So 'Date Night' was Pizza Night

Too shattered to do anything but guzzle pizza on Friday night. An early one. Saturday saw a long drive out to the west with my Mum, who's paying a flying visit.

On return I decided to make the picked onions, pub style. (whatever that means) However the recipe was wrong. Although list of ingredients called for salt, the process called for sugar. That took some time to get my head around. And took a lot of other books out to work out which it should be. I settled on the salt in the end. It's a two step process, with the second step being Friday, then 3 weeks in the jar.

If they're any good, I'll post the recipe, but I am going to dob in Penguin for allowing a mispint like that in their book. (Syd Pemberton 'Jams & Preserves') It makes me kind of nervous to try the Roasted Red Onions in Balsamic Vinegar with Thyme Sprigs, but hell, I'll give it a go. The nice differential about this recipe is it takes 3 months for them to do whatever they do before using. They do call for white balsamic vinegar (what, I hear you say), but yes, there is such a thing, and I found some at my favourite shop Fratelli Fresh in Danks Street, Waterloo. Anything Italian, and the very best fruit and veg in town.

S.O. made his sublime ricotta gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce. It's evil but good, marvellous comfort food that you can feel clogging up the arteries. It's a Stefano de Pietri recipe from 'A Gondola On The Murray'. We're planning a trip on a houseboat on the Murray in the depths of winter -- we must be mad -- but the trip includes a mandatory stop at Stefano's restaurant at the Grand Hotel in Mildura. One of those pilgrimages one must make.

Sunday and that duck really had to be cooked. I kind of screwed it up by messing with two recipes, which culminated in neither one being given its due. My apologies to both Kylie Kwong and Iain Hewitson.

So really by Monday night we all needed to check into a spa and eat lettuce. I did the next best thing and had a goat cheese and parsley omelette. S.O. went off to by mineral water, but got distracted by a mate and drank Hollandia beer instead.

Things were going kind of well for me until I realised -- not having had a ciggie all day -- that I needed something sweet. Bingo, in the ad breaks of 'Desperate Housewives' was created Julie le Clerc's Semolina, Orange and Yoghurt Cake, with the Orange Honey Syrup. Lovely. Light with a good crust. And I swear I only had the one piece. Not too rich. (Julie le Clerc 'Feast @ Home'

I'm really hoping to up the Pilates to three, or God forbid, maybe four times a week.