My Guilty Kitchen Pleasure

I’ve written about my new secret kitchen vice briefly, but I haven’t actually said what it was, well I’ve found my camera now, so I can show you the lovely shiny packets nestling in my freezer,that to me look just like shiny packets of sweeties. They’re frozen herbs / flavourings from Waitrose’s Cooks Ingredients range and I’m hooked on them like a drug. I started ‘innocently’ enough with just three packets, parsley, coriander and ginger, fast frozen herbage that you can use (so it claims on the back of the packet) just like fresh herbs, straight from the freezer and so far I’ve pretty much found that to be true. None of that nasty chopping business either, so it’s made cooking simple dishes so much easier. I’ve since upped my stash to include chives, chillies (indispensable, I’d happily have chillies in everything) and my last purchase, which I swore I wasn’t going to buy because that really was lazy, garlic, but anything that shaves a minute or two of kitchen prep when it’s a miracle I’ve got the energy to cook, is fine by me. And you know the best bit, I think using them is actually more economical. You know usually stuff that’s been pre-chopped and stuffed in a fancy packet must be more expensive than the basic ingredient, but I don’t think it is. Each pack (off the top of my head) is £1.29, slightly more expensive than if you were to buy a chive, coriander or parsley plant from the supermarket (but definitely only slightly) and a bit more expensive than a ginger root or a packet of chillies or 3 bulbs of garlic but I wouldn’t get to use half the chive / coriander / parsley plant before I killed it and had to go and buy another, same with ginger, even though I keep it in the fridge it’ll go horrible before I have a chance to finish using it and as for the number of half chillies I’ve thrown away because I only need half a chilli. So I’m feeling quite economically smug that I’ve got a ready supply of flavourings in the freezer (perfect for livening up budget meals) that I can use small portions of when I want to and not have to worry about the rest of it spoiling and me wasting my money. Even the garlic (which using that does make me feel lazy), I’m sure there’s more garlic in a packet of the frozen stuff than there is from my normal 3 bulbs and it’s not going to start sprouting when I stop looking!

I got my snowman

After a lengthy and tortuous game of Pop to the Shops (me, Girl Lacer, Boy Lacer and three soft toys), I did manage to persuade Girl Lacer to come out into the front garden with me to make a snowman. We in fact made two, the photo above is ‘mine’ but Girl Lacer arranged the stones.

After Boy Lacer had seen the snowmen from the front door, he actually wanted to go out to and considering this is the boy who has been refusing to step on anything white for two days, he had a nice time scrunching through the snow and making little snow balls / snowmen.

The snow is starting to slowly melt now, well you can at least start to see the outline of my poor squished winter salad pots now, although more snow is forecast on Thursday and Friday. I’d like the snow to hang around until at least Saturday as I’d like to go sledging with Girl Lacer again, it’s just a little difficult to do so with Boy Lacer in attendance to, although I might see if I can figure out a way, after all may not get a chance to use the sledge again for another 20 years! It’s quite depressing seeing the snow slowly drip away, it has made a highly entertaining start to what must be one of the dullest of months.

Whitechapel

Mmmm, can I not post about a programme with Rupert Penry-Jones in? Mmmm no, obviously not. I caught Whitechapel last night, the new crime drama on ITV about a copy cat killer copying the crimes of Jack the Ripper. Rupert Penry-Jones plays the new fast track DI who wasn’t considered a real cop by the rest of his team and that bloke that always plays grumpy old men in period dramas was for once in modern dress as the rebellious DS. Rupert Penry Jones was perfect in the part, fastidious, beautifully dressed, a bit neurotic, it was like they wrote the part with him in mind. The murders were completely chilling. If you’re in the UK I’m sure you can probably catch it again on ITV.com, definitely worth a look.

At least snow makes February slightly more exciting

Still plenty of snow today, Girl Lacer was off school, Mr. Lacer was working from home but at least Boy Lacer had playgroup (and he got very excited at the thought of showing his sister his playgroup). After me and Girl Lacer dropped Boy Lacer off at playgroup we went for a walk in the park, unencumbered with the pushchair. Going to the park through a different gate than yesterday, it involved walking along a road through some very beautiful snowy woodland. Beautiful against the bright blue skies (which was a change from the snow grey skies of yesterday).

Now this particular path to the park is normally extremely muddy and it was just as muddy today, except with the cold and the snow the top of each muddy patch had iced over but as you put your weight on the muddy icy crust, the ice would break with a delicious crack and thick muddy water would come squelching out.

Once in the park we were greeted with sights like this

We tried to make a snowman but we got the snow ball to about the size of a smallish snowman head and Girl Lacer started to complain her feet were cold, so we went home again, back along the snowy woodland path. Who would have thought a road like this existed in London?

Now I want to make a snowman in the front garden, where the snow is still unbelievably thick and Girl Lacer doesn’t want to because she doesn’t want to get her feet cold, bah hum bug!