a country mouse gets messy

It was another rainy day today, despite the forecast of sun, so Little R and I spent some time in the kitchen, drawing, making things and cooking. I love rainy afternoons at home. This is the little bead heart she made with ikea's version of hama beads (thanks, andamento, for that tip http://andamentoblog.blogspot.com/). The heart is on top of country mouse's recent favourite items, two thick knitted pot holders, also from ikea, and fortuitously reduced to 99p.

This next photo is Little R making a shell jar. Having stripped the Morayshire beaches of shells we now feel obliged to do something useful with them. We used some of the Early Learning Centre air-drying clay to cover an empty jam jar then pushed some of the shells into the clay. Very Blue Peter. If all goes well we will varnish it tomorrow.

Tonight's tea was quite successful, and seasonal. It was a Sophie Dahl recipe from Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights (p.65) called Grilled Salmon With Baked Onions. I baked the salmon in foil at the same time as the onions were baking in an effort to simplify things and it worked fine.

I had some lovely salmon fillets (http://www.fencebay.co.uk/) from the farmers' market so used that, along with 10 large shallots, about 150ml light single cream and 50g grated parmesan, plus some lemon juice and butter for baking the salmon. You peel the onions then boil them whole for 20 mins (I found 10mins was enough really) then drain, put into a small ovenproof dish, pour over the cream, scatter with parmesan and bake for about half an hour. The salmon goes in about 15 mins before the end. I can see that it would have looked prettier and probably tasted better too had the salmon been grilled and crispy but convenience wins over prettiness for country mouse, and it did look a lot better than would appear from the unappetising photo of burnt yellow slop below, which I publish in a spirit of blogging integrity while resolving to learn to work my camera a bit better.

I didn't try to persuade Little R that baked onions would be delicious and instead gave her pizza and sprouts. She was very pleased to find that is it sprout season again as they are her favourite vegetable. I have a photo somewhere of her standing holding a huge stem of sprouts, almost as tall as her little self, looking like she'd like to eat them raw.

The previous night's dinner was also a success. After the fish-in-conflakes debacle I thought I'd have a go at homemade chicken nuggets and chips instead. I used the Netmums cookery book, Feeding Kids: 120 Foolproof Recipes.http://www.amazon.co.uk/Feeding-Kids-Foolproof-Recipes-Netmums/dp/0755316045 I have had this book for ages but have not really used it as I still feel that Little R should eat the same things we do within reason, just chopped up a bit smaller, and so I don't usually give her "kid food."

Anyway, I embarked on the recipe for chicken nuggets (p. 49) thinking it would be easy. Well, it wasn't technically hard, but boy did it make a mess and by the time I'd finished I'd used every pot in the place. Should you not mind mess and have lots of cooking equipment, then I recommend it as it was a big hit with Little R and DH.

You need 2 large chicken breasts, 2-3 slices stale or lightly toasted white or brown bread, 3 tbsps (I had used at least 8tbsp by the end) plain flour, 1 medium egg, beaten and thinned with a little milk, and a little olive oil. You first have to make the bread into breadcrumbs. This would be literally a whizz in a food processor but poor old country mouse doesn't have one so had to grate the bread by hand. What a drag that was. Then you put all the breadcrumbs into a big food bag, put all the flour into another and put the beaten egg into a bowl. Then cut the chicken into bite sized chunks and prepare for things to get very sticky as you shake the chicken pieces in the bag of flour, then dip individually (the only way it will work) into the egg then shake in the bag of breadcrumbs then place on oiled baking sheet and press more breadcrumbs on top with your egg-and-breadcrumb encrusted fingers. Pray the phone doesn't ring in the middle of this. That's them uncooked, below.

Brush with olive oil then bake for 15-20 mins at 180deg, turning half way. So far, then, I had used a sharp knife, a chopping board, a grater and a baking tray (actually a Pampered Chef pizza stone - cost so much I have to use it at every opportunity), so the washing up was under control; after my neurotic sterilising of every surface touched by raw chicken, that is. But while I was doing the chicken nuggets I was multi tasking, always a mistake, by making homemade chips as well. This involved a pot, another sharp knife, another chopping board and another baking tray, and so the pile of washing up grows.

The chips are a Lorraine Kelly recipe, from Lorraine Kelly's Junk Free Children's Eating Plan http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=junk+free+children%27s+eating+plan. This is another book I've had for a while and plan to make more use of. It is really good for planning what to eat for the week as it suggests recipes for chicken/turkey days, fish days, bean days, vegetarian days, "you choose" days plus recipes for weekends, lunches and puddings.

Anyway, the recipe for chips is on p.141. You scrub some baking potatoes then cut into wedges and boil for ten minutes before chilling them again in cold water. You then use your fingers to toss them in a big bowl with a little olive oil (that's another bowl for the washing up right there, plus the pot for the 3 min boil) and bake for 25 mins at, she says, 220deg but I just put them in at the same time as the chicken and they were ready. Turn them a couple of times during cooking and the final result of all this palaver is shown below.

Can you imagine the state of the kitchen by the time this little lot was dished up? Adding on the 2 pots for the peas and sweetcorn, all I can say is thank goodness I've got a dishwasher, and thank goodness I don't have a full time job. There is absolutely no way anyone could cook this for their kids' dinner after a day at work. The hunt for EASY good dinners continues.

PS my dishcloth and fairy liquid fetish continues to flourish and I was able to console myself with a good bubbly session of worktop washing afterwards.

a country mouse gets sudsy

We have quite a colony of big furry butterflies at the moment, despite the frequent heavy rain, and often have 10 or 12 crashing around on the buddleia bush outside the kitchen window all at the one time. If they weren't so beautiful I'd call it an infestation. I just googled to find out the correct term for a group of butterflies and, euphonically enough, it is a rabble of butterflies.

And inside the kitchen window is the sink. Below are some pictures of my number one obsession: dishwashing. I cannot get enough of soap suds (has to be Fairy Liquid), sponges, knitted dishcloths and wooden dish brushes. I have to actively force myself to put things into the dishwasher sometimes instead of filling up a nice deep basin and plunging in up to the elbows.Most of the cloths in the basket above are from Ikea (should you be inspired to stock up) and those below are from Aldi. They come in packs of 3 and are really cheap. I love the luxury of using one once then tossing it into the laundry. They are so thick and soft, and just get better and better the more they are washed. They're also good for washing the worktops as their texture means they scrub as they go along but they are soft enough not to leave any marks. I love to fill up a big basin of really hot soapy water and wash the worktops and the sink. Hmm, am I revealing too much here? Is this actually a little beyond an obsession?

I had the perfect excuse for a thorough dishwashing session today though as I bought the little coffee cups and saucers below in the charity shop this morning for £3. They are bone china, and really unusual. Also completely intact, if a little dusty.

Straight into the hot water with them, and now here is the squeaky clean result:

Oops, a bit blurry again, but you get the general idea. I have promised myself I will not leave them to gather dust in a cupboard but will use them regularly and enjoy them. I had been pining for a cute little plate I'd seen in Country Living but could not justify the expense and am so glad now that I didn't succumb. Here is the link so you can have a little drool:

http://www.johnlewis.com/230545979/Product.aspx It is sweet, but stay-at-home Country Mice can't be choosers and I am very happy with my pre-loved coffee cups instead.

Time for a coffee and perhaps a bit more apple cake and then - hooray! - there'll be a cup and a plate to wash up. Splish splash splosh.

a country mouse bakes lemon fairy cakes

Now that Little R is 4 it is so much easier for me to get a run at making things and with all this rainy weather, cooking and baking in the warm kitchen with Radio 4 in the background is becoming quite addictive. This is the second time I have made these fairy cakes and I plan to make them again tomorrow to take along to my sister's house as she is hosting a joint Pampered Chef/Jamie Oliver cookware party (she is an inveterate multi-tasker) and is expecting a crowd.

The recipe is from this month's Country Homes and Interiors, which I bought by mistake thinking it was Country Living. That will teach me to pay attention as at £3 plus each I can't now justify buying Country Living this month. Oh it's hard being a country mouse.

The recipe is very easy if you have an electric beater. You put 150g of softened lightly salted butter (I used unsalted), 150g caster sugar, 175g self raising flour, 3 medium eggs, 1 tsp vanilla extract and the zest of an unwaxed lemon into a bowl and beat it all up until smooth. Then spoon into paper cases and bake at 180deg (fan) for 20 mins. I found less than 15 minutes was enough. I misread the recipe and added 3 tbsps of lemon juice to the batter when it was meant to go into the icing sugar for the icing at the end but the cakes were really nice with it so I will keep it that way for the future. The lemon icing is 150g icing sugar plus enough lemon juice to make the right consistency. I found that was too much icing as the recipe only made 12 cakes but perhaps I should have spun out the mixture to make 16 cakes as they rose high in the oven and now look like mini iced volcanoes.

I see the photos are in the wrong order again. Next time I will upload in reverse order and hope that works.

The first photo (which obviously should be the last one in the sequence) shows the best bit of the afternoon's activities and my current obsession - hot soapy water with fairy liquid and lots of cloths, sponges and dishwashing brushes. I have stacks of folded knitted cloths. The next exciting instalment of a country mouse writes may even reveal them to the public gaze....