This new flat of mine has a rather pretty kitchen. Unfortunately whoever designed it  was thinking more about aesthetics than the practicalities of a three-bedroom flat. For a start the amount of cupboard space is deceptively small. It looks like there’s loads until you realise that three cupboards are “dummies” used to hide the washing mashine, fridge and plumbing.

Also I use the term fridge loosely. “Shoebox” would be more appropriate. There’s barely enough room to leave food for an anorexic midget in there, let alone two well built 20-something year old lads and an experimental cook like myself. It’ll be interesting if anyone’s other half wants to visit regularly too.

In addition to all of this there were several appliances that apparently ‘came with the flat’ but were nowhere to be found. We’re missing a microwave (no big deal), a kettle (more of a problem) and a toaster (an absolute f*cking nuisance). It also took me the best part of an hour to find the switch for the cooker.

On the plus side, the electric cooker here seems to be a bit more reliable than the one in halls. Maybe I’m just getting used to these things but there have certainly been fewer accidents.

Anyhow, for the first two nights, I was in on my own as my flatmates hadn’t quite made it to London. I took the opportunity to make a big mess in the kitchen. So on Friday night it was calves liver with port and sage served with pesto mashed potato.

I think I prefer marsala with calves liver but this was still tasty.

On Saturday I managed to get my hands on some angel hair pasta, something I’d been trying and failing to find for a long time. I eventually came across it in the large Sainsbury in Chiswick. This may have replaced linguine as my favourite pasta shape!

I thought delicate flavours would suit this pasta so I coated it in a cream and white wine sauce and then layered it with king prawns and asparagus cooked in garlic. Very nice indeed!