Tana Ramsay’s Chicken Skewers with Sweet and Sour Sauce / Nigella Lawson’s Doughnut French Toast

Managed to get some more cooking done over the weekend, including two dishes from my new influx of cookbooks. Tana Ramsay’s Chicken Skewers with Sweet and Sour Sauce (from her latest book) was ‘ok’, the sweet and sour sauce was nice and easy to make, Girl Lacer liked the sauce but refused to touch the chicken, Boy Lacer didn’t touch either, Mr. Lacer liked the chicken (he’s normally not a big fan) because the marinade made the chicken nice and tender, me, I thought it was nice but too much of a hassle for an everyday meal.

And now onto the fun part, Nigella Lawson’s Doughnut French toast from her latest book Nigella Express, oh my god it was good! Cookbooks should have scratch and sniff pages because just the smell of the french toast when cooking was just like walking past one of those mini-doughnut stands at fairgrounds! Definitely up there in the ranks now as a ‘new favourite recipe’ along with the cheddar cheese risotto I wrote about earlier, also from the same book, so far Nigella Express is not doing my waistline any favours but it sure is bringing a smile to my face! But back to the doughnut french toast, I think next time I make them (and there will be a next time), I might experiment a bit and instead of frying the bits of bread as they are in their delicious coating before coating them in sugar (I told you this recipe wasn’t healthy), I’ll make some strawberry jam sandwiches up, then soak them in their coating before frying them and then coating them in sugar, then they’ll be strawberry doughnut french toast!

First run after a summer break

Just had my first run after a bit of an unintentional summer break and I’m basking in that lovely post run glow. Feeling rather glad that I haven’t completely lost my ability to run, I managed 20 minutes, my norm before the break was about 30 minutes and I felt relieved that after the normal first 10 minutes of hell, that the running as usual got easier. 

My last run was July some time, shortly after another run where I’d had a bit of a nasty fall. I had tried to get back onto the horse so to speak but that run was cut short to and I didn’t run for the rest of July or August. Not really because of the fall but because I think in my first year of running (I took up the sport in January), I’ve discovered that as far as summer running goes, I’m not much of a fan. I know a lot of people probably run just in the summer, preferring to hide away when it gets cold, wet and dark but me, I think I’m the opposite, the appeal of doing something that is going to make you hot and sweaty when the weather alone is going to make you hot and sweaty is not great. Whereas a nice run to warm you up when it’s getting a little chilly outside is just perfect! One of my favourite runs of this year so far has to have been an early morning run in Richmond Park last Spring, the sun was rising but there was still a slight mist hanging above the fields and a chill in the air. In the distance you could just see through the mist a group of deer and a stag grazing, it was beautiful and if I hadn’t been out there running, I wouldn’t have seen it (being the only people out there that morning were other runners plus dog walkers and I don’t have a dog). So, here’s to another running season for me, not sure what I’m going to do if it starts getting icy, will probably have to give running a miss then but other than that bring on the autumn / winter weather!

Flylady day 14 and other stuff

Battling against the detritus tide of my family. I did do my various prescribed segments of housework yesterday; 2 minutes on the hotspot on top of the dishwasher to create more space so Mr. Lacer can put dirty dishes on top of the dishwasher instead of my clean chopping board next to it (I can hope); 5 minute room rescue in my bedroom, only to be quickly wrecked, literally 5 minutes later by a rampaging Boy Lacer; 15 minute tidy up in the living room although this was when the kids were still up so all 4 of us were in there and I spent most of the time trying not to trip up on someone and finally I did one of Kelly’s missions which was to clear my dining room table (which is in the living room) which really needed doing and embaressingly the ratio of rubbish that was on that table to stuff we needed to actually keep, well the rubbish won. Was not impressed with Mr. Lacer though yesterday, I took the kids out for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon whilst the flat was looking a complete state, I had hoped when I got back that with the flat to his self it’d be a little tidier when we got back because it is far easier to clean when no one else is there, was it tidier (I wasn’t expecting a miracle completely clean job)? No! What it looked like he’d done was spend most of the time playing a computer game and then the rest of it laying on the bed as the game had made him motion sick! I don’t know the right tack with Mr.Lacer and housework, he doesn’t like me nagging him, I don’t like nagging him but then when I don’t nag him, he doesn’t do anything and then says “Well you need to tell me to do it”, I can’t win! So I am hoping (from reading other Flybabies testimonials) that if I stick with the Flylady system he’ll get tidier by following me by example without me saying anything, it actually seems to be working a bit that way with Girl Lacer and her bedroom, so I can hope, but I got 38 years of experience to battle against with Mr.Lacer. Anyway today is reading up the calendar habit, something I had to learn a couple of years ago, so no problem there, I use the Organised Mum calendars, I can highly recommend them.

In ‘other stuff’ I watched My Super Ex-Girlfriend last night, it was on our DVD online rental queue as filler really, just in case something we really wanted wasn’t available and oh my god I felt like my brain was being rolled in candyfloss and that was not a good thing! I knew it wasn’t really my sort of movie just from the opening DVD menu! I’d expected so much more from a Uma Thurman movie. I didn’t think they still made movies which open with sweeping shots of New York with some fairy tale orchestral sequence and then I realised they still make them, I just don’t watch them any more! Must prune my DVD rental list to make sure nothing else like this is on there!