Menu Week 25/04/11

MONDAY - Leftover chicken and bacon pie, roast potatoes and vegetables

TUESDAY - Pasta bolognese, cheese and homemade garlic bread

WEDNESDAY - Sausage, egg, chips and beans

THURSDAY - Creamy pesto chicken, new potatoes, peas and roasted tomatoes

FRIDAY - At a friends BBQ

SATURDAY - Chicken/tofu fajitas

SUNDAY - Lasagne, salad, homemade garlic bread

Yesterday I got ready to to make tea. I got the onions sliced and put them in the frying pan to saute for my chicken and bacon pie. Disaster! the camping gas was empty (no hob at the moment due to having kitchen done) It was 4.30pm on a bank holiday Monday and no way of getting a refill. I had to make do with cooking our meal in a microwave and the oven.

So how to saute onions without a hob. I put the onions in a cake tin with the oil and butter and popped them in the oven. I kept giving them a stir and then I threw in some chopped bits of bacon and it all softened really well. Could not par-boil the potatoes for roasting so they went straight in the oven with a tray of carrots to roast. I made my sauce for the pie in the microwave which worked well. Now I have never cooked veg in the microwave so was not looking forward to broccoli cooked this way. I had visions of it being tough or rubbery but in fact it came out lovely and tender with a lovely bright green colour. I threw some frozen peas in with the broccoli near the end of cooking and was very pleased with the result. Pie was cooked in the oven and we ended up with a good meal.

Been this morning to get a refilled one of these. Managed without yesterday but don't want to do it again.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter

                                                                                                                                                                 Hope you all have had a lovely day. Had a different Easter Sunday to what we would usually do. We have had a day of working hard around the house instead of going for Easter lunch with family.  Hubby has been laying Kitchen floor tiles all day. Daughter No2 went to stay at her friends and won't be back until Monday. Daughter No3 has been out with friends all afternoon. I have done a mountain of ironing, gardening, dog walking and made lemon curd.

Homemade lemon curd

LEMON CURD

4oz unsalted butter
Zest & juice 4 unwaxed lemons
12oz sugar
6 well-beaten eggs

Melt butter then add zest and lemon juice.
Gradually stir in sugar until dissolved.
Very slowly add the eggs stirring continuously over a low heat for 10 minutes.
Sieve if you prefer then pour into sterilised jars.
Cool then store in refrigerator. Will keep for about 3 weeks.

I need some of the lemon curd to finish off my baked lemon cheesecake I have in the freezer for my party. So that's another job I can tick off my party preparation list.

We decided to have the BBQ today instead of tomorrow. I made myself some spicy tofu kebabs, veggie sausages and I made a load of vegetable kebabs. Hubby and daughter had homemade burgers a chicken drummer and some sausages. We had this with homemade coleslaw and bread all washed down with a cold can of cider, lovely.

Yearly Car Clean

How are you all enjoying this wonderful weather? I can't believe it's only April with the temperatures we are having. I went to work in the charity shop this morning. They were open even though it's a bank holiday. I said I would work this bank holiday but I am not going to work the bank holiday next Friday because I want to watch the Royal Wedding. I bought a top from the shop today but will return it next week because it's too big. I also bought a jigsaw book for £1.20 for when my grandaughter comes to stay.

I gave my car it's yearly clean today. I hate washing my car and I really do only clean it about once a year. I can't understand these people who spend hours cleaning their cars. It seems such a waste of time because it gets dirty again in no time. I made daughter No2 clean the inside of the car. She eats her breakfast in the car as I drive her to college and the car is full of crumbs because of her. It's a wonder I don't have mice.

So now I have a lovely sparkling clean car, but for how long? I bet when I go out in the morning a bird will have messed on my car. The birds around here seem to take great pleasure from bombarding my car, windows and clean washing on the line.

I got some weeding done this afternoon. I also planted some squash and courgette seeds. I got a couple of trays of bedding plants in Aldi yesterday so I potted a container up with some and the rest I planted into the garden. I want to get some spring onions sown tomorrow and shall look in my seed box for anything else I can sow.

Hiya, I'm still here

Sorry not posted for a few days. Just been so busy with life.

Tuesday the usual afternoon at the charity shop I volunteer in. I got a couple of bargains, two skirts for £3.00 each. The time of year has come when I have to bare my legs, oh no. My legs are pale  and I have a leg with a lot of broken veins which I acquired with my last two pregnancies. I slap on a little fake tan, only enough to give me a touch of colour not so I look like I've been Tangoed. I remember the days I used sunbeds on a regular bases in the early 80's and it makes me shudder now at the thought of it. I don't give a dam about having a glorious tan anymore. In my job I've nursed a young woman who eventually died because of skin cancer and it puts you off ever going near one of the things ever again. Deep down I do still worry about the damage I could have caused to my body and try to regularly check moles and freckles on my body for changes. Thankfully the craze to be constantly tanned does not seem to be an issue with the young these days. My older daughters happily go out pale and nobody gives a dam.

Today I have been covered in paint. I have painted from 9.30am until 5.30pm. I did not even take a lunch break, I quickly made a sandwich and ate in between painting.

The kitchen ceiling got two coats of paint and the rest of the kitchen got one coat. I shall give them a second coat over the weekend. I did undercoat on the woodwork after sanding down. I totally missed a glorious day but when jobs need to be done, they gotta be done!

Menu Week 18/04/11

MONDAY - Chicken/prawn risotto, tomato gratin and roasted garlic mushrooms

TUESDAY - Lasagne, salad and homemade garlic bread

WEDNESDAY - don't know yet

THURSDAY - Italian meatloaf, jacket potatoes, vegetables and gravy

FRIDAY - At parents for tea

SATURDAY -Homemade burgers, wedges, homemade coleslaw and homemade onion rings

SUNDAY - Homemade chicken & ham pie, roast potatoes, vegetables

I'm trying to use up a few things in the freezer to make room for food I make for the party I'm having soon. So tonight's tea will use up some chicken stock, cooked chicken and some prawns from the freezer and a lot of tomatoes from the fridge. Tomorrows meal of lasagne will use up a lot of small batches of bolognese and a small tub of chopped tomatoes and a baguette.

I made a trip to a larger Tesco today because my hubby saw an advert on the TV for whole salmons on offer. My local Tesco is only small and does not have a fish counter. When I arrived there were no salmons to be seen on the fish counter and I thought I was going to be disappointed. I asked the lady behind the fish counter if she had anymore whole salmons  and she told me she had, but had not gotten around to filling the counter with then yet. So I returned at the end of my shop and purchased this beauty

 
So I now have my gammon and a salmon for the party. They were both on offer because it's Easter. The salmon was down to £5.00 per Kg  and the salmon I bought cost £16.40. I got it cheaper though because I paid for it with some Tesco vouchers I got this weekend . I had vouchers to the value of £8.00 so the salmon cost me £8.40, bargain!

Had a nice lunch today using up some cottage cheese that had been sat in the fridge for a couple of weeks, oops. It smelt fine and I take no notice of dates on most food stuff. If it smells good, eat it. I have never poisoned myself or anyone else in the family with this way of checking food.

This was my lunch, cottage cheese on rice cakes with some Tesco value smoked salmon(87p for 120g) and cucumber and a cup of tea (trying to loose some weight, can you tell?). It was extra lovely because it was eaten in the garden in the lovely sunshine.

Our tea today was very tasty.

Got carried away with the breadcrumbs and ended up putting them on my garlic mushroom too just to use them up. They had chicken risotto and I made myself a prawn & pea risotto which was very tasty even if I do say so myself.

What a great day!

What a great day I had yesterday on my vegetarian cooking course. I arrived at a lovely large house on a village green. Six of us were taken into the dining room for a cuppa with homemade biscuits and a chat about the course. We were then given a pack of recipes to look through. We were split into two groups of three and had to pick a starter, main and dessert to make together in our group. Hilary, our tutor was going to demonstrate a dessert. Both groups decided they were not pudding eaters so we all decided to make an extra savoury instead.

My group settled on  Starter - cheese & asparagus roulade
                                  Mains - Nut loaf & a Tomato sauce
                                               Tart tatin with red onion

The other group       Starter - Double baked cheese souffle
                                 Mains - Risotto with roasted butternut squash & garlic
                                              Mushroom Gougere

We had a demonstration of little nibbles we could make and we ate these whilst doing our cooking to keep us going. Then it was all hands on and getting stuck in to some cooking. We had a great time and it was lots of fun. We all got to know each other and all worked well as a team. We did not even have to do any washing up, Hilary and her staff did all this. Finally at about 2.15pm we had made everything and were ushered into the dining room to a lovely set table to eat our creations. Hilary and her staff served us and we had soft drinks and wine to enjoy with our meal.

This was the roulade we made. Half was left cold and the other half was sliced and topped with applewood cheese to be put in the oven to reheat just before serving. We also ate the double baked cheese souffles.

Sorry the pictures are not that good. We enjoyed a taste of all the mains with an accompanying salad. We then finished with the dessert and coffee. We chatted and had a lovely time over our meal and finally left at around 4.30pm. We were presented with a leaving gift of the recipe booklets, pen and a tea towel  of the cooking school and a doggie bag of any leftovers we fancied. I can tell you I left STUFFED!  I had a great day doing something just for ME. Don't think we make enough time for ourselves when we have families and busy lives. It's definitely a treat I would like to repeat again.

Have a good day

Looking forward to my treat tomorrow

I'm really looking forward to my treat tomorrow. Last year I booked to go on a vegetarian cooking course for a day and that day is finally here. I'm going here http://www.harmonyhousecookeryschool.co.uk/  We will be making two three course meals and eating what we make at lunch time along with demonstrations of dishes and snacks. So I shall take my camera and if I get a moment  and remember I shall take a few pictures.

Today daughter No 3 made the shortbread using some of the ground rice I wanted to get rid of in my challenge. They came out very well but not many left to take a photo of after we all had a taster.

SHORTBREAD

200g soft butter

85g sugar

60g ground rice

175g plain flour

Pre heat oven to 160C

Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy

Add flour and ground rice and form into a dough

Flour surface and roll dough out into a round

Place dough on a baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes

Remove from oven when cooked and cut into pieces and sprinkle with sugar

For tea tonight I made salmon fishcakes, homemade chips and homemade mushy peas.

Comfort stodge, yummy

The fish cakes are really easy to make, I mix mashed potato with a large tin of salmon (tin cost about £1.50) some lemon juice, a dollop of horseradish sauce and a dollop of mayo and some parsley. mix well then divide into 8. Coat with beaten egg then dip in fresh breadcrumbs ( I whizz a couple of crusts in the food processor). Fry in a little oil or bake in the oven on an oiled tray.