Why is it that, even when I make myself a really simple dinner, I still end up going to bed after 2am! This didn’t bother me much a couple of months ago, but now I’m doing some heavy duty tutorial work which involves be being awake and vaguely competent early in the morning.

I am very, very tired indeed.

I hoped that food last night would be quick. To be honest it would have been fine if I hadn’t tried cooking at  the same time as my flatmate Ken. Its quite nice living with him and Mike. Even though we’re rarely in at the same time, we share a love of musical theatre and a large proportion of last night was spent listening to the soundtrack of Batboy, which is by far the best musical I’ve ever seen. The problem was that until the CD finished I was too busy singing along to cook. Then we realised it was 11pm.

So we both decided dinner was a good idea, but of course, with two of us cooking different things the whole process took twice as long! Hence I was washing up at 1am.

I was really craving pasta and also something with lemon. So I braised some chicken thighs in a mixture of lemon, chicken stock, crushed garlic, white wine and tarragon and reduced the braising liquid to make a sauce. Fortunately my angel hair pasta had returned from wherever it disappeared to last week, so I tossed this in finely chopped parsley, coated it in garlic infused oil and served my chicken thighs and sauce on top with a side salad of rocket dressed with pesto. 

Ken had a very nice looking rump steak with couscous and brocolli 

I don’t understand why some people peel the skin off chicken thighs! If you crisp it up, it is really yummy. I love the combination of lemon, tarragon and wine- this dish really hit the spot. Next time I may make even more sauce!

EDIT: Chicken Thighs with Lemon and Tarragon recipe is now here.