Autumn Sunday (with Hunt-the-Chicken Curry Recipe!)

We did a gorgeous walk yesterday.  It was a lovely Autumn day, all blue skies and little fluffy white clouds, with remnants of purple heather on the hills and the trees turning from dark green to tan and gold.  In the evening the most amazing thing happened.  To the right of us the sun was setting in bands of liquid gold behind the other-worldly contours of Blakey Ridge.  To the left of us, dead opposite, a perfect harvest moon was the most delicate of whites against the drained-lavender sky.  We watched, awe-struck, for several minutes, until the gold of the sunset had turned pink and the moon started to shine pale-gold against a darker sky.

Today it's another kind of perfect Autumn day.  It's grey, drizzly and squally - perfect for pottering about in the kitchen with the radio on, making huge batches of hearty food for the week ahead. 

Cooking is the the one domestic job that I whole-heartedly love - in fact it wouldn't be unfair to say it's the one domestic job that I actually do - and today I'm cooking my current favourite recipe, Hunt-the-Chicken Curry, plus Ratatouille and Lentil, Leek and Carrot soup. 

I've been asked for my Hunt-the-Chicken Curry recipe so, without further ado, here it is.

Hunt-the-Chicken Curry

I can't actually take credit for this recipe, seeing as it's the tikka sauce that makes it, and that comes from Tesco, but the rest is my invention.  It's the sort of recipe that you can adjust infinitely though - replace the butternut squash with aubergine and add mushrooms for example, or use potatoes, carrots and swedes in the Winter (and brussels sprouts - when I lived in Nottingham my friend Lindsay and I used to have a curry from the same takeaway and much wine every Friday night, and Linds' veggie curry used to have brussels sprouts in it.  And they were very nice).

You will need:

1tsb olive oil
1 onion
2 big courgettes or one marrow
1 butternut squash
1 jar Tesco's finest Tikka Paste
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
A big fat chicken breast.  I use Tesco's Finest free-range corn-fed chicken breasts as they're huge and tasty.  They usually weigh in at about 250g.
A tin of chickpeas

I forgot the chicken in this photo!

1. Cut up the onion and fry in the olive oil - just a low heat.

2. While the onions are frying, cut up the courgettes and butternut squash into bite-sized chunks.  When you've finished doing this the onions should have softened nicely.  Chuck the courgettes and butternut squash in the pot and soften for five minutes or so.  Cut up the chicken while you're waiting.
 

3. I don't like frying the meat first when I cook stews, as little bits of meat stick to the bottom of the pan and burn, so I added my chicken at this stage.  Chuck it in and stir everything around until the meat is sealed.

4. Add the tikka paste and stir.  Then add boiling water from the kettle.  I rinse out the tikka paste jar to get every last drop of flavour!  Use just enough water to cover the veg.

5. Cover to bring to the boil, then simmer.  When it's been simmering for about half an hour add the chickpeas.  Simmer for another half an hour or so until the butternut squash is tender.

Makes four big portions at a grand total of 6 Weight Watchers points each and - I worked it out - costs £1.59 per portion.  Result! 

I don't tend to eat this curry straight away, as reheating seems to improve the flavours, especially after freezing.  When I reheat it, I put it in a saucepan and, when it's hot through and through and bubbling, I put a big handful of spinach on top and put the lid on the saucepan.  I let the spinach steam for a couple of minutes and then stir it in.  It just adds that final touch, not to mention bulking it out to make it even more filling and nutritious.

It may surprise some people - especially if they gave birth to me and had to put up with me through the teenage years - but I'm a very tidy cook. 

While I was making my curry, I also made ratatouille.  I'm slightly obsessed with this at the moment.  I eat it with halloumi or venison burgers (I LOVE venison burgers), wholewheat pasta and green veg.  I used a Delia Smith recipe.

The first step is to salt your courgettes and aubergines.  You have to slice them, sprinkle salt on them and then rest a plate and a heavy weight on them.

I do it in layers, first the aubergines and then the courgettes.

Do you like my weight?!  If you're not lucky enough to have an artist/carpenter husband and a home that looks like a studio/workshop you will have to improvise with something more commonly found in a kitchen!

After about an hour, the bitterness and the excess water willl have sweated out.

I wipe the salt off with kitchen roll, then rinse the veg in a colander. 

Then you fry your onions for ten minutes on a low heat, then add the peppers for five minutes.  Delia says to use green and red, but I used orange and yellow today.

Then add the aubergines and courgettes.  If you are using your largest cooking pot to make curry it might be a bit of a squeeze!  Just put the lid on and let all the veg sweat down a bit.

Then add the tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper and give it a stir. 

Simmer, covered, on a low heat for about 45 minutes.  It goes delicious and squidgy and juicy.

Then enjoy contemplating the fruits of your labours!

After/whilst making my curry and ratatouille I also cooked lunch for two - salmon en croute, potatoes, green beans and broccoli for him, venison burger, wholewheat fusilli, ratatouille, green beans and broccoli for me, and then Alastair said that if I made him a coconut cake he'd do the cleaning.  Naturally, I agreed with alacrity!  We had pudding about an hour later when the cake was ready - he had cake and custard and I had a Weight Watchers pudding of crumpet with a teaspoon of honey poured over and topped with 0% fat Greek youghurt (still obsessed...), a kiwi fruit, raspberries and blackberries.  It was delicious - the crumpet was like an extra-fluffy pancake.  Then I had an afternoon nap - a nice treat after a 12-15 mile walk yesterday and my cooking marathon.

Only the lentil soup to do now, and it's bubbling away nearly finished...what a lovely Sunday!

Weight Watchers: the Ninth Week

10st 1lbs on Thursday.  2lbs off!  Chuffed with myself.  It didn't seem too hard this week either, even though I deliberately avoided all between-meals snacks except for fruit and veg after my blow-outs last week (and had to eat reduced rations for four days after indulging in a delicious slice of home-made date and walnut cake at my mother-in-law's). 

I've got a new treat too - the cafe in the new building at work is fantastic, and they make a mean skinny mocha.  I looked forward to it all week, and cunningly scheduled a meeting in the cafe with a colleague on Friday afternoon just so we could have a well-deserved coffee while we planned for the week ahead (Freshers' Week, also known as pandemonium).  I savoured every delicious mouthful - a match made in heaven indeed!

Photo is from here.

It is Autumn

It is Autumn.  Two weeks ago Alastair and I went for a walk, and spent a lovely hour snoozing in a meadow after our lunch.

We couldn't do that now - there's a chill in the air, and there have been frosts in the morning.  Yesterday morning you could still see frost on the ground in the shadows at 8 o'clock.  Late Summer, that glorious time of rich green trees, golden fields and stinging magenta rose bay willow herb, has given us its last few days.

Now the trees are turning and the leaves are falling, but the days are no less beautiful when the sun shines.  That nip in the air in the mornings makes me feel excited, and when the sky is that hard, clear blue I want to be out walking somewhere beautiful...my walks to the next village to catch the bus have been good substitutes.  You notice so much more when you're walking.  There was a perfect sunny morning last week and I noticed so many beautiful things - the shades of tan and gold in the trees, the purple clover in the grass verges, the berries glowing in the hedgerows. 

My garden has been tucked up for the autumn - there's not much going on.  All the vegetables in the veg patches have been pulled up, and the ground has been dug over.  There are vegetables you can grow throughout Autumn and Winter, but wth the exception of a Brussels Sprout plant that Dad gave me (which is looking very large and splended) I haven't planted any.  With two long weekends away and then a couple of weekends where I had to work the poor garden has taken a very back seat recently. 

However, It'll soon be time for planting bulbs and thinking of them tucked up, safe and warm underground, waiting to stir into life when the Winter's over...and then the cycle will begin again.  Round and round...we're all creatures of Nature, whether we know it or not, and it gives me the most immense pleasure to feel connected to the cycle of the seasons.  Life and Death and Life...a garden is human existence in miniature.

Weight Watchers: the Eighth Week

I put on 1lb this week.  10st 3lbs when I weighed in on Thursday.  This is not surprising given my descents from the wagon this week.  As well as the post-walk treats I mentioned in my last post I also had an uncontrollable urge for toast one day last week.  Ah, toast.  My downfall.  Thick, fluffy slices of white bread, oozing with butter and honey...I've slipped into a happy little dream just thinking about it. 

However, returning to reality, I've been really good ever since my little toast occurrence, and am hoping to have lost a pound when I weigh in next week.  I'm not doing enough exercise to lose any more, I don't think, given that I'm still between bikes (but walking for 90 minutes each way to get to work).  We shall see!

Weight Watchers: the Seventh Week

10st 2lbs on Thursday!  Which I was pleased by as it's been a hungry week.  I have now lost 5% of my body weight and got another little bouncing star on my on-line weight tracker, which was received with due excitement.  I celebrated with a superb lunch at La Tasca - I had the Super Foods Salad, which consisted - I quote - of bulgar wheat, red quinoa and lentils, with avocado and rustica tomatoes, marinated in infused lemon oil.  I pushed the boat out and shared a portion of million calorie - and worth every one! - chorizo with my dining companion to add a bit of oomph to my salad, and it was absolutely out of this world.  Along with a green salad for added leafage it was a truly splendid meal.  And then I went to the cupcake cafe and had coffee and a double chocolate cupcake!  

As you may guess from the above I have reached that point where the novelty has worn off a bit and I'm struggling a bit to stay on the wagon.  A failed experiement with an all-protein breakfast before a 12-mile walk at the weekend tipped me over the edge and I went "off-plan" on Saturday evening to the tune of a rather delicious pesto breadstick I found in Hexham Tesco -I have, perhaps fortunately, never seen them in our Tesco - followed by spaghettti bolognaise and by treacle pudding and custard! 

Photo is from here.

Back on the straight and narrow today though, and hoping to stay the same when I next weigh in - hoping for anything else might be pushing my luck!

Farewell and Adieu

Someone said to me the other day that I should blog about cycling to work.  It seems like an opportune time to do it now, as I've just got rid of the bike that I've been cycling on for the past ten years - have just ordered a new one, very excited! - and have just moved out of the building I've been cycling to for the past ten years - we started in a brand new, beautiful, purpose-built work building on Monday.

So - I cycle to work.  It's 5 miles each way, and takes 20-30 minutes on the way, and 35-45 minutes on the way back (it's hilly).  I know the times because I used to have a little computer on my bike which told me exciting things like speed, distance, average speed etc.  I used to race to see if I could beat my time to get in/home every day.  I got the to work journey down to 19 minutes once.  To digress slightly, I don't do speed.  I'm very far from a runner, and even when I was at my fittest with non-knackered knees I could only run 9.30 minute miles.  When I did the Great Notts Bikeride - 82.5 miles, although it was meant to be 75 - I was overtaken by every other person in the 75 mile category, and a fair few in the 50 mile category (although they were racers rather than normal cyclists, were wearing unnaturally tight lycra and were not carrying six litres of water and a substantial picnic in their panniers like I was).  What I do do is stamina.  I have walked over 20 miles in a day before, and I pottered very happily around the 80 mile Great Notts Bikeride at my own pace.  It's my ambition to do 100 miles in a day on the bike. 

Anyway, to return to cycling to work.  When I see people in the corridors when I'm dressed in my cycling gear they usually ask me how far I cycle.  When I tell them, they gasp and say "you must be so fit!".  Er, no!  Anyone under the age of about 60 who's in relatively good health can cycle 5 miles, even if they don't think they can, so cycling to work and back every day doesn't make me fit at all.  It's a nice baseline, but I try to do other exercise as well (am in a bit of a hiatus other exercise-wise due to lack of classes in Durham...but that's a tale for another time).  While you don't need to be fit to cycle 5 miles to work and 5 miles back, you do need to be a) organised, b) not bothered by not looking your best at work and c) determined.  Regarding a) and b), cycling to work is a pain.  You have to pack your clothes for the day, in my case in the old building you have to have a wipe-down with wet-wipes when you get to work and go around with helmet hair all day as there's no shower, and you have to get changed in a random disabled toilet as there are no changing rooms.  The new building has showers and changing rooms - I'm so excited.  Regardng c), most of the time when I cycle to work in Spring, Autumn and Winter, it's hideous.  Cold, windy, rainy, dark...eugh.  However, the Summer makes up for it all, and even in bad weather it's a brilliant feeling to get to work feeling all exercised and smug, and it's a brilliant buffer between a day at work and home. 

I took some photos of my old bike and the old work building the other day to show you the cycling-to-worok routine.

After getting showered and having breakfast, it's time to lay out the work clothes (you'll see why I didn't need a whole outfit later).

Then it's on with the cycling gear...

...and the SPF factor 15 moisturiser.

The bike fairy usually gets my bike ready while I'm messing about upstairs.

Then it's off.  The first part of the journey is on quiet country roads.

The second part is on a green lane with beautiful views of Durham - I am very lucky with my commute.

Then it's arrival at work.  The bike gets parked outside.

 

Then it's changing time (and again after work, which is when this photo was taken) - you can see why I didn't need a whole outfit now!

Weight Watchers: the Sixth Week

10st 4lbs today - I've lost half a stone since I started!  I got a little bouncing star on my on-line weight tracker, which was very exciting.  It's been a good week in that I've eaten well, although I've not done much exercise as I'm "between bikes" at the moment.  So a 1lb weight loss (counting from last Friday) is really good. 

One thing I can't stop talking about, though, is how brilliant I feel for eating an average of 10 portions of fruit and veg a day.  I tell you, forget 5 a day - eat 10 and I promise you will feel the difference within a week.  I feel positively evangelical about the benefits of eating more fruit and veg.  It's actually a lot less difficult than it sounds, and it's not that expensive either.  Because I'm eating so much less meat - stretching one chicken breast over four days in my hunt-the-chicken curry for example! - my weekly shopping bill has actually gone down.  Here's an example day to show how I do it.

Breakfast - either cereal and skimmed milk followed by a couple of portions of fruit (at the moment I'm still gorging on summer fruit, so a typical post-cereal bowl would be a cut-up peach and strawberries), or 0% fat Greek yoghurt (I'm still obsessed) with raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and blueberries (add a banana if you're hungry).

Mid-morning snack - I'm partial to a bowl of melon and a cup of coffee as my mid-morning snack (this was at Pret a Manger after my Dorset trip).

If I'm at work I usually have a Melon Medley from Tesco - very good for snacking at work or on the run.

Lunch - if I'm at work I usually have a houmous or peanut butter sandwich (made with wholewheat bread) and crudites (chopped up carrot, cucumber, celery, pepper, our own mini-courgettes eaten raw - unbelievably delicious - and cherry tomatoes), plus an apple.  If I'm at home I usually spread it all out over a plate and make it look pretty.

At about 4pm I usually have banana - so I'm all ready for cycling home after 5pm - and tea is usually some form of curry, casserole or bake made with tons of vegetables and sometimes a bit of meat.  Recent dinners have included a lovely vegetarian moussaka, bacon, courgette and tomato sauce with wholewheat pasta, ratatouille and baked chicken breast and of course the hunt the chicken curry.  This is today's Sunday lunch - slices of baked red pepper, marrow and aubergine topped with halloumi and tomatoes, on a bed of raw spimach leaves.  Served with our own potatoes from the garden, peas and french beans it made a splendid Sunday lunch!

I usually follow dinner with more fruit for pudding and a Weight Watchers biscuit or cake with a cup of tea for an evening treat - you've got to have treats!

Liz's Home and Garden Blog Goes to Dorset

I'm back!  And fully photo-enabled!  I'm very relieved - I've felt like I was missing a limb not being able to blog! 

I've been desparate to tell you about the absolutely brilliant long weekend I had in Dorset with Jules. 

We stayed in a funky hotel with a sea view...

...and were lucky enough to have one fantastically sunny day for walking and swimming in the sea.

We had amazing views...

...we swam in the bay...

...we walked...

...but we were never far from a pub!

We even swam again in the evening when the sun had gone in (at a different beach).

We looked round pretty Dorset villages...

...and patronised the local pubs!

Finally we pottered aound Portland Castle and experienced some rather more typical English weather on Chessil Beach!

And as for my weekend in food, if last weekend was a celebration of Mediterranean cuisine, this weekend was a celebration of good, honest, British food.  We had a stunningly good full English breakfast cooked by Jules' mum (well, technically it wasn't full, it was bacon, scrambled eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, toast and jam, but it was full in spirit), we had a cream tea with Dorset clotted cream, we had beautiful fish and chips - succulent flaky cod and fluffy, sinfully tasty, chips, served with mushy peas - we had Dorset apple cake, we had Dorset rare-breed pork bangers and mash, and we had apple and blackcurrant crumble and custard (the last day was cold!).  It was all absolutely delicious and I loved it.