The Food of Kings

We had such a lovely evening last night with David and Lucy who popped in on their way back from work to have a glass of wine with a piece of birthday cake and stayed to help eat all the cake and to make His Lordship's birthday a bit special into the bargain.

Our plans to day to walk into town this morning via the Grassmarket and the Farmers 'Market in Castle Terrace to Princes Street to buy Jamie Oliver's latest book of recipes using just 5 ingredients were scuppered when a) it was raining......again, and b) I read in my paper that the 5 ingredients used by JO might include things like Kimchi, Dukkah, and Umami paste, to name but three I'd never heard of.
I am pretty sure that they are not available in my local Sainsbury's, Tesco's or even Waitrose.

All these fancy recipes that cook books give you that require the purchase of an item that once used, sits in your store cupboard until it's sell by date has overrun by about 8 years. I recently threw out a jar of dried parsley whose best by date was 2009, it had followed us from the castle to the Dower House

All in all, with a slight 'hung overness' on his Lordship's part, we cried defeat and went instead for coffee to Soderberg before buying this rustic loaf and some Brie, the kind of food that acts as a carbohydrate cosh for inclement weekends.