roast chicken and salad & leek and potato soup

Before I begin, I have one thing to say. *ahem*

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday Hayley TimBits Harlock Fisherrrrrrrrrrr
Happy Birthday to you!

Hope you had a marvellous Canadian-style birthday.

Right, after the hurley-burley of yesterday, today we take it easy. It is still beautiful, but with the backdoor open so monkey can run in and out of the house, we don't feel so guilty about not really getting organised to do anything apart from shopping after lunch, and then I took him swimming afterwards.

Having declared my stew-based strategy from now on, the generally sunny weather forecast for the next week dictates a reprieve for Mrs Barnes. Consequently this is what you'll be seeing at some point over the next seven days:

• Rick Stein's Shepherd's Pie as cooked in India (don't worry Saint Hugh, we still heart you!);
• A selection of soups for lunch - leek and potato, beetroot & apple borscht and spicy spinach and dhal;
  
• Levi Roots' roast squash, chilli and spinach salad, with peanut and ginger dressing;
• 'Classic' spinach and parmesan meatballs;
• Chicken with cavalo nero, just because they finally had Cavalo Nero in stock. This might well be a record because looking back, I don't think we've actually had it *with* cavalo since I started the blog. We've had it with savoy cabbage, kale (twice), and some amazing rainbow chard, but no black cabbage;
• Oliver Rowe's chicken, tomato, tarragon, bacon and sourdough salad

First up we've got an old favourite, roast chicken and salad:


I am sad not all the salad was eaten, and I wonder if there are any things I can do to help the eating of said salad which was resident on a plate not my own?

The great thing about Milo dropping his daytime sleep is he's zonked by 1900 military hours, which means not only do we get to eat at a sensible time, but whilst the chicken is roasting, I also have time to whizz up a massive batch of leek & potato soup for our lunch tomorrow. Happy days.

Food of the Milos
Still not a great amount of food going down his gullet today, relative to normal let alone Friday's mighty feast: Apple, fruit bread, cheese and raisins for breakfast, various snacking around Waitrose, and ham sandwiches for lunch. He did eat all his dinner though, macaroni cheese using my own version of Annabel Karmel's cheese sauce, and mini broccoli. He did wear pants for most of the day, for the first time so maybe he's more anxious about not weeing than eating? The little boy...

sources
roast chicken - Simon Hopkinson, Roast Chicken and Other Stories, p36
leek and potato soup - - Delicious Magazine, January 2007, p104