August Round Up

What we ate in August

• 31st: Steak and Mushroom Pie, New Potatoes, Chantenay Carrots, Green Beans
• 30th: Leftovers, etc
• 29th: Green Herb Risotto
• 28th: Pasta alla Calabrese
• 27th: Ginger Chicken
• 26th: out (went to a friend's BBQ)
• 25th: Creamy Linguine with Prawns
• 24th: Burgers, Fresh Tomatoes, Green Bean Salad
• 23rd: Vegetable Phat Thai
• 22nd: Scrambled Eggs & Toast
• 21st: Celery Soup with Stilton Biscuits
• 20th: Cauliflower Cheese Lasagne
• 19th: cold roast pork, oven potatoes, braised cucumber
• 18th: roast pork, roast potatoes, carrots, green beans
• 17th: Goat cheese and sweet potato fritatta
• 16th: Yellow lentil and cauliflower curry with coconut
• 15th: Homemade pizza
• 14th: away
• 13th:away
• 12th: away
• 11th: away
• 10th: away
• 9th: Chicken Kievs, oven potatoes, green beans
• 8th: ravioli with tomato sauce, garlic bread
• 7th: Tofu and greens stir fry
• 6th: Pork steaks, new potatoes, braised celery with courgettes and bacon
• 5th: leftovers
• 4th: Chicken, Chorizo and Leek Pie
• 3rd: Green Prawn Curry
• 2nd: Caramelised Onion and Bacon Tart
• 1st: Chicken Fajitas

Aug 31st: Lemon meringue roulade

recipe source: Sainsbury's Magazine, August 2012

notes: this was beautiful to eat, though the meringue didn't roll brilliantly - I think it was a little thick and could possibly do with either one egg fewer or a larger swiss roll pan.

Aug 31st: Steak & Mushroom Pie

Recipe source: Hairy Bikers Perfect Pies

notes: I've made 5 or 6 of the recipes from this book now, and they have all been brilliant. You can't see this pie as well - it's at the far end of the table, with the green beans, Chantenay Carrots and new potatoes closer to the end - we had friends around for dinner.  It was a lovely pie, though, with two crusts, shortcrust, in contrast to the Steak and Ale Pie I've also made from this book, which has a puff pastry top (but which was also excellent). 

Wheelchair Basketball

Spain beat Italy.

The Netherlands beat Great Britain, unfortunately (though I have to say, the Dutch team were very good).

The US beat France, and showed us all why they are number one - they were amazing. 

This was one of their stars - Rebecca Murray - she scored nearly half of the team's points and just seemed to have the golden touch. 

Here are the kids (you can't see Alex, though you can see the back of Sarah and Olivia's heads) waiting to get high fives from the US team as they come off the playing area. 

Aug 29th: Risotto Preboggion (Green Herb Risotto)

Recipe Source: The Top 100 Italian Rice Dishes, Diane Seed

notes: This was nice. I didn't use sage, as they didn't have any fresh in the supermarket that day. But it didn't seem to matter. 

Zoo Day

Today started with a quick trip to Camden Lock to visit Daddy in nearby Jamestown Road, before heading off to the London Zoo...

We saw lots of animals, many of whom didn't photograph that well, but there were penguins among them.

Alex had a rather large milkshake (so did I, as it happens!)

And there were flamingos. 

And then we went down to Regent's Park to follow the Green Trail hunting for more mascots. More photos on Flickr. 

Aug 28th: Pasta all calabrese

Something quick and easy after a day at the zoo. We've had this before, though I used more tomatoes this time, as we had a glut.

Aug 27th: Ginger Chicken

recipe source: Good Food Magazine

notes: I almost didn't photograph this because I was sure we'd had it before this year, but apparently, it was longer ago than that as I can't find it in 2012. Where does the time go?

Bake... I mean, Bank...Holiday

Being the August Bank Holiday, the weather was less than perfect, so I decided the time had come to rid the house of over-ripe fruit.  Banana cakes/bread, using some I had and some from the freezer. This was made almost entirely by Alex (age 9) - I gave him one step at a time, and checked to make sure he was doing it right, but it was pretty much all his work. 

This one was largely made by Sarah - a fruit shortcake, in this instance using strawberries and apricots. Any soft fruit will do, though we most often make it with plums.  I tried to take a photo of it cut open, but it was too blurry. This is a fantastically easy recipe:

Fruit Shortcake:

4 oz self-raising flour

4 oz sugar

4 oz butter

4 oz ground almonds

1 egg

some soft fruit (plums, peaches, nectarines, apricots, berries, maybe pears - not apples so much), halved, sliced, stoned, peeled if you like (though I usually don't)... About the equivalent of 5 or 6 plums. Or more to taste.

1. Combine all ingredients except fruit. You can do this in a food processor, with a beater, whatever.

2. Divide dough (which will be thick and firm, and slightly grainy due to the almonds,  not runny like batter) in half, pat half down in a small greased cake tin, removable sides work best.

3. Place fruit on top - I try not to go right to the edge

4. Cover with remaining dough - I usually pat it quite thin before putting it on top - seal around edges of fruit if you can - makes it less messy. 

Bake in moderate oven for 40-45 minutes. (Gas 4/350F/180C)

Aug 25th: Creamy Linguine with Prawns

recipe source: Good Food

notes:  yum. One for the quick, easy, healthy pile. I used half fat creme fraiche.

Puzzling Day

Bunch of Flowers

Last night, my neighour knocked on my door to offer me these lovely flowers - she's going away for a week today and they'd been given to her just yesterday, so they are still really fresh and she hated to throw them away - wasn't that a nice thought?  Her husband is actually staying home, but she didn't really think he'd appreciate them...  Thanks, Petra!  And have fun.

Aug 24th: Burgers, Fresh Tomatoes, Green Bean Salad

Recipe source: Green bean salad from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi

notes:  Sarah asked for burgers recently, so burgers it is - I'm quite accomodating about these things.  We recently went to lunch in a restaurant near my brother-in-law's house, where they served the burgers in bagels instead of buns. Those of us who had burgers loved this idea because despite the hole in the bagel, the effect is great - they hold together so much better than buns, which get all soggy. So we decided to try this at home - definitely worked well, and might repeat it again for sure. Tomatoes from the Farmer's Market.

Aug 23rd: Vegetable Phat Thai

Recipe source: Good food magazine

notes: one we've had before, quite easy, well liked. 

East End Wenlocks

and Mandevilles as well, of course!

We (in case you are confused, Olivia went out to Thorpe Park with a friend and friend of Sarah's came with us to town) had a trip up to town to do one of the Mayor of London's trails of decorated Wenlocks and Mandevilles.  We decided to do the one in the East End, as it was the area of London I knew the least well of the 6 trails.  We did it backwards, though, so our first stop was at no 16 - the Bishopsgate Wenlock. 

We saw some interesting buildings, such as the Gherkin and the Lloyd's building (and the Shard, and others not pictured here). 

We found loads of Wenlocks and Mandevilles (26 in total - we did all of the Yellow Trail and part of the Blue Trail). 

We ate yummy things.

Walked up and down lots of steps.

Saw tourist attractions such as the Tower of London.

And did silly things like climbed on large marbles.

And of course, did some drinking and eating outside.  I actually uploaded all 90 or so photos from the trip onto flickr and annotated them, so if you are interested in more, you can get more...

Aug 21st: Celery Soup with Stilton Biscuits

Recipe sources/notes: Biscuits are from the New Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook (I think this uses the word "new" loosely, as I've had the book for yonks). I just threw some cheese in, when I came to the kneading stage. I used margarine, not shortening, as shortening is not a common ingredient in the UK.

Soup is from Somerfield magazine, apparently. The recipe has been around for some time, as I've made it lots of times before.