Gotta read this!

 

I have just finished reading,’ A thousand splendid suns’ by Khaled Hosseini and it was fantastic. You can’t helped being touched by this book. I feel like I know the main characters, Mariam and Lalia intaimately. A totally got lost in the book (which is a rare occurance for me!) The whole book is all encompasing and I have learnt so much about how war affects others in different cultures. It makes you take a look at what you have and how you live, after reading this it makes you realise that we take so much for granted in  our lives!

This book comes highly recommened and Richard & Judy were totally right in their review of this book, they described it as unputdownable and it is not to  be missed!

 Hosseni writes well and is easy to understand, his pace in the book is just right! I am thinking of buying  his first book, the kite runner now…  

Nigella’s Crispy squid with garlic mayo!

 

My best friend is coming round on Saturday night, we are having a girly night in and I was wondering what to cook?? After flickering through  my Nigella’s Express book, that I have sitting on my kitchen windowsill, I found this squid recipe and I am gonna give it a whirl!!!!!

   

Ingredients
For the crispy squid
250ml/9fl oz groundnut oil, or enough to one-third fill a deep heavy-based pan
1 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp semolina
1 tsp Old Bay seasoning (available from some specialist shops and online stores, or use a mixture of salt and ground paprika)
250g/9oz frozen squid (tubes and tentacles), to give 200g/7oz when defrosted, cut into 1cm/½in rings
For the garlic mayonnaise
¼-½ garlic clove, crushed, to taste
4 tbsp best-quality mayonnaise
 

Method
1. For the crispy squid, place the oil into a deep, heavy-based saucepan and heat until a small cube of bread sizzles and turns golden when dropped into it.
2. While the oil’s heating, place the cornflour, semolina and seasoning into a plastic freezer bag.
3. Add the squid rings and tentacles to the bag and shake gently to coat the squid completely.
4. When the oil is hot enough, fry the squid in batches until golden and crisp - a couple of minutes per batch is all you should need. Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.
5. Meanwhile, for the garlic mayonnaise, stir the crushed garlic into the mayonnaise.
6. To serve, place the crispy squid onto a serving plate with the mayonnaise in a small bowl alongside.

The shift to thrift

In today’s Telegraph, there a marvellous article of how some of us are becoming more money conscious and changing our ways and shifting to thrift!!!    Just have a read, there are some fab tips   telegraph.co.uk/news/ !!

“Make all you can,
save all you can,
give all you can.”
John Wesley

The big food fight!!

 

As you know I am passionate about cooking our food from scratch- when I get the time! Last night Jamie Oliver’s tv programme, Eat to save your life, part of this weeks Big food fight showed us why it’s good for our health to cook from scratch. It can he concluded add years to your life and also help prevent many cancers growing!! 

As usual, Oliver presented this with massive enthusaim and highlighted the key facts which were: 

cut down on salt intake

cook meals from scratch, stay away from frozen ready meals and takeaways

eat more fibre and more fruit, at least five a day

drink red wine, ( I like this one!)  eat dark chocolate, tomoates and porridge, to lower cholestreal and prevent arteries furring up

 eat Oliy fish, tuna, pilchard, mackerel etc…

limited fat intake per day.

I am certainly going to be following Jamie’s recommendations, especailly drinking red wine and eating chocolate 

well done Jamie, we love you x

A Thousand Splendid Suns! Unputdownable!!

 

 I bought a really good book yesterday, it’s ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ by khaled Hosseni and  I have already read up to Chapter 15!!! I watched a book review on it last week, it’s was featured on Richard & Judy, Summer reads for 2008. I totally agree with what they were saying about it, I can’t put it down, I had cried twice by page 58, (quite something for me, as I am not a cryer!) 

I had to stop reading it last night, as Oh wanted us to watch ’World Trade Centre’ and then I was that moved by the film, I cried more??? In fact I felt that much for the New Yorkers, that I cried the whole last hour of the film!  So both book and film are recommended, but have a box of tissues ready

Playing catch up!

 

well, I seem to have got over my’ back to work blues’ from the begining of the week, isn’t funny how, just after a couple of days back, you feel like you have never been away :)     I am totally up to date at work, I have been hard at it all week and today I am off  so that  I can  play catch up at home!!!!

I normally spend all my weekends, cooking, washing, ironing and generally catching up, after a full week at work, so today I have  tried to complete all the weekends tasks today, so far I have done three loads of washing, put all the groceries away and prepared tonights tea.  I have also put the slow cook on with that potato peelings soup in, it smells great, but needs another 6 hours yet!!   

I am just about to collect ds2 from school and then we are off to the hairdresser, so that he can have his hair cut, then after tea,  I will drop oh off at work, he sometimes works on a Friday evening, ( his part time job)

I have just completed next week menu plan:

Saturday lunch : home made potato peelings sc soup with wholemeal bread

Saturday tea: Nigella’s mustard pork chops with gnocchi

Sunday lunch: home made sheppards pie with veg ( roast chicken in oven, at same time)

Sunday tea: home made pizza with wedges

work lunchs: take hm soup to work for lunch for the next couple of days.

Monday Tea: Roast chicken with pasta

Tuesday: home made chicken madras, with brown rice 

Wednesday: oven baked cod, mash and peas

Thursday:  Tanya Ramseys  slow cook butter bean chicken casserole with boiled potatoes

Friday: oven baked sasauges, jacket potatoes and beans

Tesco code £9.00 off £70

 

I have just spent ages searching for a money off code for Tesco, anyway I this one just worked for me,

It’s for £9.00 off £70.00 spend–XXVTB7.  Hopes this helps someone xx