We have horizontal rain today. Rain and hail. We don’t get snow in Palmerston North – thank goodness – snow is overrated, I think. Nice to look at, but a serious stinker to live with. Rain, hail and WIND on the other hand… no worries! 🙂
Our painter is back. He can’t work outside, so is back at our place painting the windows that were recently double-glazed. Insulating and double-glazing are relatively new concepts in NZ. As a child we just put on an extra sweater in winter. But, because the painter is in and out – the house is open and so colder than normal.
Percy is ignoring his fear of strangers and is firmly settled in Rick’s chair by the heater. Yoshi however, is hiding outside somewhere in the cold. Poor little silly – he will appear this evening, but will be out in the cold again for the next few days – or however long this all takes.
on my knee, yesterday
I am back into the Caveman diet thing again, having bent the rules with wine and chocolate recently. I’m still finding the diet works really well in that I am simply not hungry, not craving anything (other than wine and chocolate!) But, we have a ‘thing’ to go to next month. And I want my friends to ‘notice’ if you get my meaning.
I am, at last, tired of being the ‘fat one’ in our group. I’ll still be the deeply unfashionable one – THAT I couldn’t care less about! 🙂
I made this for dinner last night. It is, as are all my favourite recipes, pretty low fuss.
Chicken with Peas and Bacon
Chicken thighs – ours were bone in, skin off
leek – washed and sliced – or you could use onion
bacon – I used 4 rindless rashers – chopped
garlic – the original recipe doesn’t use garlic, but there is something about the scent of garlic, onion and bacon that makes my mouth water.
150ml chicken stock – I didn’t have enough, so I put in a good slug of white wine too
juice of 1 orange
frozen peas – about 100g – though I never measure them
Melt some butter in a large frypan and cook the bacon and leek for a few minutes, then add the garlic and cook until you’re drooling over the smell of all this goodness.
Nestle the chicken pieces in amongst it – if your chicken pieces have skin on, cook them first, skin-side down until golden. Flabby chicken skin looks unappetizing (a bit like me, on a beach, without a tan…)
Pour the stock and orange juice over and bung the pan in the oven at around 200c.
When the chicken is nearly cooked add the peas. If you want to thicken it, now’s the time. You could use a cornflour slurry.
Season to taste.
We ate ours with a sweet-potato mash.
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