i really wanted to take an 'outside' blip today as my minutes of daylight at the weekends are so precious. all week in artificial light and a bike commute in darkness at each end is beginning to get to me.

really busy day sorting the house out. cleaning, cooking etc but after seeing so many riders passing my window (as i was cleaning them), i decided i had to get out.
rode for 40-odd km and loved every second.
i have a day off to take soon. i might go to the peaks and top-up my uv levels...

anyway, time for the next recipe in my blip series of good, hearty, comfort food. (the previous one was a vegetable risotto - 28th october)

this is a variation on a jamie oliver recipe, but like this it is more suitable for the sunday dinner trimmings...


olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
5 medium mushrooms
parsley, chopped
4 chicken breasts
500g pack of puff pastry
egg, beaten
a heaped tablespoons wholegrain mustard


preheat the oven to gas 6. chop up the mushrooms. to a hot frying pan, add olive oil and fry the garlic with the mushrooms for about 10 minutes. season and stir in the chopped parsley. allow to cool and then mix in a load of grated mozzarella and the mustard. cut the chicken breast horizontally so that you can open it up like a butterfly. stuff the chicken with the cooled mushroom/cheese/mustard and close it back up again.

roll the pastry out to around 18 inches long, 8 inches wide and ¼ inch thick. slice into 4 pieces, lengthways, and wrap around each chicken breast. you might want to stick a toothpick through each one to hold it all together. brush the pastry with a little egg, and cook in the oven for 35 minutes.

this recipe cannot fail! everyone loves it (except veggies i suppose but they can have the risotto from last time!).

enjoy.