Weekend Cooking: Jamie Oliver and me

Weekend Cooking is one of the easier posts for me to come up with ideas for. Generally there are a few different ideas that have been kicking about, then there are the recipes I find and end up sharing here, mainly because I want to be able to find them again next time I want to make them. Today's post is one that I have been meaning to write for a few months now but never quite managed .

I wasn't sure what to call this post because I am pretty such that Jamie Oliver has no idea that we are, you know, together in any way! I was going to go with Jamie and me, but it could have been awkward if my brother in law had of seen the post title on Facebook because his name is Jamie!

I have talked briefly in the past about my cooking skills or lack of them or more precisely laziness when it comes to cooking. I go through phases where I am quite keen on cooking but there will be lots of times when I can't be bothered and the little chef and I eat far too much takeaway. We were in that place back early last year and seemed to have been in that rut for quite some time when one weekend I was at home and I stumbled on a marathon session of the Jamie Oliver  Ministry of Food series on the Food network. I watched all weekend, and then I watched the repeats during the week. I was entertained, I was shocked, I was challenged, and over the period of the next few weeks I was once again more interested in cooking a bit more. That by no means indicates that I don't do far more takeaway than I should do, or that I cook as healthily as I should, but it does indicate that those elements are better than they were.

If I had one favourite participant in the Ministry of Food series it was Mick the Miner. I loved the look of surprise on this man's face as he realised that he could cook something delicious all by himself! Loved him! (Click here to watch Mick cooking something for himself for the first time in his life!). How could you not be inspired by that joy! And it was great to revisit him later in the series and see how much he continued to learn and love to cook.

I did decide that I was going to cook all the pass-it-on recipes that participants were taught and then asked to teach others as part of the series but in the end I only made a couple of them. One of these days I will try some of the others if I can remember what they are.

Of the pass-it-on recipes, I tried Parmesan Chicken Breast with Crispy Posh Ham and the Irish Stew. I really liked them both, although the little chef wasn't as keen on the chicken. I intend to try it again some time to see whether his taste has matured a little bit.

Here is Jamie Oliver cooking the Parmesan Chicken Breast dish.






I haven't always been a big Jamie Oliver fan, particularly when I look back at the early TV series with the over the top good old boy around town routine. However, I think we have been able to see him evolve from that into someone that is passionate and committed to making things better, who has persistence and endeavour to get things done. While I like the educational things that he has done over the last few years, I also do enjoy those books he has done which are purely about the joy of cooking, like his latest book Jamie's Great Britain.

Originally this post was going to be a review of that book plus what I have written here but I think this post is already going to be long enough so that might have to wait for another day! I already know that book is going to be my next cookbook purchase even though I have read it from the library. It will join the other couple of Jamie Oliver cookbooks on my shelf!

I was going to link to the recipe rather than just the video, but I can't find it online. If anyone wants an actual recipe, let me know and I will put it up in the next couple of weeks.

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.