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Friday 28 September 2012

Where has the week gone? Thank goodness it is Friday!

I do not really know where the week has gone.  It has been just an ordinary week in 'Paradise'.  I have still been trying to stay on the Weight Watchers plan but the weight loss has really slowed right down.  I have not been swimming.  I have been dog walking and for a weekly bike ride though.  I am trying to keep the diet interesting by trying as many new recipes as I can.  This week I decided to open my 'Weight Watchers' book at random and make whatever was on the page.  Ha, as luck would have it, I landed on the 'chocolate' page.  Oh how lucky was that.  I decided to make these little 'Chocolate Mint Pots' complete with fresh mint sprig garnish.  They were topped with chopped Oreo's.  I made them and left them in the fridge to set while I went and walked the dog.  I took the dogs frisbee which she loves but is getting a bit old for.  I accidently chucked it into the middle of a thick bramble bush, much to her dismay.  I spent half the walk finding a big long stick to 'Hook a duck' style retrieve her beloved.  She treated me like a hero when I got it back.  I went home to dinner and the 'Chocolate Mint Pot' dessert.  Well it was gross!  Yuk.  Bleurghh!  In the bin!  What a disappointment when a recipe fails to hit the spot.  I scoffed three Oreo's instead!  I would like to hear about other peoples 'cooking' disasters to make me feel better.
          I have had a horrible 'Hot head cold' for the last couple of days that I have bombarded with medication.  I have kept myself going and went to feed the ducks before dropping Euan at school this morning.  We saw a Crested Grebe and we couldn't quite believe how long it stays completely submerged for.  We also saw ducks, Swans and cygnets, a baby Moorhen and a very hungry, huge Carp.  Straight after the school drop off I went shopping.  I came home put all the shopping away and then when I was coming downstairs I don't know what happened, I didn't trip, but crikey Mikey, I hurt my toe!  It is now a wonderful shade of deepest purple!  I am coming to the conclusion I am somewhat accident prone!
          Henry has applied for a 'Part time' job to start in November.  Fingers crossed he will get an interview. It is at a new 'Children's Soft Play Centre' that is opening in the town.  It will be enormous.  There will also be a children's F1 racetrack.  Euan can't wait for the place to open.  To meet the application deadline I helped Henry with his CV.  He put down Cooking as one of his interests!  I pointed out 'Crisp and cheese toasted sandwiches' is not exactly what most people call cooking, he pointed out he can also make 'Instant Noodles'.  Tonight I pinned both boys down to make homemade burgers from scratch.  I am worried Henry will leave home without the thrifty skills to take care of himself, so I intend to give him a cookery course over the next few years.  They both enjoyed burger making, once they got over getting their hands dirty!  Euan made plain burgers and Henry added Chilli to his.
They were pretty impressive burgers.  Henry actually liked his a lot.  Euan did not like his but would make them again for other people.  I liked both.  I wouldn't dream of telling Euan but Henry's were the nicest.

Ingredients
Makes 4 Burgers
500g of lean Minced Beef
2 tsp of dried mixed herbs
1 beaten egg
1 large tablespoon of Tomato Puree
(1tsp of Chilli flakes) Optional
salt and pepper

Method
Modge about a bit with your hands, elbow deep until all ingredients are thoroughly mixed, making lots of ewwww, yuk!  urghhh!  Noises as you do so.  Shape into burgers and squabble about who is putting what on which plate to chill them in the fridge for half an hour.  Walk the dog!  Come home again and pop the burgers under the grill.  Grill for 4-5 minutes each side...we do not like medium or rare meat!  While the burgers are grilling get every condiment and pickle known to man, out of the cupboard and adorn your burger bun or 'naan bread'.  (Euan wanted a 'Naan Bread' burger).  Get copious amounts of burger cheese and build a burger bun or if you are Weight Watchery just serve two hefty burgers with lots of salad, minus the bread.

XXX

10 comments:

  1. I hope Henry gets the job! I can't imagine the chocolate not turning out well.. how can you mess up choccie? I just got back from swimming. I'm always exhausted when I get home. Have a fun weekend! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  2. I'm sorry your recipe didn't turn out as you had hoped. It looks good to say the least! Tell Henry good luck with his job and learning to cook :)
    ~Lacey

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  3. I have to tell you..years ago our friends were doing another famous diet and we attempted to make them a pudding. It involved sugar free jelly whisked into fromage frais (I think) and poured over a sponge base. It looked OK until we cut it. The jelly had somehow sunk down into the sponge and it fell to bits when we tried to lift a slice. Our freinds bravely ate the lumps and said they liked it! As we'd used orange jelly they nick named it the giant jaffa cake.

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  4. Have a lovely weekend dear friend xxx

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  5. Lucy, I have memories of numerous times I have botched cooking, and food went up in smoke so that I whisked the smoking pans out the back door in hopes that the air inside would quickly clear again so that we could breathe. Then there was the time I baked an angel food cake, from a box, mind you, for the prescribed length of time and it came out of the oven looking beautiful. However, soon after I flipped it over to finish cooling, and turned my back on it I heard a sickening plop and whirled around to discover that the whole cake had dribbled out of the pan and made a miserable inedible puddle:( Does that make you feel better?
    I am impressed that you identified so many different birds on your walk, and that you are helping your sons learn to cook, and I am cheering you on to be well and have a happy well co-ordinated week:)
    xxx from Gracie

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  6. I had looked at that WW recipe and thought about trying it, but I think I will give it a miss!

    I started WW the week after being bought the Nigella Kitchen book which is an absolute delight but not exactly WW friendly. I have however adapted some of her recipes and they have worked out just fine. Im using this argument to justify buying her new book!!!!

    Have a great weekend, the sun is shining (for once)!!

    Helenxx

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  7. I burnt broccoli last week - does that count? Luckily we use stainless steel pans so the pan was saved after a good scrub. The house was a bit pongy for a couple of hours though...
    Helen works at a softplay centre every weekend - she doesn't like it! Mind you she's not so keen on children so not the best job for her. She prefers animals.
    Good luck to Henry, and hope it turns out to be an enjoyable job.
    xx

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  8. I tried for years to teach Thomas to cook, to no avail. Now he studies catering at school so has to cook. School doesn't do much so we have been cooking together at home. Chicken stuffed with mozzarella wrapped in proscuitto and even tomato and basil tart, simple enough but impressive looking, its all about presentation aparently. I don't know much about that. I tried a ww instant whip thingy it was vile never buy them. I just have fruit for puds. Look after that toe, it sounds sore
    xx

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  9. Oh Lucy hope your cold gets better soon and your purple toe! Sounds an excellent idea to give henry some survival cooking lessons although his burger looked very professional(so did Euans!)All my children are good cooks which is wonderful, in fact this week Jacob made a delicious beef and ale pie cos I was feeling pathetic. Oh boy it was fantastic. As for disasters in the kitchen I sometimes lose the will to live when I'm cooking and produce something my family call "brown" it's a stew usually and has no flavour, I never know how it happens just sometimes we have "brown"! Usually eaten with much sarcasm as you can imagine!

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  10. Hope your toe is better! Ouch! Cooking disaters! Lots! The most recent was the second batch of sweet pretzels. For some reason they went in the oven pretzel shaped, but came out like little cow pats!! I think they were still edible though as I fed them to other people as 'not pretzels' and they scoffed the lot!My best cooking disater was from yonks ago when I was 'helping' Mum with making some shortbread and while she was looking the other way I added more 'sugar'.Later on when they started to get munched everyone soon realised I'd added salt and plenty of it ^_^ Bit of of shocker for them!
    Hope you feel better soon.
    All the best
    Steph
    xox

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I appreciate and enjoy reading all of the feedback from your comments. Thank you for taking the time to stop by and sharing your thoughts. Sadly I have found it necessary to enable word verification, something I was trying to avoid...but I am receiving an unmanageable deluge of Spam! We don't want that do we? xxx :)