Fridgeless

The history of Chefette's fridge-freezers has been long and varied. There was the first ever university dorm room fridge, stocked only with Evian, Tab, and Beaujolais Nouveau. Then there was the fridge from the 16th Street apartment in DC, which she and the Husband accidentally punctured during an ill-considered attempt to chop away the layers of permafrost crystals that had built up in the freezer compartment with a 10-inch carving knife. (Which, incidentally, introduced Chefette to the importance of bribery in Nigerian culture, when the building superintendent made clear that he would gladly get us a brand new replacement fridge from the building management in exchange for the paltry sum of $50.) And let us not forget the fridge in Chefette's first ever London apartment, which was smaller than a table-top TV, and could barely hold a dozen eggs, let alone a pint of ice cream.

But the current model -- a beautiful ATAG brushed stainless steel number found by the Husband seven years ago -- has always been a loyal and trusted friend. The ice maker functioned perfectly no matter how many party guests we threw at it. The cheese drawer insulated the aromas from even the most smelly French chambertin. And the refrigerator compartment was so efficient we used to call it "The Good Time Machine", for its ability to keep foods fresh long past the Use By date.

So you can imagine the traumatic hand-wringing that ensued when we arrived back from a brief jaunt in New York earlier this week to find the ice-maker broken, the freezer compartment as hot as a warming oven, and the top half of the fridge compartment worryingly close to room temperature. I have had to write off loads of food from the freezer, including four beef marrow bones, a packet of duck breasts, half a pork belly, three chicken carcasses saved for stock, a batch of hand-made puff pastry, and enough yeast to make 10 loaves of bread.

So for the moment I am fridgeless, until I can get the repairman to come out to work his magic. Not much to be done week except to subsist on tinned tuna sandwiches and Chinese takeaways.

New look Chefette

Chefette has been hit by that autumnal back-to-school feeling. Only instead of buying a shiny new case full of sharpened No. 2 pencils, she has decided to update the look of her blog.

Not sure what's been more fun today. Giving the blog a new makeover, or slow-roasting a thick end of pork belly with soy sauce and Chinese spices.