Held every 2nd Friday on the Promenade.

Seems to be going from strength to strength still.

If I see it I normally buy something just to add support. I particularly like the organic jams. Always nice to buy vegetables that look a bit rustic not scrubbed with bleach like at the supermarket.

Still not quite up to the French / Spainish markets I fear. One time in France I saw this old guy, probably about 85 setting up his market stall. He had 1 chicken and 6 eggs for sale. Totally different world

Taking a small break from my ham preparation. Just remembering the time when I was in Madrid with my sister.

We stumbled across a place called Museo de Jamon. (Museum of ham). Had lots of different hams and cured pork.

I ate a ham sandwich and washed it down with a San Miguel. Not bad

Got a nice piece of smoked shoulder of pork which I am currently simmering away.

The boiling water just has, bay leaves, stick of celery, some green peppercorns, an onion, and a few chilli flakes. No salt.

Savoy cabbage and potatoes on the side ofcourse. I can’t decide whether to make a sauce or not to be honest, I could make a light creamy parsley sauce or even a thinish gravy. Not sure yet

What I do is save the ham water as soup stock. Then tomorrow I fry onion in a bit of olive oil, and throw in some chopped off cuts of the ham, and one cut up potato to thicken. Then pour in the stock from the ham. Let that simmer for a bit till the spud is cooked then throw in a whole bag of frozen peas. After only a minute on the heat to cook the peas I take it off and blend. This way the peas stay nice and green. I serve with lots of the diced left over ham in, no need to reheat the ham in the soup for me.

Then you still have a good amount of the ham left for sandwiches Honestly its bloody cheap way to eat nice meat, you get 3 great tasting goes out of a £7 or £8 ham. Also I love chunky ham with cheese in an omelette.

Oh well I better get on cabbage to prepare

Got a nice informative site to do with the centre of the Cotswolds, Cheltenham if so lets exchange links

Saw him on Richard and Judy last night. Looks like his new book / series might be pretty good.

I am a big fan of Italian food anyway and he seems to have a nice take on it.

If I get chance later I’ll go out and buy the book and test a couple of recipes this week and let you know how I got on.

Oops haven’t been updating much. Got busy on another project and watching Ramsey abuse the yanks on Hell’s Kitchen USA.

Anyways going to pick the pace up soon

Hmm I’m not impressed. People had long told me Gianni’s was great. The atmosphere is kinda cute, the waiters try to make it a fun place. I think in such a small dining room they have to stop people smoking though.

We went for my sister’s birthday and we were a fairly big party, I think some people kinda liked it but no accounting for taste

Food is traditional Italian. Its sadly though that 1980’s Uk / italian stuff. Poor quality ingredients. Heavy handed with sauces. Vegetables overcooked. Oil in the deep fryer was old and did not smell too good.

All in all over priced. I wouldn’t go back.

Damn it turned out really good. Roasted the squash till tender, with some balsamic.

Heated olive oil in a pan, a decent slug. Then stirred in a paste of garlic, rosemary, thyme, oregano and chilli flakes that I had bashed in a pestle. Sauteed the cubes of pancetta, then after adding the chunks of squash. After couple minutes I added the pasta straight from the water and touch more cooking liquor to form a nice moving sauce.

Lastly added to the pan chopped parsely and basil for colour and flavour. Served with garlic bread and lots of grated parmesan. Bloody good, saltiness of the pancetta worked well with the sweetish squash.

Yesterday was the wife’s birthday, so we went out to the Langton for a dinner. We were both kind of tired so decided not to have starters.

The place looks great, its an old school or something. Plenty of parking a busy little terrace which is great for summer drinks. Inside, a nice looking bar, not too busy but on weekends I guess it fills up for a nice atmosphere. They should have a hostess area more clearly defined, but it was quiet enough for us to get noticed and shown to a table. The dining room mixes well old and modern and provides a settled ambience.

The style of food is modern bistro. In some areas the menu feels like it is trying a bit too hard to be chic, but overall its a balanced offering. The pizzas look good, normally I hate restaurant pizzas, but the table over selected one and it looked thin and crispy. The wife chose the lobster risotto, which was a special. The risotto was a light affair, seasoned with lemon and fennel. There was a decent few chunks of lobster and a nice handful of crawfish. Quite good for £10.95.

I had the ribeye from the grill. Good streak, nice flavour simply served with baked field mushroom and plum tomatoes. The wife stole a good amount of my chips dipping them in the Bearnaise sauce. Calling the chips Belgium fries is a plus too, winds up the French.

All in all this place in a handy place to go. Slightly more limited menu than say petite blanc but all in all great value and enjoyed the young and bubbly service. Definately one of the better places to eat in CHeltenham in that price range.

For tonights dinner I am trying a new thing. Roasting squash, with olive oil and balsamic vinegar to go with pancetta and penne pasta.

Not 100% how it will turn out, I don’t want the squash too mushy, so I am going to lighlty roast it, then fry it to caramelise the outside corners. The flavour will come from the cubes of pancetta and a nice mix of fresh herbs to finish, parsely, basil and a little finely chopped rosemary and a touch of garlic and some crushed chilli flakes.

I’ll post how it turned out.