Cluck's Corner of the Internet
Other than the 2012 Olympics, and seasonal Royal events, it’s not often that we feel a collective pride in being British. Despite the date, it’s July and it’s sunny, and we get see a Brit take the Wimbledon title. Claiming my Celtic heritage on this one 🙂
Too hot to cook so a late lunch of prawns on salad with a chilli, soy and sesame dressing. All out of Pimms so will have to have a Hendricks and T. Oh the hardship… in pre-holiday close down so only have lemon to garnish and no cucumber!
Wow, yesterday was a big old day. Up and into town on first (off-peak) train of the morning. Camera went flat on train so got no photos all day! Hopped on Jubilee line from Waterloo to London Bridge and spent a very pleasant hour moseying around Borough Market with a take away from Monmouth Coffee.
Enjoyed lots of charcuterie and cheese samples, and bought some to bring home.
Back on Jubilee line to North Greenwich. Passed Boris in the station, as you so, and headed to the Meridian Line. Went into the O2 and gapped at the inside of the structure. Grabbed a quick lunch at GBK – Paleo friendly bun-less burgers. Good stuff.
Back outside into the sunshine and onto the Emirates Skyline cable car across the Thames. Saw it a few weeks back when I was in town for work and thought, must try that. 1 word : AWESOME!!!!
Hubby got lots of iPhone pics as we flew over to the Queen Victoria Docks. At the other end, well there’s not that much. ExCeL has come a long way since I last had an event there and there are a couple of hotels but it’s the City Airport and island area that has been hugely regenerated. New houses, little shops, nice riverside walk areas. Can’t say I’d move there as it’s a heck of a long way out, as our DLR journey back to Tower Gateway proved, but for people who work in Canary Wharf it could be pretty nice.
Took the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) as hubby hadn’t been on before, and got to see a lot of the area. Some not so pretty, but better than being underground on a hot day. Thought it would be good to take the underground to St James park instead of walking, but big mistake on stuffy tube train. Popped up to ground level and strolled in the shade along the park to Buckingham Palace. Moment of patriotic pride at how good the place looked with the flags out. Snooty snigger at tourists filming nothing thru the gate with iPads. Why?! Do you really think HRH is going to wander out into the yard with the corgis? Is Philip going to bring out the bins in his dressing gown?? Dodged through the Hoy ploy and got back on the road to Belgravia. Then remembered we didn’t want to go to Belgravia at all and actually needed to head back to Piccadilly Circus. Sigh. So at 4pm on a Friday afternoon in tourist season we took the tube to Piccadilly just to go to Whole Foods. Never disappoints. If we lived nearer one of these stores, we’d go broke bloody quick! Ducked through some side streets to a quiet Pret a Manger for restorative caffeine and water, and aircon, to plan our evening……..
Just a quick post this morning as we’re off London today.
Route has been carefully planned to take in Borough Market, Ottolenghi and a pop up Street Food venue – seeing a theme? 😉
Going to eat until my tummy goes pop!
Pics and updates later if I can still move 🙂
For many, 4th July involves flag-cake and family time. For me – it’s my wedding anniversary! 🙂
Thank you to my wonderful husband of 5 years. It’s not always been easy but you make me smile, even when I don’t want to, and I can’t imagine life without you. (who would bring my tea?!).
Love you madly – mwah x
Bit of a late post today as I was disorganised this morning and had to drive to a Customer site.Â
No breakie, snacks or packed lunch prepared. Gulp. Managed to survive the drive with a beaker of tea and pick up a rather nice salad and some cooked chicken from Sainsbury’s.Â
Forgot to bring my own tea bags too so no caffeine for me for the rest of today – prob just as well; I have been caning it a bit lately. Â
Fortunately I did have the foresight to prepare the components for dinner ahead of time – batch of ragu taken out of freezer last night, and thin slices of aubergine chargrilled on the braai Sunday night = Aubergine Parmigiana Bolognaise 🙂
I originally found this in a vegan cookbook, and so ignored it assuming it would be grim. How wrong I was 🙂
If, like me, you bung overripe bananas in the freezer for a rainy day – this is the BEST way to use them up.
To serve one chimp:
Peel 1 frozen banana and chop into about 6 chunks. If you peeled the banana before freezing it then you’ll be in a better position. Put in food processor, with 1 heaped teaspoon of the nut butter of your choice (we use almond butter) and a roughly chopped square of dark chocolate. Add a tiny pinch of sea salt. Whizz until there are no visible chunks, but not too long or it’ll melt in the heat of the machinery. Scoop out the luscious, bananary goodness and consume with spoon.
What could be more romantic?
Happy Anniversary, Mum & Dad x
Slight change of plan yesterday. After getting home, unpacking, showering and (most importantly) giving me all my pressies, Hubby really wanted a proper beer so I took him to his favourite pub for a pint. Decided to do a quick, no fire, dinner of sausages and Jammy balsamic onion gravy with roast pumpkin. Bet you didn’t get THAT in your 5* hotel, huh?!
Nice, 97% outdoor bred pork sausages with minimal fillers courtesy of Sainsbury’s – though I have been impressed by ASDA’s premium version.
So the braai rolls over to today. Probably a good thing as it’s looking GLORIOUS out there!
First things first – coffee on the veranda while I wait for Monsieur to get back from his run and place his breakfast order 🙂
Hubby gets home this afternoon after 3 weeks away in Asia – yay!!!!! Super excited 😀
I’ve checked the weather reports and we’re due a whole 2 days without rain, and up to a balmy 21°c, if a bit cloudy but let’s not be too fussy here.  Ons gaan nou braai!
Got all his favourites; meat, meat and more meat. Not forgetting the other 50% of the plate; there’s a grilled peach, bresaola and goat’s cheese salad, and minted peas and beans.
For pudding, braai-baked bananas with banana-monkey icecream. (yes, it’s paleo 🙂 )
Hopefully like the surprise and will stay awake long enough to eat all that.
Got nothing on this lot, though:Â http://ultimatebraaimaster.co.za
After my amuse-bouche of pork scratchings, thought I’d better make sure I had some proper dinner. Fortunately I’d planned ahead and thawed some chicken overnight, so ready to roll. I prefer to use chicken thigh for my cooking as it’s tastier and more forgiving than breast meat if you slightly overcook, plus it’s cheaper especially if you dismantle a whole chicken yourself.(bones go into a big, zip-lock bag in the freezer until there’s enough to do a batch of stock)
Preheat oven to 220°c (adjust if you have fan assist or know your oven temp is dodgy). Put 1 tblsp cooking fat of choice (I use coconut oil but duck fat is even better) onto a baking sheet – don’t use a high-sided roasting tin here or it will just steam – and pop in the oven to melt. Finely chop 3 cloves garlic and add to the fat, along with the grated zest of ½ lemon,1 tsp dried rosemary and some S+P. Toss in 500g diced thigh meat (about 4 large skinless, boned thighs) and combine well with the liquid. Roast in oven 20mins. After 20mins take it out of the oven – it should be quite golden and sticky now – and pour over the juice of ½ lemon (see, it didn’t go to waste) and 50ml chicken stock. Stir well. TURN OFF THE OVEN. Put the tray back in and leave it alone for 5mins. In this time the juice and stock will combine with the sticky bit on the tray and make the most delicious gravy 🙂
Serve with steamed green – I had pak choi so used that. Make sure you work the gravy around the tray to pick up all the marmitey goodness, before pouring over the green. Yum 😛