Posted in Cooking (gluten free) on 03/21/2009 05:42 pm by moog
The other day I was in town and bought a load of mushrooms for £1. 1.5kg of mushrooms to be precise. Hubby and I both absolutely love mushrooms so I thought I’d make soup for the freezer or whatever. However, on reflection I decided that mushroom pate would be a good idea. I particularly love the Cauldron Organic Mushroom Pate that you can get in some supermarkets but I don’t buy it often because it’s expensive (well, it is if you spread it thickly). So I tried to replicate it.
I chopped a load of mushrooms and put some homegrown garlic through a garlic press. I fried it all in butter and then turned up the heat to evaporate the juice. I sprinkled it with Season All then put it in the blender with some cream cheese. I whizzed it and out came this fantastic delicious mixture fairly similar to the pate I buy. Hurrah!! Both Hubby and Munchkin are addicted to it – I made the mistake of letting them try some and the result was that Munchkin wouldn’t have his supper and instead ate a ramekin of pate with a spoon. Hummmm.
Posted in Cooking (gluten free), Family, Gardening, Lupus (SLE) on 03/14/2009 12:18 pm by moog
Today I have: accidentally pulled down the end of the curtain rail in the front room, half sorted my desk, cooked and eaten breakfast, made chocolate chip cookies*, made Rosemary Chicken with tomato sauce for later (we’re having my grandad and my brother and sister-in-law over for supper tonight). I still have to finish tidying my desk, make a cake for pudding tonight, make sausage rolls to freeze ready for when I am in hospital to have Pumpkin (they provide gluten free for lunch and supper, but not breakfast as I discovered last time around. I need a substantial breakfast otherwise my Lupus medication makes me feel VERY sick), rest and read the paper.
Hubby has verified that the transformer for one of the kitchen lights was duff (had to go under munchkin’s bedroom floorboards to get it first), been to buy a new one, fitted the new one, fitted a new dimmer switch, mended the curtain rail in the front room, done all my washing up (quite a feat considering the cooking I have been doing), had a long telephone conversation with his sister about his thesis and her dissertation. He’s currently on making modifications to Chapter 6 of his PhD based on the comments I made yesterday after reviewing it. Other things he has to do are go to the allotment and pick veg for tonight and help me with the crossword. And probably some more washing up 
Munchkin is not here otherwise very little of the above would be possible! He’s with his grandparents having a holiday while we work on the PhD (and I make sure that Hubby gets breaks and properly fed) and catch up on a few proper nights of sleep.
So far so good…
* This recipe I made up and it worked a treat:
Gluten free choc chip cookies (not the gooey kind):
125g butter
125g caster sugar
1 egg
~1 tsp vanilla essence
150g Doves Farm gluten free plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
chocolate chips (I forgot to measure but I guess about 30g??)
Cream butter and sugar. Add egg & vanilla essence and beat. Mix flour and baking powder together then add to the bowl and mix thoroughly. Add and mix in choc chips. Put teaspoon dollops on a baking sheet (well spaced – they spread!!) and cook on gas 4 for ~ 15 minutes until golden.
Posted in Family, Gardening, House on 03/05/2009 03:02 pm by moog
Today’s nap time is sitting with laptop. Definitely a good chance to be ‘resting’! I am now 32 weeks pregnant and am Big and Tired. The dining room is out of bounds because of a new cupboard being built around the boiler – ready for decorating next week. It’s involving drilling and banging so I am currently not washing up, cooking dinner, baking or any of those things I often (need to) fill nap time with. I am also not in the conservatory as it’s kind of a ’staging area’ for the work in the dining room (bits of wood and stuff piled up). It’s nice being in the living room actually. It’s quiet (apart from the drilling next door) and as it’s south facing it’s currently very warm and sun-filled.
Munchkin appears to be having a good nap in spite of his room only being separated from the spare room (the decorator is currently in there – with radio) by plasterboard. Long may it last!
Hubby is due back this evening. It would be lovely if he made it back in time to see Munchkin before bed, but it’s a bit of a trek home so I am not really expecting him by then. I usually go to a pregnancy yoga class on Thursday evenings so I suspect I won’t be going to that tonight. On the one hand I’d like to go if Hubby is back. On the other hand, I haven’t seen him since Monday so it’d be nice to just sit down and eat together and get an early night rather than rushing off out as soon as he walks in.
In other news: We had our first purple sprouting on Sunday night! It was really tasty. It’s one particular vegetable that makes having an allotment really worthwhile. The broad beans are coming up well because of the various sunny days we’ve had. Hubby made it down on Sunday afternoon to do some bits and pieces while Munchkin was napping and he planted shallots and garlic as well as doing some tidying up. the spring cabbages are looking a bit small and sad (ah – speaking of which I think I meant to feed them… something for the weekend?!) and so are our leeks. I think we’ll end up having them as baby leeks…
Posted in Family, House on 03/03/2009 03:41 pm by moog
Hubby went off for most of the week yesterday. He’s with a colleage teaching a course over on the east coast so I’m on my own. Tiring is a good word for it!! But it does give me an opportunity to catch up on my recorded episodes of ER and Holby City which he isn’t really into so don’t get watched unless I’m by myself. I seem to be managing to keep on top of things so far even though it’s pouring with rain and I am without the use of the spare room for hanging washing. Munchkin isn’t playing up too much although we didn’t really agree over lunch so he didn’t end up having very much. I insisted that he sit in his high chair to eat while he insisted that he sit on my knee. I refused to let him eat while sitting on my knee, and he refused to eat (and screamed at the top of his lungs) when in his high chair. So that was that. It doesn’t seem to be affecting his nap though.
The decorator is here all week doing the spare room (hurrah!) and then he’ll be moving on to the kitchen/dining room and the conservatory. So far not too disruptive. I am looking forward to it being done and everything finished. My parents are staying with us at the weekend so they’ll be first to really use the bedroom in it’s new form. I hope that it won’t smell too strongly of paint so soon after it is finished!!