Special Saturday

Yesterday I went to the best sister in the world for dinner and a sleepover. This time she did all the cooking rather than Le Chef.

We started (after a glass or so of Noilly Prat for me and a G&T for her) with sliced wood pigeon on toast. For the main course we had roe venison with mashed potatoes and sprouting broccoli. Both courses were served with red wine.

I really envy them their wine glasses, which are small, so that you drink less than you think you are.

Pudding was sticky toffee pudding (home made) with local ice cream, served with a little sweet wine.

A good chat was held, in spite of the fact that Dozy Dinah (me) had forgotten her hearing aids.

The two dogs were very affectionate, especially the younger one, who has covered my trousers with hair and drool!

After all that I slept like a log till 8.30 and sat down to a glass of orange juice followed by a wonderful breakfast of crisp bacon, poached egg and tomatoes served with home made (by le chef) french bread.

I now know how to make proper poached egg. The secret is in some vinegar in the water, so the egg white puffs up and stays in one place, unlike mine which spread out all over the pan and fall apart when served up, leaving some of the white in the pan.

So back home on a really sunny day with a cold wind.

We have a "rule" of no presents to the adults now, but I said that if they did happen to be thinking of getting anything for me I would really like a photograph of the two of them and of the two dogs (separately or together) to add to my "rogues gallery".

I am going to make this same request to daughter and M and to elder son and wife. (I already have a lovely photo of younger son and wife in the gallery).

The gallery currently contains the aforementioned photo of younger son and wife, one of the best sister in the world and me, 1 each of the four grandchildren, and a group photograph.

The group one was taken in July 2001. I can date it almost precisely as I am sporting a sticking plaster on my neck.

If you look very closely you can see that it has a picture of a frog on it.

I liked it, because if any of the children asked me what it was for I would tell them it was because I had a frog in my throat.

In fact, it was covering my not-quite healed tracheostomy "hole"!

You can see why that photograph means so much to me.

Invitations and a Cook-In

Well, yesterday I had planned to be a cook-in day. On Friday evening I removed two chicken legs (rather large ones of the Marks and Spencer “Oakham” variety) and four chicken thighs.

I had intended to cook the chicken legs to have one for yesterday and one cold for today, and to use the thighs to make a curry for freezing.

However, “The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley”, so firstly daughter phones and suggests lunch followed by the cinema on Sunday. Great idea, so I suggested a garden centre near the multiplex for lunch. She would pick me up after church. After the cinema she would come back to inspect my new kitchen (but not stay long enough for the boys to get bored: it is hard to find enough to keep them occupied in a small flat.)

Secondly, I was sitting at the computer yesterday updating the previous blog off line prior to posting it, when in comes an email from S. inviting me over for dinner and a sleep over. Of course I jumped at the offer.

I then decided that the first priority was to cook the meat – can’t leave defrosted chicken hanging around uncooked. So I quickly looked in the fridge and cooked:-

CHICKEN CASSEROLE

2 chicken legs
2 leeks, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 onions, chopped
1 organic chicken stock cube

Place all in a casserole, cover with boiling water and cook at 180 for ½ hour, then 160 for 1 ½ hours. Leave to cool and put in the fridge till tomorrow,

CHICKEN SOUP

This is just a variation of the chicken soup I wrote about before. These things all depend on what you have in the store cupboard.

4 chicken thighs
1 leek, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
Handful of long grain rice

Place the first 4 ingredients in a heavy pan and cover with boiling water, bring to the boil and simmer for 2 hours.
Remove the thighs using a slotted spoon and leave to cool.

Add the rice and season to taste.
Bring to the boil and cook for 10 minutes

Remove the skin from the meat, then take the meat from the bones and cut it into the soup