i need

...a pick me up.

Espresso and 70% dark chocolate

party party

After gyrating in a Jessie J fashion the night before, it took a serious amount of willpower to wake up the next morning energised and ready to prepare food for a group of friends coming over that evening. I had promised home made burgers. Why did I promise? Promise is a big word and one that you can't get out of, even on a hangover. Nonetheless I did promise, so...wake up at 10am and yes oh yes, start with a trip to the tip! That's what good time girls like to get up to on a Saturday morning...and swiftly moved onto the supermarket, narrowly avoiding a car parking ticket. This is a penny saving partaaaay and is incredibly cheap and easy to prepare. In fact the money mostly goes towards the drinks (but you can get your guests to bring that!). So with this blasting out on the tv...

...the sun blazing and Charlie Sheen's mantra running in my head I only had 'one speed, one gear. GO!'

Home made burgers

The burgers are easy. I used 3 x 500g packs of beef mince, and you literally just use a fork and mash it up with lots of chopped spring onion, chopped coriander, chopped mint, ground cumin, smoked paprika, salt and pepper and more mixed chilli/onion spice. 2 egg yolks to bind it all together and then roll into balls of your desired shape. Nothing else involved. You can use anything you like and put it in there, whatever flavour you want. I left them chilling in the fridge, ready to cook later.

Take them out when you're ready to eat and cook both sides in a frying pan until rare, medium rare or well done.

Roast potato and sweet potato

These would have been more like chips if I had divided into two pans. I rather overcrowded them so they came out a little more roasted style. Chop up potato and sweet potato and lightly coat them in a bit of oil, salt, pepper, smoked paprika and cumin. Let them marinade until roasting. They took about 40 mins in the oven.

more after the jump...