of the chopped grilled fennel, then the zucchini, and finally the grilled red pepper. A touch of parsley on top.

The shrimp were dead simple. Just sauteed in some butter, garlic and sage. Surprisingly tasty. All this of course with some ciabatta!

For a midweek meal, that I had nothing planned for, and hardly anything in the fridge, this came off all right.