Month: November 2013

Family outing

What happens when you take four boys to Ikea.

expedit-bookcase

Yesterday afternoon we bundled all four boys into the Berry Bus and went for an outing to Ikea. This was due to a somewhat impulsive decision of mine that the state of chaos in the little boys’ room was no longer tolerable and we had to bring my solution to fruition. Why yes, it does involve an expedit shelving unit, what of it?

Let’s just take a moment there shall we. Afternoon traffic, check. All four children, check. Ikea. CHECK. Chef’s been feeling pretty blue of late so you can imagine what a salve this was for his soul.

On arrival everyone was issued with a pencil. Compulsory. And then, as they say, it was on. Felix instigated a game where he would call the name/colour of a lounge and then the first brother to the seat won. He’d keep a tally on one of the pieces of paper you’re meant to write the aisle and shelf of your desired product. You know the one, where you work it all out, write it all down, get to the warehouse bit to discover an empty shelf. Of course he didn’t just keep a tab on victories, there were categories for LOSER and CHEATER. Good times.

Oscar was dawdling as is his want so this was really none of his concern. That left Jasper and Grover, two peas in a pod when it comes to character allocations of competitiveness and the need to win. Grover, who’d actually fallen asleep in the car (unheard of) was too tired and emotional for such shenanigans and it only took ONE round of this game for him to be in tears and on a hate vendetta against Felix.

Let me just reiterate that this all transpired in the lounge section where you’re so barely over the threshold you can still breath air from the outside world.

The crying and sibling hating carried on for most of the progress through the Ikea Interminable Maze of Organised Hell. In fact, the only thing that really caused its cessation was the world of jumbo trolleys in the warehouse. Of course then, engaged in activity that could possibly end in pain or being maimed, they were as thick as thieves.

We managed to avoid the cafeteria – I don’t care what you say, those meatballs are nasty – and ended the whole experience with dumplings, which we all know make everything better.

Onward.

 

The Chef and I – Jamie Oliver’s spiced chicken with bacon & spinach lentils

Jamie Oliver’s 15 minute meals spiced chicken with spinach lentils recipe. The first in my new series, The Chef and I.

Welcome to the first of a new weekly series! The Chef and I will see me cook a recipe from my cookbook library. It could be a dinner, maybe a breakfast or something sweet, the idea being to a) use my cookbooks more thoroughly and b) show how a recipe plays out for a normal human.

This week I’m (finally) cooking from Jamie’s 15 minute meals. Yes yes, we all know the drill, 15 minutes when you have a staff working for you but my attitude is less the amount of time it takes you and more cooking with fresh ingredients and trying recipes you otherwise wouldn’t. This didn’t take me 15 minutes but it definitely took me less than 30. Probably closer to 20.

All my normal eaters ate it and loved it. Even the lentils. Jasper, the not normal eater, ate and loved the chicken. Small mercies.  Jamie serves it with a warmed loaf of bread to soak up the juices and I strongly urge you to do the same (I wasn’t going to bother but thought, no, do as the recipe says). It rounded out the meal beautifully. Next time I’d probably use some pita or flat breads.

Things I did differently:

  • I used an extra tomato and was glad I did
  • He seasons the chicken with 1/2 tsp cayenne, I used about 2 tsp of smoked paprika instead
  • I used streaky bacon instead of pancetta and fried it off separately after cooking the chicken whereas he adds it to the pan of the almost cooked chicken. Streaky bacon is the short bit of the bacon, my Woollies stocks the D’Orsogna brand variety of it and stocks it in the meat section of cured meats, not with the other bacon (for reasons I am yet to understand).
  • His recipe uses a bunch of asparagus that he cooks off with the chicken at the same time as the pancetta, I didn’t do this.

spiced chicken w/ bacon and spinach lentils

Spiced chicken with bacon & spinach lentils

Adapted from Jamie Oliver, 15 Minute Meals

The Chef and I - Jamie Oliver's spiced chicken with bacon & spinach lentils
 
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A delicious health dinner of spiced chicken with lentils, spinach and yoghurt
Author:
Ingredients
Lentils
  • 1 onion
  • 1 carrot
  • 2 sprigs rosemary
  • olive oil
  • 2 x 400g tins of lentils
  • 2 tomatoes
  • 200g baby spinach
  • 1 tsp red wine vinegar
  • 4 heaped tbsp natural yoghurt
Chicken
  • 4 x skinless chicken breasts
  • 2 tsp smoked paprika
  • 4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
  • 1 handful fresh thyme (or other fresh herb of your choice, tarragon would work nicely)
  • 6 rashes streaky bacon
  • crusty bread
Instructions
  1. Peel your onion and carrot and blitz in a food processor with the rosemary
  2. Put a glug or two of oil in a fry pan with high sides and start sauteing
  3. Get a really large sheet of baking paper out on your bench. Scatter over a generous amount of salt, pepper and the paprika. Rub into the chicken all over (if you've been generous there's enough for both sides and a good rub into the chicken).
  4. Fold the baking paper over the top of the chicken (I told you it needed to be a big sheet) then get a rolling pin and bash it to about 1.5 cm thick. (I didn't do it thin enough so it took longer to cook for me)
  5. Get another fry pan on with a glug of oil then add the garlic cloves, the herbs and the chicken. Fry for about 4 minutes on each side until nicely golden and cooked through.
  6. Back to the veg in the other pan, add the two tins of lentils with the water they're in (ie don't drain them) and the tomatoes which you've chopped up roughly (I just blitzed them to chunky in my little mini blender as I'd already using it for the onion and carrot. Put the lid on and leave to simmer
  7. Roughly chop the spinach in the food processor - you don't want it pulverised so just pulse it until it's shredded but not moosh. Add to the lentils with the red wine vinegar.
  8. Lift the chicken out of the pan, you might need to give it a wipe down before cooking the bacon and then fry off the bacon.
  9. Put the lentils into a wide lipped platter (it's runny so don't go and use some flat platter contraption) and dollop over the yoghurt, give it a little swirl through.
  10. Cut the chicken up on an angle and place over the top then put the bacon on top of that.
  11. Serve with crusty bread or pitas.

 

link

Unconscious Mutterings

A weekly meme just right for a Sunday night.

A lifetime ago I used to do this every single week. It feels right to start it up again.

  1. Directions :: home
  2. Juror :: The Rural Juror! (a 30 Rock reference for those wondering)
  3. Cheating :: rat
  4. Fact :: check
  5. Clue :: hint
  6. Week :: end
  7. Enthusiasm :: waning
  8. Smug :: rarely
  9. Venture :: out
  10. Bench :: warmer

You can join in over at luna nina.

100 words

A weekly challenge to write about something in 100 words.

100 words on weekends

Weekends stretch out before me like a walk in soft sand along an expansive beach. Chef is gone by 7 and not home until 10. I wake up on Saturday mornings with a knot in my stomach about just what I’m going to do with all these children all day long. It becomes an ode to refined carbohydrates with championship rounds of how much screen time one can accumulate. I have grand plans of outings and adventures but nothing ever eventuates because getting everyone out of the house can feel insurmountable. And so another weekend rolls around, staring me down.

 

The week that was

It was a mixed bag of a week with hospital visits, the last of communal showers, the promise of a new job, visits to the psychiatrist and a dreaded foot-dragging appointment with the dentist.

Two weeks ago Oscar has surgery to remove the hardware from his left foot. It was the suspected culprit for the many cellulitis incidents Oscar has had in that foot. Indeed, when the surgeon was removing the screw he said it was a bit loose (boom tish) and it was his gut feeling that was the reason why the cellulitis had taken hold.

The upshot of all this meant, in my eye, one thing. Showering. The foot couldn’t get wet so every.single.night we’d have to wrap it in two plastic bags, negotiate our way into the shower and then I’d have to shower him. It’s been awful. Having to wash your 15 year old’s arse and pits is as galling for them as it is hideous for you. Our mutual hatred was in the red zone.

Still, it’s all over, the wounds have healed beautifully and we can now work on getting Oscar to walk on that foot properly again.

Chef has the promise of a new job in the new year. It’s not confirmed as yet (I thought it was so am now fretting on his behalf) so if you can chant/bay at the moon/pray/take a virgin I’d greatly appreciate it.

I finally voiced and wrote in a public place that our business Allconsuming Food has to go on the backburner. Chef is being worked like a dog at his current establishment and my tank is empty to be running it. It’s still there, it can wait patiently for some more love and attention down the track.

I saw my shrink this week. Did I share with you I’m on lithium now? I’m on lithium now. I feel like a bona fide batshit crazy lady being on it but, as my shrink said, it has given my mental health a floor, a stability that basically the rest of this year has not had. We’re still working on the meds in the light of the fact my life’s resting level of stress is stratospheric. How much do we go biological and how much is the psychological/emotional is a dance we are currently having. We shall see. At least I don’t want to top myself so that’s a fairly large improvement.

Finally there was the dentist. Dear GOD I hate the dentist. Today was just a clean (HIDEOUS DRILLING OFF OF PLAQUE) but he did look at the molar which I’ve chipped the corner of and told me I need a crown. $1,300. Can you hear my eyes rolling from there?

So anyway, how was your week?

 

Onward!