A little Scottish history...

I'm going on holiday today and one of the places I'll be passing is a lovely little town, full of historical facts and is more recently known because someone famous stayed there for a while. I leave you with two picture clues and everyone who gets it right will be getting a little prize from Scotland! The first three at random get a goody bag.
Just incase there is a mad, unexpected rush on my blog, I should possibly clarify that 'everyone' will be, lets say, ten!

I'll be back on Friday 3rd and will be in touch then.

Bread and Cheese

Another day was spent in tartan trousers, ironing, packing, finishing up work, cleaning, washing and asking the kids to keep it down to a dull roar. There was not a lot of time for cooking or even eating for that matter so we had bread and cheese for dinner; bread and cheese with grapes, tomatoes, olive oil and a few slices of salami. I managed a small glass of wine and half a cake thingy my husband bought...I eat these things out of duty...

I leave you with my cartoon feeling of the day....

We don't need no education.

Schools out for summer! Woohoo!! I love love LOVE the summer holidays. I get to have my kids back, the sun shines (bwahahaha I hear the Scots cry) and we get to go on adventures. At heart, I'm an adventurer and the kids even more so. I look forward to this time of year and we use our powers of invention to come up with weird and wonderful activities. Watch this space!

I think the path to true adventure is to look in small places, to go on little trips and to chat to the most unlikely people. Me and the kids find it wherever we go. It usually involves little or no money, old clothes and mud. And strange people. I LOVE strange people. Don't ask me why, it's just the way it is.

To celebrate the end of school and the beginning of summer, I tried to book us into our local restaurant Massimos for pizza. The girl answered the phone after a loooong time ringing and when she eventually answered, she sounded bored out of her skull:-
Me: "Can I book a table for this evening please?".
BW: "Well, that depends..."
Me"....really, what does it depend on?"
BW: "How many people it's for!" (Unspoken..."Like, duh! Moron!" *eyes rolling*)
Me: "There will be five of us"
BW: "We-ll, I have no booths left...."
Me: (Unspoken..."Did I ASK for a booth??") "Ookay, do you have a TABLE?"
BW: "Uh....no...maybe. (Silence)"
Me: (Silence...quietly banging my head off the wall)
BW: "I could give you a table outside the restaurant..."
Me: (Unspoken..."What, in the restaurant across the road where the staff are MUCH more professional?") "No thank you, we don't want to eat outside the restaurant"
BW: "Um....ok.....*click...brrrrr*

Sooooo, we had pastafest instead! The kids were delighted and Kelly said it was MUCH better here anyway. I love that gal.

We tucked into macaroni cheese, creamy papardelle with feta, pine nuts (yes!...pine nuts...I have them!) and cherry tomatoes alongside a nice crusty baguette.

Creamy Papardelle with Feta, Pine Nuts and Cherry Tomatoes

This is enough for two incredibly greedy people or four smug, not so greedy people.
Papardelle, cook as per packet instructions
Scant tablespoon olive oil
Onion, chopped small
Garlic clove, sliced thinly
Cherry tomatoes, around 8
3 tablespoons of cream or more to taste
Handful grate Parmesan
Pine nuts, dry toasted (very hot pan, add nuts and shake..for this dish, until dark)
Feta cheese, around a small handful, cubed

Add chopped onions to olive oil, heated in frying pan. Cook for five minutes until softened...if they look like they may catch and burn, add a droplet or two of water and stir. Add garlic..do not add earlier or it will burn...and stir, cooking for a couple of minutes. Add half the tomatoes whole and the others halved. Squeeze them about a bit. Stir, add cream, stir, add lots of freshly ground black pepper and a pinch of salt. Drain pasta when ready and add to onion mixture, coat with sauce, throw in the Parmesan and pour into serving dish. Sprinkle over toasted pine nuts and feta cheese. You could of course add any kind of herb or even a little grating of nutmeg but it's perfect as it is.

My ankle is still swollen but it is much better, my knee is a scabby mess and I won't be surprised if they run away from me at the swimming pool, crying and screaming but otherwise, I'm fine. Lucy is all better by the looks of her running round in circles shouting 'Flapjack!' at the moment. I still have lots of work to do and have to cancel some activities we had planned because we are going on holiday this Sunday and we just don't have time to do everything. But I'm relaxed, chilled and think someone may have slipped some Valium in my wine....

Thank you Shona for a wonderful brunch this morning...bacon rolls, crusty ciabatta with roasted peppers and melted mozzarella, little cupcakes with fresh raspberry icing, fresh strawberries, blackberries and raspberries, fresh orange juice and hot, wonderful coffee...Maureen, Anne, Karen and I were delighted. It was a lovely way to end the year.

Toad in the Hole

Ive had an eventful few days as you know if you've read my previous, enormously long post...I won't blame you if you haven't, but needless to say, cooking was the furthest thought from my mind. I had lots planned for today, much of which got cancelled (hair, eyebrows, manicure, pedicure...all the holiday fripperies...I'll be wearing a coat, headscarf and dark glasses all week) and looked after poor wee sick Lucy instead. It was actually really rather nice as we cuddled a lot and I got to lie down for a moment, a huge novelty during the day.

By the time dinner rolled around I'd decided to stop being a wuss and make my kids a proper tea. I wanted to use up fridge and kitchen ingredients as we're off on holiday so I decided on Toad in the Hole. For those of you not familiar with such delicacies as Toad in the Hole or Spotted Dick or even Haggis, Neeps and Tatties, do not be afraid. This is no amphibian picnic; this is simply sausages cooked with a Yorkshire Pudding batter.

If there is one thing I'm happy to wax lyrical on, it is the joy of my particular Yorkshire Pudding (adapted from Nigella's). Never has a pudding been so foolproof, so wonderful and so easy. Mixed with sausages, it is one of those classic English dishes that may make you wonder about us Brits but believe me, this is a delight...a stodgy delight, but a delight nonetheless and one which children LOVE. Add gravy and you've given them a little plate of memories. Add onion gravy and adult guests will love you too!



Toad in the Hole

Yorkshire Pudding Batter
325ml semi-skimmed milk
4 large eggs
250g plain flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
Vegetable oil

Sausages
Hotdog sausages (if preferred)

Whisk together the milk, eggs and salt until huge bubbles appear and leave to stand for 15-20 minutes. Then, whisk in the flour and then leave it until required. Do not re-whisk.

If using this for Yorkshire Pudding only, then the best way to cook it is to pour a little oil...around half a teaspoon each...into muffin tins. Place tin in an oven at 220oC and let the muffin tray heat up until really hot, around 15 minutes for an already heated oven. Take the tin out of the oven using oven gloves and pour the batter into each individual muffin hole. Place in oven for around 15-20 minutes and watch in awe as each little Yorkshire muffin rises and turns golden. Serves best with roast beef and you definitely need gravy! Feel free to use a large tin though...approx. 25cm across for a round one. It will sink in the middle...it is supposed to with this dish and will still taste divine.

So, for Toad in the Hole, do all of the above but do not use a muffin tin; use any casserole dish and pour in a little oil. Place dish in oven for the 15 minutes and then brown off the sausages in a frying pan. Take dish from hot oven, pour in batter which should start to bubble and toss in the sausages...carefully mind you...and place back in the oven for 20-30 minutes. If it looks ready then it's ready. It rises gloriously so serve right away as it can on occasion start to deflate slightly...just like any baked food.

I added some extra hotdog sausages this time. I'm not a huge fan of these with the pudding but the kids love it and Lucy even prefers it. Serve the Toad, pour over beef gravy and watch the happiness....particularly husband.

I reckon this costs £3.47 for the entire dish and could happily feed six so approx. 56 pence per portion! That is what I call a bargain.

£1.40 Half Pack Sausages
£0.50 Hotdogs (Asda special offer)
£1 Asda Freerange Large eggs, approx. 25p each
22pence Milk
25pence flour (HomePride)
10pence oil

Imaginatively Titled AAAAAaaaargh!

It was going to be called A&E but things have moved on since then...

I had an accident yesterday. I wasn't participating in extreme sports or parachuting, I wasn't even hillwalking or cycling. No, instead, I was walking into the park with my children and I fell into a little crevice in the road...literally fell right into it. As I disappeared into this tiny little hole, all 8 of the bags I was carrying...yes, 8.....dropped to the ground with me and fell on top of my ankle which was looking at me from a position you should never really see an ankle look at you from.

I lay there for a moment, wanting to shout, swear and cry at the top of my voice but being surrounded by not only my own children but half the kids from school, I held it all in. That's what we do isn't it? I held it in, not wanting to frighten them with the string of expletives going off in my head like fireworks and when one kindly lady asked if I was ok, I said "...fine, thanks".

There was a queue forming behind me as I of course fell over at the entrance where there is a big daft bollard that stops anyone from getting past. So people queued behind me and if there is one thing British people don't like to do, it's queue. The grumblings began and one 'lady' attempted to cartwheel her pram past me. LADY, your pram wasn't going anywhere, except over my withered leg!

So, I got up and gathered the bags, one lovely little girl helping me (thank you Amy)and walked off to sit under the tree and lick my wounds. I pretended to be on the phone so that I could sniffle to myself without anyone asking me if I was ok and to give me time to survey the damage: an enormous lump appeared on my knee and I was bleeding....I was wearing new linen cream trousers....oh yes my friend, this was physical damage, as painful as the gouge with bits of grit in it...another on my ankle, grazing all over and a torn toenail. Better cancel that pedicure.

I'd also banged my head a bit...don't know how that happened....and was feeling pretty sorry for myself which only lasted a moment and I was soon back to chatting to parents, handing out water and shouting "get out of there!". Fast forward to dinner time; we have a little friend over and everyone wants differing things to eat so in my painful, hobbled and woozy state, I complied. By the time they were all happily fed, I was feeling pretty bad.

My ankle continued to swell at a rate of noughts and my headache was getting worse. So, should I have went to A&E? Of course I should have, if only because of the incredibly swelling ankle but I'm always loathe to visit the doctors and waste their time so I thought I'd wait. So I waited until the swelling was the size of my head and thought maybe, maybe I should think about going but Lucy started to feel ill.

And then the story is a haze of cleaning up sick, hugging a crying child, bathing her at 4am, realising she'd been sick all the way from her room into her sisters room and into the bathroom...husband was not impressed at all....and we both began that ritual that all mums and dads know of filling up a bucket with soapy water and disinfectant, the early birds chirping outside, the odd fox cry reaching our ears whilst eyes peer out from heavy lids and grumble at the insanity of it all.

Today was supposed to be a lovely new recipe day as I got a beautiful new cake book....but food and baking and all that jazz will have to wait; Lucy is off school, I can't walk properly, I'm supposed to be packing today, cleaning, have a meeting, buy end of term gifts for the teachers (we finish tomorrow), bake for the lunch tomorrow and generally run around as usual but a visit to the doctor is necessary and everything will be done at slow speed.

Thank you for reading my rant, now that I've written it down I really feel I should delete it as it is hardly in the spirit of positive posting but well, this is real life, isn't it? I leave you with the following poem which tomorrow I will disagree with heartily, but for today, it suits my mood perfectly....

Never cross your bridges till the bridge comes into view
Never go to meet your problems...wait a day or two.
Circumstances arise that rearrange the sorted pack;
Never take a load until it's placed upon your back.
Half lives many miseries upon ourselves we bring
But how often comes along the unexpected thing?
Trust not in yourself clever tricks and common sense
But trust in the ways and the wiles of Providence.

Wordless Wednesday

It's HOT!

I've no idea of how hot but man, it's hot. It is amazing for us poor, sun deprived Scots...the past few years we've had a great spring and a miserable summer. I love a warm spring but the kids suffer during the holidays when they should be outside, climbing trees, swimming in lochs and generally making a nuisance of themselves.

It looks like the weather has been turned on it's head. You may wonder why us British folk go on about the weather all the time - it's because it is so incredibly unreliable and we spent a good part of our day planning ahead; on Sunday I went for a 6 mile walk in the rain. I had an umbrella, boots and a rainjacket. Half way round, I had to pull a pair of sandals out of my humungous bag and stuff it with boots, rainjacket and jumper. What a kafuffle. But such is life, particularly in Scotland.

What I love about the sun is the food we serve up. It's fresh, uncomplicated and healthy; salads, cold meats, antipasti, cold pasta, smoked fish, fresh fruit, crunchy vegetables, cous cous, rice, dressings and mild, creamy cheese. Freshly squeezed juices, smoothies, ice lollies. Ice cream. Frozen yoghurt.

So, tonight, we had my older sis come to visit with little baby M and she fancied some antipasti! Woohoo. Yup, two nights in a row which was a great treat.

The kids had baguette with chicken, a bowl of cucumber and apple slices, cheese, pickled onions and some cold, cooked, baby boiled potatoes. They will be having some tuna mayonnaise and cucumber sandwiches for supper whilst I sit outside with a glass of white wine, the remainder of the Camembert on some Ryvita Crispbread and The Sunday Times supplements which I haven't yet had a chance to read.

Heaven...I'm in heaven.

Tonight's dinner is my all time favourite meal as if you didn't know...hardly any cooking is required as most ingredients are bought fresh and all home-made ingredients, with the bread being the exception, are prepared way ahead of time.

This is not an expensive meal as it is shared between many-it is the best meal to have with friends when you do not want to cook on the night and want to chill out with a glass of wine and chat whilst eating over several hours.

To give you an idea of prices, 30 slices of chorizo costs around £1, a large tub of olives between £1-£3, mozarella £1 with the cheese platter being the most expensive but a little goes a long way. There is a wonderful cheese shop in Glasgow called Mellis however, for all I love their cheeses, they need to be eaten almost immediately as oh are they ripe!

This is a lot of food and no matter how many people I have round, there is always some left to snack on for lunches, picnics or even another dinner.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ah, antipasti...the simple tomato, transformed with a little sea salt, black pepper, fresh basil, garlic oil and fresh mozarella. Thin slices of parmegiano regano. A plate filled with charcuterie: prosciutto, salami and chorizo. Fresh rocket with an olive oil, honey, herb and balsamic vinegar dressing. Freshly baked bread. Olive oil, drizzled with thick, aged balsamic vinegar and sprinkled with sea salt for dipping. Olives; fat, green, Queen olives with whole garlic cloves, little Spanish ones marinaded in lemon oil, glistening, Greek black olives with herbs. Sun-dried tomatoes and roasted peppers.

Then, a round of Camembert, grapes, crackers and Brie. A Dunsyre Blue and a strong cheddar. Homemade chutney and tomato chilli relish alongside caremalised onions.

It doesn't get any better than this.

Happy Father's day

To all the (good) dads....you rock!

Beef Stew and Homemade Sweet Chilli Sauce with a twist!

The kids, Brian and Grandpa were served beef stew with mashed potatoes tonight. The weather has been so mixed and it has been quite cold so a good, hot stew seemed appropriate...and Grandpa likes stew a lot!

I cooked the beef as normal: I covered the cubes with flour, salt and pepper,and fried in hot oil until browned and sealed and then added an Oxo cube, stirred, added chopped onions, sliced carrots, 2 bay leaves and a sprig of thyme. I poured in some red wine and let it bubble over a hight heat. I then made up a mix of beef stock, Oxo and tomato puree and poured it over the beef. Once it came to the boil I turned it down to a slight simmer and added some thyme leaves off the stalk and some black pepper. It was left, covered, on a simmer for 2 hours and then served with creamy, buttery mashed potatoes. It was polished off really quickly.

I had prawns instead(shrimps)as I thought buttery mashed potatoes and beef weren't really conducive to losing weight and as I'd also walked for miles today I was pretty motivated...and shattered! I decided to have them on their own but with a little sauce so I set about making my own sweet chilli sauce and the twist was using sesame oil...really amazing, particularly with the prawns. I think I'll have this tomorrow too but add peppers, onions and either noodles or rice.

Sweet Chilli Sauce with Sesame Oil
1 whole red chilli, seeds removed
2 cloves garlic
Ginger, peeled and roughly chopped, around 2 inches
Tablespoon sugar
Good big pinch sea salt
Around a tablespoon white wine vinegar (added a little more near the end)
Around Tablespoon and a bit more of sesame oil

Put chilli, garlic and ginger into blender. Blend well and then add sugar, salt, vinegar and sesame oil. Blend on a low speed then turn up to high. Scrape all the ingredients together and add a little more vinegar and oil if needed. It should be thick but still liquidy.

Empty into bowl, scraping out all the bits of chilli and garlic that have clung to the side. Taste and add more sugar/salt if required. This is a spicy version so watch out...a little goes a long way. The smell is divine.

This would be great as it is, cold as a dip or with chicken or fish or even as a marinade, but I heated up a tablespoon in a frying pan and added a good handful of prawns, emptied into a bowl after a few minutes of quick stir frying and sprinkled with black pepper. It was really, really good.

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

Mortification and Unfrozen Freezers

So, I'm sitting on the computer, trying to blog get a little work done whilst the kids are having their baths. There is a lot of carry on coming from their general direction and I'm getting mad because yesterday, the bathroom was practically flooded and I had to clean it, wash 3 1000 towels and confiscate a water gun. I'd already got a little crazy annoyed at the space hopper ending up in the bath and the bang, bang, banging was the last straw. So, rather than deal with it like a normal, rational person, I screamed up the stairs “STOP THAT AWFUL BANGING NOOOOOWWW!”. This was after I'd sent Kelly up to tell them to stop. The banging stopped immediately. How wonderful but highly unusual, I thought to myself. Maybe shouting does have a place after all.

Well, within seconds, Kelly came down to tell me nonchalantly that there was no banging going on upstairs and in fact, she thought it was coming from outside. I sat, suspended in a slow forming heat and mortification: it wasn't my children banging away like hooligans but in fact, my lovely next door neighbour doing a few home improvements. I sat for an age, wondering what on earth I should do when the quietest little tapping came at me from the ceiling once again...or as I'd figured out by this time, the wall. I rushed to the conservatory to see if I could catch my neighbour to apologise but he wasn't there. All there was left was the last few, quiet, apologetic taps ringing in my ear, the taps of a man horrified to hear his neighbour scream at him like a banshee and probably embarrassed that his banging had caused so much offence.

I feel terrible. And I'm the colour of a pink...thing. So, yes, my neighbour thinks I'm a freak and will no doubt avoid me from now on. My husband thinks it is all hilarious of course and wants to explain, just so they can laugh about it. Sigh.

The day can only get better, right? Wrong. I noticed a smell eminating from the general direction of the fridge. I'm not good with smells, I don't like them and I'm scared to find out where they are coming from. I thought I should investigate though as it was the fridge after all. But no, all seemed ok though the smell didn't waver.

After a few hours, I determined that a further, deeper investigation was required so I opened the freezer to have ice lollies, prawns, pies and lasagna's droop, seep and laugh at me. Yup, the freezer was f...um, not working.

You know when you are tired, you're feeling a bit under the weather, a bit cold even and you discover your freezer has defrosted £100s worth of food? Do you know that feeling? It isn't good is it? Bah. I opened both fridge and freezer, emptied them, saved what I could and binned the rest, shedding a little tear as they went to an early grave. At this point my husband intervened, cleaned up the mess, cleaned the fridge and freezer including the containers (even if he did do them in the bath...!!!) and left them all out to dry. Thank you, husband. We're turning it back on today....the freezer....and hopefully, fingers crossed because I'm not going shopping for a new bleedin' fridge freezer! Unless I really, really have to.

Food tonight? Who knows.