spiced mushroom burgers

Sunday dawns terribly early and lasts for almost 21 hours, and no amount of fruit juice, tea and crumpets lessens the pain.

Before everybody goes home we head to The Red Lion for Sunday lunch. I think it says something about where we are in our lives that not only are we the first to the pub, we're queuing outside at 11.45. Is that good organisation or just desperation?

Anyway, me and Davis share a very good roast chicken, brenda has some pretty good sausages and mash, and ana has 'disappointing' halloumi salad. Clearly she wasn't hungover enough. She does have a glass of wine though.

For evening dinner it's the start of the diet (again) so we try some experimental mushroom burgers, which are surprisingly really nice.

I would say next time I'd make sure all the mushrooms have the curvy-lip on the bottom, so it's easier to pile the topping into them. And I'd use a bigger bag of spinach. Still, definitely one for another time...

Food of the Milos
Junk for breakfast, a bit of everbody's lunch for lunch although mainly chips, and pizzas for dinner. He was very under the weather after his snoopy-snooze but perked around pizza time.

sources
spiced mushroom burgers - Simon Rimmer, Delicious, September 2009, p92

old fashioned chicken curry

Davis, Brenda and B-Jamin arrive after lunch, and despite having two grumpy under-twos sleeping in a small, two-bedroom flat we manage to make a good stab at recapturing the glory days of Tewkesbury weekends.

The boys manage a mini-game of golf, and then the girls go for a bottle of wine by the river. Whilst they're out, Davis and I create Atul Kochhar's Old Style Chicken Curry and drink beer. The girls come back, we eat curry, drink wine and beer and some people (with boobs) eat two packets of chilli chocolate.

No babies wake up. Until 4am, when they both decide they're getting up.

Food of the Milos
Some crumpets for breakfast (whilst I'm having a tactical rest), scrambled egg for breakfast and then meatballs for dinner. He also had two mini-cinnamon men in Waitrose, a big pot of raisins going to the park and just a "tiny bit" of chilli chocolate. Weirdly he's not really eating many snacks these days, and lunch and breakfast are becoming more of a battle. It might be time to cut back on the morning/afternoon milk...

source
old-fashioned chicken curry - Atul Kochhar, Observer Food Monthly, February 2009, p24

spinach and parmesan meatballs

Finally we get some shopping, which is just as well as Davis, Brenda and B-Jamin are coming up for the weekend. Gallingly because we've been away we end up spending loads, and when it arrives I realise I've forgotten a stack of things and have to make an 'additional' list for Saturday. Further salt is rubbed into the wounds when I eventually discover the saffron hadn't arrived, shortly after the 24 hour refund-window. Gah!

Anyway, Friday is now the start of binge-drinking weekends as we're not (supposed) to be drinking through the week, so I crack open a bottle of vin rouge de table from Carrefour and settle to making enough meatballs for us this evening and to put in the freezer for the little boy.

The shambles continues in the kitchen. For some reason it takes *forever* to make, only partially because somebody was later to bed than usual. The only silver lining is the fact the anas don't really notice because she's half-cut on rose and she's on a transatlantic call from Mrs Hayley Fisher-Harlock. Consequently I'm left alone to drink and regularly 'test' the meatballs in peace, meaning dinner is triumphantly served at 2200 military hours.

sources
spinach and parmesan meatballs - Delicious, December 2007, p46

thai meatball curry

Hmm, winter definitely drawing in and the combination of this and the post-holiday lack of any shopping means further raiding of the freezer - this time a cheeky thai curry I made the last time the anas and milos were on the Diamond Isle. At least the box looks in better nick than last night's Shepherd's Pie.

It looks much better on the plate too, although interestingly even though the container is full of sauce, once it's defrosted it's not as much as I thought. Okay, so not 'interestingly' but still...

Food of the Milos
Second day back at Julia's so he has a bigger breakfast than usual because she's much more successful than us at shoveling Philadelphia, toast, porridge and apricots down his maw. Oddly, he didn't eat much left-over shepherd's pie when he got home though. That is genuinely 'odd' btw.

sources
thai meatball coconut curry - Delicious - August 2009, p55

SuperSarah
Yeah, I know what you mean. He's 'almost' a little boy, and his speech is so advanced and he's so big we tend to forget he's only a small person. How are you guys? Is is spring over there now? How are the family?

shepherd's pie

So no autumn then, just direct to winter and skip the nice harvest weather? With the flood lapping at the door and the anas wrapped up in fifteen red blankets we put the diet on hold and break out some hearty fayre from the freezer.

*Slightly Mangled* doesn't cover the half-of it. I'd forgotten I was slightly wobbly when I made this, and it's not clear where the shepherd begins and the pie ends. On the positive side, it hasn't affected the flavour and having hoiked some out for the milos tea tomorrow, there's only two smallish portions for us so it is kinda diet friendly.

Food of the Milos
After last night's pasta nightmare we give him spaghetti bolognaise, which goes down much better. He's also back at Julia's as the anas have returned to work, so he's pretty much spent the day eating.

sources
shepherd's pie - Saint Hugh of Whittingstall, River Cottage Meat Book, p504

roast chicken & salad

First day of the diet and jaded from being back at work we decided to have the only comforting salad in existence - roast chicken. However there's something subtly different with this one, can you tell what it is?


No? Well it was lovingly hand-washed, patted down with the finest kitchen roll, buttered, stuffed with a blend of lemons, garlic and thyme, seasoned and roasted by ana louise 'my demon is a shiny red setter' mccarthy-barnes! Hella yeah, it was excellent too, even if I did have to listen to the squeals of disgust the washing bit caused, oh and the three trips to the herb basket to find thyme. Excellent work honey louise, you can cross it off your resolutions list.

Food of the Milos
He's the only one *not* on a diet in this house, so he naturally stuffs himself stupid with the usual array of raisins, fruit, cheese and avocado. He does baulk at kayosauruses baked peppers and pasta though, the fool, it's aces. He then spazzes out for the rest of the evening and we have to do some (un)controlled crying till he gets knackered.

sources
roast chicken - Simon Hopkinson, Roast Chicken & Other Stories, p36

holiday round-up

No updates for the past fortnight because we've been away, lording it up in Italy for a week and then enjoying the social event of the year in Florent-en-Argonne for Matt & Virginie's wedding.

I could list out everything we ate and did, but that would take *forever* and it's supposed to be a holiday so I'll highlight a few things instead.

1. Italy was mainly Parmesan and beer/wine-based. I cooked twice - classic St Hugh ratatouille for our Tuscan Ashes Party. Yes Ronald, our ASHES PARTY. I also sprayed a bottle of beer into the pool.

Earlier in the week I also 'knocked together' a meal for eight, as you do. It was the usual chorizo & tomato salad, parma ham, mozzarella and peach salad and a chicken, spinach and pasta dish one of spana's friends cooked for us on the Isle of Wight years ago. I'd forgotten about it, but desperately searching for a recipe based on what we had in the fridge which would feed large quantities of people inspiration struck and I cobbled it more-or-less together. The kitchen was very small though.

2. We had a lady come to the villa and cook for us twice. She was amazing! I'm going to attempt her risotto at some point, once I've decided what went into it. Veg mainly, and definitely celery and celery salt. I'll have to experiment...

3. Eating out in both Italy and France is the best thing ever. We swanked it up in Italy, and other than the wedding, we ate in a local brasserie in France and EVERYTHING was brilliant. We didn't eat the local French delicacy of Pieds de Cochon however, although we did have Pike as part of the wedding feast. It was curiously very nice, who knew?

5. Florent-en-Argonne is the home of Dom Perignon. Ana didn't get too over-excited because she's a lady.

6. The milos will eat *anything*. On our last night in Italy we went to a beautiful Osteria where he pretty much had everything I had: spiced chickpea soup, fresh spaghetti with duck and truffle, roast duck and salad, plus my fruity pudding. Oh, and Italians heart blonde babies who have been trained to say 'Bongiorno'.

7. The diet starts now!