Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon

I decided to write a non food related blog, give you an insight into me for a change.

Well, its been a stressful week. I am currently working my notice and have 6 weeks left... I should be feeling excited about my next job but instead I am stressing about finishing specific projects that I have at work and preparing for the next person to come in and take over (hand over tasks etc). So to keep me sane we have booked a long weekend at centre parcs starting on the evening of my last day at work, and that is what I am focusing on, in 6 weeks I will be in a chalet in the woods with my family and a bottle of something sparkling! Then 10 days and I will start on my next career adventure.

I am staying in the same field of Quality Engineering but going on to be head of a department in a different company. I decided to make the change as I have been in my current role for 16 years and it is time for a change, broaden my horizons and also improve my commute. Which I have managed to achieve and will save 30 minutes to an hour a day on my travel time :-)

Currently I am lay on my sofa in the most unflattering onesie you have ever seen and I am fighting a virus which I think I am kicking butt of! Just munched my way through a plate of crackers, brie and pate.... mmmmm comfort food. My children... bless them (she says through clenched teeth) have prodded me, poked me and generally climbed all over me in their bid to 'fix' me using various plastic doctors tools, and I must admit... they have not made 1 bit of difference.

My husband is in the kitchen tiling... which is exciting but frustrating as I can't cook and if you have not noticed yet cooking is the way I relax. When we cook together its a bonding experience for me and the girls. Now every meal where they can help they do, in fact they get annoyed with me if they can not help. At the start when they were helping me, it did if I am honest frustrate me, as it was my 'thing' and I felt like they were treading on my 'me' time. But you know what, instead they have made the experience better, more enjoyable. My kitchen at meal times is now full of smiles and giggles, and also it is teaching them, giving them a deeper appreciation of the food they eat, and as a result, they are eating more because they know what went into it. It is not an unknown bowl of 'stuff; (my youngest daughters description) anymore. As an example, we made lamb kofte which had a spice to it.... they wolfed it down (that blog is being written... coming soon I promise). But back to the tiling.... we are finally getting round to sorting our house out, and then we are moving. So watch this space and I will keep you updated on house progress.

So next week what have I planned.... for a change all the meals are things I make, no cook books so fingers crossed it goes well. I have decided to experiment a little I am getting to know flavours etc and think it is time I tried to create something.

Also I am getting back on the diet saddle, the fitbit will be charged tonight and back to a week of calorie counting, I want to wear my swimsuit with pride at centre parcs and not look 3 months pregnant!! Oh and by the way, yes I am organised and obsessed with the dieting as I am with the cooking. So I track every mouthful and make sure that I stay within the fitbit allowance and it works. Normally lose 1-2 lb a week. So I want to lose 9lb by centre parcs, let the challenge commence.

Right, I need coffee and also need to go and make bread for the week. Laters people! 

My Chicken Risotto... Not classical but try it :-)

One of my favourite family meals because it is quick and simple to make is Risotto. Its shocking how simple it is to make but everyone I speak to thinks that it is some long winded difficult process. So here is how I make mine, it takes less than 30 minutes to make and is one of the meals I make which is guaranteed to satisfy the entire family.

Now... traditional risotto would have you cook the chicken last and add it in at the end, so that the chicken stays succulent. However a trick I learnt is if you use chicken thighs, then you can put them in at the start and the chicken stays really moist, but it also means you have all the chicken juices in the risotto which results in a really lovely flavour.

So the first thing to do is prepare all the ingredients. I buy chicken thighs on the bone as they are cheaper, but you can buy them with the bone removed. I chop them up into large bite sized pieces. I then take a large leek and slice that up thinly. I have fresh herbs growing on my windowsill, using 2 sprigs of thyme and a small bunch of chives I chop them up finely. I make 1 litre of chicken stock (I use organic stock cubes.

I then heat 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan, and cook the leeks until starting to soften, then add the chicken and cook until browned. It is important only to cook until  browned and not continue to cook through, as this is how you maintain the moisture.

Then add arborio rice. If you notice I am not stating quantities, oops! OK, for my family 2 adults and 2 children I use 5 thighs, and 300g of rice. OK... now back to it. Cook the rice for a minute with the chicken and leaks, stirring the whole time. Then add 1 glass (approx 200ml) of white wine, I use dry wine. Cook until the wine is absorbed. Then start to add the stock, ladle by ladle. Do not pour all in at once. Do a little at a time and stir. Once absorbed put in the next ladle. I do cheat here, I know you are supposed to stir continually, what I do is add 1-2 ladles at a time and then I can lay the table etc while it is cooking down.

Continue adding the stock until the rice is cooked, slightly al-dente is the way I prefer it. Then when absorbing the last bit of stock take a knob of butter and add to the risotto, stirring until absorbed. Taste and season to taste, I add a couple of spoonfuls of grated Parmesan at this point, but it depends on your taste. Your risotto is then ready to serve, and every time, I have clean plates.

I use the same process really for all risotto, prawn risotto similar but add the prawns when adding the last of the stock as it means the prawns are juicy. But I swap chicken stock for vegetable stock. And I swap the herbs to match the meat/fish I choose.

So try it, and let me know what you think.

#risotto
#familymeals

McFluffy Burgers!

Last week while Morgan sat and did her homework Florence and I decided to make dinner together. This was a crafty trick on my behalf as Florence was being a particular pain in the.... foot.... and would not leave her sister alone for 5 minutes and was therefore affecting Morgans homework.

I had planned to make burgers, Pork Leek and Sage burgers to be precise so this was lucky as it was something she could really get her hands into....literally. However, I had also decided that I would make the buns to go with this too. Madness I hear you shout, yes probably but I saw a recipe for 40 minute buns and decided that it would be a good challenge to make fresh buns and burgers in the same night. So first things first, making the buns;

I weighed out all the ingredients while Florence mixed it all in. This was her favourite bit. We then tipped her 'wet' mixture in with the sifted flour and placed in the food mixer with the dough attachment on. While the machine was mixing up the dough we then set about preparing all the ingredients for the burgers. The burger recipe was taken from Mary Berry's book, a link to a page where you can buy it is below. It is called 'cook now eat later', its good for working families as it is full of recipes you can prepare in advance and cook when you get home. Yes... please don't comment I know I completely ignored the prepare earlier bit, something I will pay attention to next time :-)

http://www.maryberry.co.uk/books-tv/book/cook-now-eat-later

I also found a link to a pretty similar, weirdly almost identical recipe on the weightwatchers website;

https://weightwatchersideas.wordpress.com/2014/11/17/1579/

I love making burgers with the children, it is a lovely gooey adventure, with this one the mince, breadcrumbs if I remember rightly the mustard (may have got that bit wrong) are whizzed in a food processor, then you add in remaining ingredients and get your hands in there to mix it all in and make the burger shapes. The fun of making burgers yourself is you can make them as big or little as you want. So we had Florence burgers, Morgan Burgers, Mummy Burgers and Daddy Burgers. We then put our burgers in the fridge to chill and set about finishing the burger buns.

Another fun activity was making the burger bun shapes which we did to match the size of the burgers. The online activity stated to leave for 10 minutes then pop in the oven.... so during this stage we started cooking the burgers....

It said once rested the buns took 10 minutes I decided to cook the burgers slowly to ensure cooked through and not burnt on the outside which is why I started the process while the bun dough was resting. I can not stress this enough, if you have home-made burgers on a high heat you just end up with a burnt outside and undercooked inside. So be patient and just cook slowly.

It worked really well for timing, everything completed on time. In total taking into consideration I was doing this with a 4 year old it took about 45 minutes. It was an amazingly fun experience and something Florence (aka Fluffy) could get really stuck into. Not only that but having the home cooked buns was also really nice adding the warmth of the bread into the sensation. She was so proud of her first proper meal she cooked 'all by herself', I think she found it really lovely that it was just me and her, because in truth if Morgan is with us Morgan tends to get a lot of the jobs as she is the oldest. She was so proud of the meal she named it.... welcome to the McFluffy burger :-)

If you would like the bun recipe please follow the link below;

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/40-minute-hamburger-buns

#burgers
#cookingwithkids

Eating 'Pinchy'

I have proven now that for £6 per head and 20 minutes to spare you can make a tasty lobster dish that feels far more lavish than the £6 tag and is cheaper than most takeaways!

I found the recipe in 'Gino's Pasta', a book by Gino D'Acampo, it is called Spaghettini All'aragosta, or Spaghettini with lobster and white wine sauce to you and me. It could not have been easier to make, in fact the hardest part of the dish was working out how to prepare the lobster (Prepare to have a mallet and big sharp knife handy!), and of course then actually doing the preparing, especially if like me you found the lobster 'cute' and for some odd reason referred to him as 'pinchy'. I know, not the sanest thing I have ever done...

I cheated and brought a pre-cooked and frozen lobster, this was £9.50, which is of course more expensive than a chicken but when you think that on a Chinese take away we normally spend £6.50 each minimum, then split between the 2 of us, £9.50 is not that expensive. Of course its not something you would eat every day, but really good as a treat.

Only elements to prepare in the dish were chopping a chilli and a clove of garlic and then cracking the lobster open and chopping up the meat. Really was pretty simple and great therapy smashing open the lobster... my weapon of choice, a rolling pin. Once the preparation is finished you literally throw all ingredients in the pan

Finally mix with the spaghetti and voila!

It was really tasty, and better than a take away, definitely one for the cook again list. It was lovely to sit back, glass of wine and a steaming bowl of lobster pasta.