The Domestic Prelate.

Tonights dinner, Shrimp, aubergine, butternut squash and french bean curry.

With somosas and cous cous and bulgar wheat as I had no rice left.

Tandoori chicken about to go under the grill (yes, I had company, it's not all for me).

Store Cupboard shot. Note the Methi leaves, whatever they are.

Booze cupboard swelled by Christmas gifts.

A friend of mine, upon being elevated to the rank of Prelate, hosted a dinner party at which he announced that he was a Domesticated Prelate. Not only could he cook and clean, he could also guide a community in love and charity. He instilled in me the need for a well stocked store cupboard 'make sure you've plenty of ethnic stuff in in case the Bishop comes round' he advised 'and put your best bottles of booze to the back, make it look like you only have the cooking stuff!'. I was thinking about this yesterday when two of you -you strange lot- emailed me and asked for diet tips for the New Year. I sense a certain amount of cheek in the air, possibly emanating from my belief that belts shrink when exposed to cake or cake like substances. Anyway, you are all wrong, I eat very healthily as these pictures will demonstrate!

I am further cheered by my esteemed fellow-blogger, Father TE Jones of Saint Peters London Docks, who recently displayed an old timetable from his Parish showing that Breakfast in the Clergy House took an hour and a half, which seems adequate time to let the kippers digest before the sausages and bacon! Seriously, though, I am on a keep fit (or get fit) drive at the moment, as I cannot afford a bigger cassock. I have purchased some wholemeal bread and some prawns and intend starting on them tomorrow.