Friday Fun!

 Friday night dinner ...always think of The Gilmore Girls when I say that...was really lovely.   The company was excellent of course and the chat, great fun!   The food was cooked without any stress or complication although we never did get to the cheese....

 

Anne's card summed up the night perfectly....

 The table was set mid afternoon, allowing me to get on with last minute preparations; the secret to a great, stress free dinner is organisation and preparation-there is no substitute.   I've done the headless chicken or spend-most-of-the-night-in-the-kitchen part sobbing into the duck, getting drunk and neither works well for anyone.   I've learned my lesson!

 Table flowers vased....

 

...cake at the ready.

 

My friends arrived with wine, flowers, gifts and even choccies and biccies for the kids!   Too, too kind.   We chatted over French Martinis and canapes of pate, smoked salmon and cream cheese, parma bundles, served juggled by the kids; Brian topped up our glasses a few times before taking the children and heading for them there hills!  

 

French Martinis waiting to be drunk!

 Cooking commences...first course.

We settled at the table with the butternut squash soup; it was different than the first time I made it-thinner and a bit saltier...partly the stock and the ripeness of the butternut squash...but still lovely.   The squash is cooked in butter with garlic and onions before simmering in stock.   A tablespoon of cream is added and nothing else; definitely a case of less is more.   The scallops, drizzled with olive oil, seasoned and when cooked, shown a lemon for a moment, were small but delicious...thank you, good fishmonger man....and the mushrooms sauteed in butter, thyme and garlic, fine.   

 The soup, mushrooms and scallops being cooked simultaneously

It was all topped with some good, thin slices of Parmesan and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, served with a mini homemade seeded loaf.   This is and will remain, I'm sure, one of the simplest, tastiest dishes I've ever had.

We opened the champagne and moved on to the main course of chicken and pesto roulade with accompaniments; this is a dish that, although simple comfort food, dressed up, can go wrong as everything has to remain warm whilst dealing with lots of plates and hot fat.   This is when preparation comes in very handy; the leeks, carrots and courgettes were mandolined to within an inch of their life and bagged up, ready for frying.   The white wine sauce was prepared without the mustard, with the jar sitting close by ready to be added once it was reheated and seasoned.   

The chicken had been pre-prepared and wrapped in foil, ready to be placed in the oven.   The chicken was battered flat, seasoned, layered with parma ham, basil leaves and pesto, rolled up tightly from the long end and wrapped tightly in cling film or foil and placed in the fridge so that it would hold it's shape.   Once cooked, it was sliced and three or four 'roulades' were placed on top of the mash.

The chicken was good although there is a fine line between overcooking and undercooking this dish.   It worked out ok but I think I will definitely poach it next time as I had to take it out of the oven once or twice to check.   The mashed potato rounds had been cooked an hour earlier and were placed on a tray, ready to be put into a hot oven.   Pesto was dotted over the plates in preparation for plating up; it all went swimmingly.

 Chicken pesto roulade on a bed of mashed potato rounds, crispy courgettes, 

leeks and carrots served with a white wine mustard sauce.

The dessert and cheese were already cooked so my job was done, cooking wise; I settled in happily with some more champagne before bringing the chocolate marquis recipe to follow out for devouring thank you Gordon Ramsay, this was a treat.   

 

 Chocolate Marquis

It was served with plain, extra thick double cream and washed down with coffee and wee home made chocolate and coconut covered mints again, recipe to follow...very simple, you'll like this. 

 

Cooking over, making coffee...

 Homemade mints with chocolate and sweetened dessicated coconut

The cheese remains pecaned and caramelised in the fridge as the gabbing and laughter put paid to us remembering about it.   I think we were all a wee bit full anyway.

Brian ran everyone home around 1am with much hilarity.   You know it was a good night when you find yourself still chuckling once everyone has gone home.   A good night indeed.   Thank you Anne, Karen, Val and Shona...you girls are the best!

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Hot, cinnamony, sugary little balls of sweet dough, ripped apart and eaten warm or smothered in Nutella for breakfast; you know life is good when you smell them apples.....buns...I mean buns....first thing in the morning with the sun glowing through the window and the scent of spring in the air.

We made these HellyKellys on Sunday night with Heather and Kelly's help and reheated them for breakfast this morning.....

HellyKellys

It is a sweet bread dough, made into dough balls and dipped in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon.....

Doughballs thrown into a greased, deep cake tin.

They are then left to prove for around 1 hour; the topping begins to crack......

Doughballs during proving

Then you bake them for 25 minutes, covering the top after 10 minutes so that it doesn't brown too much; the top is crunchy with sugar but the sticky part has oozed downwards, coating the outside and bottom of these sweet little buns with lovely syrup. 

 HellyKellys smell divine!

Highly recommended!

Thank goodness it's Thursday

The kids are on holiday from today which is great news; I desperately need to sleep in tomorrow. I'm also glad that I get to spend five whole days with them but all I can focus on at the moment is sleeping in. Of course, sleeping in for a mum means getting up at 8am rather than 7am but during that crucial hour, the kids will wake me up and ask me a 1000 questions, all starting with the word 'mummy...?'.

I remember desperately waiting to hear that wee word spoken by my little bitty babies and the first time they all said it, I cried with happiness. These days, I have moments when the word 'mummy' is like hearing a knife dragged across a metal pan. I think that comes with the territory of having three children all saying it at the one time. Motherhood has taught me however that you should be careful what you wish for and, loving my children as I do and also being entirely aware that our time together as mum and little 'un is extremely limited, then an abundance of patience has been gifted to me and I usually..hah.. react with a "yes, sweetheart?".

We had roast lamb last night. Tis not the season but I was in the mood and the kids usually like a nice roast however last night, as last time, it led to a discussion on vegetarianism and the pros and cons of eating animals. I am very forthright with the kids about meat, where it comes from and the importance of eating that only from animals who have been well treated however, recently I have felt myself increasingly questioning my staunch carnivore status.

Kelly would like to be a vegetarian and I already explained to her the merits of eating meat, albeit limited in our diet. She gets to choose at the age of 11 but methinks we might try a little experiment before then. But then, the thought of not having my bacon roll at the weekend brings me out in a cold sweat. And I make a mean lamb bhoona.

The lamb was pierced and slivers of garlic and shoots of rosemary were stuffed within. I drizzled over some olive oil and sea salt, covered it in foil and cooked at a high heat for 20 minutes. I then turned the heat down to 160 degrees Celsius and cooked for 5-6 hours until the meat practically melted away. Normally, I'd add some liquid, e.g. wine to this to create a tasty, steamy atmosphere within the foil and a delicious gravy but I didn't this time shh, don't tell anyone but I forgot.

I served it with roasted root vegetables drizzled with olive oil, honey, sea salt, all roasted at a high heat for 30 minutes until the edges start to go black. I also roasted potatoes by par boiling small, whole, peeled potatoes, draining and tossing in flour and a pinch of salt then placing into a dish with hot oil in it. The hot oil was placed in the oven at least 15 minutes before the potatoes are ready to be cooked. This leads to a lovely, crispy potato. Maris Piper is my tattie of choice!

I thinly sliced a parsnip and deep fried it to make parsnip crisps. Broccoli and green beans were steamed and tossed in a little butter; it was all served with the stock from the lamb, added with a little red wine and some gravy granules to thicken. I had to stop Lucy after her fourth helping of lamb....that girl must have hollow legs....and there was plenty of lamb leftover for tonight's curry.

I cut half of the remaining cooked lamb into cubes and added to some leftover curry sauce from last week's batch. I was planning on Moroccan lamb but there is enough left for that too. I then added a tin of plum tomatoes and four large, fresh tomatoes, quartered. I simmered for one hour and served it with plain boiled rice, cucumber and lime flavoured yoghurt and spiced pancakes made with gram flour. The curry was gorgeous but I wasn't too enthralled with the bread but then, my taste buds are odd at the moment as illness tries to consume me. I'm fighting the little bug-gers.

As I sit here typing, enjoying my cup of tea, I am aware that it is 7pm and I still have a wall to paint before heading out with Anne for a little glass of Viogner at the Burnbrae. She is picking me up just before 9pm and I'm really looking forward to it but here I sit, still except for the typing of course...duh.. and happy.

The long weekend

It has been an extraordinary weekend. Not because anything extraordinary happened but because of how I felt about it. I shall elaborate. Noooo, I hear you cry, we don't need to know, you nutter. Leave us alone! Well tough, it's my blog and I'm tellin' ya, right?

On Thursday evening, Anne and Karen came over. On Friday, I had some visitors for coffee; I was to go out that evening but couldn't go although I'd got organised, just incase. Too boring a story, I'm sleeping even think zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

On Saturday, I had lots of children over in the afternoon, kids were also coming and going to their friends and therefore, being picked up and dropped off by parents and that evening, I had my friends Ricky and Irene round for dinner they tasted like chicken. On Sunday, Kelly was once again picked up, gallivanting round Glasgow with her chums whilst I got organised for a soiree with Ann (without an e) and Val coming over for drinks, canapes and chat.

This seems like a lot, I know it does, it does to me too, reading it. But...and this is the extraordinary thing...it didn't to me at the time. I was totally fine. I looked forward to each and every one of the plans I'd made, didn't get even an iota of stressed about it and I had a great time.

The tidying and cleaning, I did as normal and didn't worry about the fact that my bathroom is in drastic need of a rehaul or that the hall table always has a pile of various items, ranging from clean washing about to be ironed to legwarmers...sorry, one legwarmer on it and a monster type creature growling at me from a box. Or that the conservatory is freezing and is that a cobweb up there?

I let Fraser pick the music...Norah Jones on Thursday and Sunday, The Eagles on Saturday ok son, next time, maybe I'll ask Lucy....lit some candles, put out the canapes, chilled the wine and sat back to enjoy the conversation. Isn't that something? It's like a veil has been lifted, a maturity, like growing...it happens so slowly you never notice it and all of a sudden, you go to sleep and wake up a good three inches taller.

A chilled out, friend-filled wonderful weekend.
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Fraser was off sick today; I knew he was sick when he creeped into my bed and spent the entire night kicking me in the face, sniffing like an addict and sitting bolt upright with fever, talking to some imaginary foe. "Shush" I said "mummy's here, I've killed him and he's dead...mummies rule". "Mummies rule" he murmured as he fell into yet another fitful kickboxing session.

He awoke to find me staring at the ceiling, wondering if I'd ever get a full night's sleep ever again. I was unusually chipper, considering and sent Kelly and Lucy off with Lyn and cuddled the lad up on the couch. After a morning of rest, we played an escape game on the computer who owns the fish? You'll either get that or you won't, don't ask me to explain, I wouldn't know where to start...ok ask, if you must but only if you then go find out who owns the fish; it's a pre-requisite of asking, read a book and watched a film called The Secondhand Lion which we both loved.

Lyn dropped the kids off and stayed for coffee so we caught up on what she got up to on the Friday night.....gutted to have missed it....whilst the kids munched French Toast or eggy bread, depending on where you come from.
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It's recipe time! This is a simple recipe for toasted almonds which everyone always seems to absolutely love. It's a no brainer and is a good snack for munching with a cold beer or glass of wine.
Toasted spicy almonds
A packet of blanched almonds
A good pinch of dried chillies (bird's eye is the best but any will do)
A good few pinches of sea salt
A teaspoon of olive oil

Place in a hot pan all of the above. Shake every 30 seconds or so until the almonds start to toast. Keep shaking until the almonds are properly coated and a mix of white and brown; don't let them burn. Sprinkle over some more sea salt and place in a dish. Sprinkle over yet more sea salt and leave to cool.

Not being one to eschew a food simply because of nutritional value, I do prefer that foods have a certain amount of goodness. We are what we eat to a certain extent so tasty food can be good for you too, right? Right?? So, ignoring all that salt for a moment......

Almonds are high in fat so can they be good for your health? You betcha. Almonds are high in monounsaturated fats, the same type of health-promoting fats as are found in olive oil, which have been associated with reduced risk of heart disease. They also contain large amounts of vitamin E and a lot of magnesium, around a quarter of your daily allowance plus potassium. All those are good for the heart and help keep it healthy. A true story.

Enough of me waxing lyrical about potential health benefits, I'll need to go eat some chocolate and lie down.

My mood has turned blue.

Aaaargh. Never, ever post under the influence of alcohol, drugs, tiredness or rage. Well, I'm posting under two out of the four. As it's not yet 2pm, lets assume that it isn't aclohol and drugs.....

I didn't sleep a wink last night as Brian left yesterday for a week. Yes, it's his turn and I get to stay home alone this time. It always takes me a few days to 'settle in' as I feel anxious about the kids and robbers and spies, oh my! Kids and robbers and spies! I know I'm a freak but I accepted that a long time ago. I still check they are breathing every night.....

I was such a grump this morning, shouting at poor wee Lucy as I clomped down the stairs, hair askew, eyes held open with matchsticks; it was warranted a little as she was still in her pjs playing Monopoly of all things but still. A friend very kindly offered to pick them up to take them to school for me so the last thing I wanted was for them to be late. After barking orders and making them stand in the rain hey, they did have hoods and umbrellas, I'm not that bad, looking out for Lyn, I waved them goodbye and came inside, feeling spaced and strangely dissatisfied; probably because I'd shouted at them. Sometimes, a quick kiss and hug doesn't make up for it.

My bones were still sore from Yoga, having missed it for a while, I felt exhausted and blue, and knew I had a busy day ahead. I curled up with a coffee instead and that was when Shona called. Happy to hear her voice, I was cheered but half way through talking to her, I broke down in stupid, pointless tears, much to her dismay. No reason, nothing to trigger it, just because. She called me back five minutes later and of course, I was fine...exhaustion has that effect on me unfortunately and it passes as quickly as it arrives so we chatted for half an hour.

Wandering back through to the living room, looking at all the cleaning, tidying and work I had to do, I opted instead to start cooking as I find it therapeutic. I have Anne and Karen coming over this evening and I want to make some lovely canapes and bread. Just as I finished the parma bundles more on that later the doorbell goes; it's Shona and her gorgeous wee lass with a vase of flowers for me and a beautiful white seashell photos to follow. How lovely.

Cheered once more, I set about making the bread and had just placed it to rise in the cupboard when the phone rang. It was the girl from swimming development; a farcical argument ensued, me trying to stay calm as I realise they had mucked up my schedule, her trying to passively aggressively imply that the phone call I received on Tuesday was a figment of my deranged imagination and my stomach starting to ache with it all. As I realised that their mistake was not going to be resolved in my favour, I tried to calm down, suggesting with a sigh that I may just cancel two out of three of the classes. She gleefully informs me that I probably won't get my money back.

That sent me down the spiral of the flaming angry pit and I asked to speak to the manager who was not available but "may call you back tomorrow, maybe Monday, depending on when I see him". Or when he comes out of the pub. Oh, how professional. Now, my stomach is seriously sore, I feel drained and also a little bad for my barely contained seething: no matter how passive aggressive she was, I should have stayed calm as she is only doing her job she could do it a whole lot better of course, with a bit of respect, sympathy and understanding but hey, what do I know, maybe she only gets paid £3.50 per hour, gets staplers thrown at her and has no benefits.

So, as I began to calm down after my rant...mini rant I'd say...I take a deep breath and smile. I need to pull myself together, get organised and take my own advice about being optimistic; there is a chicken in the oven, the bread is rising, my kids will be home in an hour and I can hug them and make up for earlier. I have lovely friends, the kind who bring me flowers when I feel blue and tired and two turning up tonight to keep me company with wine, blether and a laugh. How lucky am I?

Now, if I could just find that Zantac.........

Thursday night's all right for drinking

Last night, my friend Karen had a few of us gals over for wine and snacks. I so wish I'd had my camera with me because my eyes bulged when she brought out this huge platter of antipasti, tomatoes, strawberries, grapes, cheese, pate, crackers and crudites as well as dips and crisps. Trying to hide my glee by actually letting someone else get to the platter before me, as my borderline mannerly mind dictates, I sat tap, tap, tapping my foot before practically shoving Anne out of the way as she hovered over the cheese. I tried to shield the platter from Shona but she stabbed me with a fork to get in. She didn't actually stab me with anything but I could tell she was thinking about it.

It was utterly delicious and perfect alongside my red wine and what with the great chat and company, I had a lovely night.

Anne had recently been on holiday and whilst perusing the goods for sale in a local farm shop, she came across a plaque, a plaque that she had no choice but to purchase for me. If I had seen it first, and it was a choice between eating that night and buying the plaque for her, I'd have still purchased the plaque because never has a truer plaque been seen:
She also got one for herself. And just to show how much blogging has pervaded my world, my first thought after laughing was 'Vintage Kitten' would love this. I love it. It has pride of place in my kitchen. Thank you Anne.

I shall be making bread today...bread and cake. Dinner will consist of bacon, egg and chips with homemade bread and butter, a classic if somewhat lazy British delicacy which we all get cravings for from time to time. Sometimes, it's sausages and occasionally, there are beans. Sometimes you also have to add a tomato, just to live a little, you know? I happen to be going out again tonight, two nights in a row not being my forte so I shall need comfort food, a day of light activity and an eye pack to disguise the night before. Wish me luck.

Burnbrae and Tonic

Anne and I went to the Burnbrae; she came with me at short notice tonight and had to walk in the rain with me to get there. We had a gin and slimline tonic or three, some good chat and a great laugh, even if it was at both our husband's expense. The men at the next table are traumatised for life. I discovered a gin and slimline tonic is 50 calories whilst a large glass of wine is 135. This makes me happy. The crisps are a post-requisite of the pub, but just the one packet!

Cocktails on the Patio?

Not exactly. After Kelly's outstanding Titanic performance yesterday (the performance was about the Titanic, not that her performance was actually Titanic...although it kind of was...), the girls and I gathered at the Burnbrae for a night of 'Music and cocktails on the Patio!'. This being Glasgow, Scotland, we chuckled at the irony and the actual optimism. Of course, as predicted, it was indoors.

The cocktails weren't to my liking...no French Martinis (eh, Anne, Karen?) so we stuck to a rather tasty Sauvignon Blanc and antipasti...you know how I feel about their antipasti of course. Wonderful. The lovely and charming Andrew served us, yet again and we had a grand time with Maureen and Siobhan joining us....the singer was pretty good and I enjoy a bit of cheese now and then.

My plans today involved shopping, cooking, painting, cleaning, hoovering, making a tent in my daughter's room, gardening, walking, baking and yoga. What did I actually do? Drunk coffee, watched The Gilmore girls, had coffee, made a tent, sipped more coffee, talked to Shona on the phone for 50 minutes (I had 3 visits with her yesterday including the Titanic production and the pub), some more coffee, tried to show my husband some yoga moves but he went to put on the coffee after a few minutes and blogged. Now, I have ten minutes before the kids come back, with sleepover friends and in that time I must cook, clean, hoover and bake. The shopping, painting, gardening, walking and yoga shall have to wait.

I so wanted a new menu plan today but it shall be here tomorrow whereby I shall shop, cook, paint....... Ok, we'll play it by ear.

Now for that chicken.........


Kelly The Titanic Stewardess


Madeleine Astor, 1st Class Passenger (Me) with Kelly the Stewardess