Balloon Tennis

Not a backhand but kind of a backwards forehand!

After forcing the kids to watch Wimbledon, we decided to get them having a go, but we didn't have any of the right equipment so we made do with plates and a balloon. The concept worked well enough but unfortunately I don't think we have another Andy Murray in our midsts, though this shot by Max was pretty impressive!

Holiday

We had a lovely time in Portugal. We made lots of sandcastles, pirate ships, cars, mermaids and even a bumbo for Charlie - it didn't work that well though as he kept eating the sand!

Soups of the week - Chilled Summer Soup & Broad Bean, Pea, Mint & Feta Soup

We have been doing this for a while during the week but never posted about it before. In an attempt to diet for summer Tom and I have been having soup for supper Mon-Thurs. We make 2 soups and alternate them each night. The fact we are eating soup in the middle of the summer does not matter at all as, let's not forget, we are in Scotland.
However, I have made an attempt to make them summer soups this week as the sun has shone a little!

Broad Bean, Pea, Mint & Feta Cheese Soup

Made by cooking up a packet of frozen broad beans (I didn't pop them out the skins, just blended well), half a small pack of frozen peas, with 2 veg stock cubes (Knorr reduction ones), and blending it with a big handful of mint leaves, about half a pack of feta and some s&p. Garnished with a bit of olive oil and a sprinkling of feta. 

Chilled Summer Soup

Made by putting the following on a blender and whizzing like crazy; a cucumber, 6 tomatoes (with the skins removed), 2 peppers (one red, one yellow were used here), a baby gem lettuce, generous handfuls of parsley, basil & chives, about 6 tabespoons of good olive oil and 3 of red wine vinegar, s&p. Garnished with fine dice tomatoes, cucumber, peppers and basil sprig. Serve chilled.

Tom's birthday Ice Cream Maker

Source: inthemoodtobesubdued

Thank you to everyone who helped contribute to Tom's birthday pressie this year. We have ordered it - this is the one he went for;

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513JN2NYFWL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Smart eh? And he is so very, very, very, excited! Expect lots of ice cream posts in 5-7 working days! We both have loads of ideas for flavours. Better get clearing some space in the freezer!

We love you Daddy!

Happy Father's Day to the best Daddy there is. We love you very, very much and hope we all have a lovely day together in the sun in Portugal.

Ice Lolly? One slice or two?

The cups I have are just too big, and they take up a lot of space in the freezer. This seemed like a fantastic solution to all the problems!

I needed to use up some ageing fruit, so I bunged 3 nectarines, 2 bananas and half a punnet of blueberries in the blender with some yoghurt and orange juice. Whizzed it all up and put it in a loaf mould. After a few hours in the freezer it was stiff enough to put the sticks in without them falling over. Put it back in the freezer to firm up fully over night.

I had to leave it out for 5 minutes before it was soft enough to cut with the knife, but it worked well.  

And even Charlie tried a little bit - it was his first ever food. I think he liked the feeling of the cold on his gums more than the taste of the fruit!

Flying Duplo Ducks

The boys made these birds yesterday. They reminded me of Hilda Ogden's flying wall ducks.

Ship ahoy, ya filthy bilge rat!

Mum sent Max some cute little pirate cupcake cases and flags as a little pressie for being a brave boy in the hospital last week, so we made them this afternoon.
We decided to go the whole hog and build a pirate ship in the garden as a surprise for when Ollie came home from school. We fashioned a ship out of 2 garden chairs around one of the strange posts there are in the garden for hanging your washing from. It made a brilliant mast for our jolly roger and our paper sails. We pegged on a couple of pieces of material to make the sides of the boat. We made a steering wheel out of silver foil (which I have recently discovered is a great material to build random props quickly, easily and cheaply) and a telescope from a kitchen roll and foil.

  

We had great fun, pretending to sink, killing the ticking crocodile, walking with peg legs and going and finding the treasure buried in one of the plant pots! And the mess left around their chops from the black icing on the cakes made great makeshift beards.

Banoffee Pie (It's been a long time old friend!)

Banoffee Pie. It has been a long time since we made one of these. Probably at least 8 years. One of my favourite memories from starting to date my highly trained chef husband, was eating out and him saying very seriously "I wonder why they call it Banoffee Pie?". We still laugh about that, what fun we have!

It is such a simple pudding, but it is so good!

Hobnobs (300g) and butter  (70g) base

1 tin condensed milk - boiled for 2.5hrs

3 bananas, sliced

250ml double cream whipped with 1 tbsp icing sugar & 1 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate shaved with a vegetable peeler

Thai Pork Burgers

After eating basically nothing for 2 days due to being in hospital with Max, these yummy Thai burgers made by the hubby were an incredibly welcome site!

He mixed minced pork with chilli, finely grated fresh ginger, a pinch of 5 spice, spring onions, fresh coriander a splash of fish sauce and lime zest, and one egg to bind. He fried them off and served in a seeded bun with some sweet chilli sauce, some salad leaf and the best chips in the world. He is the best husband in the world.
Try them, they are amazing. They have beef dripping on and are sooo good!

Slow roast shoulder of lamb with fennel lemon roast new pots & a gorgeous salad

A lovely mix of summery food with a warm comfort factor perfect for the Scottish summer weather (i.e. cold and rainy!)
Method:
We slow roasted a lovely shoulder of Scottish Lamb, at 160*c for 3 hours on a vegetable and herb trivet.  We roasted new potatoes, half cut, with chopped fennel, quarter chop lemons, olive oil & seasoning at 220*c for 30-35mins adding cherry tomatoes in the last 10mins. This was a move on from the lemony potatoes we did a few weeks ago and these ones were delicious. The tomatoes, lemon and fennel all break down and create almost a dressing for the potatoes, so yum.
The salad contained, tender-stem broccoli, baby asparagus, grilled marinated artichokes, radish, green olives, celery and italian mixed leaf, with a balsamic vinaigrette (made with the oil from the artichokes)

Lolly delights

 We made these lollies by freezing angel delight (and it has to be angel delight, supermarket substitutes are useless!) in small size plastic cups with wooden lolly sticks put in. The one on the left is a triple layer of chocolate, butterscotch and banana, then the one on the right uses the banana flavour but I split it into 5 bowls and mixed it with food colourings to make it a rainbow. Everything tastes better when it is a rainbow!
N.B. You need to make sure they are frozen in a compartment free of strange freezer smells (so not next to the thai curry paste like I did!) and then run the outside of the cup under a warm tap and pop them from the bottom to break the vacuum.

Nectarine Flower Tart

I had some nectarines that needed using up so I made a quick tart for the boys pudding. It looked really pretty, like a flower. The recipe is embarrassingly easy as usual!

1 slab frozen puff pastry, rolled out into a small dish (about 18cm dia)

3 nectarines cut into wedges about 1 cm thick. Arrange the nectarine in the pastry.

1 tablespoon of apricot jam warmed for 30seconds in the microwave with about 2 tsp vanilla extract stirred in, brushed on top generously. 

Cook at 200*c for about 20-25mins or until looks done.

Don't do what I did and brush the jam on the pastry edge - it burns (as you can see!)

Cereal excavation

Max decided to put his cereal (he was eating it without milk) on the floor and dig through it with his toy diggers. I took a deep breath and then decided that although I was mad about the mess it was actually a pretty creative thing to think up so I made him put it all into a baking tray and we were all happy. He was happy for a surprisingly long time in fact so thought I would post the idea as a way to entertain kids!

Saturday Family Breakfast

Today for family breakfast we had toast cups with eggs, spinach and hot smoked salmon. They worked well for a change to the normal egg, bacon and tomato. The hot smoked salmon was a bit too peppery for the boys tastes though. To make you simply use a bit of oil in a muffin tin then place in the bread and fill with whatever you want (though the egg is kind of the point!) and bake in an oven for 10-15 mins. They make a novel change to standard eggs on toast.

Sea trout with calamari and scallops and pesto summer vegetables

We finally had some sunshine! So we had a sunshine supper. Grilled sea trout with some calamari and queen scallops served with some buffalo mozzarella and pesto summer veg (i.e. tender stem broccoli, asparagus tips, sugar snaps, french beans and radishes, all blanched and dressed with some homemade pesto). Best of all served with some chilled Sancerre rose wine!

Chewy Flapjack with Marzipan middle

Made these with Max this morning. Another super easy recipe, so he did a lot of the making. As far as I am concerned the perfect flapjack is chewy in the middle with a crunch on the outside,with a high fruit content. But whenever I make flapjack in the oven they never come out chewy enough. Admittedly with this microwave recipe you loose the crispy outer but I think the crunch is worth sacrificing for the chew, plus it is super fast for quick gratification!

1. In a microwave safe container (I use a 1 litre square tuperware container) put 75g butter or spread, 5tbsp light brown sugar and 2 tbsp golden syrup and heat on high for 1-2 mins (until butter melts)
2. Mix in 150g oats and however much fruit you like (I do 100g mixed raisins, sultana, apricots), squash down and microwave on high for 5 mins. (This may be different for a more up to date microwave- you need to be sure the middle is bubbling but that the outer edge doesn't go too far and get too hard) It will be soft when it comes out but put it in the fridge and the sugar and butter will turn to the chewy texture you are after. Turn out and cut into squares
3. This time around I tweaked it with a layer of marzipan in the middle. I used about a third of a packet of shop bought marzipan. I squashed down half the oat mix then put the rolled out marzipan on top then covered with the rest of the oat mix before I cooked it. It is gorgeous, but then we all love marzipan so we would think so.