Month: June 2013
What we’ve been up to in our holidays :)
We’ve been living at Katy’s parents since early June, when we moved out of the house. It’s been “sold” for almost a month, but the buyer’s solicitors have been singularly incompetent, or rather untimely. Apparently, all the paperwork is ready but their solicitor is on holiday, and the replacement person has only been there for 2 days out of 7 and apparently there’s nobody in their secretarial pool to type up the report that the buyers need to get. Oy. If we’re lucky, we can exchange contracts tomorrow and then complete next week. If we’re lucky.
In the meantime, I’ve bought myself a new camera and I’ve been playing with it quite enthusiastically :D
Things we’ve done so far:
1. held a birthday party for Ben’s rabbit
2. Visited the Abbey pumping station
3. Spent the day at Skegness (finally, after 8 years of hearing about it!)
4. Generally tried to keep the Bean and the dog happy
All in all, we’re knackered :)
All pictures and more here: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/leicester_jun_2013
This is what the dog is doing to the garden
I’m convinced we have a vegetarian dog…
The random shit I find when I clean up the hard drive
I’m cleaning out the old HD and I came across this gem. Sara, Jules & Anna, this one’s for you :)
“We live in a time when our brothers have been so put down, can’t get a job, lot of the sisters making more money than brothers. And it’s creating problems in families. That’s one of the reasons our families’ breaking up. And that’s one of the reasons many of our women are becoming lesbians. You got to be careful when you say you don’t need no man. I can make it by myself. Well, if you don’t need a man, what’s left?
Lesbianism is about to take over our community. I’m talking about young girls. My son in high school last year, trying to go to the prom, he said, ‘Dad, I ain’t got nobody to take to the prom because all the girls in my class are gay. There ain’t but two of them straight and both of them are ugly. I ain’t got nobody to take to the prom.
Now, can I talk here? I ain’t homophobic, because everybody in here got something wrong with him. Whoever you point at, you can point at your own self. You got something wrong with your life. But when you get down to this thing, women falling down on another woman, strapping yourself up with something, it ain’t real. That thing ain’t got no feeling in it. It ain’t natural. Any time somebody got to slap some grease on your behind, and stick something in you, it’s something wrong with that. Your butt ain’t made for that. [Audience shouts and yells its approval in the background.] You got blood vessels and membranes in your behind. And if you put something unnatural in there, it breaks them all up. No wonder your behind is bleeding. It’s destroying us. Can’t make no connection with a screw and another screw.”
Willie F. Wilson, Union Temple Baptist Church
[recipe] Beef or turkey Stroganoff
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef or turkey
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 pound sliced white button mushrooms
4 ounces light cream cheese, cubed
2 cups beef stock
1/2 cup lowfat milk
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup light sour cream
Salt and pepper to taste
Cooked egg noodles or rice for serving
Directions
In a large nonstick skillet, cook the meat, onion, salt and pepper, on medium-high heat, stirring occasionally to break up the meat into small pieces, until the meat is almost cooked through but still slightly pink, about 5 minutes. Drain excess grease. Add sliced mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms are soft and browned and the meat is cooked through, another 5 minutes or so.
Add the cubed cream cheese and let the cream cheese melt over medium heat, about 2-3 minutes, before stirring in. Mix gently until the cream cheese is incorporated throughout the meat mixture. In a large liquid measuring cup, combine the beef stock and milk. Whisk in the flour until the mixture is smooth and there are no lumps of flour remaining.
Stir the beef stock/milk mixture into the meat and cook over medium or medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Let the mixture bubble and simmer until slightly thickened, 3-4 minutes. Stir in the sour cream and add additional salt and pepper to taste. Serve over cooked egg noodles or hot, cooked rice. Sprinkle each serving with fresh parsley, if desired.
Another sign I’m growing up
I’ve tried to resist it as long as I could, but jeans and a t-shirt will no longer be aacceptable business attire. As such, I’ve just ordered a half dozen shirts and some chinos. This makes me sad :-)
Money! Money! Money!
Good news, my EBI indemnities came in today. Less good news, more than half of them have already gone to loan repayments. Better news, we’re now debt free (almost).
Bye bye, house!
Went to pick up the last gubbins from the house today. Nothing left now but dust and memories.
[recipe] Chicken corn chowder
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 stalks of celery, finely chopped
- 1 red pepper, finely chopped
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 1 jalapeno, finely chopped, seeds and membrane removed
- 1/4 cup thinly sliced or cooked chopped ham
- 3 1/2 cups chicken broth
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 3 ears of fresh corn kernels or 1 1/2 cups frozen corn kernels
- 2 large chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
- 4 oz. softened cream cheese
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Directions
- Place olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Saute celery, pepper, onion and jalapeno until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the ham; cook for another 3 minutes. Whisk the broth with the flour in a liquid measuring cup or bowl and then stir into the soup. Stir in the corn and chicken. Bring to a low boil and reduce heat.
- Whisk together the cream cheese and milk in a large bowl until smooth (I had a difficult time getting my cream cheese to completely whisk into the milk so my soup had some minor small lumps but next time, I’ll soften the cream cheese until almost melted in the microwave).
- Whisk the cream cheese/milk mixture into the soup along with the salt, pepper and cheddar cheese. Simmer on low until ready to serve.
[recipe] Apple pie
Ingredients
FOR THE FILLING
1kg Bramley apples
140g golden caster sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp flour
FOR THE PASTRY
225g butter, room temperature
50g golden caster sugar , plus extra
2 eggs
350g plain flour
Directions
- Put a layer of paper towels on a large baking sheet. Quarter, core, peel and slice the apples about 5mm thick and lay evenly on the baking sheet. Put paper towels on top and set aside while you make and chill the pastry.
- For the pastry, beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl until just mixed. Break in a whole egg and a yolk (keep the white for glazing later). Beat together for just under 1 min – it will look a bit like scrambled egg. Now work in the flour with a wooden spoon, a third at a time, until it’s beginning to clump up, then finish gathering it together with your hands. Gently work the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film, and chill for 45 mins.
- Mix the 140g/5oz sugar, the cinnamon and flour for the filling in a bowl that is large enough to take the apples later.
- After the pastry has chilled, heat the oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Lightly beat the egg white with a fork. Cut off a third of the pastry and keep it wrapped while you roll out the rest, and use this to line a pie tin – 20-22cm round and 4cm deep – leaving a slight overhang. Roll the remaining third to a circle about 28cm in diameter. Pat the apples dry with kitchen paper, and tip them into the bowl with the cinnamon-sugar mix. Give a quick mix with your hands and immediately pile high into the pastry-lined tin.
- Brush a little water around the pastry rim and lay the pastry lid over the apples pressing the edges together to seal. Trim the edge with a sharp knife and make 5 little slashes on top of the lid for the steam to escape. (Can be frozen at this stage.)
- Brush it all with the egg white and sprinkle with caster sugar. Bake for 40-45 mins, until golden, then remove and let it sit for 5-10 mins.
- Sprinkle with more sugar and serve while still warm from the oven with softly whipped cream.