June Roundup

• 30th: New potato and pecorino frittata
• 29th: takeaway (Guides Sports Night)
• 28th: Penne alla Crudaiola
• 27th: leftovers (curry, bolognese), beans on toast for kids!
• 26th: Lamb and Pinenut Pilaf
• 25th: Fusilli with Bolognese Sauce (from freezer)
• 24th: Bockwurst, Sauerkraut and Oven Potatoes
• 23rd: Potato Curry with Lime & Cucumber Raita
• 22nd: Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms
• 21st: Tomato, Cheese & Pesto Tart, Potato salad with capers, green salad
• 20th: Cold ham, saute potatoes, salad
• 19th: Mango Chicken, rice
• 18th: leftovers (tart, pasta)
• 17th: Ham cooked in Cider, Greens, Potatoes
• 16th: Very Full Tart
• 15th: Penne alla trevisana
• 14th: everyone for him/her self
• 13th: pizza
• 12th: meatballs & chips
• 11th: Vegetable and Bean Soup (homemade)
• 10th: Hungarian goulash
• 9th: Creamy chicken, ham and leek pie
• 8th: fish and chips (takeaway)
• 7th: leftovers
• 6th: Hoisin chicken with celery salad
• 5th: Creamy Sausage Pasta
• 4th: Tuscan Bean & Pancetta Soup
• 3rd: Jubilee Street Party
• 2nd: Spiced lamb fillet with couscous, tomatoes and olives
• 1st: Leek, pinenut and cheese risotto

June 30th: New potato and pecorino frittata

recipe source: Good Food Magazine

notes:  this was lovely. And equally nice cold today for lunch (not a lot was leftover).  We actually had six for dinner, so I increased the potatoes to approx 1kg and the eggs to 10, used two onions and  a little more chives and cheese, but it didn't matter - still worked just fine.  Served with bread and a green salad.

Reading

Compared to last Friday, we've all started new books, except Olivia who is nearly done with this one (and had only started last Friday).  As is more typical than last week, when we were all reading fiction, Geoff's is non-fiction.  Mine is nearly finished (and excellent, though I expect no less from Ann Patchett), so I'm soon on to The Red House by Mark Haddon.

June 28th: Penne alla Crudaiola

recipe source: Gino's Pasta by Gino D'Acampo

notes: forgot to take a phot of this, but to be honest, it looked pretty much like the photo in the book, except that I used rigatoni rather than penne.  This was so quick and easy, and we really liked it.  Definitely will do it again - wouldn't have occurred to me to use feta, but it was lovely and fresh with it.

June 27th: Lamb and Pinenut Pilaf

recipe source: Top 200 Low Fat recipes. 

notes: as you can see, we've eaten this before - more times than just the notes show. It's a nice dish, although Sarah complains about the fruit in it.  This time, I forgot the pine nuts (it was one of those evenings), but it was still nice.

June 25th: Fusili with Bolognese Sauce

(Leftovers from the freezer)

Bubble Wrap

...apparently you are never too old to play with a very large piece of bubble wrap.  I admit, it was satisfying to walk across it...

...though perhaps I wouldn't want to be wrapped up in it like a mummy.

June 24th: Bockwurst, Sauerkraut and oven potatoes

A nice, simple meal which doesn't really require cooking - just what you need after a day spent doing errands, and going to quilt shows!

June 24th: Coconut Ice-Cream

The school fair was yesterday, and both Alex and Olivia won coconuts on the coconut shy.  So, we decided to have some coconut ice-cream.  I used my standard ice-cream recipe (I had to dig it out - I never use the book as I know it off by heart, though I don't use exactly the same amounts - I just buy a large thing of double cream, and then use half that much milk), then added two small tins of coconut cream and some grated fresh coconut. Yum.

June 23rd: Potato Curry with Lime & Cucumber Raita

recipe souce:  Good Food Magazine, Nov 2011

notes:  I made this with part potato and part sweet potato, as I had two that needed using up. I don't seem to have a photo of the raita, but it was a nice addition - the dish wasn't very spicy but the raita added a cooling effect nonetheless.  We also ate it with some flatbreads from our local middle Eastern shop - they have quite a bakery there, and often have homemade naan bread - they were out when we went in, but did promise to have these around dinner time, so we had them, still warm from the oven - all puffy inside, really lovely. 

June 22nd: Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

recipe source:  I don't know precisely, but I'm sure this was in some sort of advertorial magazine for using beef mince. 

notes: needless to say, I had complaints from various children about the mushrooms and/or aubergines in this dish. The kids only had one of the smaller mushrooms each, and then some extra filling on the side. Geoff and I got three mushrooms each - hurrah!  No one complained about the courgettes - partly because they are finally learning to like them, and partly, I think, because the aubergines and mushrooms are higher up on the list of Foods My Mother Insists on Making Me Eat Even Though They Are Disgusting.

The courgettes are just cubes, fried, with a little chili bean paste. no recipe.

Reading

What we're all reading currently. Top down, youngest family member to oldest.

June 21st: Tomato, Cheese & Pesto Tart, Potato Salad with Capers and Gherkins, Green Salad

recipe sources:  The tart is from Good Food, in (apparently) June 2006.  Sometimes it takes me a while to make something I've clipped a recipe for (admittedly, I have hundreds of recipes clipped, waiting to be tried).  The potato salad has no recipe, just potatoes with some capers, pickled gherkins and a dressing made with oil, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper. I've done salads like this before, usually with salad potatoes (didn't have any, but decided we needed more than just the tart and a green salad) and sometimes with artichoke hearts added as well.

notes:  the tart was (apparently) lovely. I haven't had my piece yet as I have yoga tonight and don't eat until I get home!

June 19th: Mango chicken with rice

We had this earlier in the year, in March; we all liked it, for the most part. It was better this time because one of my mangoes was really ripe, so the puree was smoother.  Lovely.

June 17th: Ham cooked in cider

Recipe source/notes: this is a variation on the Ham cooked in cola recipe (ham, can of cola, slow cooker on low for 8-10 hours) - there was a recipe in one of my slow cooker books (Fix it & Forget it - not my favourite book, as it tends to be a little ordinary in its approach to lots of things and use a lot of cream of ____ soup in recipes) which cooked the ham in apple cider/apple juice. I thought it would be nice with a bottle of English (alcoholic) cider - and I was right. This will feed us for two meals, which is great - we'll have it again Wednesday night, which is one of our nights with after school committments...  We served it with spring greens and oven potatoes. Yum.

June 16th: Very Full Tart

Here it is before putting the egg & cream in, but after the rest of the filling has gone in the cooked shell. 

Recipe source: Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi

notes: The kids were less keen on this than Geoff and I, as it obviously has lots of vegetables in it that they don't really like (aubergine, mainly). So they ate a small piece and lots of bread and salad. It works. And it means Geoff and I have enough leftover for Monday dinner.  Yum.  Very rich, so a little goes a long way.

June 15th: Penne alla Trevisana

Recipe source: Gino's Pasta, Gino D'Acampo

notes:  Nice, though the chicory flavour was very mild - no doubt why the kids ate it without fuss. I did put a bit more sausage in than it said; perhaps if I hadn't, the chicory flavour would have been stronger.

June 11th: Homemade Vegetable and Bean Soup

Forgot to photograph this one, and there's no recipe, either - this is just a standby - whatever veg I have lurking about wanting using up (usually carrots, celery, onion, perhaps some courgette-though not on this occasion-peas), then whatever beans I have in a tin in the cupboard (in this case, chickpeas, though my bean of choice would be white beans or butter beans, probably).  Stock - either veg or chicken, depending - and then either some cooked pasta or rice (done separately and added at the end) or perhaps barley. Easy, tasty, low-fat, fairly quick (though the barley option is slower).  Ta da.

My mother, who has been visiting, is going home tomorrow, and Geoff is off to a conference for a few days, so as our schedules are fairly busy after school on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we'll take a break from cooking and just do some heating up of frozen products - Ikea meatballs and chips one night; bought pizzas the other night.  Not something we do often, but nice standbys for when you just need a bit of a break... We'll return to our regularly scheduled meals Thursday or Friday.

June 10th: Hungarian Goulash

Recipe source: Slow Cooker by Sara Lewis

notes: yum.  served with noodles. (obviously) and a green salad.

June 9th: Creamy chicken, leek and ham pie

Recipe source: Hairy Bikers, Perfect Pies

notes:  this was nice. Rich and creamy. We had it with potatoes and cabbage. It fed 7 with a little leftover - I think it was so creamy we didn't need a lot of the pie. 

Uptown

Had a trip to town today, including a visit to Oxford Street, still decked out for the Jubilee,

including the windows at Selfridges.

Visited a wall of chocolate inside Selfridges, though we didn't buy any of this brand.

And then caught a bus over to the British Museum, where we poked around some of the less busy galleries, like the Mexican gallery, which I'd never been in before. 

Wisley Gardens

In between the raindrops, we took a trip out to Wisley, the RHS flagship gardens, which is about a  half hour down the road from us. I've been lots of times in the past, but not in a few years, and my mother is a big fan of gardens, so we thought it would be a nice place to get out to.  Alex came along, but both girls decided they had other things to do (in Olivia's case, it was actually homework).

We walked along the very edge of the garden at one point, right where it borders the River Wey (there's a golf course on the other side of the river) - I'd not been in this part before; it was nice.