Semi-Wordless Wednesday

I was surprised recently to be asked to give a reference for a girl who used to work with me many years ago; I didn't mind in the least of course but it turned out that the person asking for the reference was an old friend of mine; he hadn’t realised it was the same Helen he’d had shots with in Curlers or the same Helen he had sang duets with at Hogmanay in Tennents Bar or the same Helen....let's leave it there.   I gladly sent a reference and it read like this:

Katie McGill killed my dog.   She hid my shoes and sold my clothes.   But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.   She shot my brother, my best friend and my cat.   She burned my flat down.   She even put the H1N1 virus in my tea.   She downloaded offensive material onto my computer that resulted in me being sacked from my job.  I’ve not been able to find employment since.   She put a banana in the exhaust pipe of my car, the subsequent crash leaving me unable to wear high heels ever again.   Just as well really, as I have no shoes.   Ever since then, she’s  kept me locked up in this house, unable to leave and brings me out only to cook dinner for her and her evil friends who tell me my cooking stinks or to write her blowhard blog.   However as far as operation management goes, she’s talented, reliable, professional, timely and great value for money.   I wouldn’t hesitate recommending her for the job.

I signed it with my maiden name and emailed it.

Twenty minutes later I got a phone call and was rather relieved to hear a loud, hearty laugh; apparently the whole office was amused but aghast until the man in charge realised who had sent it.

She got the job.  

 

Shona's very tasty Sticky McGintys

 

For Colin

 

Pancakes in a back to front jumper

 

Uh...where's MY pancakes??

 

Aww.

 

Nooooowwwww!

 

Friday's table roses have opened out

White rose by my fireplace

AWOL

Forgive me, bloggers, for I have sinned, it's been five days since my last blog post and I have little or no excuse except that it was a holiday weekend and when not cooking, painting, cleaning, hanging out with the kids or exercising ha! when I say exercising, I mean the contemplation of starting a new routine, donning the gear and looking at the size of my butt in the mirror; I'm gonna stand at the back of my yoga class from now on, I was drawing, yoga-ing and shopping.

Kelly's Room, almost complete. She asked for a dove in that painting!

We're getting there....


...almost!

I had a lovely, spur of the moment drink in the Burnbrae on Thursday night with Anne and we put the world to rights. Friday was spent Ikea shopping for kids stuff, coorying in with the little 'uns, playing games and doing more cleaning, sorting and painting in the children's bedrooms. I made no plans for the evening as I had a yoga session booked in, courtesy of Jo, at the Chi Yoga Centre in Glasgow as Manju Jois the son of Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois, who sadly died this year, both world renowned ashtanga teachers was in Glasgow, teaching. It was excellent.

Saturday evening, we donned a dress or two check out my new dodgy hairdo and headed to Lyn's for Chinese food, home cooked by her husband Ken and some beverages or two of the alcoholic kind. It was a lovely evening although my thinking was, that as it was so close, we could all just walk home at midnight; not my finest hour or the best laid plan. Two out of the three children were fast asleep when we decided to go and carrying them, although an option to be considered as a last resort, didn't bode well with four inch heels. They clung to me, walking like the waking dead and collapsed into their beds in wee heaps. I've learnt that particular lesson.

We took Kelly's friend Ellie with us on Sunday to meet up with Ann and Eric and Ruiradh for bowling and a late lunch. Cooking was certainly attempted over the weekend but for some reason, my memory is vague. I did bake some lovely bread on Monday, alongside cinnamon buns. I used my hearthbread recipe but changed the toppings; I made two large rectangle bread sheets and cut a line in the middle of each. One hearthbread was drizzled with olive oil and sea salt with one half sprinkled with Parmesan and a little basil. The other hearthbread was topped with a mixture of baked garlic see hearthbread recipe, blended with rosemary, salt and olive oil. One half was dotted with cherry tomatoes.

We had the breads with chicken, egg salad, pickles, sauteed potatoes baked with cheese and a little butter. I think we sat at the table for at least two hours, eating, chatting and getting our faces stuck into the lovely cinnamon, iced buns, Kelly's, of course, laced with Nutella.

I had a dodgy hair experience on Saturday; it was actually a nice place, very friendly, lots of mugs of steaming coffee and tea and a wonderful head massage alongside a shower but that's just typical wee lassie hair washing experience but the resulting damage was not. The muted lighting of the place made my hair look like Jennifer Anniston's and, despite being severely overcharged don't get it, this always seems to happen to me, even if I object...don't think I look like the rich sort...I was happy with the do but once into the light, the donning of glasses by my family waiting in the car and the sniggering of those that passed me by made me realise that, in actual fact, I looked more like I'd been painting with a nice magnolia and dropped the paintbrush on my head. So tonight, I shall be colouring it myself. A very expensive mistake.

The next few weeks, I shall be focusing on some low fat but still tasty dinners on a budget. I have 14 pounds who would like to leave me for pastures new and, never being one to stand in the way of progress or adventure, I've accepted the need for those pounds to leave and at least they've given me some notice. I shall spend however long it takes four weeks would be nice, however, since that is a ridiculous goal and with my penchant for baked goods, curries and stews, it's doubtful really,therefore I'd be happy if it took 10 weeks and, not being one to diet, it will have to be by cutting down a little, changing some meals to low fat and plenty of exercise. Tasty and low fat? Watch this space.

Shopping List 24th July-2nd August 2009

It's been a while since I've had to go shopping but yesterday, after our small adventure exploring the side streets of Bearsden and ice cream at MacDonalds, we headed to Asda. I think I may have to consider changing supermarkets as their stock seems to run low really quickly these days and the fishmonger wouldn't skin lemon sole for me "cos I don't have a skinning knife..."! Lucy turned to me when he was out of earshot and said "I don't think that's true, I just think he couldn't be bothered"...even an 8 year old picked up on that.

With him left holding the lemon sole, I continued my shop, and bumped into Dave and Olwen, my old English teachers, looking tanned and healthy after a walking holiday in France. They looked healthier than I did, despite them having had the journey home just an hour or so before and being 20 years older. Sigh.

Brian is away looking for gold once again so we've played in the garden, read, chased each other and they all helped make the bread. It is a lovely day and I'm considering scooping them up and taking them to Massimos as it would be a nice walk there but the house is brimming with food and everyone seems quite happy and content so we shall see.

I spent £54 exactly and have enough meals for at least 10 days. The menu so far:

Children & Adults:
Garlic & Parsley, Rosemary & Thyme Hearthbreads with cold meats and cheeses.
Seasoned Sausage Ragout with Baby Jersey Royal Potatoes
Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding
Pasta Fest
Ciabbatta toasted with cheeses, tomato and basil
Hearthbread Pizza with homemade tomato sauce and fresh mozarella
Vegetable curry with Chick Peas and Rice
Vegetable soup
Afternoon Tea: Cucumber, Egg and Ham Sandwiches, Scones and Mini Pancakes
French Toast
Lahmacun with green leaves and goats cheese
Lasagna
Children:
Salmon Fishcakes
Lamb Meatballs with Rice
Chicken Noodle soup
Penne Pasta with tomato Sauce and Parmesan and garlic bread
Adults:
Pan-fried Salmon with Tomato and Rocket Pesto Salad and crispy courgettes
Lamb Burgers served in a wholemeal bun with sweet potato fries
Carrot, honey & ginger soup
Spaghetti with Pesto, Goats Cheese & Pine Nuts with leftover Hearthbread
Cakes:
Scones
Scotch Pancakes
Bread & Butter Pudding
Danish Pastries inc. Almond
Fresh Gingerbread with lemon icing
Breakfasts:
Pastries, Fruit Loaf, Toast, Pancakes, Cereal, Porridge and Eggs.

I made the hearthbreads this afternoon and we had them with chorizo, salami, parma ham, thin slices of Parmesan, tomatoes with seal salt and basil, olives and olive oil for dipping. We will have some of the remainder tonight with ham, turkey and green salad.
Garlic & Parsley, Rosemary & Thyme Hearthbreads
This recipe is inspired by Nigella Lawson's Hearthbread recipe
Makes 2 baking sheet sized breads. You will roast your garlic before cooking any bread so set the oven to 190 degrees celsius/gas mark 5.

500g strong white flour (I used strong white bread flour)

1 sachet instant yeast (7g) or 15g fresh yeast

1 tbsp salt

300ml warm water

5 tbsp olive oil plus extra for the parsley mix and drizzling

1 head fresh garlic, top sliced, drizzled with oil, roasted in the oven in sealed foil for 45 minutes

Bunch of flat leaf parsley, most stalks removed (don't worry about this too much)

A small handful of chopped, fresh rosemary and thyme (dried would work though)

Maldon sea salt or other salt for sprinkling

2 small baking trays and parchment paper, lightly oiled

Method

Combine flour, yeast, and salt in a large bowl and mix together in a jug the warm water and 5 tbsp olive oil. Stir wet mixture into the dry one and combine the two...use more water if you need but this should be plenty. Place dough onto a lightly floured working surface. Knead for around 10-15 minutes or until dough is supple, elastic and smooth. Knead using the balls of your hands, just below the thumb and push the dough away from you and then wrap it all up again, occasionally turning over the dough and adding a sprinkling of flour if required.

Clean your large bowl or, like me, use a different bowl and lightly oil it with olive oil. Place the bread inside and then turn over so that all the dough has some oil on it. Cover with clingfilm and leave in a warm place for around 1 hour until is has double in size. I placed mine inside the plate cupboard.

This is the point I roasted the garlic but you could do it beforehand. You want it to cool down and then you add it to the parsley which you have chopped in the food processor and blend. I add a little sea salt at this point. As it is slowly blending, add some olive oil, not too much. You don't want it too runny but more of a pesto consistency. Set aside. Put the oven up to 200 degrees celsius.

After your bread has risen, punch down dough and leave it for 10 minutes, then, divide into two. Place each dough onto the parchment paper and pull out with your fingers, pressing it into a rectangle or oval shape. Place dough, still sitting on parchment paper, onto baking tray. Cover with tea towels and leave for a further 25 minutes.

With your fingertips, poke all over the bread to dimple it, pushing it out a bit more in the process. Sprinkle the breads with a little sea salt and pour the garlic and parsley mixture over one of the breads and a liberal sprinkling of olive oil and the rosemary and thyme over the other.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, until the top is golden; if you tap it, it should sound hollow. Once they came out of the oven, I laid little slivers of butter on the rosemary bread and a good drizzle of olive oil on the parsley bread.

I served, the kids ripped it apart and we really, thoroughly enjoyed it. Never getting enough olive oil, I had a little drop in a bowl to dip the bread into. Delicious. Really delicious.

Bank Holiday Monday

On the last Bank Holiday Monday, I took the kids to The Burrell where we met up with friends to take part in a decathlon. The kids had great fun and then we all piled back to mine for food. I like to make pasta fresh but I decided to be prepared as I didn't want to come back and spend an hour cooking plus I knew the kids would be champing at the bit for their tea! I made in advance a large lasagna, a large Macaroni Cheese and I made the linguine with lemon and feta fresh. I prepared a fresh loaf by slicing it about a third of the way down and filling it with garlic butter. I bought a garlic pizza and added some fresh rosemary and sea salt before cooking it. There were 6 adults and 7 kids.

When I came home, I put the oven on and quickly prepared some antipasti and olives plus a small round of Camembert. I didn't put out bread because there was a lot of food and bread for the main course and I didn't want anyone filling up. The children who didn't want antipasti got stuck into a large bowl of Doritos!

The pre-cooked lasagna was placed in the oven and 25 minutes later, the macaroni was put in. Then, I cooked the linguine. The lasagna was brought out to the table first and the bread was put in its place in the oven. I prepared some cucumber, tomatoes and yellow pepper for the kids as an accompaniment and tomatoes with pesto as an accompaniment for the adults.

The food went down a treat and afterwards we had home-made lemon cupcakes and lemon cake.

I'd definitely do this again as it was suitable for everyone and perfect for a 6pm tea. Next time however, I would not pre-cook the lasagna; I'd prepare it all as usual in the dish but then cover it in clingfilm and put in fridge; the pasta becomes a bit too hard and slightly burnt round the edges if pre-cooked in a large dish. The macaroni cheese was fine but next time I'd prepare the cheese sauce but not cook the pasta until we were ready to eat it. The heat distribution, possibly just in my crappy oven although it is fan assisted, meant that I had to rescue the dish before it started to brown but the middle was only warm and not yet hot.

Lemon cake recipes to follow.