The BBC can inspire sometimes

I was idling my way through the morning, nothing particularly on my mind, when my attention was attracted by a woman on BBC2, deep in the heart of Burgundy, cooking and drinking good wine. It all looked terribly appealing to this particular bureaucrat.

One of the disadvantages of spending my entire life either working or doing politics is that when I finally drag my weary bones home at the end of another long day, the last things that I feel like doing is cooking something even remotely creative. If it's quick, reasonably tasty and doesn't require too much washing up, I'm satisfied...

So, I already had some chicken breasts defrosting (I have a freezer cabinet full of stuff that needs eating) and some sort of casserole sounded inviting. The refridgerator wasn't exactly groaning with fresh vegetables, so I'd have to remedy that. Sunday shopping hours are a blessing, and my local branch of Sainsbury's is pretty well stocked with fresh vegetables. Drag it all home, chop up the chicken into decent sized chunks, brown gently, chop up some small onions, mushrooms, carrots, leeks and layer them all in a casserole dish, add a pint of chicken stock, some herbs, cracked black pepper and a touch of salt, place in an oven at Gas Mark 5 for about an hour, and hey presto, something edible, tasty and wholesome, especially served with mashed potato.

Now I'm not the biggest fan of the BBC, and I'm a firm believer in opening up the airwaves to anyone who can produce and/or broadcast, but the BBC does do some things well. I may have been the only person watching who was inspired to have a go at cooking something that involved more than reheating a processed meal, but I felt pretty good for it, and that can't be a bad thing.

I might even roast a parsnip tomorrow!