I like Leopard Print and I Cannot Lie.

The depression that is a Sunday evening started early this week, when I realised at about 4pm that my time with the gals and Husband#1 was soon disappearing for yet another week. It's just not fair and I don't know how to make myself feel better about it, in fact, I am feeling quite depressed.

Was it an extra special weekend? No, the girls were as naughty as usual and the word "mummy" was used, as usual, on average, about eighty-eight times per minute. The pile of nappies I'd saved to go into nursery now we don't use them all ended up on random heads and bums (including mine) by 9.30am on Saturday morning. They fought like cat and dog. I put Booboo's hair clips back in approximately 27 times each day. The bathroom was a flood-site after bath time. There was no privacy to be had. I got up ten times during each meal to get something else for someone else. I sorted and washed about twenty sets of hats, scarves and gloves in preparation for the winter plus the usual never-ending piles of washing. I picked up fifty empty boxes from Biggie's bedroom floor to prevent her using them for 'recycled art or invention.' Was Husband#1 extra-attentive? Not really. I did all the cooking, except the toast he buttered this morning and wraps he made this afternoon. Did he tell me I looked slim? No, but he did say he loved all my jelly nonetheless. (Fool!). I've even become fond of the fly who has been checking out the house over the weekend and have named him Dewey II.

Not sure what to say about any of it really, except that I suppose I must quite enjoy my weekends and I must have the perfect family, so regardless of what they do, I'd like more please!

So onto tea last night. I made up my own recipe and was quite proud of it in the end, although pictures will show my risotto to be a little watery, it still tasted good and guess what? I ate the 'soup' at the end.

I started out sautéeing some leeks and garlic in butter with lots of white pepper and sea salt. I put this into a bowl, after eating half there and then as it was so delicious, and used the same pan to start the risotto. I added a little extra olive oil to the juices and then put in the rice (50g each). I sauteed this for a while and then replaced the leeks and mixed well. I added a LARGE glug (half a cup?) of Pernod and lit it to bur off the alcohol. Once the flames died down, I started to add chicken stock but by bit. When 3/4 cooked, I added three additional ladles of stock the remainders of a jar of crab meat, some small scallops and topped it all off with a load of langoustines in a pretty pattern and cooked it at 200 degrees for about 15 minutes. When out, I served it in a bowl with chopped tarragon and some extra virgin olive oil. Soupy? Yes. Tasty? YES!

Work. Argh.

I haven't managed to blog in almost two weeks now, clearly the daily treadmill has become too much and taken its toll. I'm sat now waiting for my seafood pizza at 7.30pm and just can't wait for bedtime. Highly likely I'll be up there by nine!

So last weekend we went back to the caravan for one final holiday and it was fantastic. I spent the week before looking for the girls winter coats (the east coast in autumn is surely, positively arctic?) and sleep suits. I packed extra socks and vests for night time and even took woolly hats. Surprised us all when we got there to fine it was a sub- tropical 21 degrees. The woolly jumpers were a tad warm...

Still managed to eat lots of pizza, a delicious roast chicken sandwich feast and best of all lobster gratin, thanks to a timely phone call to the seafood shop, who reserved two of the best.

This week has been okay and even managed a (frozen) seafood and leek tray bake yesterday. I sautéed leeks and garlic with salt and white pepper in butter before adding white wine, cream, saffron and thickened chicken stock. I then put (defrosted) mussels, prawns, clams and some jarred crab meat onto a baking tray and spooned over the mixture. Baked it at 190 degrees for about 20 minutes and served with crusty bread. A delight and a real midweek treat.

Tomorrow, it's crab and langoustine risotto with leek and tarragon with baked broccoli and Parmesan.  Should be good...

Spaghetti Bolognese - Return of the Forbidden

Quick post, but would you believe I was banned from serving good old spag bol about three years ago? Easy to make and freeze, then PreHusband#1 reckoned I made it too often...well it's back, with olives in. And I like it, the gals like it (Biggie was fighting for olives, of course) and most of all did so did Husband#1.

Fool. It doesn't get better than spaghetti drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and then covered in a mix of mince, tomatoes, mushrooms, celery, carrot and olive with a few additional tasty extras (wine, stock etc).

Yummy.

The Poor Relative!

The Star of the Show

What a week - again! Haven't settled in since Ofsted (outstanding, by the way!) and now there's movement afoot with my job and it's unnerving. Carry on with the job I'm doing now or move on and see what may happen. Scary. So this has led to a meltdown of organisation, which isn't brilliant, to be honest. Food hasn't been what was planned and chocolate has taken on integral roll in my nutritional week (alongside the addition of a glass or two on a mid-week evening!).

So the week started well with leftover Galette au chou for lunch on Monday and fish finger subs for tea. I love fish of all types and never under-estimate the beauty of a finger in a sub-roll with mayo, ketchup, roquette, tomatoes (still home grown!), red onion and gerkins. Never.

The week then melted down into a mix of shop bought cous-cous (a staple and easy to put into my workbag) followed by a large takeaway and three glasses of rouge on a Tuesday. And chocolate. The next night was Wednesday and this is the only night during the week that my beauties, Biggie and Booboo eat with us. I try to be adventurous but also aim to make it a meal ALL will enjoy - Booboo can be a little contrary at times. So this week I went for the absolute favourite of pesto pasta with crunchy (to Biggie) or seared (to normal humans) fish. It was a triumph, marred only marginally by the speed-consumption of an over-sized bag of Revels before Husband#1 and the girls walked in through the door. It's hard to say hi after a long hard day whilst trying to swallow two maltesers, an orange cream, three raisons, four toffees and a coffee, all-the-while hoping no one would smell it on your breath. It mattered not later on when I also downed an oversized Dairy Milk.

Sensing a theme for the week? If not, let me tell you, it's oversized.

So Thursday improved in that there was no takeaway or chocolate. I had fruit for lunch as we had a delicious tea of tomatoes on toast (with crushed roasted garlic that I'd made at the weekend) and a drizzle of olive oil. I'd also pan-fried a little chorizo and then, unbelievably, this was joined by French bread and Chevre all bought that morning in France! How exciting! Followed by wasabi nuts. Not oversize in portion alone , but certainly when added to everything else, and in taste!

Pizza Friday didn't let us down and there was the invention of the Tapas Pizza. Not wanting to waste the mass of tomatoes ripening outside and the rest of the chorizo, I changed the base sauce (which is usually just tomato puree and lots of crushed garlic) by adding a teaspoon of smoked paprika and then put chorizo, tomatoes and a yellow pepper on top. It may have just done enough to join the list of regulars! It was really good, even if I say so myself! Then there was the white Toblerone...

Tapas Pizza
 

 

And Saturday. It started with banana pancakes: take 270g of flour, a teaspoon of baking powder, two eggs, two tablespoons of butter (melted before adding) and milk to make it into a fairly thick batter before adding crushed bananas - I used four smallish ones, but do it to taste. Cook on a non-stick frying pan, no need for extra oil. Serve with maple syrup, of course. Then, for tea, who'd have thought that the delicious monkfish wrapped in Serano ham would be considered a poor relative to the humble patatas bravas? Well, read on - it was! I followed my usual patatas bravas recipe, which is basically onion, sautéed with garlic and chili (except I use a chipotle chili) and then I add a teaspoon of smoked paprika and a tablespoon of sherry vinegar before adding a tin of tomatoes and letting cook. This time I added about 500g of my own home grown (come on, they needed using!) tomatoes, instead of the tin, chopped and cooked for about 20 minutes covered and another ten with the lid off. I deep fried cubed potato and then made an aioli with a clove of garlic, a tablespoon of  sherry vinegar and olive oil. Well, the monkfish was lovely, as you'd expect monkfish to be, but my goodness, the patatas bravas and aioli were something else. Thanks my lovely tomatoes! We also had some langoustines and roasted courgettes (home grown) to start and finished with a shop-bought chocolate fondant which we had with plum puree (home grown again) and ice cream. A lovely meal with three different home grown items - we were impressed!

 

If You See a Hedgehog Durung the Day it Needs Help.

So it's true. Never leave a hedgehog to it's own devices if it is out and about during the day. Chances are it is very ill. We had an exciting rescue on our hands last year, knowing what to do after an incident at the same time last year. Just arriving at Sainsbury's on Friday, I got a call from my mum to tell me my dad had just caught a hedgehog in the road. Madhouse Hedgehog Rescue Services went into action and before you know it the little lady was chez nous in a large sided box, in the warm conservatory with water and dog food - always meat in jelly, NO FISH OR GRAVY OR BREAD OR MILK. Poor girl had diarrhoea and anyway, we wanted to check her over so we called https://www.facebook.com/pages/Oggles-Hedgehog-Rescue-Rehabilitation-Centre/202287366468952?fref=ts who came out within the hour and took her away for tests. It seems that Percy, as she is now known, has lungworm, which is very serious, but can be treated, so we're crossing our fingers. If she survives, we'll over-winter her here at home as she is way too small to go out alone for hibernation. So what to do with a daytime hedgehog (or a small night time one at this stage of the year):

1. catch it with a blanket or towel and snuggle it up in a high sided box with a towel, blanket, newspaper crunched up and even a gently warm water bottle.
2. Give it a bowl of water and some dog or cat meat - but it must be meat in jelly.
3. Call the British Hedgehog Preservation Society who will direct you to a local carer who can administer antibiotics, saline drips and the like.

If they weigh less than 600g they are also unlikely to survive the hibernation either, so please look out for them!

Unusual blog, but food will come later. This is important. Fingers crossed for Percy x

Waw Not Wow

What a week (waw) this has been. Ofsted visited on Wednesday, having rung on Tuesday afternoon to inform all involved. Somehow, normal life stops but I'm proud. I still managed to eat normal teas on Tuesday and Wednesday night and the only take away came with the exhaustion on Thursday. Not bad, I think?! And we had lunch all days but Friday. Again, not bad going. On Monday, I managed to swim thirty six laps AND relearnt how to swim underwater. I felt more than a little brave with my last two fully head-dipping laps!

Friday night was pizza night. It nearly ended up chicken, green pepper and caramelised onion, but I realised how many tomatoes were ripening outside so I cut the pepper and added tomatoes, anchovies and olives. It was lovely and really nice for a change. Would it be as nice with supermarket-bought tomatoes? Who knows.

Saturday night was unoriginal, I'm afraid, but that doesn't mean it wasn't delicious! I defrosted more seafood and then made a romesco sauce to go with it. I roasted 250 (home grown) tomatoes for 20 minutes and then added 20g of hazelnuts at the end. I skinned the tomatoes and places them and the nuts in a food processor. I added some slow roasted garlic (should have been raw, but I'd roasted some earlier in the day and decided why not?), some fried bread, about 25g and then about three teaspoons of Chipotle chilli paste. I blended it all up with a jarred pepper and about 100ml of olive oil. Possibly not a classic romesco sauce, but delicious nonetheless with what I could buy in these parts...

I baked the seafood again and I served it all with a home grown globe courgette (pictured below with our tomatoes!) which I chopped and baked with olive oil and parmesan.

I'm going to have to get some more clams, though, as Biggie came down for her late night recce to see if there was anything worth eating, and she was rather annoyed that these weren't for her.

We had the first full-day family Sunday for a long time today and it was lovely. No rushing the kids off to see TG, which meant a leisurely lie-in and breakfast, in fact Husband#1 even let me have a longer sleep in as his snoring and Booboo's mid-sleep toilet shenanigans kept me awake for quite a large portion of the night. What a treat. We had Galette au chou for lunch, which Biggie loved but Booboo took 75 minutes to eat. It was lovely. Yorkshire pudding batter, bacon, garlic, cabbage: How bad can that be, as Ina would say!

So it's hard not to have a feeling of holiday after such a week and I'm struggling to get back to work. It doesn't help that I've lost my pouch of flash drives somewhere and basically everything I want to do is on there. Yes I back it up, but who backs up every time they do a new document? There's always something missing. Husband#1 has another late night on Tuesday, but otherwise this should be a nice straight forward week for everyone involved. Famous last words...

The Week Ahead

Bon Voyage, Presque

Aujourd'hui c'était la fête de ma niece qui va habiter en France d'Octobre jusqu'au Juillet, l'année dernière. On a mangé le poulpe, car elle ne l'ai jamais essayé. Je pense qu'elle l'a trouvé délicieux. Bien sûr.

English now, French is too hard at times. So today we've had a nice morning, with a celebratory lunch including octopus, mackerel with new potatoes crushed with olive oil and then broccoli, baked with parmesan, garlic and lemon. For pudding I bought in a lemon meringue pie. Lovely.

It's been a hard week at work, but the diet has continued (apart from the lemon meringue) with only treats on Friday and Saturday night. Problem is I'm not losing any weight this week, so I may have to look at cutting my weekend treats. Devastating. Friday night's pizza was a delight. As I'd had my eye done, I didn't think I'd be able to cook properly, but all was fine and so we had the seafood version with calamari, prawns, red onion and a basil and lemon dressing. I think it's my favourite.

Last night's tea was quite special as well, but only fairly cheap. We got some large green lipped mussel and some giant prawns and laid on a big baking tray. I sautéed some garlic in olive oil and then added a couple of glasses of white wine, 150ml cream, a little liquid chicken stock, some saffron and a few chilli flakes. I poured this over the seafood, added a few frozen clams and put in a 200' oven for about 15 minutes. I served it with ciabatta and parmesan baked (homegrown) globe courgette, which was beautifully sweet.

Lizzie's Seafood Bake
 

We've done really well with our own vegetables this year and had another bean salad this week for lunch. I blanched then cooled the French (yellow) beans, added tomatoes, olives and a hard boiled egg. I made a balsamic dressing and this was it. A real treat at work the next day.

This week I also had an operation on my eye to remove the lump which has been hanging around for about a year - I'm desperate to have two eyes which look even slightly symmetrical - I'm almost there! But the day was long...

• up at 6 as usual, take girls to various places of education
• dropped off at hospital by husband at 7.50am
• at 7.51am discover hospital doesn't open till 8.00am
• at 7.52am discover even checking in system doesn't work till 8.00am
• at 8.03am (I suspect someone slept in) WH Smiths raised shutter and I bought reading for next 57 minutes, including the Sun and the Mirror (problems with that...?)
• at 8.06am I bought an espresso, a latte and two bottles of water to ensure above £5.00 spend in the rip off hospital canteen
• at 8.17 was accosted by 'man' who took my copy (read) of the Mirror
• at 8.57 I proceeded to outpatients, as directed by a television
• at 9.07 was operated on by very nice ophthalmic nurse for 20 minutes, my eye being 'one of the worst examples'
• at 9.30 I was shown out 'the back door' so I wouldn't feel self -conscious'
• at 9.30 I walked out the back door knowing I looked a mess
• at 9.32 I took five attempts to get a prescription from the chemist as my eye patch ruined my depth perception.
• between 9.45 and 10.05 I waited to be collected, dropping bottles of water and unable to pick them up all the while bumping into people who clearly didn't recognise a be-patched lady in front of them

18.05 arrived home having worked the afternoon and shopped for the week only to have my family refuse to speak to me as I wasn't wearing a pirate patch. Hmph.

 

Life Really Does Still Go On

Well, five days back into work and it really isn't the worst thing in the world. My brain isn't functioning at it's usual ten per cent, however it has been declining at a steady rate over the last few years or so anyway, leaving me literally too stupid to worry. It just amazes me how, after six weeks of no work (oh, yes, I've even lost enough brain to forget the six hundred emails I received and had to deal with during my 'break') I've just fallen back in. It wasn't bad, in fact, it was good.

I did miss the Mad House, though, and of course, the family. Husband#1 has been kind enough to compile me a new Rock Liz CD (it's number 7) and it is probably the best, apart from the Pink song he's included. I love Pink - in fact I'm a great fan, (when not generally a liker of lady crooners), but the song he's put on is 'Who Knew,' which, having watched Pink Unplugged, we know is about someone having died. Nothing wrong with a song with meaning except when you're travelling to work, missing your family and you ball all the way there. Hmmm. Not a pretty sight when I arrive. I've had to ask for a remix which won't render me a blubbering wreck.

So food-wise we've been good, I've substituted 3% fat cream cheese instead of butter or mayo on wraps, made a lovely tomato salad to go with pitta - all our home grown tomatoes, just with extra virgin olive oil, basil and salt. For tea we had the lovely mackerel roasted with crushed new potatoes and then Husband#1 made fish in tomatoes with olives - all lovely. Last night we had a blue cheese (St. Agur) pizza with balsamic caramelised red onion and a few tomatoes. St. Agur cheese has to be the best blue ever. Today we're both cooking, which is quite exciting, and I'm just blogging whilst Husband#1 is making Ina's Scallop Gratin (who else's?). I made the starter, which used home grown green and yellow French beans, which I blanched a couple of days ago, mixed with home grown tomatoes, black olives and Feta cheese. Actually, it wasn't Feta, it was a Low Fat Greek Salad Cheese - but still good! I added a little basil and a balsamic dressing, it was really nice.

For pudding, it will be plum crumble for the next few months. We took about ten pounds of plums from the tree today and I started to cook them into fruit for crumbles,  but I'd only done a couple of pounds and already there was enough for ten portions of crumble. The girls didn't like, and this isn't a surprise. I did add some sugar, but when I got to the fifth tablespoon it was sweet but still tart and I gave up. I also added two teaspoons of (good!) vanilla essence. Not sure now what to do with them as I just haven't got time to cook them and then pull out the stones and they just aren't compliant before cooking.

Help!

As If I'd Never Left

So day two is done and it is like I'd never not been at work. It's really disappointing. Am working on the work- life balance,  though and went swimming yesterday (did 20 lengths) and really enjoyed it. Plus I'm now able to do four ten second planks...

Food is good - made the Hairy Dieters granola on Sunday and am eating it with frozen blueberries and fat free yogurt. It's delicious. For lunch the sandwich has been resurrected but with 3% fat Philly instead of butter or mayo - so far it's been good with chicken and mackerel. Finally for tea, we had mushrooms on ciabatta last night and fish with tomatoes and olives tonight. Good thing is usually we'd have a ciabatta each but we shared. My 'perma-toddler' will be getting lighter!!

About to start work again, but delighted to say we had a fantastic water tonight. Most unexpected (for September) but fantastic fun. I thoroughly recommend it!

Constantly Carrying Booboo

Well it's back to work tomorrow and the sad fact is that my weight excess is basically the equivalent of carrying Booboo constantly. I wouldn't be lying if I said I could even be carrying Biggie, drop her and still not be underweight. Gosh. But I've started my new regime and have begun doing some planks - I only managed one for ten seconds on the first day, but hey, I started. I'm now on four ten second planks. Biggie thinks it's not exercise but then she tried one too. Ha ha. Booboo just jumped on my back. That was the end of that plank.

So last night's tea was a squid stew by (Sir) Rick Stein with rouille, preceded by lots of meats and olives and followed by chocolate. Lovely, but awfully bad. Today wasn't different. We started with banana pancakes, recipe another time, perhaps. Then, as it was so late, we snacked until BBQ o'clock when we had burgers and sausages galore. Marshmallows were the official pudding but there was more chocolate before bed.

On a rather proud note, I've made a healthy granola for breakfast for the next few weeks, courtesy of the Hairy Bikers, which I'll eat with zero fat vanilla yogurt. I've also made sandwiches and replaced mayo and butter with 3% fat cream cheese - ingenious.

My blogging will be more sporadic now, but at least weekly with a healthier, better-rested me writing. Cross your fingers x

A Toilet Roll a Day and Other Adventures

Frivolous blog post, but I chuckled massively whilst thinking of these, so when I come back to my blog looking for good memories in the future, I will chuckle too.

0: the number of uninterrupted showers I have taken this holiday
1: the quantity of toilet rolls we've used per day
2: the quarters of toast Booboo will eat for breakfast before asking for a 'deal'
3: the spoonfuls of any meal eaten by Booboo before the request for a 'deal' is made
4: the number of times I need to tell anyone to stop hitting a sibling before they'll even consider it
5: the number of times Husband#1 has wiped the work top, having just tidied up (he tidied 37 times)
6: the number of trips to the loo Husband#1 made in one shopping trip with the girls
7: the number of meals (105 in total) that Biggie has eaten without screwing her nose up
8: the average number of socks (not pairs) on the stairs waiting to go upstairs to the wash basket
9: multiply by 17 to get near to the number of daily sibling fights between Biggie and Booboo
10: the total number of minutes I've had peace and quiet this last six weeks
11: multiply by three and you get the pounds I need to lose (and yet I still won't make skinny)
12: the number of washes needed per week to keep in civilian gear (school uniforms are food resistant)
13: unlucky for some, for me the date of eye surgery I cannot rearrange :-(
14: the number of apparently diabetes causing fruit juices my gals drink per week :-(
15: the number of punches Husband#1 gets before he stops snoring
16: apparently the number of punches it takes me to stop snoring
17: the number of 'matoes' Booboo will eat without question
18: the number of courses Biggie will eat: starter, main, pudding, cheese, fruit, yoghurt etc
19: the number of minutes it takes Biggie to have a wash in the morning, with reminders to keep moving
20: the number of times I hear "I'm telling you off" during the average hour's play

Oh dear. I'm chuckling again, but do you know what? I love it - this chaos and more!

He he he.

Blog Off

I'm really fed up to day, in fact it all started late last night, continued through the night and into the day. It could be that going back to work is making me sad. I just get to know those gals of mine and learn to cope with them as a full time mother when I get pulled away and forced into relying on others and not knowing what to do with them on a weekend. They are so beautiful, funny and clever. In fact, I've said it before and I'll say it again: I feel sorry for those of you whose kids aren't mine! The mood could also be because somewhere, somehow, every thirty seconds or so there was a loud bang last night. It was so loud, I got up to investigate, whilst Husband#1 snored on. I wasn't asleep until after 2am and I had to be up at 7.30am to take the car for another service. That was a great improver of my mood. Not. Massive bill this week and then it has to go back in two weeks time for more work. Great.

So the day started with porridge and syrup for all (even Booboo had a small bowl) and then we went out into town for various things and ended up lunching in the same old deli as earlier in the week - you'd have thought we were made of money!

For tea I've made the girls chicken and sweetcorn soup - a really easy one is this. You sauté an onion and some garlic until soft and then add chicken - thighs are best. I used about 600g. I then stripped four sweetcorn cobs of the sweetcorn (straight into a bowl to avoid spillage!) and added to the pan once the chicken had browned. Finally I added about a litre of chicken stock, maybe slightly more and put the empty cobs back in for flavour. This simmered for about ten minutes when I added a cornflour and water mix to thicken and then served. I have another three portions in the freezer from this mix.

It's pizza night for Husband#1 and I. Garlic mushroom - not my favourite, but it will do. Just make sure to cook the mushrooms before you put them on the pizza or the pizza will be really soggy. I had way too many mushrooms tonight so managed to put some (cooked) in the fridge and we'll have them for tea on Monday on a lovely olive oil drizzled ciabatta.

Life isn't all bad, is it? My glass is definitely half full...

Family Octopus & Chips

And so tonight is Family Octopus and Chips night. I type as the chips are chipping and the octopus is having it's final few minutes in the oven. Very exciting for an octopod fan. The gals keep running in to see if it's ready and I think the lovely brownie sat waiting on the side is only a slight distraction! The whole reason why the gals are having this is that I have literally been begged. When Biggie goes to the supermarket with me, she asks loads of questions about food and I'm not shy to give the answers, believing it's much better for kids to know where their food is from and how it got there. So when she asks the fishmonger (usually a very young lad, not far out of school) how exactly did the octopus die, I don't curtail the answer, indeed if he doesn't give it straight I will interrupt! Here she is, pictured below, helping me to wash one before I cleaned it out earlier this year. I love it that she's so confident with food.

Biggie cleaning octopus for tea



 

So we made the brownies this morning, using a Barefoot recipe again - as I mentioned previously, Husband#1 has an obsession and the gals are often to be seen reading her books, so I had little choice. I have no problem with Ina, but I have to say I've a few recipes which haven't worked out for me and that puts me off. Husband#1 and Ina are synchronised perfectly and anything she can do...It sounded quite complicated and faffy, but actually it was really straight forward and any waiting time mentioned in the book is really short and almost unnecessary. By the time they'd baked the smell was delightful. So I covered in a caramel sauce that I think would make Ina's hair curl, but it was all that was available to me and I'll have to do better in the shops next time - I may even make one myself - but it worked and was so, so good. In fact, we were planning a late night chocolatey treat, but these brownies are so rich, they will do. And I can't wait to add a glass of red wine to the mix...Diet? What diet?

 

 

And finally, the pièce de résistance: Octopus and Chips. Using a (Sir) Rick Stein method of cooking, I out the octopus in a Dutch oven with about 100ml of olive oil (there was about 1300g of octopus, two large ones) and placed in the over on 150* for about 2 hours. In fact it was more than enough time to have a lovely walk out with the gals. Booboo's pushchair (broken at the caravan) went to the tip this morning and even though we did the extra long walk of about forty-five minutes, she did it a treat. We even managed to get a look at the chicken coop on the local allotments - I think we may have some rescue battery hens coming to live with us in Spring! We arrived back to a lovely, if unrecognisable, roasting smell. It doesn't smell fishy, but pleasantly promising something which is going to be very satisfying. I prepared some potatoes for chipping (I use my deep fat fryer, as I feel it's safer) and made some aioli - just a bit of Hellmann's, a clove of garlic and the juice of half a lemon. Once cooked, I drained the octopus, chopped it up and sprinkled with smoked paprika and (for the adults only) some cayenne pepper. Both girls ate with gusto and ketchup, preferring that to aioli, which I don't mind! They ate under their own steam and enjoyed it: that's what I like.

The Best Cook in the Whole Wide Kingdom

Hmmm. About five days left until I'm back to work and I'm feeling restless. We got up very late this morning (my gals are fantastic at sleeping and indeed sleeping in!) and then the whole day cascaded into a disaster of what should have been done but wasn't. We have one day left to get to the tip; the garage is full of rubbish which will prevent me starting my new regime next week (sick of feeling fat, old and tired, increased activity is the only answer), whereas the garden is full of a (very kind) neighbours cast off ride-along toys. They are great for a while (and very much appreciated) as the gals have lots of choice (they still both want the same one, however) but some of them are now well out grown. We also have two broken hosepipes, make of that what you will. On Friday, my car has to be in the garage at 8.30am for a service that should have happened in March, but I was so busy I forgot to book it and had to go with a simple MOT instead. I nearly forgot this holiday as well. Finally, the delicious lamb shanks with orzo failed to be pictured last night and so I can't talk much about those except to say that this is a Barefoot recipe well worth trying. Husband#1 certainly cooks a good Ina, it was superb.

Lunch today was tortilla and salad (the gals don't love me any more for bringing this delight into their lives) which was okay but uninspiring. I have it for lunch on a work day, so it's not special, nor is this version homemade either - but it's great for speed. Tea was more exciting. I took the lovely courgettes picked earlier in the week and battered them in a mix of self-raising and corn flours with some salt, white pepper and iced water. I deep fried them at quite a high temperature and it worked a treat - my batter was lovely and crispy. We ate them as each batch was done, but again the gals weren't overly enamoured and only really ate them because I'd also bought some triple chocolate cookies for pudding (which I hardly ever do, what is happening to me?). To go with the courgettes I made a sweet chilli sauce, and though I messed it up, it still tasted good - chopped chilli and garlic boiled vigorously in white wine vinegar (should be rice but Sainos didn't have any this week) and water with a large amount of sugar. Mine didn't thicken so I think I under-sugared. For the gals, I made a pistou-type thing. I chopped some basil leaves in extra virgin olive oil, added chopped garlic, grated parmesan and the zest of a lemon. The addition of the pistou was, for Biggie and Booboo, the only saving grace that has maintained my status as "The Best Cook in the Whole Wide Kingdom".

Thank goodness!

Well tomorrow, things are hotting up and I'm not sure if I'll still reign supreme at the end. We're baking salted caramel chocolate brownies in the morning (I hardly ever bake, but Biggie was promised, having picked the recipe carefully herself - and I do love to see her browsing through recipes!) and then for tea it is Family Octopus & Chips. I look forward to updating with how this goes down tomorrow! Pictures promised!

Dead City Lights, Jordan Sweeto, Deceptively Innocent and Other Followers

I'm just chuckling at myself today as I'm having to stop feeling too cool. Not sure from whence it all came, but suddenly I have a spate of young, cool musicians and groups following me on Twitter. I've even been sampling EPs on ITunes -  and liking them. In fact, this summer I've turned into quite the Rock Chick as I can also recognise about four Fall Out Boy tunes when I hear them, and I believe they're quite cool? Not bad for a Working Mum Who Cooks!

An odd day today, we decided to shop and lunch out. I started by giving Husband#1 space to buy more t-shirts (he swears there are only 20 -twenty- in his drawers, but I know better) and jeans (at least 10 -ten- pairs hidden away). For a man who works in suits, I feel it's a lot, but hey I'm just jealous as I'm moving into specialist stores if I put on any more weight. Whilst he shopped, the gals and I went to Clark's where to my horror Biggie needed three new pairs. A pair for school, gym pumps for school and new trainers. Wow. Luckily Booboo has had a period of stunted growth over summer, it would seem.

We then went for lunch in Deli Central, which was quite lovely. Husband#1 and I shared the house platter and a cheese platter. The house platter included poached salmon (technically a fish, I know, but still lovely), Yorkshire ham and some rare-cooked roast beef with two cheeses, a selection of salads (pictured below) with various pickles, including balsamic pickled onions and the biggest capers I've ever seen! The cheese platter had five or six different cheeses, pickles, chutneys and a Waldorf salad. Both came with bread and butter and of course we ordered red wine! The girls had ham sandwiches, though I got Brie on Biggies. She was struggling to eat it, so Husband#1 and I shared a smug smile, knowing the additional cheese was ours and we both saved a large gulp of red to go with it, but no, my well-trained beauty ate all ham and cheese and just left the bread. Never mind. The positive is she likes Brie and she also helped us eat the olives.

After lunch we took back my glasses to the shop as one pair massacre my vision, which isn't actually that bad. I only want my eyes to stop hurting during the day and felt perhaps some help on the long commute might help (and yes, additional sleep is planned on a work night). Anyway a few adjustments later I'm still not convinced, so we'll see.

For tea, Husband#1 is cooking lamb shanks. As usual, the kitchen has passed through a few different stages today: clean, tornado damaged, cleanish. He cleans well but never, ever, cleans the work tops or table. Once, having made something with raw chicken earlier in the day, I questioned why he hadn't cleaned the work top and his reply included the fact there was no need as he would be making a sandwich soon. I think that was before we lived together - why oh, why did I not take that as a prediction of the future?! Anyway,  as usual, we will be eating at about 10pm and as a result the gals had to have emergency fish fingers and beans, theirs will be frozen for future consumption. So picture and recipe for the lamb will come tomorrow, but it's smelling very good, don't tell him!

I Was a Girl in a Village Doing Alright, I became a Princess Overnight....

Monday, 26th August 13:30 (pre-soup)

If I spend anymore time with Husband#1, I may go mad. He is running round the house in his dressing gown singing the theme tune from Sophia the First, whilst Biggie and Booboo sit square eyed in from of the blooming programme. He has always been easily taken in by twee children's TV. Sophia is the most morally upright and annoying princess I have ever heard of and as a result she is dull. Children's TV does vary, admittedly, but who can resist Josie Jump or Archie from Balamory? Indeed, I challenge you to look at Miss Hooley and not return her smile when she invites you to join the fun too! Mickey Mouse Club House - annoying, but I can't resist Hot Dog, Hot Dog, Hot Diggedy Dog and the gals dance to it a treat. Doc McStuffins? Precocious. Dora The Explorer just gives badly translated cultural misinformation: "When we want someone to move out of  the way, we say 'Please.'" Not in England, Dora. We say "Move." Finally, an old favourite in the Madhouse is Peppa Pig. Peppa is spoilt and George is naughty, nothing can save them, but Daddy Pig reminds me of someone, pompous, useless at DIY but generally loved by all. Who could it be? As for Mummy Pig's inability to resist a challenge? Brilliant. She rules.

Anyway, I think I'd better move on from here and warm the Coquina Squash soup I made this morning, whilst ironing - yes, it is true, I can multitask. That the girls clothes are already covered in soup before they have even gone in the wardrobe for wearing is a point I'll just keep quiet.

Monday, 26th August, later (post-soup)

Well the soup had a mixed reception. Biggie claimed to like it but took her time, whilst Booboo was still eating an hour later. Husband#1 had seconds and that's what counts. If grown ups would like it, I'm happy. At least then if the girls are tolerating it their tastes may develop. It was easy to make. First I peeled and chopped two large coquina squashes into about 2cm squares. I rubbed these in olive oil and salt and put into a hot oven (200*) until cooked and browned. It took about 30 minutes and I did it in two batches. Then I sautéed an onion, a teaspoon of ground cumin and three cloves of chopped garlic before adding the squash and about a litre and a half of vegetable stock. I brought it to the boil and simmered for about ten minutes and allowed it to cool a little before blending. At that point you can add more water to make less thick, depending on what you like -  I found ours was too thick. But it was lovely, and cheap. The squashes cost £3.00, and everything else is really store cupboard. I've fed four of us today and have frozen a further three meals for Husband #1 and I for later. I suppose you could also add cream or similar, but it really didn't need it.

This evening we have had BBQ, lovely as ever - nice and simple too. The gals love playing outside and it's nice that we're all out there together. We just had burgers, sausages and sweetcorn, and of course there was French's mustard, Ketchup and BBQ sauce to go on the buns. Two things to remember for next time:

1. Defrost the burgers in plenty of time to avoid a necessary reformation as they all fall apart and stick together.
2. Prevent Husband#1 starting a fire next to the BBQ, especially with greenery - the smoke will force you out of the garden and prevent the compulsory toasting of marshmallows.

Toast! Toast! Toast! Oh Dear.

Tomatoes, butter, jam, lemon curd, peanut butter are all examples of things you get on toast and the list is not exhaustive. Horrifically over the last couple of days there has been nothing available to eat for breakfast and lunch apart from toast. It's shocking from a woman who prides herself in good nutrition for the kids...Booboo, who dislikes porridge and takes a year to eat cereal, has indeed eaten almost half a loaf in two days. In fact I knew we had a serious issue this morning when we ran downstairs for the porridge and reached into the fridge to find there was no milk.

Anyway after a trip to the supermarket, we now have alternatives...hopefully. Husband #1 was able to cook lemon chicken with couscous and broccoli. It wasn't a success; the monsters that are my gals ate the couscous followed by the greenery - that usually always gets left until the end! Trying to get them to eat the chicken was a no-no, thank goodness we'd decided against giving them lemons. i liked it, though, but I do wish he'd branch out and try a recipe from someone other than Mrs Barefoot! No offence Ina, still hope to end up like you and Geoffrey.

Husband#1's Lemon Chicken with Couscous and Broccoli

A short post tonight, tomorrow is BBQ night and soup (no toast) for lunch. I'm making butternut squash soup except that I have some other kind of squash. But it will do!

In my book, like cleanliness is close to godliness, adaptability is close to MichelinStarness.

Dead Ringer For Love and Other Hits

So Friday evening was beautifully rounded off with a flick through the music channels and a discussion about the gals music tastes, which are quite broad and I'm rather proud of them. Both would feel at home in school or nursery singing about the Nativity or other internationally recognised nursery rhymes, but they would also be able to sing about 75% of the words at a Fall Out Boy gig, and many things in between: Cher, Jimmy Eat World, McFly, One Direction, Tiffany and Jesse J are just a small selection. Anyway, we hit upon Cher and Meatloaf doing Dead Ringer For Love and before you could say 'Drunken antics' we'd found the karaoke version on You Tube and were re-enacting the video. Great fun. Begs the question, is there a bad Meatloaf song?

Saturday began in panic as I'd still not decided what to cook for the gluten free, seafood free and offal free brigade who were coming to tea. Steak was out as I can't cook a well-done steak. It's not that I won't, like a proud French chef who refuses the fool a burnt-to-a-crisp offering, I actually can't do it. I once tried for the in-laws and put their steaks on for almost 20 minutes longer than the rest (rare) and they still came out pink. So I just won't do steak if I know it needs any less colour than a medium rare.

I settled on Nigella's Roquamole dip for the Nigella Express book, with a version of my own Aubergine dip and corn chips. For the Aubergine dip I roasted two aubergines, took out the flesh, added the juice of a lemon, some spring onions, some tomatoes and chopped basil. Often I use coriander but I forgot to buy it. It was good and both dips went quickly, Nigella's was the favourite though!

This was followed by a Spanish meal by (Sir) Rick Stein, monkfish with rice and roasted peppers, except my non-fish eating guests demanded that I swap to chicken. It made little difference. The rice and peppers are the best part of the dish and taste out of this world. Sauté one onion (Rick says use shallots, but you buy a big bag and never use the rest) then add peeled tomatoes (Rick grates his, but I'm not as classy), as much garlic as you have time to chop (I did 10 cloves), about half a teaspoon of smoked paprika (I love it) and some dried chillies and cook for five or so minutes. Then I added a litre and a quarter of chicken stock, some saffron and a little salt and bring to the boil. Add 400g paella rice and boil vigorously for five or so minutes. Then lay some chopped, bottled peppers (or skin and chop your own if you have time) and leave to simmer on a low heat for about 15 minutes. Rick doesn't stir his but mine needed a little just to unstick from the bottom. Finally take your chicken or monkfish (or whatever!) and cut into inch square pieces. 500g serves 6 nicely. Toss in some more smoked paprika and salt and sauté in olive oil until cooked. Once the rice is done, add the chicken or fish to the top and serve. A great recipe and would even be good without the meat or fish. Rick says to serve with aioli - it does add to the dish, but it is also tasty without. I'm having some difficulties with aioli and home mayonnaise type things at the moment, where once I had no issue and laughed in the face of those who relied on an adapted jar of Hellmann's.  Yesterday, and on recent but previous occasions I have had to do it up to five times before it has worked - a guest was on egg-buying stand-by yesterday, when luckily on my third and final egg I had something close to the required texture. It did the job taste-wise, just didn't look great...

To finish I made Nigella's flour less chocolate brownies, which were loved by all served with chocolate sauce and ice cream.

Gluten-free, Seafood-free, offal-free and well cooked. I can do it!

 

Egg Mayonnaise

Contrary to what I may have led people to believe, there are a fair few meals in our house which can result in havoc: shouting, tears, threats of toys being captured and taken hostage for days. Worse still, my gals are so strong willed that the havoc can actually last well over an hour, making for rather stressful days. We've discussed ways to deal with this. I suggested a time limit - this applies particularly to Booboo, who chews every mouthful a thousand times whether she likes it or not, but when she takes a dislike to food the result can be painful. Seriously, though, I actually think she forgets to swallow. We've thought about just taking food away or not giving pudding, but I have issues with all of those solutions. My gals, like many the world over, are spoilt rotten by their grannies, aunties and elder cousins, all who forget that obesity isn't good, nor are black teeth. So puddings at the Madhouse are mostly fruit or fruit based, with the odd yoghurt or cheese thrown in. If I ban them, I'm banning goodness. So havoc wins every time. Anyway, today havoc reigned at lunchtime. The culprit? Egg mayonnaise wraps. My goodness.

But have I mentioned they both love fish?!

On to this evening: it's Friday, and that means pizza. Today we're having the seafood pizza that up until high cholesterol was diagnosed I wouldn't have touched with a barge pole*. But, I'm not a fool and when something's good, I admit it, even if I don't really want to!

My pizza base is easy and is based on a Jamie's Italy recipe. I put 200g of strong bread flour in with 50g of semolina flour, a sachet of easy use yeast and then a pinch or two of salt and sugar. I use about 200ml of warm water then to make a dough and extra flour to knead. My difference with Jamie stops there. He kneads his dough for about ten minutes. If I reach five minutes I'd give myself a crown - two minutes is absolutely fine, I even do it one handed now. After about half an hour covered with a towel to rise, I then roll it with a rolling pin (though I have used a wine bottle when the rolling pin wasn't available) until it is just larger than my pizza tray (sorry Jamie, I tried oiled tin foil, but it's no good) and place it carefully on it, hand stretching if needed (a little authenticity there).

That's the base! Then I crush three or four (depends on the mood, never less than this) cloves of garlic and mix with about half a tube of tomato puree - and that's the sauce. I spread that on the pizza base and cover with pre-grated mozzarella. I even use a basic supermarket brand, and it is just as nice as the fancy stuff. Clearly toppings vary, but on the seafood pizza I slice a red onion and then add pre-cooked prawns and calamari, usually. Sometimes I get a mix with a few mussels in, like tonight.

The pièce de résistance for this pizza is the final topping. I cook the pizza at about 170 - 180 for about twenty minutes and then drizzle a dressing of chopped basil and lemon gratings mixed with a good extra virgin olive oil and sea salt. I love it.

Before and after (sorry having formatting troubles):

*I would point out that the pizza as a whole is not necessarily good for cholesterol with all of the cheese, however a seafood topping is way better than a three cheese (only on very special occasions) or a salami (only when very rushed) and so should be thought as a 'healthier' option ;-)

Breathing is Overrated; Don't Tell Me to Calm Down.

 

The title of this post is actually misleading. Results day is never pleasant; if you care, you're nervous the night before. Fact.

My day has had it's ups and downs and somehow (maybe I'm "growing as a person"!!!) I've been able to focus on the individual triumphs - there have been many - and that's really nice, for a change.

So, calm, and breathing nicely, I collected my glasses this afternoon. All four pairs of them (well I do tend to lose things). Walked from the opticians to the car park wearing my new sunnies and falling into chasms where there were once stairs and knocking bottles of Prosecco from the shelves instead of choosing it carefully (I lie; I would never spill Prosecco). I drove home in them, taking my hand from the steering wheel every five to ten seconds to lift the specs just to test how improved my vision was and what I could read that I couldn't before. The answer? Not much. By the time I'd lifted the bloody things and my eyes had adjusted to the light and lack of aid I was ten metres closer to the sign anyway so the experiments were slightly biased. But I do now have very sore eyes and a headache from no longer having to strain. I might take them back.

Onto food. Last night I finally managed to make the minestrone, having pre-roasted the smoked ham earlier in the evening. Please don't sniff at the authenticity of the recipe, where I live you have to adapt and 'knuckle ends' of palma ham or pancetta are not only hard to get but impossible and supermarkets have refused to sell me them unsliced. I wonder if there is a possible weapon to be made from it? Anyway, I sautéed (I seem to sauté a lot) onion, celery, carrots and fennel with a bay leaf, some finely chopped basil stalks with leaves (home reared!) and three chopped garlic cloves in olive oil until softened. Then I added (a couple of glasses of) red wine, two tins of tomatoes and about a litre and a half of chicken stock, not to forget a couple of tablespoons of tomato puree. I then put in some French beans and left it to cook. As it neared the end I separated enough for last night's tea and put to one side. I then split two tins of borlotti beans, my smoked ham (chopped up into small pieces), and a pack of spinach between the pans. I turned off the bigger pan, which actually contained enough to freeze four full portions, plus a mini gals' portion (without pasta). Finally, I added broken spaghetti to the pan I'd saved for tea and let it cook in the soup - I did add slightly more water to it as the pasta soaked up a fair amount but it also thickened it delightfully.  Sprinkled with parmesan cheese it tasted really luxurious.

Big (Working Mama Who Cooks') Minestrone

I apologise for my lack of quantities on occasion, but you put in what you like! I serve 75g of pasta per person for a main course at tea time, but if having pasta for lunch I use 50g. Last night, as we weren't having bread, but the soup was full of goodies, I put in close to 75g between Husband#1 and I - we were nicely full. It may also be worth pointing out that I didn't add pasta to the frozen portions, I'll do that when I cook it. Last year I made some with pasta and it was really soggy by the time it was eaten. We all learn...

I believe (and don't quote me here) that this is good for the diet, which was going nicely until today, when due to an impatience to find out what was happening at work, I had no time to eat breakfast or even mash a cup of tea and so didn't eat until 2pm, at which point I had one and a half chicken (self-roasted!) wraps with full-fat mayo and I'm about to eat a lovely takeaway curry with beer, wine, chocolate and Prison Break. Sorry gals, I promise that I will go back to the jelly reducing, careful eating on Sunday.

Well, come on, the weekend is now here!

Roast!

Wednesday, 21st August, 00:13

Well, if my hero, Nigel Slater, can name a book Toast, why can't I call my blog post Roast, I ask? Today, I will be making two: chicken and smoked ham. I feel a little like it is the title of a musical*, but I'm not so talented, I'm afraid.

So last night, Husband#1 made tea for all. As you may know by now (or may not, not to worry), he is a big Ina Garten fan. If he and I were to split ever, I'm certain he would cross the pond and stalk Barefoot until she agreed to let him into her posse of trendy 'friends.' Not that he would want to depose the lovely Geoffrey, either. Indeed, Ina and Geoffrey are our role models for marriage; if we can manage to be together as long as them we'll be doing well! But I digress. The meal wasn't an Ina recipe at all, but fish (cod) in a tomato and olive sauce. He sautéed onions and garlic in olive oil before adding a tin of tomatoes, a lot of pitted black olives and some dried oregano. Once heated, he seasoned and added the fish and put in the oven for about twenty minutes, when the fish was cooked. It was served with crushed new potatoes with a little (good) extra virgin olive oil, as Ina would say! It is not a meal that would be out of place on a Saturday night, and that is a huge compliment, with a piece of crusty bread. Lovely, and once again demolished by both gals. It is quite something to see my gals eat fish, they have it gone in seconds. And then the olives - they both (aged 2 and 5) ate quite a few. Proud!

So, today's a big day for Husband#1 and an even bigger one for me as I'm having an eye test. So, I'm overweight, unfit, have high cholesterol, a dodgy back and so it will add insult to injury should I find I need age-related spectacles. Perhaps I ought to go to sleep and I can find out the truth in the morning rather than pontificating!

Wednesday, 21st August, 07:47

Early it is that I've had to rise this morning (and by the language, it seems it is also an earlier century) and the gals are only just rising almost two hours later. Bought up some drinks, Biggie looked at hers, turned up her nose and declared she wanted something else. Booboo is about to be woken with the morning bobby (bottle of milk); the evening one has been put to bed this holiday but I daren't mess with morning bobby just yet.

Wednesday, 21st August, 18.08

Goodness me, a thousand pairs of glasses later, for I do not look good in specs (olde English again!), I am sat with my gals whilst Husband#1 tirelessly crunches data next door. I'm a single parent once again, possibly for the next day or two, so it's not good. My roasts have been delayed - the chicken should have been roasted for lunch, but we ate in the play pub instead, and the ham should have been eaten in minestrone for tea, but is still in the oven and the gals are eating beans on toast. A failure of a food day.

All is not lost, however as the chicken will follow the ham into the oven and I will be starting my minestrone shortly. I intended to freeze a large quantity for later consumption anyway, so it doesn't matter and I can make it whilst doing a little work.

*I mean Roast!, not chicken and smoked ham...

The Diet

So it's bad enough knowing you've got a larger than is good for you jelly, without your five year old telling you it's time for a change.

But what pleasure is there in life apart from food? How can anyone take pleasure from green rubbish and exercise, for goodness sake?

But it's important to her and I love her, plus I'd rather not be hearing about my jelly every few minutes. So there's a long way to go for this working mum (who cooks) but I'm on my way. I'm not saying how much I need to lose but there are 30 to go :-(

So yesterday we had my very own summer vegetable pasta. Straight from the garden I prodded broad beans, washed and chopped French beans (they were a little overgrown so chopping was best) and ribboned a yellow courgette. I sautéed two cloves of garlic, a red onion, some chopped mushrooms and then added the French beans. I put in a little chicken stock and balsamic vinegar then added the broad beans and the courgettes. All was topped off with grated Parmesan and mixed with spaghetti. Lovely. Even the gals liked, Biggie said it was the best meal ever (though I think her fingers were crossed) and Booboo ate it, at least! It certainly made up for the hotdogs we ate for lunch :-)

If that's diet food, I can cope.

The New Tablecloth

My lovely table now has a new tablecloth. No fading at the sides, edges or where Booboo sits in general and therefore warrants additionally strong cleaning gear, just beautiful red checks. It even smells new - how can I describe the smell and make it sound as good as it is without seeming like some kind of glue sniffer-type? It's a little rubbery, PVC like with a nuance of generally new chemicals. It's good.

Today has been the return for the holidays and I'm having to accept that my holidays are sliding away from me, if not entirely gone. But hey there are still two weeks of delightful fun with Biggie and Booboo. Plus Husband#1, who if ever he hides away from me in a dream again will get a rather unusual shock. Just try me, boy.

So it was KC's birthday lunch today, as it was the swap over, so I made a nice lunch of a deconstructed Niçoise salad. There being no tuna at Morrisons yesterday (or saffron, get your shelves sorted, Mr Head Honcho of Morrisons), and me not being a fan of salmon, I went for smoked salmon fillets and steaks. They worked really well. So I cooked and chilled green beans and new potatoes, washed cherry tomatoes, hard boiled six eggs and added it all to a large platter in piles and added black olives and tinned anchovies. I pan-cooked the salmon on a hot frying pan, having rubbed with olive oil. The dressing was sherry vinegar, mustard and extra virgin olive oil. Wow it was much tastier than expected!

Having got home and unpacked, we sat down to chicken, green pepper and caramelised onion pizza and prison break only to discover we'd left the remote control at the caravan. Bejaysus.  So we watched Fish Town and ate pizza and now we're in bed. Not high living, but nice.

The Seafood Festival, Death by Lemon and Other Stories

Sat happily in Redcliffe Farm Café, eating a lovely steak pie and chips, suddenly Biggie screamed and looked in horror at her fish and chips (MUCH improved batter - well seasoned this time!). As we all looked over, trying not to drop our respective chip (me), slice of black pudding (Husband#1) spoonful of tomato ketchup (Booboo), there was the fly. Sat on the side of Biggie's plate. Not on her fish, chips or sauce, but the side of her plate. Well what happened next was a hilarity I only realised about 30 minutes later when suddenly the giggles hit me and I laughed until I cried for a good ten minutes over my banana split. Husband#1, instead of shooing the fly away, like most (I feel) would have done, attacked it with a piece of lemon. Did he hit it? I hear you ask. No. He squeezed lemon juice on it and then scooped it up and knocked it off the table in a very half-witted fashion, which, as I mentioned not very long ago, sent me into a fit of laughter which caused Biggie to laugh hysterically as well, even though she didn't have a clue what she was laughing about. Lemon, the deadly fly killer. One of our greatest jokes is who we would be if on gladiators. I would be Sloth, ("Tonight, Jenny, you are fighting.........Slooooooooooth!" Fash would shout). Husband#1 would be Lemonman.

Anyway, delightful as always, we left the farm and went to the beach where ever jokey Husband#1 put erroneous messages on my facebook whilst dipping my toes in the sea - how did you know, he wondered? It was probably due to the fact that he was sat playing with my pink phone that tipped me off. And you wonder why the #1?

So tea last night was an Ina classic of mustard fish - you'll find the recipes online, but we tried 50% reduced fat crême fraiche rather than full fat. It was nice, served with crushed new potatoes mashed with olive oil. All cooking was by Husband#1 - I have to give him credit.

Today I started with toast, as no one would have porridge with me, but the humous and pesto wrap (chosen by Biggie, who then cried throughout eating) made up for it. I bet Booboo set a wrap eating record - I've never seen a small child eat so quickly.

After a short while at the festival, where we had some crab, badly hewn from the shell by a kindly little lady, we put together the ingredients for Barefoot's seafood gratin - having had to visit two supermarkets. Would you believe that Morrisons in Bridlington don't sell saffron? Goodness me. But it was me cooking tonight, and as I've mentioned before I don't often do well with Ina (Husband#1 would marry her could he get to Geoffrey), but her seafood gratin is divine.

Finally, maybe you can't get saffron at Morrisons in Bridlington, but you can get these beauties (by Monty Bojangles) there. I have never tasted anything so delicious. Cocoa so dark on the outside (I HATE dark chocolate), melting truffle sprinkled full of lovely butterscotch pieces. I think Husband#1 loves me a little bit more for having found these.

Let Them Eat Lobster

So bright and early yesterday morning, Husband#1 rushed off to Arthur's for a couple of lobsters and we weren't disappointed. We don't get much lobster in our neck of the woods (or crab, for that matter, except for Chicken of the Sea jars from Costco - which I made nice crab cakes with a few weeks ago) so we make the most of a week at the coast, spending our money on seafood rather than ice cream*! This summer it's been a treat to share some with the gals - lobster potato salad and a crab risotto were both enjoyed, to varying degrees and both are now fans of prawns. Biggie had a couple of bites of octopus the other night and I've promised we'll have octopus and chips when we're home (it's already in the freezer), it's very good and it's rather cheap. She also loves whelks and both will eat mussels.

We're also trying to save some money - there's talk of an extension (Booboo's room is tiny), a holiday home (caravan) of our own and even a foreign holiday one day but we can't afford any of them the way things are. This means if we can avoid going top our usual restaurants and cafés whilst we're here we will. Fifteen pounds on lobster beats sixty pounds for tea for four with puddings and drinks. Having just said all that, Biggie, who turned five within the last month, is scouring the Argos catalogue as I type looking for things to request from Santa and she doesn't let price get in the way...oh dear, she's found the One Direction dolls and having excitedly shouted at me that here they are, she's now singing 1D songs at the top of her voice. Booboo has joined in. Help.

 

So lunch yesterday was a simple soup, we're eating like it's a Saturday most nights so lunches and breakfasts have to be simple and 'everyday' (do crumpets with full-fat butter fit in with that?!). Today we'll be having pasta with a couple of tins of squid in an ink sauce mixed in. We were supposed to be at the supermarket this morning, to buy some lunch, but we're having a lazy morning and so we've got some tins of squid in ink and we'll mix them with pasta - quick, easy and tasty.

 

So, back to last night, I was supposed to be doing some work whilst Husband#1 was making lobster mac and cheese, however a rather lovely and famous celebrity chef was badgered (by me) and finally relented and gave my blog a retweet and lots of people decided to have a look at my blog. I was of course obsessed with pressing the refresh button to watch the figures increase. The most exciting thing was the different countries - I've had people read in Kuwait and Hong Kong, fantastic! I then became brave and equally badgered a brilliant food critic who also retweeted. I think Husband#1 is ever so slightly jealous! I'm just excited by Norwegian and Russian readers. New Zealand - I keep seeing new ones, I'm like a kid in a sweet shop. That reminds me, Biggie has just told Booboo that she's so sweet she cold eat her. Bless.

 

Anyway, work time wasted (depends on how you look at it) the lobster mac and cheese smelt good, but it tasted even better. Not a combination I fancied before I'd had it first time round, but Husband#1 made it for me as a treat when I came in from a late night at work one dark winter evening and my goodness was it just what I needed. For the proper recipe, google Ina Garten, but it is basically lobster, pasta, gruyere, cheddar, nutmeg, milk, butter (of course, this IS Ina!) and breadcrumbs. The first time we had it we had prawns and a little lobster from Lidl - as I said before, where we live, seafood isn't easily come by - but even that was good.
 

 

I'm going to stop writing now as I need to give these gals some attention (Booboo is now watching me work, she has just announced). I'll miss them when I'm back at work, so if I hear "Mummy" approximately 176 times every 60 seconds, how bad can that be?

21:15
So, Husband#1 is stood with ear to the door of Biggie and Booboo's bedroom. Biggie has claimed Booboo is talking but, we can't hear her, and we are in a caravan with paper thin walls, so we are testing her. The first telling off has just gone to Biggie who was talking and when Husband #1 opened the door, Booboo wasn't in bed. Typical sisters - my elder sister used to tempt me into her top bunk and then work out a great game which always involved me falling out...and of course then getting told off.

Anyway, back to food. We've gone vegetarian tonight after all of the (delicious) stodge of yesterday. I'd lost my mojo and was on the verge of an Ina recipe (they work for Husband#1. but never if I cook) when I thought of an aubergine dip with pitta. So, I spiked and then roasted three aubergines (it was a main course after all) at about gas mark 6 for an hour or so until nice and wrinkly and left to cool. I took the flesh out of the skins and mashed it up. I then added half a chopped red chilli, a crushed clove of garlic, three chopped scallions, the juice of a lemon, a large dash of extra virgin olive oil and some chopped fresh coriander. This mix went in the fridge for about half an hour - could have been longer but we were hungry, but, a fan of lukewarm food (apart from ice cream) I tasted this and decided chilled was the only option!  Finally I served with toasted pitta (I like mine wholemeal) and sprinkled with a little sea salt. A treat and so fresh too - no fancy processing, just a lot of lovely ingredients. It's also good as a dip when guests come over.

 

 

*NB I do intend to but a half price large tub of Ben and Jerry's today at the supermarket. Ice cream still has it's place ;-)