Usually at the beginning of the month I look forward to writing my blog about what’s coming into season during the next few weeks, I love thinking about what I’m going to cook, and I love sharing those ideas with you all.

However

This last month has been a bit different: I’ve been without a kitchen for over 6 weeks.  My cooking equipment has consisted of a slow cooker, a borrowed microwave, a borrowed single ring gas stove and the barbeque.  I kid you not when I say that I cooked a leg of lamb on Easter Sunday on the barbie and the rain was sizzling on top of the lid.

There are times when I love living in Lichfield more than others, and I have been truly grateful of living here these past few weeks. We are blessed with such variety of restaurants, café’s and takeaways, and I think I might have tried them all during our kitchen-less period. We visited McKenzie's three times in ten days and they (very delicately) asked if we were having some home renovations! We’ve eaten at The Barn so many times in recent weeks that I think I could reproduce the menu in my sleep.  It’s menu change shortly at both venues and hubby and I are keen to see whether our favourites stay on the menu and what new delights we’ll have to try.

I’ve never eaten breakfast out so many times, mostly to avoid the noise and dust at home, and I have become partial to a slice of Bore Street Bakery’s fruit loaf with a mid afternoon coffee at Melbourne in Lichfield, taking full advantage of their Wi-Fi and comparative quiet away from our builders.

We’ve tried all the pies from all the butchers, the Steak and Ale from Walter Smiths is my favourite, although they definitely taste better when heated in a proper oven rather than the microwave.  Sausages are great on the barbeque at any time of day and after trying every fancy variety available we have gone back to plain but tasty fat pork sausages from Coles in Armitage.  I’ve become an expert at cooking several varieties of veg in one pan (adding each one according to the time it takes to cook) and now pie or sausage and veg has become our version of a ‘healthy’ home cooked meal. 

And don’t get me started on take-aways, I thought I loved fish and chips, but even that can get a bit boring when you only had it two days ago, and a bit scary when the staff at Sefton’s know your order and your name.

Are there any positives?

I’ve been regularly visiting The Kitchen Shop, drooling over new plates, glasses and accessories for the kitchen. And we’ve been making lots of new friends hoping they might invite us to theirs for dinner! Grub club couldn’t have started at a better time, and as soon as I’ve finished writing this I’m off to enjoy some Street Food in Beacon Park.

The kitchen is finally starting to take shape, I have a hob and oven, a sink and even a dishwasher, but none of them are connected yet.  I can see light at the end of the tunnel and am looking forward to cooking up a storm in the very near future.