One Year On - Chicken and Chorizo Pasta

Well it all began a year ago today and because I a) can't let go just yet and b) still feel guilty that I didn't manage a picture of the very first recipe I tried, I decided to make it again to bring my year full circle.  In fact, I've just realised that if I was to re-cook every recipe that I did over the last year on the same date for the next 12 months, I could avoid the cleaning until 2013.  Now there's a plan....

Actually, it's been quite refreshing today to not have to worry about finding the time to cook something new and photograph and write about it.  When the food plan for today got de-railed by the weather, it didn't matter that what I'd planned for tea was in jeopardy.  Nobody would've cared if I'd not made and blogged about the recipe other than me.

I kept pondering if anyone would care if I skipped a day throughout the last year.  I managed not to with some careful planning and creative thinking at times.  And I've been touched by the number of tweets and emails I've had from people asking if it's really all over.  Although 48,000 page views in just 366 days shows that people are reading the blog, the messages really mean something because it makes me know there are some people out there who actually take the time to read what I write and don't just click a link from Google and then wander off elsewhere when faced by the waffle.

I also spend a lot of time if people are more interested in what I've cooked or what I'm waffling/whining on about on any given day.  Today, the husband gave me perfect blog fodder - which I'll save for the next instalment of my blogging voyage.  I often get asked about if he minds me writing about him.  In truth he does, but he also knows that it's my way of working out my issues with him and laughing at stuff that would otherwise have me down at the doctors looking for narcotics.

366 days on, still need to work on presentation!

What surprised me most was yesterday when I said I'd completed the last of the 366 recipes and posts and there was no more blog and he looked me incredulously and said 'what never ever?  Aren't you going to at least do one a week or something?'  After his comment when I watched Julie and Julia the other day, I was floored that he was happy for me to continue in some way.

Whatever, thank you to everyone who has been with me on this journey.  From the tweets of support, to the bloggers who have let me try and blog about their recipes (in no particular order Sadia, Mike, the two Jules', Dan, Rachel, Fi, Cathryn, Paul and Jaim); Dan Lepard for being the nicest cookbook writer ever and for making my day and following me on Twitter; my Twitter 'Family' (Paul, Kate, Dicky and Maria), Sarah-Jane for letting me coerce her into starting Cake Club; Ewan for letting me join the Olympic Food Challenge; my gorgeous cousin Laura who inspired the blog in the first place; Miss A for keeping me in cracked eggs when it's been a baking day; my second-chief cake tester* who was the best mentor ever; and all other those poor souls who've taken one for the blog and had cake foisted on them (it's a tough job, but someone had to do it).  There's no way I could've made it without you all.

And the biggest thanks of all to my long-suffering husband.  Thank you for betting me that I wouldn't make it - I don't think there's anyone else on this planet that would have made me stick to this challenge so stubbornly as you did.  Thank you for attempting to eat some of the 366 recipes.  I don't thank you for your non-constructive feedback - saying 'I don't like it because I don't like it' is not particularly helpful!  Thank you for putting up with all the washing up - especially when the dishwasher broke right on top of Christmas.  Thank you for moving my cookbooks to the most prominent bookshelf in the house at the weekend and for not burning them as promised.  And thank you for giving me the opportunity to carry on experimenting and writing - even if it is less frequently than before.

So on to the recipe.  Well I enjoyed it just as much as I think I did a year ago when I first tried it.  This time I put creme fraiche in it which made it quite rich.  I also seemed to have masses of pasta - which wasn't bad because I'd not had a proper lunch today (Vanilla Coconut PowerBars do not a good lunch make) but if I make it again, I'd probably drop the pasta to 60g per head - especially as the husband insists on garlic bread with his.  And it definitely needs some green stuff on the side.  I couldn't be faffed to buy rocket which I won't use the rest of this week so salvaged the last tiny bit of my dying basil plant to perch on the top for the picture.

Here's the link to the original recipe which I also neglected to post a year ago.

*Miss A was obviously the first!

Olympic Food Challenge: Botswanan Chicken Pie - Botswana

With four competitors in two disciplines at the main London 2012 Olympics, Botswana managed to gain a silver medal in the Men's 800m.  Unfortunately, Botswana had to pull its team from the 2012 Paralympics due to financial irregularities in their Olympic Committee.

Moving swiftly on to the food (sorry for the short post), Botswana has its own unique cuisine, but is also influenced by its neighbouring countries.  Having already made Pap and Chakkalakka (just because I liked the name) when I did Lesotho, and lacking a three-legged iron pot (commonly used for cooking), I plumped for Botswanan Chicken Pie as chicken cooked for a guest shows special hospitality.

Mmmmm....pie....

Sadly I had no guests and I was just cooking for myself.  The appeal in this recipe was that it was for individual pasty-style pies so I could make just one.  I must confess I cheated a little as I was trying to hone my pastry making skills which leave a lot to be desired (see the Apple and Rhubarb Pie and Quiche Lorraine trials) and so I'd a piece of Dan Lepard's Shortcrust Pastry lurking in my fridge instead of the pastry recommended by the recipe.

Whenever I make pastry, it's too short and consequently crumbles everywhere.  As a last resort, I put my faith into Dan.  This is the best pastry ever.  He recommends using half butter and half lard.  I didn't have any lard so went with the 'you can use all butter' caveat and it turned out to be the tastiest, butteriest pastry I have ever had the pleasure to eat.  I expected nothing less and yet again, Short and Sweet delivered.  Miss A even now refers to Short and Sweet as 'Mummy's favourite recipe book' even though I have never uttered these words in her presence.  I'm pleased her two-year-old mind is capable of forming such opinions already.

As for the pie filling - it's a mix of chicken, apple, onion, tomato and currants.  If it wasn't for the OFC, I never would've tried the sweet and savoury thing.  But I was amazed at how much I enjoyed it.  It just worked.  The recipe mentions the filling as being a little dry so I roasted a chicken breast at 190c fan for 17 minutes so it was barely cooked.  I immediately chopped this and popped it into the pan to fry, thus finishing the cooking and stopping it from being too dry in the finished product.

Do try these. My picture is a bit rubbish as I wanted you to see the filling of the pasty and the crisp pastry meant it shattered perfectly, but wasn't very photogenic!

You can find the recipe for the pie here and watch Dan making one of his shortcrust pastry recipes here although I used his basic eggless pastry from Short and Sweet.

Olympic Food Challenge - Chicken Momos - Nepal

So here we are on the penultimate day of the Olympic Food Challenge and, for that matter, the penultimate day of the Olympic Games.  Team GB have just clocked up another amazing win from Mo Farah in the 5,000m.  Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I was able to view this feat on my phone whilst perched on the toilet seat in the bathroom as Miss A had her bath.

Sadly for Nepal, their athletes (five competitors, three disciplines) will be returning empty handed.  But thanks to their presence at the games, I got to make one of my favourite recipes from this challenge.  More on that shortly.

They are actually dumplings.  Not garlic bulbs!

As for a bit about Nepal, well this is where I've really failed.  Some years ago, one of my most lovely friends decided that he and I needed to take a trip to Nepal.  I have no idea why he chose this location.  I'm sure he must've said at the time but I was too busy nursing a broken heart after being dumped by my first serious boyfriend.  I think it was something that F had always wanted to do and thought that dragging me along for the ride would be entertaining.  I duly went out and bought a guide book to Nepal, scared myself silly as it was totally not my kind of holiday but thanks to Fate, F got a shiny new job, the moment passed and all I have to tell for the tale is that guide book.

Lord knows where it is.  I'm sure it's probably still in one of the packing boxes from when I finally moved out from the house I shared with the ex (I stayed on for a year after that).  I've moved twice since then and have boxes scattered at my current house, my mother's house, my grandfather's house and there are still a couple at the ex's house that he keeps trying to convince me to take.


Rather than boring you with details you can find on Wikipedia, I will tell you what I know off the top of my head.  It's somewhere in Asia.  It's landlocked.  It's where Everest is.  Those three points alone put me off of wanting to do the trip 12 years ago (although F is an amazing mate and I would have gone despite my misgivings).

Had I made it, I hopefully would've gotten to try Momos.  They're basically a dumpling like Chinese dim-sum but filled with a curry-based mixture of either meat or vegetables.  For real authenticity, I bought a Chinese bamboo steamer (much to the husband's dismay - it's another piece of kitchenware that will eventually end up in my massive box of rarely used utensils in the garage).  I also went so far as to make my own wrappers - mostly because I wouldn't have a clue where to buy them in provincial Wiltshire.

Best flag of the challenge

It was all surprisingly easy.  Chop up some meat and veg finely.  Stick in a shed-load of spices and leave to marinate for at least an hour.  The wrappers are just a flour and water dough, kneaded for ten minutes and then shaped into small balls and rolled out to 3 inches in diameter.  You fill, twist the tops and then steam them for 10-15 minutes.  This also scared the husband because he has a thing about fire and got all twitchy when I put a bamboo steamer over a naked flame.  How he missed the whacking great pot of water sandwiched between the two is beyond me.  I swear he was one digit away from dialling 999.

The filling was tasty.  Kind of like a Chinese-y curry rather than an Indian one.  All the taste but none of the heat (despite me going overboard with the chilli).  It would make a good spring roll filling too and I intend to do this with the rest of the mixture and some filo pastry tomorrow night.  The wrappers came out well too.  I was worried they'd be a little doughy, but they were kind of like a soft pasta.  I must admit, I'd run out of regular plain flour so used 00 pasta flour which may or may not have made a slight difference to the texture.

A gold for this one and I'll definitely be playing with the steamer again.  I can see us investing in a fire extinguisher for the kitchen very shortly though.

You can find the recipe here.  I made a fifth of it and it was enough to make 12 dumplings.  There are also tons of other tasty momo recipes to try on that page (which I'll be doing soon!)

Olympic Food Challenge: Pollo Encebollado - El Salvador

What a fabulous day for Team GB!  Medals for Wiggo, Chris Froome, the rowing ladies and Michael Jamieson (and hopefully some others that I missed).

Unfortunately for El Salvador, they've never had an olympian make it to the podium for a medal of any colour - so London 2012 could be a first for them.  But with just ten athletes competing in seven disciplines, the odds are possibly stacked against them.

It's almost gold rather than silver

The smallest and most densely populated country in Central America, and situated in the Pacific Ring of Fire, El Salvador is home to some stunning scenery (thank you Interweb for sharing this with me) and diverse wildlife which includes many endangered species.  The food is heavily influenced by Mexican and Spanish cuisine.  This is where I came a little unstuck because yet again, I couldn't find Cassava or Plantain in the local supermarket here in Hicksville.  I'd also already tried and blogged about Horchata - a popular drink in El Salvador - courtesy of Wahaca: Mexican Cooking at home.

Eventually I happened across a recipe for Pollo Encebollado or Chicken Smothered with Onions.  It's commonly cooked in several Central American countries and I picked it because it was something that was simple to do on a work night and - I hoped - would be family friendly.

In a nutshell, it's just chicken simmered with onions, stock and wine.  Inoffensive, not spicy, just plain and tasty.  Of course, I wimped out and let the husband have his usual baked chicken with Uncle Ben's microwave rice and Miss A had scampi and plain boiled rice although she did share my chicken with me and declared it yummy.

It's something I'd definitely consider cooking again although it looks a little insipid on plain white rice - I'm sure the husband would be more likely to eat it if it came with a pile of sautéed potatoes.  I think this deserves a silver medal for the combination of ease and taste.  Well done, El Salvador.  Onwards to Guinea Bissau tomorrow!

You can find the recipe I used here.

Olympic Food Challenge: Jollof Rice - Nigeria

Nigeria have fifty-five competitors competing in eight disciplines at the London 2012 Olympics, hoping to break their 16 year gold-medal drought.  I learn so much about the world from Wikipedia.  Sir Tim Berners-Lee is continuing to help rectify the average secondary education that I had.  For that, and Twitter, I salute you sir.

As for the country, Nigeria is the 7th most populous country in the world and the most populous country in Africa with just over 166m inhabitants but is only the 32nd largest country in the world by land area.  Most importantly, the cuisine is colourful and vibrant with the typical West African spicing.  (Because it says so on Wikipedia, so it must be true).

Jollof is a rice-based dish, and the only reason I picked it was because I was amused by the claim on the website that it's a vegetarian breakfast dish.  I'm assuming that the author considers chicken eaten at breakfast to be quite alright within the confines of a vegetarian diet.

Vegetarian Jollof - with extra chicken

Whilst pondering this post, I Googled other recipes and was interested to see the variance in ingredients.  BBC Good Food has a recipe that adds bell peppers and Okra.  If you ask Wikipedia, it says that Jollof is a rice dish, cooked with tomatoes and spices which you can then add vegetables and meat or fish to.  It's a dish common throughout West Africa, but mine definitely came from a website stating it was the Nigerian version. 


It was a doddle to cook - pretty much like doing a paella but with less faff.  I was intrigued by the addition of Lea & Perrins.  I never would've thought that you could buy something like that in Nigeria - but I am happy to stand corrected.  The best bit was the slightly burnt bits from the bottom of the pan where the sauce 'caught' as the rice had absorbed all of the liquid.


We had it for tea because I couldn't face the idea of a chicken and rice dish for breakfast.  Miss A liked hers, although I'm sure she only ate so much because we bribed her with the promise of a summer pudding cupcake if she finished - we knew she wouldn't.  The husband was intrigued (he had Mary Berry's Chicken Tikka with Dan Lepard's Naans) because it looked just like red rice with Chicken - his Wednesday night staple.  Sadly he spotted it was packed with carrots, peas and French beans.  The closest he gets to a vegetable is when I put his sandwiches in the fridge behind a lettuce.  I enjoyed it and would definitely cook it again as a way of getting veg into the family.  I may just try some other veg like bell peppers in place of carrots and then the husband may just try some.


I think we have our first silver medal on this blog.


You can find the recipe I used here.  Vegetarians, beware!

BBC Good Food Lemon and Courgette

Today's quick and dirty recipe was a Good Food special.  I've been so busy pondering the Olympic Food Challenge (OFC) and researching my nineteen recipes that I forgot that I had to cook something different today.  And then I forgot that I actually have to blog about it too.  I've heard the rule of thumb for learning to do something is that you have to do it twenty times before it becomes habit.  I've done this 306 times.  You'd think it would be second nature by now.

And whilst I was busy neglecting the regular blog for the OFC, I also failed to note that it starts tomorrow and not on Thursday.  B*gger!  I had what I needed for tomorrow's recipe which was going to be a rhubarb crumble cake and I was going to start on Thursday with a dish from the Solomon Islands.  I've now had to reshuffle things and will be making a souffle tomorrow - cue manic panic because I've been strategically avoiding that one all year.  Tuna and papaya salad on Thursday.  Rhubarb crumble cake?  Well let's just say that I may not be getting good feedback from my boss at my mid-year review now.

Hmmm...it wasn't that yellow in reality... #instagram

Ah well.  So the blog is going to be short and sweet tonight as I go into panic mode.  I picked this recipe up from a chicken recipe book that came with Good Food this month.  It's also been languishing in my binder on the Good Food website for over a year as something to make in an emergency on a hot sunny day.  It ticked all the boxes today.

Some of the reviews weren't great so based on advice, I added some garlic to the courgettes while they were cooking and with the lemon and lots of seasoning, I could've just eaten a massive pile of them as they were.  That would actually work really well as a low carb alternative to spaghetti if you grated them lengthways (as I did) rather than across the round end.  Sprinkle on a few parmesan shavings and you'd have an ace, low-fat, low carb meal.

With a pile of well seasoned couscous and a well seasoned chicken breast, this made a quick, simple tasty meal that I will definitely make time and again.  I even got Miss A eating chicken today by telling her it might just turn her into a butterfly (yes I do own a copy of Great Lies to Tell Small Kids although that's not in the book).  Couscous wasn't proffered because even the dogs are rubbish at cleaning that off the floor and I wasn't in the mood to clean up.  Hubby doesn't like couscous so this is definitely one for me and me alone but I'm happy I have something healthy and low fat that I can quickly cook alongside other meals.

You can find the recipe here.

Mary Berry's Provencal Chicken

"Why is there a whole chicken in the fridge?" was the first thing the husband said to me today at around 11am.  "Because the Ocado man bought it with him" I replied.  The husband eyed me suspiciously.  We never have whole chickens.  It was dead, plucked and shrink-wrapped, I hasten to add.

Poor perspective - this was the Pamela Anderson of chickens

The husband doesn't "do" roast dinner.  We might have roast beef once a year after which he complains that there's too much washing up and that he shouldn't have eaten such a heavy meal at 7pm.  Oh and I forgot the bit where he scrapes the gravy off of every bit of meat, searching for the slightest hint of blush in the flesh.  He needn't worry - I now microwave his so it's as tough as old shoe leather (such a waste).  I then announce that roast dinner is too stressful and I will never cook it again.  A year passes, we forget the fuss and the whole drama plays out all over again.  Just like Groundhog day.  Except he's a bit balder and I'm a little greyer.

So when I finally admitted we were having roast chicken for tea, he rolled his eyes like Miss A does when I tell her she's got to eat what the grown-ups are eating and I know she'd much rather have a chocolate Philly and peanut butter sandwich.  This set the atmosphere for the rest of the day.  A bit of sulking.  Lots of suspicion.  But he's the one who's supposedly on a health kick and when he asked me yesterday why I only feed him stuff from Tiers Four and Five of Michi's Ladder, he got a short shrift because he won't eat anything from the first three tiers.

In essence, the recipe is for a pot roast chicken in a red pepper, tomato and carrot sauce.  There was nothing for him to not like.  True, he doesn't 'do vegetables, but I figured it was pretty much like a fresh version of Heinz tomato soup (overly sweet and orange) which he loves.

It's pretty simple to make.  Stick everything in a casserole, cook for an hour and a half, blitz the cooking juices and carrots, carve and serve.  A few roasties on the side and veg for me, peas for him (peas aren't a vegetable according to the husband) and we were done.

Ready for the oven

I put the plate in front of him, served his sauce on the side in case he didn't like it.  He tentatively dipped the second bit of meat into the pot and asked why I couldn't make all of our chicken as soft and juicy as this.  I didn't know whether to breathe a sigh of relief or slap him.  I've been on tenterhooks all day.  Despite him saying he'll eat whatever I put in front of him, no matter how much he rolls his eyes, it still stresses me out and I'd prepped both regular gravy and a ham and cheese sandwich just in case.  Phew!

This now means that I will have to find lots of other recipes where the chicken is poached rather than baked (his technique, not mine).  But hey, I've got a tick in the box for this blog.  I got him eating something new.  Result.


Because it was only the three of us, there was so much sauce left, that I've saved it for lunch tomorrow to eat as a soup.  Which is a good excuse for me to make Dan Lepard's soup bread from today's Guardian as tomorrow's recipe.  Double result.

And I then realised that today is also Bastille Day so I've also ticked the 'National Celebrations' box with this recipe.  Without even trying.  Yay me.

Recipe - serves 4-6

• 1.8kg free range chicken (without giblets)
• 350ml fresh chicken stock
• 50g carrots, diced if large and whole (I used baby Chanteray ones)
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1 bulb garlic
• small bunch parsley
• 1/4 tsp dried basil
• 1/4 tsp dried oregano
• 250ml red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• Maldon sea salt and cayenne pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 190c/170c fan.
2. Separate the garlic cloves and peel half.  Place the unpeeled garlic cloves in the chicken's cavity along with most of the parsley (reserve a few sprigs for the garnish).
3. Season the chicken well with sea salt and cayenne pepper
4. Put the chicken in a lidded casserole dish.  Arrange the peeled garlic cloves, red pepper and carrots around the chicken and pour over the stock.
5. Cover and bake for 1.5 hours or until the juices run clear when a skewer is poked into one of the legs.
6. Whilst the chicken is baking, boil the vinegar until reduced to about 2-3 tbsp.  Put into a blender with the basil, oregano and tomato puree.
7. When the chicken is cooked, lift it out onto a plate and pour the cooking juices and vegetables into the blender.  Blitz until you have a smooth sauce.  If it's a little runny, put in a saucepan and simmer for a few minutes until reduced.
8. Carve the chicken and pour the sauce over, garnishing with the remaining parsley.

BBC Good Food Griddled Chicken and Corn on the Cob

There's a quote from my favourite film that just about sums up the advice I'd like to give out to several people that I know today.  It's something that I need to learn to remember as well.


"But sometimes a person we love, through no fault of his own, can't see past the end of his nose."


I won't go into any details on the subject, but it just about sums my day up.  And why although I think my day today has been a Crappy day from Crapsville, there are people around me who've had worse days and have worse problems in their lives.  There are also people who I know are currently judging me for apparently not seeing past my own mediocre problems who if they knew the whole story (which of course, is none of their business) would understand my apparent myopia.

This July weather makes for rubbish light in my kitchen

Anyway, enough myopic belly button staring.  Monday's are always a tough day for fodder in our house.  It's a long day in the office, now preceded by a 4am start for a run so by the time I'm home at 6pm, tea needs to be quick, simple and tasty.


Monday's are the day I really rely on the simplicity of BBC Good Food to come up with something from the content of my fridge.  This is from the June 2012 issue of the magazine which is still lurking on my sofa.  I've still to find the time to read the latest edition.


I needed to stop off for a couple of bits and was horrified to find that corn cobs were £1.99 for two.  I know it's out of season, but I just couldn't justify the expense at the moment.  Especially when I know in a few short weeks, they will be selling them fro about 25p each.  So I improvised with tinned corn, cooked it in a smoking hot frying pan and it still chargrilled really well.


There's not much else to say about the recipe other than it's simple and quick.  I'd not thought about making my own spice coating much before - I tend to use the Schwarz pre-made ones - but this worked quite well and I'll use it again to add a bit of variety.  


You can find the recipe online here.


PS: Without Googling, do you recognise the film that this line is from?  I've only watched it about 1,000 times and know it word perfectly.

Cumin Chicken

I've now lost all hope in surviving the next eight weeks of the husband's diet.  I thought that this low fat curry might be a keeper, but sadly not.  It was the way he looked at it when it was put in front of him that told me I'd wasted my time in the kitchen.  I so nearly gave him a fiver to go and buy his tea from the chippie.

However, I quite enjoyed this dish.  I made a small error by adding yogurt (an optional extra) and this curdled the sauce which slightly detracted from the presentation by putting tiny grainy blobs in the liquid.

It was really quick to cook.  I think I spent more time hunting through the cupboards looking for my chilli powder (didn't find it) than I did actually cooking the dish.

One word of warning - if you make this, take care when frying the mustard seeds.  It said fry them for thirty seconds.  After ten seconds, they were popping and jumping out of the pan and scattered all over the kitchen floor.  It may be to do with the size and shape of the frying pan I used.  But don't do this if you've got exposed skin or small people in the vicinity of the cooker - they fly quite a long way.

The blog I found this recipe from explains variations on the dish and how the author had no yogurt one day and so made the sauce with just a stock-base instead.  I also noted that whilst the recipe states to use  tinned tomatoes, the instructions don't tell you when to put them in.  As I had some fresh toms in, I cut one into large chunks and added it with the veg then threw in the tinned toms after the chicken had fried.

I'm guessing this is why mine looked nothing like the picture on the website (I wasn't really going for outstanding presentation anyway) but the sauce in the picture clearly lacks the tomatoes.  But for the thicker, yogurty sauce, I'm sure they're essential.

http://www.greatcurryrecipes.net/2012/04/30/how-to-make-cumin-chicken/  It was so nice to be able to make a quicky, tasty curry without having to resort to a jar sauce, like I normally would for a curry for the husband.  He's always whining that the Loyd Grossman sauces have changed and have no taste.  So I cook him a tasty curry and he still moans.  http://www.greatcurryrecipes.net/2012/04/30/how-to-make-cumin-chicken/

Not long to go now - less than 90 days and counting!

You can find the recipe here.

Inside Out Chicken Kiev

I so, so, so want to make something from my new copy of Wahaca: Mexican Food at Home by Thomasina Miers, but because I'm a) supposed to be on a diet and b) didn't get the book before I booked my Ocado order about two weeks ago, I've been left with basic store cupboard ingredients.  I have feta cheese and avocado and flour tortillas, which I'm sure could go a long way towards trying one of the recipes, but it would most likely equate to my entire daily food allowance.  So I'm just making do with longingly reading the book.

According to a recent study that I read about in the Daily Fail Online, adventurous eating makes us fat. Bland, predictable and repetitive food is the key to slimming because nobody really cares to eat more of that kind of food than they need to sustain them and satiate any hunger.  Which is probably why I've struggled to lose weight doing this challenge.  Baking aside, I know I've not been consistently good - mostly towards the end of the week when I'm exhausted from work and motherhood and just cook something new for the sake of cooking something new and blogging about it.

Uber healthy dinner

Day three of the current diet and the food has still been pretty bland.  I managed to sort myself out with a low-calorie prawn wrap for lunch (stuffed with little gem lettuce and thinly sliced radishes) that was very tasty and breakfast is consistently bircher muesli or a protein bar, but teas are still proving to be a little bland.

Take tonight's recipe from the BBC Good Food website.  I picked it for being low calorie, simple and something that I knew that we could all eat with varying accompaniments.  It was easy to prepare, using all storecupboard ingredients (except my addition of fresh parsley to give it some colour) and I ate mine with a mountain of vegetables.  The crumb was tasty - I used garlic puree for laziness and to save my hand from smelling.  But the chicken was still bland, as was the cauli and broccoli.

The carrots, however were great.  I'm not a massive fan of boiled carrots unless they're accompanying a roast and under a significant puddle of gravy.  I'll eat them by the bucket-load if they're raw.  Or if they're cooked Vichy style - thinly sliced then cooked in a tiny amount of water with butter and a little sugar to make a glaze - so not a vegetable I would normally buy given that we never eat roast dinner at home (apart from Christmas day).

But tonight, I picked up a bag of tiny Chantaray carrots in Waitrose, tossed them with a little olive oil and baked them alongside the chicken.  Yummy.

This is how I made my version

Serves 2

• 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 15g unsalted butter, softened
• 15g natural dried breadcrumbs (I used Paxo breadcrumbs but would've preferred Japanese Panko)
• 1/2 tsp garlic puree (I use Gia)
• couple of sprigs of parsley, finely chopped
• 200g Chantaray carrots
• 2 tsp olive oil
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 190c (fan).
2. Place the chicken breasts on a baking tray and make two diagonal slashes in each, cutting about 2/3 of the way through the flesh with each slash.  Season with salt and pepper.
3. Mix the butter, breadcrumbs, garlic and parsley.  Divide between the tops of the two pieces of chicken. 
4. Toss the carrots in the olive oil and add to the baking tray.
5. Bake for 20 minutes.

BBC Good Food Chicken Chow Mein

Chicken-based recipes are a recurring theme in our household.  It's about the only meat the husband will reliably eat.  And pretty much, if a new recipe contains chicken, he's open to trying it.  Hence my decision to do chicken two days in a row.

For some strange reason, he always used to order Chicken Chow Mein and Special Fried Rice from the Chinese.  Every time he did it, he'd complain that he had too much food (we never have 'sharing' Chinese) and eventually he braved a Chinese Chicken Curry and has never looked back.

One of my early thoughts for things to do on this blog was to have a go at 'Fake-away' (homemade versions of takeaway meals).  I had one hit with Singapore Noodles and on less successful attempt at Salt and Pepper Chicken.  Since then I've not tried anything else.  So this seemed an ideal crowd pleaser.

Low fat, low carb and simple

I found it under the Kids Cooking section of the BBC Good Food website and even though Miss A is too small to help prep and cook it, I'm hoping she might try it as it comes with noodles which she does like.

Due to holidays, this is another pre-authored blog so do check back for an update with a picture and a verdict.

Recipe can be found here

Updated: 5 July 2012 @ 20:26

It got eaten.  The hubby's complaint was that it was a lot of the same - which is true.  Because it's all mixed together and there's not much complexity to the flavour.  Which is odd.  Because that's how all the meals he enjoys normally are.  I think he had an issue with it being healthy and not having a huge pile of bread on the side - which is how he normally eats his food.

This was the first signal that the eight-week healthy eating plan is going to be more stressful than I'd first anticipated.  I'm not sure that he is really taking the health kick seriously....watch this space.

BBC Good Food Fully Loaded Cajun Burgers

This recipe is a variation on something I used to regularly make the husband for dinner.  One of those calorie-laden meals that have thankfully been banished to the 'once in a blue moon' list of emergency meals that I can make with little effort.

It kind of seems appropriate to do this one while we're away on holiday because hopefully we'll have been out somewhere nice today and I will need a quick meal to feed the troops.

This post has been pre-written so I can't comment on the taste yet, but hopefully if we have a decent 3G signal where we're staying, I can update the post before the auto-schedule kicks in and give you my considered opinion with a picture as evidence of what I did.

That said, what's not to like about a ciabatta roll filled with chicken, bacon, avocado and cheese?  Anyone?  Well except for the veggies of course...

I expect the only way it could be improved would be with a homemade ciabatta roll and a pile of curly fries on the side.

*Note to self* - time to buy some elasticated waist jeans!

If you, too, want to become a weeble, you can find the recipe here.

Updated 20th July 2012 @ 15:28:

Of course, this one went down really well with the husband.  He had his without avocado, I had mine with the works.  Miss A ate peanut butter on toast.  Mission to get everyone to eat the same thing?  Failed.  Mission to turn us all into weebles?  Accomplished.

Diana Henry's Diamond Jubilee Chicken

I finally got round to making this, albeit a day or two late.  Mostly because the only person who I know who would've enjoyed this dish would've been the Queen of my life - my beloved Grandma.  Our Jubilee celebrations were somewhat muted by her absence.  It's been nearly seven years since she passed away and her presence is still keenly missed at significant events.  Especially when they involve the Queen, because when I was little, I genuinely thought she was the Queen.

She used to have the same kind of perm that was hairsprayed to within an inch of its life.  She was short like the Queen, never showed her emotions when she was sad and was the perfect matriarch to keep us all in line; yet would always put herself before everyone else when there was a crisis.

It tastes better than it looks in the picture!

So much so that I honestly believe that she wanted to be so much more; but she was born in a time where women knew their place and did as they were told by their fathers and then their husbands.  That's not to say that my grandad bossed her around - far from it. But just simple things - like what we had for dinner - were dictated by the male of the household.

Whenever I moan about cooking two or three different dinners, I always try and remember that we were bought up eating what made my grandad happy and she'd only get her way over dinner if we went out to a restaurant.  He's a little more adventurous these days, but it took years to twist his arm.

I remember Coronation Chicken being introduced to the household at some big family event or another.  Curry wasn't even permitted so the idea of cold chicken curry was completely radical.  I'll readily admit that I ate a bit and turned my own nose up at it.  I'm not sure if my memory fails me but I swear it had something like grapes or raisins in it.  And that's what put me off.

But as I matured and my tastes changed, I started to enjoy the amazing Coronation Chicken sandwiches I used to get from a tiny artisan deli near Exmouth Market when I was living and working in London.  And I'm sure I enjoyed it at least once when my grandma made it before she passed away.  But of course it's one of those things that I've parked on a 'not without Grandma' shelf since then.  Along with the chocolates that I bought her back from holiday the day before she left us.  They lived in the back of my fridge - moving house twice - until recently when I finally threw them out.

Anyhow, it felt appropriate to try a modernisation of Coronation Chicken to celebrate the Jubilee.  I was torn between this recipe and BBC Good Food's reworking of it.  The Torygraph recipe won out simply because it was more faithful to the original recipe - using fresh mango whereas the Beeb used pomegranates.

Queen of my heart (second left)

Overall, it worked really well together.  The old-fashioned dressing complimented the fresh, modern flavour of mango and avocado and I loved the touch of the crunchy nuts.  My only gripe was that the dressing was a bit tasteless but I'm assuming that it depends completely on the ingredients that you use.  It includes mayonnaise, curry powder and mango chutney.  All of which will vary greatly depending on the brands that you choose to use.  I would normally use Geeta's Premium Mango Chutney, but had run out so bought some of Tesco's Finest Mango and Apricot Chutney.  It was particularly sour and vinegary - not something I'll be using as an accompaniment to a curry.  And the mayo wasn't my usual brand either.  So it took a little tinkering until I was happy with it.  But of course, my quantities will only work for someone else with similar brands and a similar palate.

If you're not all Jubilee'd out and looking for something different to serve for a special occasion, this would be a good sharing dish.  But beware of the industrial quantity of dressing it makes!  You might be eating it for days on end so make sure you like the flavour.

You can find the recipe here.

Lil Ms Squirrel's Panzanella

I was on a course today and during the breaks (because my mind NEVER wanders when I'm at work), I got to thinking about identity and more specifically how I identify myself.  Like most courses, you had to do the 'Name, Job Title, How Long You've Been With the Company, Tell Us Something Unusual' icebreaker-y thing at the start.  Knowing pretty much everyone in the room, I may have tuned out just a little and focussed my attention on the course notes.

When on another course recently, we were asked to do the same exercise and I decided to shake things up a bit by introducing myself with my Twitter profile.  It sums me up quite well in 140 characters and tells people more about me than they would probably ever care to know.  Saying so much in such as small amount of letters is pretty amazing for someone like me who has a tendency for verbosity.

If you've never seen my Twitter profile (why not??!), I sum my self up like this:


"Slummy mummy, blogger, jogger, maker, baker, doer, high heeled shoer, daydream believer, Mrs @lccphotography, and international woman of mystery"

Just to clear up 'The International Woman of Mystery' bit, I work for one of those institutions that if you knew who it was, I'd probably have to kill you.  In fact, I'm now worried every time I vaguely mention my work on my blog that I'm violating our recently published social media policy.  Mostly because with a bit of smart Googling, you can find out what I do and where.  I'm not at all important.  But I like to keep people guessing.



Salady goodness



I have various personas depending on the situation but at work, if people don't know me personally, they know me as 'the lady with the shoes'.  The men always joke about who will steal my shoes (especially the red patent heels) if I have to leave them in one of the 'safe' areas before donning my oh-so-sexy safety shoes.

All of the older ladies on site are very taken with my collection of towering heels and enviously tell me that they wish they were young enough to still get away with wearing shoes like that.  And take great delight in telling me that I'll be in for a bout of varicose veins in a few years time and will find comfort in a frumpy pair of Dr Scholls like my mother used to wear when she was my age.  I'll stick to running shoes, thanks all the same.

Today, I was sporting a new pair of turquoise suede platform shoes - with a five inch heel.  Hardly practical for any job but worse when you are on a site tour with someone from H&S who has issues with high heeled shoes.  To be fair, said person was quite right and having been on my feet most of the day (normally I sit at my desk bare foot) by the time I got home, I was tired and had sore feet and really couldn't be bothered with dinner tonight.

The temptation was to just toast the remains of yesterday's sourdough and slather it with butter and jam (not all on the same area - I don't like the two things spread on top of each other - but of course, I had to try something new for the blog.

With a lack of vegetable matter in the fridge, I hit on the idea of a panzanella.  I've seen this made on the tellybox several times before and have always shied away from it because it involves stale, soggy bread.  I don't do soggy bread - I like mine crispy.  But the one thing I was pretty sure about was that this is one of those salads with a myriad of interpretations.  And I wasn't wrong.

In fact, Wikipedia (which of course is totally true) states that the modern version of panzanella is a salad of stale bread, soaked in water and dried and tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.  It then carries on to list a whole raft of other things that you may include in a panzanella.  Stopping just short of throwing the kitchen sink in.  In fact, if you didn't know better and if you pick and choose correctly, you could actually end up with a Salad Nicoise instead. 

So, I set about making up my own panzanella.  I kept made sure I had tomatoes - which I'm actually beginning to like after all these years since I've forced myself to eat them whilst writing this blog.  And I did the bread thing, but instead of soaking it to bring it back to freshness, I actually baked mine to make croutons.  I'm sure a real Florentine traditionalist would have a dose of the vapours over that choice.  I then added some sald vegetables, fresh herbs and a chopped up pan-fried chicken breast.  With a lemon dressing (I left out the recommended garlic - mostly because I have a lot of meetings tomorrow), I had myself a really nice storecupboard salad (okay I keep my salad in the crisper in the fridge, but you know what I mean!).

And because the salad was vaguely virtuous and I've not eaten since breakfast, I think I fully deserve the last of my fully loaded brownies.

So this is how I made my salad for one.  Easily multiplied but not in this house as it contains vegetables.  And I'm the only one who eats them.

Recipe

• 1 ripe tomato, cut into eight chunks
• 3 inch piece of cucumber, cut into chunks
• 1 slice day old bread - sourdough or other rustic bread is best
• 2 tsp chilli olive oil
• 2 tsp plain olive oil
• 1/2 small red onion, finely sliced
• 1 chicken breast
• 2 tsp Schwarz chargrilled chicken seasoning
• small handful of fresh mixed herbs, chopped - I used basil and coriander
• half a little gem lettuce (optional)

For the dressing

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 tsp white wine vinegar
• juice of half a lemon
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cut the bread into 1/2 inch cubes and toss with the chilli olive oil.

Bake in an oven preheated to 220c/200c fan for 10-15 minutes until brown and crispy

Butterfly the chicken breast and sprinkle both sides with the seasoning.

Heat the 2tsp plain olive oil in a small frying pan and pan fry the chicken for about 10 minutes, turning once, or until fully cooked.  Remove from the pan and leave to rest for five minutes, then chop into chunks.

Meanwhile mix the cucumber, tomatoes and onion and herbs in a bowl.

Mix the dressing ingredients and season to taste.

Combine the chicken, croutons, vegetables and dressing.  Mix well then serve on the lettuce (if using).

Grilled nectarine salad with roasted chicken, feta, rocket and peanuts

This evening I had what was very nearly a perfect meal for a perfect, summer's evening.  In fact, the meal was perfect.  There were just a few things that spoiled it.

Number 1.  My dogs.  They are intent on trying to burrow their way under the fence to Percy's house.  Percy is a scruffy little white dog who lives in our bottom-of-the-garden neighbour's house.  The need to burrow is accompanied by a lot of noise.  To the outsider, they sound fierce.  With insider knowledge of my two dogs, they just want to play.  Despite being five and four they both behave like mad puppies - even in this heat.  It's really quite exhausting - if I was a dog, I'd just want to laze on the patio.  Still - it saves me from having to dig up lots of weeds.

Number 2.  The absence of a perfect man to share the evening with.  Or in lieu of him, I ate alone as the husband is off shooting vintage pinup pictures in an oilseed rape field - yellow flowers, red-haired model, blue sky.  All very arty.  If I'm honest though, I didn't mind so much that he wasn't around because there was no face pulling that I had fruit, cheese, nuts and chicken all on the one plate.  Nor complaining that I had to take a picture of my dinner first.  Or that it was too hot to eat a cooked meal (he would've had chicken and Uncle Ben's rice with gravy because it's Wednesday).  So I sat and daydreamed about having perfect company in the absence of any.  Tall, dark, handsome, rich, well mannered, eats what's put in front of him and knows how to treat a lady.   A girl can dream.

My new favourite meal, ever!

Number 3.  A chilled glass of Chablis or Prosecco.  I generally don't drink (for no reason other than I'm a lightweight) and very rarely think of having alcohol with a meal.  And I'm certainly too old to drink on a school night.  But this dish and the beautiful evening was just crying out for a little drinky to celebrate the end of a lovely day.  Well it would've been lovely if I'd not been stuck at work all day.  But you know what I mean.

So why this dish?  Well thumbing through my Leith's Simple Cookery the other day, I happened across a recipe for nectarine, feta and rocket salad.  On the way home this afternoon, I had a sudden urge to sink my teeth into a beautifully ripe, yellow-fleshed nectarine.  And with all the other ingredients at home, I figured that would be a good recipe for tonight (I failed on the planning front this week so am just picking things randomly each day).

Then, when I looked online to see if I could find a link for the recipe to put on the blog, I happened across this recipe  by The Food Fox instead.  I was utterly sold by reading the post about the lucky, lucky person who can just drive to their local farm store and buy whole boxes of fresh-off-the-tree nectarines.  I was so jealous.  I don't even want to consider how many food miles my paltry tray of four nectarines travelled.

Nectarines are right up there at the top of my favourite fruit list.  During summer I will pretty much eat nothing else on the fruit front apart from nectarines and raspberries.  Until that very sad day when you bite into a nectarine and the flesh is all furry and you realise the season is over for another year.  I love peaches too.  I'm just not a fan of the fuzzy skin.  The only downer on the nectarine front was that I could only get white-flesh ones.  The taste is great, but the salad would've looked so much better with the juice-oozy yellow-flesh fruit in amongst the pale feta and chicken.

As the blog says, the dish is an assault on the taste buds and senses.  Salty, sweet, sour, crunchy and creamy.  Every mouthful is a different experience with the punchy mustard or the salty-smooth feta, teamed with peppery rocket and crunchy peanuts.  I would eat this every night for dinner throughout the summer and would never get bored.

It's so filling too.  Sometimes I feel a bit cheated with salads simply by their virtuousness and feel that they need some degree of carbs on the side - fresh bread, minted new potatoes in their skins, a little cooled, dressed pasta.  But with this one, I honestly felt absolutely stuffed afterwards, like I'd eaten a big, fat meal and it still came in at less than 500 calories - even with peanuts thrown in.

Now off to enjoy the last of the daylight once I've added it to my make again list.  Shame I can't have it for tea tomorrow!

Dan Lepard's Spelt Rough Puff Pastry

When does someone else's recipe become yours?  I often ponder this question when I make 'my' chicken pie.  Because I learned the recipe from my ex.  And he got really miffed one day when I referred to it as my chicken pie.  That was ten years ago.  I'm not sure I've made any significant changes to the recipe until today but is it now my chicken pie.  Or is it his?  Or is it half Dan Lepard's because I made his rough puff to top it with whereas I'd normally use shop-bought.  Just some random pondering.

Lots of butter and a touch of flour

Anyway, today, I decided to tackle the black art of pastry making.  Shop-bought pastry is pretty good and consistent so why go to the trouble of making your own?  Now I've mastered shortcrust, I wouldn't buy shop bought again, but is it worth the time faff that goes into making puff and filo?  Well I don't think I would ever have the time and the patience to make my own filo like the amazing Lauren of Around the World In Eighty Bakes.  But having tried so many successful recipes from Short and Sweet, I felt confident that I could have a good go at it.

It's beginning to look a lot like pastry

And it's pretty simple, all told.  Except for the rolling bit.  You need big muscles for that when you do the first roll after each chilling.  But other than it taking a bit of time, it was a really enjoyable activity.  Even with a nearly two-year-old wreaking mayhem in the kitchen with orange playdough, pastry cutters and my ceramic baking beans (they need to be moved to a higher shelf!) 

It's also important to pay attention to the tip about ensuring the board is evenly and completely floured.  I probably used as much flour to prevent the pastry from sticking as I actually put into the pastry.

The recipe uses a small amount of spelt or wholemeal flour (I went with wholemeal) which gives the pastry a lovely nutty taste and makes you feel like you're eating something vaguely healthy (despite the copious amounts of butter in it).  

Fresh from the oven

I used about a third of the pastry - some to top a pie and the spare went into making a giant apple turnover for my pie-hating husband (he'll only eat steak and kidney pies from the chippie).  I will say that the puff on the turnover was better than it was on my pie but the pastry still tasted great.  I'd definitely go to the effort of making my own again if I'm making pie as I only make it when we have guests.  The rest got frozen - I cut it into two small blocks so I can try using some for one of Dan's savoury tart recipes on another occasion.  

Wish I had better lighting in my house...flash, bang, wallop!

Can definitely recommend the recipe.  And I'm sure the All Butter Puff would be fab too - will make some once I've used up the rest of the spelt pastry.  Seriously, anyone whole loves to bake should own a copy of Short and Sweet.  And if you're on Twitter, follow the lovely @Dan_Lepard because he's ace.

If you fancy trying the chicken pie filling, this is the original recipe which I got in lieu of half of my old house

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 500g chicken breasts, cubed
• 2 leeks, washed, trimmed and finely shredded
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 250g baby button mushrooms, halved
• 200ml double cream
• 2 tsp Knorr Touch of Taste stock (or in the old days, a Knorr stock cube crumbled)
• salt and freshly ground pepper

1. 500g puff pastry, rolled to fit your pie dish
2. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the chicken until it is white, but not browned.
3. Add the garlic and mushrooms to the pan and continue to fry for 3-4 minutes until the chicken and mushrooms are browned.
4. Stir the cream and stock into the pan and reduce slightly.  Season to taste.
5. Place in a pie dish and leave to cool slightly before topping with the pastry.

Lorraine Pascale's Duvet Day Chicken Noodle Soup

This recipe has just rocketed to the top of my 'Recipes I'll Make Again' list.  Feeling slightly under the weather again, I was looking for a Friday lunchtime treat that was quick, simple and tasty.  And this soup hits the spot.  It's the kind of thing that in an ideal world, I'd have made for me on days when I'm too poorly to move from under the duvet.

Two problems there.  1) I never get the opportunity to have such a day, no matter how poorly I am and 2) There is nobody else in the house with the culinary nous to deliver such a delightful treat.

Medicine in a bowl

But it's definitely easy enough to make if you're feeling just a little poorly and need something restorative to blow those cobwebs away.  Even the smells whilst it's cooking are amazing.  I'm not a fan of aniseed or cinnamon, but they lend a lovely flavour to this soup.  It's also packed full of veggies to make it nice and healthy and keep it colourful.

The original recipe calls for mint and basil to be stirred through at the end but I only had coriander to hand.  That worked really well with the lovely Asian-style spicing, further enhanced by the squeeze of lime juice at the end.

The recipe is from Lorraine Pascale's Home Cooking Made Easy.  I can't find the recipe online so will be good and not post it here (because I'm a huge fan of this book and Ms Pascale and have posted some of the other recipes).  But you can buy the book on Amazon for £9.99 (at the time of writing) and I really think you should!  Alternatively, try this recipe from BBC Good Food which I blogged about here.

Lorraine Pascale's Chicken Satay

This is one of those things that I eat all the time and I've promised myself for years I'd learn how to make at home, but never have.  Thanks to a glut of chicken in the fridge and a severe bout of desperation over tonight's recipe of choice, I was grateful that the lovely Lorraine Pascale came to the rescue (again) with her Home Cooking Made Easy.

It's my dinner, not Christine Bleakley's legs

I'm still very much in love with the teriyaki chicken I made last week and was really wanting to make that again already; but that would've left me short of a new recipe trial for today so this was a good alternative.  Like all of the recipes in the book (or the ones I've tried so far), it's easy.

 My only gripe being that she tells you to use a regular frying pan and yet you'll have no chance of achieving recipe-book-perfection because the ones in the picture have quite clearly been cooked in a griddle pan.  I do own a griddle pan but it's a b*gger to clean and I always manage to set the smoke alarm off when I use it so thought that an even, rather than stripy, colouring to the chicken was sufficient.

The sauce itself was far thicker than the one in the book looked.  I used more liquid than recommended but still it was more of a paste than a dipping sauce.  The flavour was a bit too intense for my liking too, although this could be because I (for some reason) picked the sushi seasoning (a mix of Mirin and brown rice vinegar) out of the cupboard rather than plain Mirin or plain rice vinegar.  But it was well balanced meaning that you could taste the slight heat of the chilli and the pungent garlic without losing the salty-sweetness of the peanut butter.

I loved the touch of glazing the finished satay with a little honey.  Previously the skewers had looked a little insipid (like they do in the book, actually) but a quick bathe in some warmed honey and they were working a mahogony tan that Christine Bleakley would be jealous of.

I did have a Google around to see if I could find a link to the recipe.  No luck.  So you'll just have to make do with buying a copy of the book yourself if you want to try it yourself.  Seriously, it's worth the money.  Lorraine's recipes are the number one and two most viewed recipes on my blog.  I think it's about time I got some royalties for bigging the book up :)

Teriyaki Chicken

Bad things that happened today.

1) Things at work.  Must not blog about them.  Not that bad.  Don't want to get into trouble.  Not one of the best days I've had in the office (and not the worst either).  Compounded by my still present head cold and the feeling that my brain might just explode at any given point.  I kept smiling.  I hope nobody noticed.

2) I took the opportunity on getting home to attempt to gain some spare time later in the evening by cooking a batch of granola for the husband.  I didn't let Miss A help.  She exacted revenge by sneaking into the kitchen and whacking the oven temperature up from 130c to 220c.  I was only alerted to this as Tom in the Onion Van arrived with my weekly shop, thus giving me the option of leaving Miss A on the doorstep with a stranger to save the house from burning down or just smiling at Tom and pretending that I was meant to be burning things in my oven.

3) The husband took the little dog for a walk.  He opened the front door.  She slipped her lead and shot off.  The husband closed the front door, looked at me and announced 'The dog's escaped...'  After a frantic few minutes of dispatching the husband with instructions on places to look for a black sausage dog - who can outrun greyhounds and had a 30 second head start - in the pitch black, I wrestled the child into her coat and wellies, donned the closest pair of shoes to hand, shot out the door and stood on the street like a fishwife yelling 'Rolo' (this is the name of the dog, incidentally).  Our neighbour's front door opened and he informed me that the husband had located the dog five minutes previously and had taken her for a walk.  I smiled sweetly and thanked him.

4)  Making tea.  Brand new, 1kg packet of basmati rice.  Split.  Everywhere.  The smile started to waver.

And so here I am, hoping that in the next 29 or so minutes, nothing else will go wrong (I'm hoping to head to bed at 9.30pm).  It's 9.01pm as I type.

Sticky teriyaki chicken and rice

Obviously none of these are very big things.  Far worse things happen to people every day.  These are just a few of the little trivialities that are sent to try us.  What doesn't kill us is supposed to make us stronger.  We shouldn't sweat the small stuff.  And yet those things are the things that are likely to send me ever so slightly potty.  I can deal with big crises like a swan on a pond.  Little disasters, and I tend to inwardly melt down - sometimes with a few exterior cracks showing all is not well inside.

But the premise of this blog is what's keeping me ticking along.  The anchoring feeling that before midnight, every day without fail, I will both cook something I've never cooked before (or at least try a new version of a recipe) and have sat and written about it.  Somewhere between bad thing #2 and #4 I had another moment when I thought 'I can't be bothered to do this.  It's trivial.  What's the point?  Nobody would really care if I gave up this blog'.  But over 150 posts in, I would care if I didn't make it to post 366 (or 369 based on the days I've double-blogged).

The husband asked me what I'll do once I've gotten to September 26th, 2012 and I've finished this self-imposed mission.  I hadn't thought about that.  Suddenly I'll have time on my hands again.  The energy will have to be channelled elsewhere because this blog is really a coping mechanism to get me from one day to the next some times.  So if anyone has any bright ideas, please feel free to make suggestions.  I've got another 211 days to think up something else.

In the meantime, back to food and today's recipe.  A quick chicken dish from the lovely Lorraine Pascale's Home Cooking Made Easy.  Beginning to love this book.  I don't have quite the same affection for it as I do for Short and Sweet and Mexican Cooking Made Easy.  Those two I love for their indulgence.  This I love for it's simplicity.  It's kind of like a Marguerite Patten for the modern age. Every home should have a copy.

Both the husband and I had chicken and rice tonight.  His was the usual baked chicken with Uncle Ben's rice.  Mine was sticky, salty-sweet and tangy with ginger and garlic; against a huge pile of soft white rice.  And even though his was 'convenience' food, mine cooked from scratch was still far quicker.

Definitely a make again for me.


Serves 4

• 65g Soy Sauce (why weigh this and then measure the Mirin in ml????)
• 80ml Mirin 
• 50g soft light brown sugar 
• 3 or 4 skinless chicken breasts, cut into large cubes 
• 1 x 2cm piece of fresh ginger grated (I used lazy ginger)
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• A small bunch of Spring Onions, trimmed and finely chopped
• A handful of Sesame Seeds, dry toasted in a frying pan for 2-3 minutes

1. Put the brown sugar, mirin and soy sauce into a bowl and mix. Put to one side.
2. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and fry in hot oil for two minutes. 
3. Add the ginger and garlic to the chicken and cook for another minute.
4. Add the sugar / mirin / soy sauce mixture and simmer for 5 or 6 minutes.
5. Add the spring onions and cook for two minutes.
6. Remove from heat, add the sesame seeds and serve with rice and a green salad

Balmoral Chicken with Neep and Tattie Rosti

Having singularly failed to cook something Chinese themed on Monday and something with peanut butter yesterday - apparently it was National Peanut Butter Day, but I have a feeling this was an American celebration and us Brits used it as an excuse to jump on the bandwagon and scoff lots of peanut butter - I felt I should really make up for it today and do something Scottish-themed for Burns Night.

I tweeted my lovely Twitter chum Alison, aka @hungrysquirrels and she very kindly furnished me with not only a recipe for Balmoral Chicken, but also a recipe for Neeps, Tatties and Whisky gravy.  I duly hopped off to Sainsburys with the child last night but after a tantrum in the cafe over coffee (me) and a tantrum over bananas (her),  I managed to forget bacon, whisky and cream.  Thinking cap on and determined to break my haggis-virginity, I restyled it with a modern, Wiltshire twist.  More of that later.

Losing my haggis virginity at the tender age of *ahem* thirty-something was an interesting experience.  We spent many family holidays in Scotland when I was a child.  During my teenage years, we even stayed with relatives of my first stepfather and they had the kind of diet that us English rather blindly assume is the norm in Scotland.  Full fried breakfast every morning with links (normal sausages), puce coloured Scottish sausage, black pudding and slicing haggis.  If they were feeling healthy, breakfast was a choice of sausage or haggis with fried egg in a morning roll.  I lived on chocolate porridge for two weeks.

But as I'm supposed to be trying different things, I figured I had to go the whole sheeps-innard and try the real thing.  Normally, I would've wigged-out and just gone for the veggie version, but Alison's recipe was for haggis wrapped in chicken, which in turn was wrapped in bacon and baked.  It seemed to me the right balance of trying something new and not quite diving in at the deep end.

So I set about creating my take on this dish.  The original recipe is here.  I replaced the bacon with some prosciutto and with the absence of the cream required for the neeps and tatties recipe, I decided to make a rosti instead.  Just a touch of butter was required for this, so it kept the calories in check.

Spot the spare 'neep'

I didn't have the requisite hours to labour over the dish and was also doing my usual trick of cooking two separate dinners and making everyone's lunches for tomorrow all in the space of thirty minutes, so in my haste, my rosti fell to bits when I turned it over.  It probably would've browned more if I'd not been so stingy with the butter.  But the combination of the potato and the turnip was really pleasant.  I'd chosen not to put any onion in because I've never eaten turnips before either and wanted to distinguish the flavour from the potato.  It was kind of like eating nicely fried potato and swede.  Save for it not being yellow, in my book, I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference in a blind taste test.

As for the haggis - well it was interesting.  Wrapped inside the chicken, it was almost just like a random type of tasty stuffing.  It was a little soft for my liking and I know if I'd just had the haggis by itself, I wouldn't have finished it.  But the flavours were lovely and the chicken stayed lovely and moist.

Trouble is now, my freezer has 460g of sliced haggis in it.  So I've now got to hop around and see what else I can find to do with it.  Or if I leave it long enough, my dogs will be in for a treat!

Anyway a huge thanks to Ali for encouraging me to try haggis.  I will definitely make this again if I'm cooking on Burns night for people who aren't quite so 'discerning' in what they eat (if you're a regular follower, this is the politically correct way I will now try to refer to my husbands 'delicate' palate)

This is my take on Balmoral Chicken, which comes in at just shy of 500 cals per portion, including the rosti.

Serves 2

• 2 chicken breasts, approx 150g each
• 4 slices prosciutto or 6 rashers of bacon (bacon increases the calorie count)
• 85g haggis

• 100g potato, parboiled and grated
• 100g turnip, parboiled and grated
• 15g butter

1. Make a slit along the thick part of each chicken breast.  Divide the haggis into two and mould each piece into a sausage shape.  Tuck the haggis into the slit in the chicken.
2. Wrap each chicken breast tightly with the prosciutto or bacon.  Secure with cocktail sticks if necessary.
3. Bake for 30 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, to make the rosti, combine the grated potato and haggis in a bowl and season to taste.  Divide the mixture in half and shape into flat discs.
5. Melt the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat until it foams.  Carefully place one of the rosti discs into the pan and cook until browned.  Carefully turn the rosti over and cook until brown.  Keep warm and repeat with the other rosti.
6. To serve, put a rosti on each of the serving plates.  Slice the chicken breasts on the diagonal and arrange on top of the rosti.  Serve with vegetables and gravy.