A confession….. and it’s not even Good Friday yet!

Ok, so we have been on the go all day… not doing anything much (swimming, library, gardening, cleaning out the sand pit, cycling to the park for a play on the swings…). We got back home at 4.59pm and I knew that Jon needed to eat quickly as he had to be out of the house at 6pm for touch rugby.

So… dinner was a bit trashy! Boil in the bag fish in a butter sauce, Buzz Lightyear potato and veggie ‘spaceships’ and peas.  Abbie picked out all the bits of fish that were in her culinary opinion inadequate; the ‘spaceships’ and peas all went – in fact if you haven’t tried the BL potato things, you can find them in Tescos and they really are yummy!

 

I thought I might as well finish off the meal as we started… so we had vanilla ice cream in a cornet, topped with chocolate sauce (if I’d had Ice Magic it would have been perfect!) and SPRINKLES!!  Abbie asked to put on her own sprinkles, ‘no probs’ I thought…. next moment a pile of sprinkles appears as Abbie has gone for the ‘pour’ option!

A glorious day calls for Sea bass baked in a parcel and a Nigella Greek Salad

 Well… today was gorgeous! A gaggle of mothers and their broods went off to Melsop Park Farm, all organised by Vic (a fantastic job!). It really was a brilliant place, my friend Kathryn describes it as ‘Big Barn Farm’ for those of you in the CBeebies passive watchers club! All the children had a wonderful time bottle-feeding lambs, cuddling baby bunnies and escapee piglets and in the case of Abbie and Mia (seen both cuddling baby rabbits to the left)…. terrorising chickens!  Luckily I was able to get Abbie to drop her plank of wood – I hate to think what may have happened!

 

We picniced for lunch, the children very hungry luckily so the draw of the playground was not too great….. for at least 10 minutes!

 

The weather really was glorious and Abbie and I were excited to see what fish Jon had managed to get for supper – hooray, one of our favourites – Sea Bass!  I quickly set to marinading the thinly sliced red onion and used them in both the Greek Salad and in the parcels of fish.

 

The Recipe for the ‘Ultimate Greek Salad’ by Nigella Lawson (from ‘Forever Summer’) can be found here: http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/the-ultimate-greek-salad-220

I ommitted the fennel and used some of the marinated red onion slices in my parcels – as mentioned below.

 

 Baked Sea Bass in a parcel

 

I make up these parcels after the onions have been marinading in their oil, vinegar, oregano and pepper for about 1 1/2 hours – it really decreases the bitterness of the onions and makes them lovely and sweet.

 

I’ve given per parcel quantities so you can multiply this up depending on how many portions you need

 

Foil – about a 30cm length

Marinaded slices of red onion – about 8 per parcel

Sliced garlic – 1/2 clove per parcel

Rosemary – 1/2 sprig

Sea bass fillet

Splash dry white wine

Salt & Pepper

•  Preheat oven to 190C
• Onto you length of foli lay your marinaded red onion slices, sliced garlic and rosemary
• Flesh down, place your sea bass after a sprinkle of S&P
• Folding in the sides of your parcels, add a splash of white wine and then quickly fold and crunch up the sides to make a foil parcel
• Bake in the oven for 10-12 mins and serve straight away with the juices poured over the top and if you want.. a nice glass of Chablis!

 

 

 

Oh dear…. a poorly girl – were smoked mackerel toasts a good idea?

Abbie was ‘too poorly’ to help me make dinner tonight, but luckily it was quick and easy so I was on hand to give lots of cuddles!
I thought when she sat down that she wouldn’t eat anything, but actually she did eat one piece of the mackerel toast and her salad…. I was quite surprised as this was a new dish for her.
I took the recipe from Nigel Slater’s kitchen diaries – see below… it says feeds 2 but we spread it between 2 + 1 child, and couldn’t finish. It’s really filling!

Smoked mackerel – 200g – skin removed and mashed
Double cream – 3 tblspn plus a little more
Grated parmesan – 3 tblspn plus a little more
Chives – 6
Slices of sourdough bread (or other), 4 lightly toasted

Combine mashed mackerel with 3 tblspn of cream and parmesan, chopped chives and a couple of grinds of pepper.
Pile onto the lightly toasted bread, drizzle with a little cream and sprinkle over a bit more parmesan.
Grill for 3 – 4 minutes until golden and bubbling.