My rubbish updating

I have been incredibly lazy recently so don't have any proper cookbook reviews. Terrible. We're trying to empty the freezer in order to fill it again when my grandparents come over from France. Hopefully then I can try a few more recipes and there will be another afternoon tea to be made.

At the moment my favourite recipe is crab and noodle soup which I seem to be making at least twice a week. It's so easy to make, tastes amazing and makes good use of the corriander and chinese leaves I'm growing at the moment. So impressive just being able to go in the garden and pick your own leaves and eat them 2 minutes later!

I did venture into another 200 book, this time 200 Thai Favourites. You're probably sick of these books by now but I'm still finding them excellent. I had some tofu I'd been holding onto for a while, feeling I should cook with it but not quite sure what to do with it. I found a tasty sounding recipe in this book, fried rice with beans and bean curd. Turns out tofu is pretty boring if you cook it yourself!! I just don't have the magic touch. The rice and beans were nice though and the mint added a nice fresh flavour.

The second recipe comes courtesy of Simon Rimmer from the BBC website. There were good prices on rhubarb so decided to have a go at a crumble, usually opting for the traditional apple version, throwing in the occasional blueberry when they're available. I thought rhubarb and star anise crumble sounded like an interesting option and it was absolutely delicious. I left out the almonds from the topping as I'm not mad keen but I don't think it needed it anyway. The star anise was really subtle and the orange juice sweetened the rhubarb really nicely. Looking forward to eating this again while rhubarb is still in season.

Why not try making it yourself?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rhubarbandstaranisec_85142

I will try my best to apply myself a little better in the next couple of weeks, it certainly isn't stopping me from taking every cookbook out from the library (slight exaggeration!). There was also a lovely sounding lentil recipe in last week's Stylist magazine so will have to have a go at that soon. Plus - great excitement! I bought some really pretty plates from Lakeland and TK Maxx yesterday so I can up my presentation a bit from now on yay!