Chef in trouble

I haven't posted anything in a few days. Felt a bit under the weather, probably some kind of flu. Plus life has been giving me "one lemon after another". Almost no work this month, plus this morning I got into a minor car accident, my fault totally (backed into a woman's car and broke her lights, luckily not the big one but two little ones). Not quite the Christmas I was hoping for.
Was going to buy a new range-top, I've been cooking on 3 burners out of 4 for too long. Guess I'll have to use the old one for a while longer.

On a happier note, my Christmas decorations are up and the house looks festive. Snooker is happy attacking it. I'll post pictures later, the tree has no decorations in the lower part. Looks a bit weird.

I've been trying out recipes from the cooking show "Chef at home". So far tried couple of his salads. I like Michael's style, it's "no nonsense, whatever you have in the fridge" kind of cooking. Provided, of course, that your fridge and pantry are well stocked. I love what he says on the Canadian foodnetwork site:
"A recipe is merely words on paper; a guideline, a starting point from which to improvise. It cannot pretend to replace the practiced hand and telling glance of a watchful cook. For that reason feel free to stir your own ideas into this dish. When you cook it once, it becomes yours, so personalize it a bit. Add more of an ingredient you like or less of something you don’t like. Try substituting one ingredient for another. Remember words have no flavour, you have to add your own!"
Cool, eh?
I've tried his tuna avocado salad and cucumber-carrot salad number 1 (there are 2 of them). Printed out a bunch more to try.

Long time ago, in Vancouver, I used to love watching "The Urban Peasant" with James Barber. His recipes are original and easy to follow. Not too many ingredients. For me it's a big plus. As soon as I see a recipe with a long list of stuff I put it away. Forget about it, who has time nowadays? (Or attention span, to be exact).

So I made this tuna avocado salad last night, packed it in a nice little container, added a nice dinner roll and... this morning left it in the fridge! Life can get only better from now on!