Dinner, 9/9/13: Sticky Lemon and Garlic Chicken

Recipe from Slimming World Extra Easy All in One. I didn't find this particularly sticky, but it was tasty, with lots of veg. I added a small amount of rice noodles to it, as well.

Dinner, 8/9/13: Lamb Rogan Josh with Raita and Courgettes

Now that I'm at home and the weather is getting cooler, there will be a lot more slow-cooked meals - sometimes on the cooker (like the chili yesterday) and sometimes in the slow cooker (like the curry today). I have quite a few rogan josh recipes in my various cookbooks, but this one came from my book I (heart) my slow cooker, so it was specifically aimed at slow-cooker cooking. It was lovely, and very easy. And I have one bit set aside for lunch later in the week and one portion in the freezer for a leftovers night. Result!

Dinner, 7/9/13: Chili con Carne with Rice and Cornbread

Another meal where I don't use a recipe - I always use pork mince, bacon, kidney beans and green peppers, but sometimes the other ingredients vary. This time, I had some frying steak to use up, so we minced that up and added it (sometimes I add beef mince to go with the pork mince). I also used a sweet red pepper (a long thing one). And of course all the spices and whatnot!  And tomatoes...

Dinner, 6/9/13: Moroccan Chicken

I do have a recipe for a dish like this, but I don't really use it - I've changed and added and cook it differently (it's a microwave recipe) - I mainly keep it in my recipe book to remind me that it's a good option for chicken thighs.  I happened to have a jar of preserved lemons in the fridge - an almost empty jar! - so it seemed a good time for a chicken dish with lemons, olives and almonds. Served with a mix of brown bastmati, wild and red rice and what was left of the spring greens from the other night. Yum.

First Day of School

This will be the last year when Sarah is in uniform - in 6th form, they can wear their own clothes (though there is a dress code) - of course, it won't be the last year of the First Day of School photo!

Dinner, 4/9/13: Spicy Sausage Pasta

Needed something quick and easy as I knew I'd be at school very late getting the classroom ready for tomorrow - so a spicy sausage pasta it was... With a salad and some bread. Sorted! Diving starts tomorrow, so it will probably be leftovers - exciting!

Dinner, 3/9/13: Roast Vegetable Moussaka with Feta

Following on with the eating-lots-of-vegetables theme: more vegetables. This is a moussaka-like dish, but the topping is different; less eggy. It has yogurt, crumbled feta and a single egg in it.  Makes a nice contrast to the roasted vegetables. Very tasty.

Dinner, 2/9/13: Vegetable Biryani

I came back from the US with a desire to eat lots of vegetables - we did a lot of eating out, and veggies weren't always high on the list...  This is an old standby, which we always enjoy.

What I read: August 2013

I read 12 books in August - only 11 pictured, but the collage options for 12 photos were really boring, so I left one cover out (two were similar anyway). I started another on the plane home, but am less than halfway through it - it's long - so I will count it towards September. I guess being on holiday in August helped with the reading time...  Anyway, here's what they were:

1. Unfamiliar Fishes, Sarah Vowell - a non-fiction book about the history of the statehood Hawaii - full of interesting facts, but I felt rather disjointed in construction which made it a bit hard to follow in places.

2. The Golden Egg, Donna Leon - in the Guido Brunetti detective series set in Venice. I tend to read these as and when I find them, rather than worrying about them being in order; this one was in the library at my mom's house. They are always solidly constructed and interesting.

3. Dawn's Early Light, Elswyth Thane (re-read) - this is the first in a historical series about a family, set in Williamsburg and elsewhere, and I first read the series as a teenager. Olivia (age nearly 14) is into historical fiction, so I wanted to re-read this and see if I thought she'd like it or not - might be a little too full of military detail for her, but I still enjoyed revisiting it.

4. The Quilter's Apprentice, Jennifer Chiaverini  (re-read) - I saw this in a used bookstore and although I knew I'd read it before, it's been a while, so I thought I'd give it another go - couldn't remember why I haven't followed through with the rest of the series (except maybe one or two) - after reading it again, I remember. It's an ok story, but it's not brilliantly written, just average. Nothing offensive, just nothing really to grab you, either. But a quick read and I enjoyed the quilting talk.

5. Where the Heart is, Billie Letts - another I picked up in a used book store. I'd seen the film, several times, but never read the book before. As with so many films, the book is better. The film is fine, nothing wrong with it, but the book is better - there are a few more characters, the quirky ones are a little more quirky and less glamourous and so on.  I really enjoyed this story about a young girl from the midwest who lives in and gives birth in a Walmart. Sweet!

6. Run, Ann Patchett (re-read) - I love Ann Patchett. I've read all of her books, a couple of them twice (this one and Bel Canto) but I don't own many, as I've had most of them from the library. So when I saw this in the used book store, I grabbed it to add to my collection. Even knowing what it was heading towards didn't spoil the novel for me; she has a great story-telling ability.  I'll have to try to get ahold of the other ones I don't have and read them again, as well!

7. Girl in Hyacinth Blue, Susan Vreeland (re-read) - another from a favourite author, which for various reasons, I didn't own a copy of. In some ways, this story is like Girl with a Pearl Earring, in that it centres around a Vermeer painting; in some ways it reminds me of  a story called Girl Reading (by Katie Ward) - or I should say Girl Reading reminded me of  this because it came later - in that it presents a number of connected vignettes, tied together to make a story. I'm a big fan of historical fiction, especially those stories which take a real person and build a story around him or her. For instance, I like Tracy Chevalier's books very much, but I like Susan Vreeland even better - her books are just that bit more in-depth. (In fact, I am hoarding one last un-read Susan Vreeland on my shelf for a time when I need to start something I know I'm going to enjoy...)

8. Rivers of London, Ben Aaronovitch  - another find in the used book store - this one was on my watch list, so I was pleased to see it turn up second hand. I expected to enjoy this - it's a modern day detective story set largely in London, and has magical elements; I enjoyed it even more than I expected thanks not only to good plotting and fun characterisation, but a nice touch of wit as well.  It's the first in a series; the second will definitely go on my watch list.

9. Drawing Conclusions, Donna Leon - see no 2 above - this is the not-pictured one. Found this one for a dollar in the hospital gift shop where my mother volunteers.

10. The Chaperone, Laura Moriarty - picked this one up while on holiday when my mother treated us to some books at Barnes & Noble, where she had a lot of vouchers. I enjoyed this story about a woman who spends some time chaperoning the young Louise Brooks (I didn't realise at the outset of the novel that it's a fictionalisation of true events; I have since read up a bit on Louise Brooks, Hollywood star of the silent era.) - I guess it's right up my alley - historical fiction based on specific real people. On the whole, the writing was good and the characters solid, though I'd agree with one short review I read which suggested the ending went on a bit long. All in all, a good read, though.

11. Let it Snow, Maureen Johnson, John Green, Lauren Myracle - this is a book I would normally have stayed far, far away from - it's a teen book, three separate (but interlinked) stories, romances. However, when one is on a plane journey which lasts three hours longer than it was supposed to, thanks to dust storms over Phoenix, one's standards for reading material change slightly. Sarah had this in her backpack, had read it and said "don't worry, you'll like it", so I gave it a shot. And I admit, it was really cute. The interlinking of the three stories was clever without being too annoying, all three stories were well-written, and written with a substantial amount of humour and quite a light touch (something often missing from teen fiction) and the main characters were likeable while still being flawed enough to add interest. In fact, it was probably the best thing I could have read while on a plane circling around and around not landing, and then hopping off to Tucson to be refeulled and waiting on the ground for ages before eventually, finally, making it back to Phoenix - just right for keeping one's mind off it all... Always nice to be surprised by a book.

12. The Scent of Rain and Lightning, Nancy Pickard - after I picked this up, I thought that the author's name sounded familiar, and looking back at her oeuvre, I think I have read a book called The Whole Truth about a true-crime writer (a mystery). I don't remember the details, but the name is familiar. This book, however is not part of that series, or indeed, any series. It begins when a young woman finds out that the man who was convicted of killing her father (and possibly her mother) is being released from prison. His son, with whom Jody has always felt a kind of bond, believes he is innocent. The book is told partly in flashback and partly in the present, so the readers know a bit more about what happened back in the day than Jody does, but not enough to spoil the final denouement, which I thought was handled well. Often a book wherein a character might have been innocent of a crime for which they were convicted is too blatant; the character is too obviously not guilty, yadda yadda. The man in question here is a nasty piece of work, and whether he did actually commit the murder or not, might well have done so. Or done something just as bad. A good story, well-written and quite gripping. I wasn't sure how it was going to come out, but I felt the ending was genuine.

As I mentioned above, I did start  another book in August, but as I haven't read more than half of it, I'll wait until September to discuss it - anyway, enough is enough, surely!

Dinner, 1/9/13: Roast Chicken, roast potatoes, spring greens

Back home, in my own kitchen, so back to actual cooking - something easy to start the month off - wasn't sure how tired I'd be today after arriving home yesterday morning from the US, so when I did our shopping online, I ordered something I knew I could cook without having to think much about it. I had gravy in the freezer, so I didn't even have to make that. Hoorah!

August Round Up

As we were on holiday for all of August, there was obviously a lot more eating out and other forms of not-cooking than usual. Though we still managed to eat a few home-cooked meals.  Not many, though!

• 31st: Bacon sandwiches, scrambled eggs
• 30th: In transit, dinner on US Airways...
• 29th: Dinner at Charleston's
• 28th: Dinner at Galaxy Diner on Route 66
• 27th: Taco bonanza
• 26th: In transit, no proper meals
• 25th: Chicken Pasta Alfredo at a friend's house
• 24th: Sweetcorn, Sausages, Watermelon
• 23rd: Bits & Pieces
• 22nd: Dinner at the Nautilus Diner
• 21st: Dinner at Cracker Barrel, Rehoboth Beach
• 20th: Lunch at Mount Vernon Inn, Dinner at a Japanese Restaurant
• 19th: Dinner at Cheesecake Factory
• 18th: Dinner with friends: chicken, pasta, kale, salad, baba ganoush, etc
• 17th: Pizza at our party
• 16th: Lunch for Dinner
• 15th: Shrimp, crabcakes, fries at a friend's house
• 14th: Pick up meal from whatever was around
• 13th: Brunch out, no real dinner
• 12th: Lunch for Dinner
• 11th: Lunch out, no real dinner
• 10th: Cookout at a friend's house
• 9th: Stir fried vegetables with pasta
• 8th: Popeye's Takeaway
• 7th: Picnic Lunch Dinner with Shrimp
• 6th: Dinner out at Outback Steak House
• 5th: Lunch for Dinner
• 4th: Hotdogs and Hamburgers
• 3rd: Dinner out at Mi Rancho
• 2nd: Sausages, Sweetcorn, Asparagus, etc
• 1st: Dinner out at Metro Diner

Before the baby...

JR and Amber, who probably consider themselves the real babies of my brother's household, really enjoyed having extra people around to pay them attention.

Get your kicks (or at least dinner) on Route 66...

Girls dancing in the bed of Steve's pickup - after dinner at Galaxy Diner, on the actual Route 66, in Flagstaff, AZ.

mmm, beer.

Philly cheesesteak with onion rings

BLTA - the a for avocado...

A day at the Big Hole

No trip to Arizona can be complete without a trip to the Grand Canyon.  Of course, the day we went, it was chilly and rainy - what are the chances of being cold and wet in Arizona? (Higher up north, of course, than in the desert, where my brother lives).

Luckily, the sun came out later and warmed us up.

Perhaps the visibility wasn't quite as good as it might have been on a clear day, but it was still rather impressive.

Between the weather and having a small baby with us, we didn't do a lot of walking along the trails - mostly used the free shuttle buses and just got out and had a good look at some of the viewing points. Someday, it would be nice to go back, and spend more time there - stay overnight perhaps and try to go down into the Canyon itself.  But it was a nice introduction to this rather spectacular piece of geography.

Here's the Colorado River, a mile below us on the Canyon Floor. It looks tiny, but it's still hundreds of feet wide at many points.

We saw a bit of wildlife - Western Bluebird,

and some ravens, which seem to be all over the place. We also saw an elk, but only from the shuttle bus, so the photo is terrible!

I also enjoyed the flora - still quite scraggly and very different from home, but much more lush and green than down in Scottsdale.

Some of us perhaps didn't get that much out of the visit, but as she lives in Arizona, I'm sure she'll get another chance!

Dad & Mom enjoyed the Canyon, though - first road trip for Baby Elise!

A brief tour of Scottsdale and environs

We started out from my brother's house and took a wee drive around the local area, just to have a look at things like cacti and mountains and so on...

This palm is actually in a neighbour's garden.

The roads are all planted like this around where Steve lives.

We went out to the start of a trail up into the mountains - not to have a long walk, but just to check out the flora and fauna.

Teddy Bear Cactus

Prickly pear

A bit of cactus skeleton from a dead plant.

Barrel cactus with a blossom coming out.

Dessert rabbit trying to pretend he's actually part of the rock...

Little skink or something like that.

Sideways saguaro  not sure why it's sideways as I turned it before uploading it... will try to turn it again later.

Some partridge crossing the road - there were tons of them crossing the road in cute little families.