Day 19, in which everything goes out of the window for about 7 days

Yes, I’m writing this a week later because of various things that have happened over the last week, I’m going in chronological order and doing 7 posts in a night, go me!

We went to the cinema and decided that cooking and eating are far to much bother. Tonight we had sandwiches and didn’t eat a full one. This, was probably because we went to the cinema to watch Monsters University (The Unnecessary Prequel) and were full of sugar and hot dogs from Ikea. It should have been chicken chasseur. Here is the recipe from Delicious magazine:

• 8 skinned and boned chicken thighs
• 4 large fresh thyme sprigs, leaves picked
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 100g (about 3) shallots, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 200ml dry white wine
• 200ml chicken stock
• 300g small chestnut mushrooms, halved
• 2 fresh bay leaves
• 200g fresh or canned chopped tomatoes
• 2 tbsp fresh flatleaf parsley, chopped

1. Open out the chicken thighs and place skinned-side down on a work surface. Sprinkle with half the thyme and some seasoning, roll back into shape and tie at each end with string.
2. Heat a deep, non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add 1 tbsp oil and fry the chicken pieces until golden all over. Set aside.
3. Add the rest of the oil, shallot and garlic to the pan. Fry for 4-5 minutes until lightly browned. Stir in the purée, cook for 1 minute, add the wine and stock, and bring to the boil. Return the chicken to the pan with the mushrooms, remaining thyme, bay leaves and some seasoning.
4. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Uncover, stir in the tomatoes and simmer for 30-35 minutes. Turn the chicken now and then, cooking until the chicken is tender and the sauce has reduced. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve with mashed potatoes.

Old cub picture

New Cub picture

Peace, love and pizza!

Day 6, in which we argue about stuff

The Cub would say white was black if I said it was white at the moment. It’s sooooo much fun. Today was first day back at school and he’s doing really well, he’s moved up a band in his reading books and he’s moved on with his frequently read decodable words. Phoneme’s, blending and segmenting are all now words bandied about by him with gay abandon. After the wobble we had last term I’m giving him a bit more structure when he comes home from school to see if this improves things. Today was not an improvement.

Tonight we had baked potatoes, no earth shattering stuff here, nuke them until they are cooked. Bang the oven on about 180 (we have a fan oven you may need to go higher), pop a bit of olive oil on the spuds after cooking them and sprinkle some course sea salt on. I don’t put any salt on The Cub’s because I’m trying to give him healthier eating habits than me. Heat up some beans, add butter to the baked potatoes, pour on beans sprinkle on cheese and voila. Except, The Cub doesn’t like his mixed up, I don’t like beans on baked potatoes and Robin likes to mix it all up so it looks awful. No picture, it’s baked potatoes!

Old picture of The Cub:

New picture of The Cub when I can get them off my phone:

 

Peace, love and pizza!