Jamie Oliver’s Crunchy Thai Salad

Now I don’t usually write about recipes I’ve made before but it’s been a long long time since I’ve made this one, I stopped making it because Mr. Lacer can’t stand its smell! But don’t believe him, it smells gorgeous!

It’s a ‘getting on a bit’ Jamie Oliver recipe this one from I think the second Naked Chef book but you just can’t beat his early books, these days I find his more recent books a little bit too ‘posh’. I still love him but I much preferred him in his London warehouse flat days. Anyway I’ve found the recipe for you here on the Food Network (be patient, it takes a while to load or is that just my really poorly laptop?) but basically it’s lots of crunchy, fresh salad vegetables, whatever you like / whatever you’ve got in the fridge (I used bean sprouts, red pepper, rocket, cucumber and chilli today),mixed with some cold egg noodles if you want to make it a bit more substantial and the piece de resistance of this dish the thai dressing, go to the food network page for the full recipe but basically olive oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, brown sugar, lime juice, ginger, garlic and chilli (although I skip the chilli as I put it in the salad).

Talking of chilli, this salad was my first use of my first crop of ring of fire chillies. They came on later than my other chilli plants, the ones that produced the fatter chillies. I thought that my thinner ring of fire chillies would taste even hotter than my fatter chillies but actually, well how can I put it, they’re in a different league to each other, it’s like comparing red and white wine. My fatter chillies (it annoys me that I don’t know their full name but I wasn’t supplied with it) have a sharp chilli burn pretty much as soon as you put them in your mouth, they are hot chillies! Whereas my ring of fire chillies start off with this lovely gentle warmth that grows on you and it’s only once you’ve eaten a whole dish with the chillies in (I used half a chilli) do you realise your lips are burning!

I think it’s Autumn

Yuck, the weather is grey, miserable, cold and I’m seriously (honestly) considering purchasing a mangle to help me get through my washing mountains quicker, so if anyone has any advice about using a mangle (not just purchasing a mangle to look at – most of the ones I’ve seen seem to be billed as useful garden ornaments!). I bet you’re reading this now either laughing and / or thinking I’m nuts but I’m billing mangles (in my head at least) as the new green 21st century way to tackle your laundry! My laundry problem is that I have trouble drying the clothes, it’s great if it’s actually sunny and I can use the washing line but otherwise I’m stuck, specially in what is technically ‘summer’ so I can’t even put a rack of washing near a radiator. Our washing machine is a washer – drier, we don’t have the space for a separate tumble drier and the drier bit is useless and also (considering this winter’s fuel price rises and the environment anyway) energy guzzling. So, heatwaves excluded I always have a backlog of washing as I can’t get it dry. Mr. Lacer thinks we don’t have the space for a mangle, which is probably true but considering they’re billed now as garden ornaments, couldn’t I keep it in the garden? In my research I’ve seen mention of mangle cloths, are they strictly necessary is what I’d like to know? And how do you use them? I know mangles are meant to cut down drying time and also save on ironing (so another potential energy saver) although not that I iron anyway!

Anyway we did make it to the picnic yesterday even with the icky weather but only one other mum was there. Still Boy Lacer managed a first in the playground, managing to completely climb one of the bendy ladders, I’m not sure how to describe the ladder except it’s a bit like a bendy r shape and I think easier for Boy Lacer to climb as it requires more work from his arms as when he goes over the curve he’s almost in a crawling position and his arms I think are stronger than his legs. He was having a weird day yesterday though, instead of “no”, his favourite word, it was “say no”. The speech therapist has said in the past that she thinks “no” is his standard response and he doesn’t always mean it, so I think Boy Lacer’s “say no” yesterday was his way of saying he definitely meant it!

After the playground we went back to the other mum’s house. Girl Lacer’s friend has a two year old little sister and after a while Boy Lacer was brave enough to venture from the living room where the grown-ups were, up the stairs and into the two year olds bedroom, which she didn’t like, so she hit Boy Lacer and of course Boy Lacer screamed. But with a bit of supervision from both of us they did sort of play with each other for a while, well they both played with the same puzzle at the same time.

Today we went to the library, there was what I thought a free theatre activity there (I’m sure I read ages ago on a poster that it was free), but it turned out it was a £1 for the over 3s. I didn’t have any money on me in my new credit crunch inspired frugal existence (not that frugal though, me wielding a Paypal account is a dangerous thing, I don’t even have to stop and find my wallet, I was browsing Angry Chicken’s blog yesterday and she was talking about these, gorgeous ‘grown-up’ stamps and I couldn’t resist . . . both. I ‘justified’ it by saying to myself I’d use them to make cards and therefore they’ll pay themselves back in time). Anyway I was sans money as I haven’t had a chance to get to a cash machine yet this week (nearest one has been removed), Girl Lacer was already being dressed in pirate gear as they didn’t realise she didn’t have a ticket and Boy Lacer was around the wrong side of the counter crying his eyes out as he couldn’t get back to me partly as the library was so crowded. Luckily my friend was there and she loaned me the quid. The show itself was probably great if you were a 4 year old, a bit yawn if you’re 33. Not to great either if you’re 2, Boy Lacer spent most of it climbing over me, asking for lots of kisses (his way of getting reassurance) and when they started talking about desert islands he looked around and goes to me “Where’s the beach?” (poor thing we still haven’t been to the seaside yet).

So now we’re back home after a quick detour to the playground again. I should really, really do some housework, I’d love to be able to invite a friend over just like that, like my friend did yesterday but I’d look at this place and die of embarrassment.