Lentil Lasagna

I had expected to go to a local Vegan group pot luck meal today. I made some lentil lasagna but Anne was working and by the time she finished it was a bit late and she has to read a dissertation and make comments over the weekend as well so we gave the pot lick a miss. We ate most of the lasagna ourselves and the leftovers will be perfect cold for my lunch at work on Monday.
I’ve been surprised at how my Twitter account has taken off. My name there is the same as here; John4703 I’ve now got ten people following me and reading my tweets. Amazing how many people are interested in the stuff I write.
I’ve got a good chance of doing a regular radio show on a Glasgow based community radio so I’m thinking of a theme for the show. I might even include the odd cooking tip.
I thought I’d include the recipe for the sauce that I used for the lasagna. It is a Bolognese sauce ad can be served with vegetables, spaghetti or as lasagna.

Lentil Bolognese.
A really useful sauce to serve with pasta, such as lasagne or spaghetti. Can also be served as a sauce with vegetables.

SERVES 6

1 Onion chopped
2 Garlic cloves crushed
2 carrots coarsely grated
2 celery sticks chopped
45ml (3tbsp) olive oil
115 gram (4 oz) (2/3 cup) red lentils
1 400 gram (14oz) tin chopped tomatoes
30 ml (2tbsp) tomato puree
450ml (3/4 pint) (2 cups) stock
15ml (1 tbsp) fresh marjoram chopped or 5ml (1tsp) dried marjoram
Ground black pepper.
In a large saucepan gently fry the onion, garlic, carrots and celery in the olive oil until they are soft.
Add the lentils, tomatoes, tomato puree, stock, marjoram and seasoning.
Bring the mixture to the boil then partly cover with a lid and simmer for 20 minutes until thick and soft.
Use the Bolognese as required.

TGIF

It's Friday and I'm off all weekend. I went to Sloans last night and got tickets for their ceilidh tonight so we'll go along and dance away the evening. As we were out and hungry we then went to a South Indian restaurant and ate far too much lovely food. It's a great place in Glasgow's Merchant City and they cook with oil not ghee so most of their vegetarian dishes are vegan.
I managed to but some individual oven to table dishes yesterday; I'm hosting a 'Come Dine With me' party next month and want to try to make the food look good as well as taste good. I may need to cut down on the spices for guests; I always add loads of extra garlic and chillies.
I had my first music lesson from Anne on Wednesday evening. Really interesting and enjoyable so I might manage a tune on the piano one day.
I've been asked to consider doing a show on community radio and I am getting keen to to it. I just need to think about a theme and get my thinking cap on.

Saturday Afternoon

Hi,
I'm grabbing a quick tea break at work so thought I'd add a line or two to this blog.
I've been disappointed in our weather as we've had so little snow, not enough to really enjoy but still better than the rain/
We were out last night at a Ceilidh at Sloans in Glasgow. It was good once it got going and the majority of dancers were from a local college where they were studying English.
It's valentines day but I'm not sure if we'll go out tonight, I'm tired after the ceilidh and need to be up at 05:30 again tomorrow for work.

No real snow yet

So it's not been quite as long since my last entry as between the previous ones.
I've been reasonably busy. The end of January is a great time here in Glasgow with Celtic Connections http://www.celticconnections.com/ and we were at lots of great concerts.
I did two live shows on Celtic Music Radio http://www.celticmusicradio.net/ called review of preview of Celtic Connections. That was my first experience of presenting a live show although I've been presenting the News once a week for a long time now.
We have missed most of the snow here in Glasgow. I'm not sure what I think as I like the snow but am pleased to have avoided the disruption of it all. Its been cold and cycling to work through a light snow fall with a strong wind was interesting.
Cycling, walking and going to ceilidhs seems a good way to keep fit. We are starting to plan a holiday in May walking in the Cairngorms and camping so we'll be carrying all out kit which makes it more challenging.
I'l leave it now and promise myself that I'll get back on here again soon.