Window shopping and cooking

Spent a very pleasant few hours yesterday window shopping in Islington. If your budget is anything like ours you'll soon learn how to avoid shopping at all costs but I'd forgotten the idle pleasure of just mooching and browsing. It's good to pick up a bit of inspiration here and there and doesn't necessarily mean parting with hard earned (and scarce) pennies! It's actually quite a sign of the times to find Upper Street so depleted of the usual 'high brow' and independent shops, restaurants and cafes of past years. The street looks quite decimated and run down with just the larger brands surviving and even those still have ongoing sales. One exception was Ottolenghi's, outside of which a long line of well heeled hipsters pushing Bugaboos snaked out the front door, even at 11.30! Still the cakes did look good.

Today, as part of an avoidance tactic to knuckle down to some very boring research I've mostly been in the kitchen experimenting with new recipes. A Bircher muesli is now sitting in the fridge ready for tomorrow's breakfast (on the train) and a very successful gluten free Banana and Sticky Toffee Cake (made with pumpkin instead of butter) has been half eaten. Will make that one again, delicious.

Tonight's meal was a Cajun spiced roast chicken with honey and thyme roasted carrots, roast potatoes, steamed broccoli and spiced gravy..........gorgeous! Well worth the time and effort. The leftovers will provide enough for a roast carrot, feta and spinach salad for lunch, a chicken noodle soup and maybe a brown rice pilaff later this week.