Day 8: Cheese and Ham Toastie

YES YES. I know this isn't cooking, but with the day I've had, I really didn't fancy cooking all sorts of fancy shit. I apologise that this isn't an interesting dish and an even more boring read, but it's only one, right? Better than doing nothing whatsoever!

Anyway, a good cheese and ham toastie takes some skills! Butter the bread, grate the cheese and rip up the ham.

This is the before picture, obviously. The ingredients are inside and now I'm ready to cook! 

Cooked! See? It looks lovely! It could have done with another two or three minutes, but it filled the hole and tasted good along the way.

Apologies again for this terrible excuse of a dish.

Day 7: Sausages covered in Beef, Wrapped in Bacon with Chips

That title is a mouthful, right? I don't think this dish has a name, so I just threw one together. Let's put it this way, I wasn't counting the calories in this one.

First off the mince. You'll need some way of binding it, otherwise it'll just fall off of your sausage as you're trying to cover it. I rolled the mince around in a bowl along with an egg - by far the weirdest feeling ever - until it was all covered. Binding complete. You'll notice the cheese on the right, and that's basically to mix with the mince as you cover the sausage.

Sausages! Fry them. That's it. You'll notice I have one that looks a bit messed up, and that's because I wanted to make sure it was cooked... Bit iffy with meat, sometimes!

Homecooked chips! Peel a potato (or several) and chop it up! Then deep fry for a few minutes and you have chips!

The aforementioned cheese. You shouldn't need too much, really.

The finished product! It was far too messy to take pictures of each stage, but all you need to know is the sausage is covered in beef and then the bacon wrapped round. That easy! Once you've done all this, stick them in the over on 200 degrees for 25-30 minutes, and you're ready to eat!

Ready to eat! That said, you should use thinner strips of bacon, as they wrap around the mound of meat far better than the thicker strips.

DONE.

Not the best picture, and hell, it actually doesn't look appetising, but by God did it taste nice!

Sausage, beef and bacon... SO MANY CALORIES.

Day 6: Omelette

This was the first meal I got stressed with. I've never made omelettes before, and whilst they're ridiculously easy, for some reason I found myself getting wound up by them. I also completely forgot to take pictures, bar two!

The first finished omelette. You'll notice there's ingredients all over the shop, and that's because they decided to fall out as I was moving it from pan to plate!

This was my omelette. Is it obvious by my total lack of care that I just wanted this one done? I think it is. After all this, I didn't particularly like the omelette anyway, but according to the other two eating, it was lovely, so I think it's just the fact I don't like omelettes.

Mushrooms, ham, pepperoni, peppers, chives and coriander were all thrown in, and if I'd have thought about it a bit earlier, a hot roll or two would have been nice, too!

Day 5: Roast Beef with Vegetables

Firstly, this was my first attempt at cooking a roast dinner. Secondly, whilst I knew I'd be able to prepare everything and cook it, I fully expected everything to be ready at different times. The pictures below will be pretty self-explanatory, but I'll still go to the trouble of explaining... Makes me feel important.

Those are carrots, obviously. I left the skin on and 'topped and tailed' them, which means removing the top and bottom - rocket science! - before chopping them up.

Leeks! Easy enough, just chop the bottom half off and stick 'em in a tin. I personally only go about four inches up, but I don't think there's any harm in going higher or lower than that.

Everybody loves broccoli, right? Chopped from the stalk and put in a pan. Easy as that.

I hate chopping this up. I don't know why, but I seem completely unable to do it... I actually cannot cut it up without making it fall apart. This is one of the better times I've done it, though.

I cheated with the stuffing, I'm not going to lie. Paxo's own with some water added and you're ready to go... Sort of.

Half cooked roast potatoes... I forgot the prep picture, so this is the best I could do! Chop 'em up, put them in a dish and spoon oil over them every so often.. Helps 'em crisp up!

The stuffing in a bowl! Magic! Simply stick this in the over for 15 minutes and you're actually ready to go!

That is a chicken pie you spy on the top right of the plate, yes. That was for a friend who decided they didn't like beef... Anyway, you'll spy a nice looking Yorkshire/Batter pudding there, which was homemade! YES. That was a huge pain though. Eggs, flour, water, salt, pepper and a lot of whisking/beating. Worth it though.

The finished product... Apologies for the steamy picture, but that couldn't be helped... Gravy was made using the beef stock from the slow cooked beef (cooked for 12 hours) and adding some Bisto gravy granules. It tasted lovely!

Day 4: Pizza

Now, this was a simple meal because I had little to no time to prepare or cook, what with getting ready to go out. I literally walked in the door from work and threw this together, so don't expect anything fantastic below!

On top of that, I didn't get hold of the best pizza bases, so that didn't help.

See that? That's a quickly made pizza! Pepperoni, ham and cheese! I would normally whack some mushrooms on there, but unfortunately I forgot them. Such is the rush of getting ready to go drinking!

Extra cheese on top! You can never have too much cheese! Plus, with the extra toppings, the cheese will stop them from cooking too quickly and burning. WIN WIN.

The finished product. Looks like shit, but it did taste nice... Provided a decent enough lining for the night's festivities, too!

Day 3: Prawn Noodles

Yeah, you read the title right; Prawn noodles. Something I've never eaten before, let alone attempted to cook. That said, I like challenging myself so I thought I'd give it a bash, and low and behold, I did...

First things first, what did I put in it?

• Prawns (really!?)
• Mushrooms
• One chilli (no seeds)
• One pepper
• Coriander
• Chives
• Soy Sauce
• Ground chilli flakes

Sounds like a lot? It was. I cooked enough to feed four or five people... I was a fatty and ate all of my portion, though!

I can't help but see cheerios in this pan, rather than prawns.

I might have missed a picture or two, but basically everything is in the pan now. Those noodles were a pain to stir around, believe me... It was as if they had a life of their own. 

Also, I'm a highly messy cook. You should see the kitchen after I've finished cooking noodles.

My finished meal! It was nice, although it looks a bit bland and boring, I can assure you it tasted lovely. Not as good as I would have hoped and next time I do it, I'm definitely using thicker noodles, but still, a good attempt! Oh, I almost forgot! I served it up with a couple of hot rolls, too - lovely!

Recipe Used: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3990/chilli-prawn-noodles

Tomorrow: Pizza!

Day 2: Chicken Curry

This was thanks to having to cater for more than the usual lot today; I had to cook for three extras. That meant I wanted something easy yet tasty, and this was what got chosen. Another ridiculously easy dish; just a matter of chicken, mushrooms, sauce and rice... Almost too easy.

There's not much I can say really, however, during the preparation I decided I wanted to chomp on a raw mushroom, as I've never had them raw before... I never will again. Tasted absolutely foul.

This is essentially the meal... Rice on the left (no shit) and chicken, mushrooms and sauce on the right (again, no shit.).

This is me! As you can see, I not only have a fantastic beard, but a fantastic faux hawk going on right now. So sexy. Anyway, ignore the knob in the background, that was my mother's other half, thinking he was being funny.

I don't think Chicken Curry can ever look like appealing. I mean it looks like something you expect to come out of your body, amirite? I also made a considerable mess on the counter...

It was still lovely, though! I nearly didn't eat all of mine, but I managed it... The naan was so filling!

Tomorrow: Prawn noodles!

Day 1: English Breakfast

Every self-respecting Englishmen just had images of greasy, salty, coma-inducing food right then, reading that title. Just like a good kebab is a good end to a night out on the piss, the English Breakfast the next morning can stave off the hangovers and keep you going through the horrendous shift at work.

Obviously this isn't the hardest dish to make, I mean you whack some sausages in pan, fry that shit up, follow it with bacon and mushrooms, a few other pieces and bam, you're done! Well, not really, but you get my point. I'm not going to start on this epic 46 day journey with a particularly difficult dish, am I?

Check out the above mastery! I cooked the sausages for a bit before throwing in the bacon, allowing the juices to mix and other such shit. Really it was due to a lack of spatial awareness... I forgot to get a picture of the mushrooms, but believe me, they were awesome.

What's to say? These are beans... Disgusting things.

Plum tomatoes... Another part of the meal I went without. Not nice.

Done. Hash browns, bacon, sausages, mushrooms, egg, beans and tomatoes. It was so nice! Might not look like a lot, but fuck you, it was lovely. Making me hungry now, actually.

Tomorrow: Chicken Curry

Introduction: 46 days of Cooking

Intrigued? Interested? Wondering why you're looking at this; a blog about cooking? Well look below and find all - more than like nothing - explained!

What is this?

This is my account of cooking for 46 days straight, or the entire period of Lent, to those in the know. Now I realise to many of you cooking a meal for yourself/others is common practice, and of course to me it is, but not for this sort of duration. Usually I cook maybe twice a week - one of the few benefits of still living at home - so this'll be a bit of a shock to the system, so to speak.

Why am I doing this?

Two reasons:

1. A friend mentioned the fact that Lent was coming up and I figured I'd like to do something. It wasn't until another friend mentioned taking something up, rather than giving something up that I thought about cooking every day.
2. I like cooking. It's a nice change of pace from the constant use of technology - I'm a Computer Science student - and quite ironically, once I've turned my iPod on and have my music at unhealthily loud levels, I'm able to drown out the world and relax.

What am I hoping to gain from this?

That's an easy question. I'm 21 years old and I can't cook half as much as my mother, which disappoints me. I can cook several dishes, and I can cook those exceptionally well, but if it came down to it, that'd be all I could cook. I'm going to gain the ability to cook lots of different dishes - hopefully 46, if possible - and cook them well... This'll mean I'll be one of those rare specimens of men that can cook, and even rarer, a student that can cook... Win/win.

What can I (the reader) hope to see on here?

Well, I don't know really. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to set out this blog, but it'll have pictures of every meal, both in progress and the end product - and my gorgeous face too - and you'll also get some self- scathing wit, complaints and rages about shitty food, utensils, pans etc and maybe even a little cooking knowledge of your own. Plus, if I remember to do so, I'll post links to any recipes I used at the time.

I do hope you follow my own journey with cooking, as I'm personally looking forward to it. I will warn you that not every dish will be the tits, some will be simple shit out of the freezer and there will more than likely be repeat dishes, but I'll do my best to make each as interesting and different as possible.

BRING ON THE FOOD!