I’ve gone and done it again.
I’ve been food shopping today. The cupboards are chock-a-block with groceries, the fridge is heaving, the freezer will barely shut and I have absolutely no idea what to do for dinner tonight. Happens every time….
I’m not sure if it’s because I’m spoilt for choice or if I just can’t be bothered!
Subscribe to Blog de la Bouffe by Email
©2008 S.Peyton
I made squishy flapjacks yesterday….something to keep the troops happy!
Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients
80g brown sugar
60g butter
40g margarine
250g porridge oats
Salt..pinch
Banana….mashed
2tbs Golden Syrup
Method
Lovely with a cuppa on a rainy day!
Subscribe to Blog de la Bouffe by Email
©2008 S.Peyton
In this post a few days ago, I mentioned that families may be resorting to eating and cooking more frugally with the Credit Crunch in full swing.
Seems I spoke too soon, according to this article, in The Telegraph today. There has been a run on tinned tomatoes in the supermarkets, as people cut down on their food bills by making their own meals and not relying on ready-meals.
Spag bol anyone?
Subscribe to Blog de la Bouffe by Email
©2008 S.Peyton
Lot et Garonne is justly proud of their prune industry. Agen prunes are exported worldwide and I have heard that many a Californian prune, is an Agen prune in disguise.
We are surrounded here by vineyards, fields of sunflowers and prune orchards. Some friends of ours have a prune orchard and I am always amazed at the variety of prune-inclusive recipes that are served up at their dinner parties. From aperatives, to main meals to the cheeseboard, from sweet to savoury and back again.
I no longer react to the prune as any Brit does, with faint amusement and horror. They have such bad press in the UK, perhaps due to their unglamorous reputation and infant-school-pudding-association. But I am now quite familiar with the humble prune and am able to appreciate it for it’s versatility and delicious taste.
Tonight Diddy and The Boy made chocolate covered prunes. So simple to do, with melting of dark, bitter chocolate over a bain marie, the delicate dipping of prunes balanced on the end of a cocktail stick, leaving them to set on the parchment paper and the liberal sprinkling of desiccated coconut and hundreds and thousands.
We enjoyed them after dinner and even The Boy after half a nibble, ‘testing’, had to be rationed to 3.
Did fish, chips and peas tonight, nothing unusual in that, I guess.
What is unusual, well, in fact, never heard of before, was The Boy asking for peas! ‘Emmm, yummy!’.
I nearly dropped them all as I keeled over…
One of the things I dislike about food and catering for a family, is that it’s so relentless.
Quite often, we all sit down to our evening meal and in the course of that meal, I am wondering what I can do tommorrow….(chops, spag bol, sausages?) I seem to lose the ability to enjoy the fruit of my labours and it takes on the essence of a chore, like the ironing and taking out the rubbish. There is never a break.
After all, we can choose not to go to the gym tonight, or I’ll leave the ironing until tommorrow. But food….never!
No wonder we just throw something quick and frozen into the oven sometimes…And I am just not the sort of person who has time to think balanced, nutritional, major food groups all the time.
Oh well, what can I do for tea tonight…any ideas?
I read this article some time ago and promptly left it in my Favourites. I re-read it again today and decided I needed to put it into Blog de la Bouffe.
It’s reassuring to know that I am not the only parent battling with a beautiful and ever changing/growing/maturing daughter. It is easy to become defeatist about the whole thing; Are we just fighting a losing battle? But the few pointers at the end, I thought, were really practical and simple.
So, now we only refer to our bodies in a positive way. (It is hard to do and many a-time I have had to ’shush’ well meaning auntys and uncles!) We talk not about ‘fat’ and ‘thin’ people but whether they look healthy or not. We have long and meaningful conversations about nutrition. We have incorporated more physical activity into our lives.
So, watch this wasteline!
Related Posts: Distortion, The Benefits of Eating Together as a Family
That means Pancake Day in our house. And pancakes we had…..for breakfast and tea. We like pancakes….can you tell?!
I am getting better now with Shrove Tuesday, I have been known to be a week early or a week late. This year I was spot on!
Years ago my Mother-in-Law got me a pancake pan, it’s on it’s last legs now, all the non-stick is coming off. But the reason why I like it so much is that the recipe for the pancake mix is on the bottom. Great! I am hopeless at remembering basics, like pancake mix!
Here are the basics:
So easy to remember too! The 2,4,8 ratio. Mind you, I often double up, as we really, really like pancakes in our house, and the 2,4,8 mix is just not enough!
I do cheat though…instead of using white flour, I mix in half wholemeal flour and half oatmeal, so my pancakes resemble Staffordshire oatcakes, a bit ‘meatier’, but more nutritious and healthy. The kids love ‘em!
The first time I tried to make pancakes was an unmitigated disaster. It took me a week of pancakery to get it right. ‘Pancakes are so easy to make,’ I thought to myself, ‘ I am not going to be beaten’…. I now know that I need to have the pan sizzling hot, if I don’t want a lumpy, soggy, mushy mess. I also make the mixture the night before and leave it on top to fester. I have the oven on really low and throw them in there as they are made.
We then make our way to the table, (which has usually been expertly made by Diddy….no need to ask twice when it’s pancakes!) and then the fun begins. The Fillings!
We like to roll ours up into cigar shapes, cut them into Thomas Tank, Annie and Clarabelle shapes and pop ‘em in our mouths…..
…Toot, Toot!…
Not that I am obsessed with my kids and their eating habits, but here is another article for your reading pleasure…
This time it deals with healthy eating for children….6 Golden Rules.
A quick synopsis:
Rule 1: Make every bite count…
Rule 2: Ban the word ‘dessert’
Rule 3: Be persistent, not insistent
Rule 4: Break rules our parents taught us
Rule 5: Everyone needs breakfast
Rule 6: Learn from your child
Have a read, see what you think.
I seem to know the thoery quite well now, but am struggling to put it all into practise! We have done sticker charts, little treats/toys, bribery and cajoling, I have tried very hard to not make a fuss, to shout and rave and ignore the behaviour. But nothing seems to work! The Boy is still really picky and quite honestly, sometimes I just do not have the energy to ‘persist’!
Apparantly, according to Jamie, it is possible to do a schnitzel with chicken, pork or veal. Probably due to the apple sauce, it is recommended to use pork, which I did.
I made my breadcrumbs in the blender using half a baguette left over from lunch. They came out a bit big but in the end were perfect….crispy and crunchy…lovely!
The apple sauce was easy to prepare and complimented the pork really well. The flavours of the orange and spices were really subtle and helped to give a sweet/sour flavour along with sugar.
I served it with brocolli, which I sprinkle pine nuts on…it gives a great nutty texture to the vegetables. On top of the schnitzel was the water cress and slithers of cornichon…not something I would normally buy or eat, but they were lovely…
So another Jamie Oliver success…ok, I know I’m doing the easy recipes but they have all been edible, straight forward and encouraging.
For my next attempt, I may go for a fishy dish! Now there’s ambition!
 |
     |
  |
|
