Welcome (and less welcome) visitors

Couldn't get a good photo of this woodpecker, as the feeder was swinging quite wildly - I had just about snapped another, more stable one, when off flies the woodpecker and down scampers...

Mr Squirrel.  It's a constant battle to keep the squirrels off the feeders - annoying things - as if eating all my bulbs isn't enough!

Dinner, 6/5/13: Bacon, Potato and Broad Bean Supper

The perfect dish for eating outside on the patio on a lovely, sunny, bank holiday evening. Very simple to make, and very tasty. And frankly, although you can peel the broad beans if you like, you don't really need to - they work fine. Recipe is from a book called Top 200 Low Fat Recipes by Judith Wills (has quite a few good ones in it) and while I couldn't find it online, this one on Good Food's website is very similar.

Dinner, 5/5/13: Lamb and Butternut Squash Tagine

This was nice and easy to cook - it needs a long time, but you don't have to do a lot, just let it get on with it by itself. It was tasty, though perhaps could have been a little more spicy for our taste. Geoff remedied this by adding a little harissa paste to his - I might stir some through the whole thing myself in future. Recipe was from Cook Yourself Thin, so is lowfat, to boot. You can find it online here.

A short bike ride

Now that the weather has finally turned into something resembling spring, Alex and I wanted to get our bikes out and check them over, so we can ride to and from school most days. So after pumping up some tyres a little, and so on, we (and Olivia) went off for a small bike ride, through our local cemetary and along some paths into the back entrance of a local housing estate which has an environmental area with wetlands.

We wanted to check out the duckhouses on the ponds there - there are four of them, each of them designed by a child from our school (the estate is very close to school - just over the road). Alex entered the competition, but his design wasn't chosen to be made into a duckhouse. Still, it was fun to check them out in person. [They are to help keep the foxes from getting all the baby ducks - we have a real problem with urban (or in our case, suburban) foxes in our area. They are almost completely tame - I've seen them in my own back garden in broad daylight - and in addition to getting into everything, they aren't good for baby ducks (and other ground-nesting birds) at all.]

And then we popped up to the high street to grab a few things from Waitrose and to have a nice refreshing drink in Costa. I tried their new tropical cooler, which was excellent. Add rum and it would taste like a frozen pina colada. Result!

Dinner, 4/5/13: Southern Style Jambalaya

From the Hairy Bikers' Hairy Dieters Cookbook.  This was excellent. Full of flavour and nicely filling and yet not stupidly high in fat or calories.  Luckily for you, you can find it online here...

A few Norths

My brother-in-law Stuart took these photos recently, when we were up in Leicester for Grandma Lucy's funeral. This is a great shot of the girls together - one I am especially glad to have because Sarah usually won't let me take her photo.

Here are the three brothers together - obviously Stuart didn't take this one, but it was on his camera. One of my girls took it - not sure which one. Geoff on the left, then Stuart, John on the right. 

And here is a shot of the girls with their Dad, at the pub where we had a meal after the service. This seems very in character for all of them...

There was one photo of Alex, but it wasn't particularly exciting and a photo of me with the girls, which wasn't very flattering of any of us - we'll skip those ones...

April Round up

As usual, I like to have a look back on what we had for dinner over the course of the previous month. This month was quite a busy one, so I doubt I tried many new recipes, though there were a couple, like the potatoe & carrot tart, which was great (though in future I may need to make 2 of them to feed us).

WHAT'S FOR DINNER, APRIL 2013

• 30th: away
• 29th: Pasta bake
• 28th: Roast pork belly with cabbage and red potatoes
• 27th: Leek, artichoke and blue cheese wellington
• 26th: Salmon Tikka
• 25th: Greek island salad (Sarah)
• 24th: leftovers
• 23rd: Linguine with sausage and rocket
• 22nd: Spinach, lentil and fresh spring herb soup
• 21st: Chicken with black bean sauce, stir-fried veg
• 20th: spaghetti bolognese (Geoff cooking)
• 19th: out to dinner & theatre
• 18th: out to a concert
• 17th: Potato & Carrot Tart
• 16th: Courgette and Lemon Linguine
• 15th: leftover ham, etc
• 14th: Slow-cooked ham, potatoes, carrots
• 13th: Chicken, Ham and Leek Pie
• 12th: Pesto, Proscuitto and Artichoke Pizza
• 11th: lunch out
• 10th: Massaman style veg curry
• 9th: Fish and Chips
• 8th: Dinner at a Friend's House
• 7th: Spring Feast (Rack of Lamb, Galic Potatoes, Veggies)
• 6th: Creamy Sausage and Mushroom Pasta
• 5th: Bang Bang Chicken
• 4th: Cauliflower Cheese Lasagne
• 3rd: leftovers/fend for yourself
• 2nd: One-pan spicy rice
• 1st: Chicken Noodle Soup

What I read in April

Here's my round up and comments for April reading. 11 Books - not bad. Technically finished the last one on the 2nd of May, but hey, it was mostly read in April. There are actually 13 books on my list, a few more than normal, but two of them were ones I gave up on quite quickly. I still like to note them, though, so if I look back and try to remember whether I've read something or why I abandoned it, I might have a clue...

1, 2, & 3.  The Windsinger, Slaves of the Mastery, Firesong (The Wind on Fire Trilogy): William Nicholson.  This is actually a young adult/fantasy trilogy - counts as three books, but only needs one entry as it's an ongoing story. I read the first of these a long time ago, and Geoff has read them to the girls as bedtime stories, way back, but I never read the second and third and as I was tidying up the bookcase, I decided to give them a go. They are a nice, solid fantasy series, which I enjoyed.  Not a huge amount to say about them.  Interesting trivia fact: the author wrote the screenplay Life Story (about the discovery of the structure of DNA), Shadowlands (about CS Lewis) and Gladiator (yes, that Gladiator). 

4. The Troubled Man, Henning Mankell. This is a Wallander novel, and I love Wallander, especially the Swedish series with Krister Henriksson. So when I saw one in a charity shop, I thought I'd give it a go. However, I didn't last more than 50 pages. Not sure if it was the writing style or the translation or what, but I just didn't like the way it was written, so stopped.

5. The Girl Who Chased the Moon, Sarah Addison Allen. Magical realism, enjoyable, fun story while serious at the same time. I enjoyed this.

6. Daydream Girl, Bella Pollen.  Again, a light, satisfying read, though not the be-all and end-all implied in some of the reviews. Quite amusing in places without being too over the top.

7. The Other Side of You, Sally Vickers. An intense novel about a psychiatrist and his patient and the nature of love (sort of). A nice take on this relationship, I thought, lacking in some of the things that bother me about psychiatrists in novels (ususally, they just love themselves way too much). I thought this one tried to keep the relationship and the introspection much more honest and real. 

8. The Year of Wonders, Geraldine Brooks. A novel about a village which sequesters itself during an outbreak of Plague, in order to keep the disease from spreading. Based on a true story.  Heartbreaking in places and historically interesting, definitely one for the fan of the historical novel. Unlike the other novel of hers which I have read (People of the Book) there are no modern time intrusions in this one (not that I mind modern time intrusions and books set across various historical periods, but if those things bother you, you won't find them here in Year of Wonders). 

9. The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared. Jonas Jonasson. The cover of this proclaims it to be  "The International Bestselling Sensation" and I can see why. This was very funny, like a good farce, but one which restrained itself and was quite subtle in places. (Or like a  Mr Magoo cartoon where you keep thinking some major crisis is about to happen, and then it all just smooths itself out.)  A fantastic mix of the absurb and the surreal and the mundane. I thought this was great.  

10. Instructions for a Heatwave, Maggie O'Farrell. More Maggie O'Farrell, I know, but I had it on reserve from the library, so I had to read it straight away when it came in. I think I've read them all now, though, so you won't see any for a while.  Again, a good novel, nice and solid, similar themes to her other novels, family relatiobnships, secrets and the damage they do, the dangers of not talking to each other and repercussions of these things.

11. An Awfully Big Adventure, Beryl Bainbridge. This is another one which I couldn't get into. I've tried a couple of times now and I just hate the tone (probably why I also didn't like Wise Children by Angela Carter). It's off to the charity shop for this one.

12. Valeria's Last Stand, Marc Fitten. Picked this one up in a charity shop, I think, knowing nothing about it, but I really enjoyed it. Quite a dramatic (as in drama queen) novel in places, but entertaining. Described in places as a comic romp, and I suppose it was, rather. 

13. The Panopticon, Jenny Fagan.  And now for something completely different, as they say. Serious and intense novel about a teenager in care who is accused of a serious crime (or on the verge of being accused) and finds herself at one last (somewhat unusual) carehome before being sent to prison or placed in high security care. If the word "fuck" bothers you, don't read this. And a lot of it is in Scottish - slang, saying dinnae & cannae and various other Scottishisms - I was always teetering on the brink of finding this annoying, but never quite got to the throwing across the room point. This was good, though not brilliant.

Dinner: 1/5/13: Courgette and Mushroom Tart

with some salads...  And a lovely loaf of fresh, seedy bread, which I totally forget and was still sitting in the kitchen at the end of the meal!  Oh well.

Goodbye to Grandma Lucy

Some of you will know, and some won't that Geoff's mother (aka "Grandma Lucy") sadly passed away last week, after a batle with pneumonia and other health issues. We've been up to Leicester for the past two days to attend a lovely, simple service on a beautiful sunny day and to spend some time with family, remembering and honouring her. Thanks to everyone who has had kind things to say and my apologies to all my friends who I haven't previously passed on news to about this sad event. Here's a photo from 2006 (I don't have many with both Geoff and his mum in, apparently)... Can't believe how little the kids were in this photo!  (Cross posted on FB - apologies if you've had a repeat!)

Dinner, 29/4/13: Pasta bake

Not new or different, but we love it. 

Dinner, 28/4/13: Roast Pork Belly with cabbage and red potatoes

Forgot to photograph with the gravy. Oh well.

Morning visitors

They didn't stay long, but it was nice to see these greenfinches. I only saw two of them, although sometimes they travel in larger groups. I'm hoping they'll come back through soon...

Dinner, 27/4/13: Leek, artichoke and blue cheese wellington

We've had this before, and had a note on it that the sundried tomatoes were a little strong, so this time I used sun-blush tomatoes instead, and didn't put a lot in. It was just right. This would be an excellent dish for a vegetarian dinner party (as long as you used a vegetarian blue cheese). It looks quite impressive, but it's not very hard to make - and it works really well served with a number of side dishes, which you could either make yourself, or do as I did yesterday and allow Mr Marks & Mr Spencer to make...

Recipe from Vegetarian Living magazine.

Dinner, 26/4/13: Tikka Salmon

This recipe originally came from Woman & Home magazine, but I can't find it online (as usual, though, I am happy to send it to you by email if anyone is desperate for it!) It's very simple, and pretty healthy as it has lots of veg and a bit of salmon. And it's tasty, too, of course. 

Dinner, 25/4/13: Greek Island Salad

Sarah's night to cook - this, admittedly, is more of an assembly job than actually cooking. But as it was one of the few nights recently when the weather was lovely, salad seemed in order, and indeed, they just about managed to eat outside on the patio, by the expedient of eating early.  I bought pre-cooked chicken, so it was even simpler to assemble - avocado, feta cheese, chicken, olives, salad, tomatoes and so on. With a dressing, of course. It's a recipe from BBC Good Food (we used mixed salad leaves this time instead of cos lettuce, which is what we usually use). 

Dinner, 23/4/13: Linguine with sausage and rocket

Sarah actually cooked this (mostly), but at least there is a photo...  

Dinner 22/4/13: Spinach, lentil and fresh spring herb soup

This was full of herbs, perhaps not surprising given the name. It's from my goto soup book, the New Covent Garden Soup Company's A Soup for Everyday. I've tried lots of recipes from this, all pretty much winners, though I do often have to increase quantities to feed us - even when the recipe says feeds 6. Perhaps we are just greedy!

Dinner, 21/4/13: Chicken with black bean sauce; stir-fried veg

The chicken is a Ken Hom recipe that I've used many times before.  And the stir fried veg is just that - nothing complicated. A little soy sauce in near the end...

An excess of bananas

When I have overripe, mushy bananas, I chuck them in the freezer and eventually make banana cake, muffins, bread, whatever. I'm not fond of bananas usually, but I do like them this way. Today, I was tidying the freezer a little and decided there were way too many bananas in there, so out they came, and got made into banana muffins. I put in more bananas than I usually do, and actually, the muffins are even better than usual - more moist. I'll be doing that again!