It ain't half hot, mum

No recipe. No picture. We are on strike/in the garden drinking home-made cherry vodka. Normal service will be resumed next week, when we return with our Jubilee special. See you then. Enjoy the sunshine.

Chick, chick, chick, chick, chicken lay a little egg for me

Our daughters named the chickens. The 4yo wanted to call hers the above, but we managed to talk her down, it being a mouthful and all. It wasn't as if daft names weren't to be expected. Our cats - also named by the girls - are officially called Daffodil Rose Petal Leaf and Michael Woof Woof. Although informally now known as Daffy and Mickey, which most people think is a nod to Disney, and we’re tired of correcting them. I should add that the cats are both boys. Or were pre-operation, at the time of naming. Anyway, the chickens are called Ginger Head and Cherry Treat, which sound slightly like porn stars, but we think they got off relatively lightly. 

We'd been idly talking about getting chickens for a while. We'd had them once for two weeks six years ago, when we lived in central London for a Times piece I wrote on urban farming. And we'd loved them, even though they once commando-ed into the sitting room, pebble dashing the cream carpets with squirty chicken poo.

So recently one Friday evening after a playdate, that involved wine, I found myself the owner of a secondhand green Eglu, that I “won” on eBay for £200.

The next day we all piled into in the car and headed to the darkest depths of south London to pick it up. It wasn't until we got halfway there, that we remembered that Eglus are massive, so my husband and eldest had to jump out at the Wandsworth roundabout and make their own way home. It was a good job they did. It took the seller an hour to dissemble and Tetris it into my boot and another week of it languishing on our kitchen floor before my husband had the energy/courage to put it up.

Now it nestles under the cherry and fig trees at the bottom of our garden, camouflaged almost. 

Four weeks in  it is like we've always had Cherry and Ginger and I can't tell you how much we love them. My 6yo summed it up by saying that it was great having two different sorts of pets - the cats to stroke and play with and the chickens to watch and relax with. And it really is incredibly distracting in the nicest possible way, sitting in the garden or on the sofa at the end of the kitchen in the evening with a glass of wine, just watching them peck and potter around their coop or in the garden.

We chose a hybrid chicken called the Gingernut Ranger, because they are smaller than a normal hen, and good layers. We were rewarded with our first egg - a two incher - after about three weeks and have had one a day - progressively bigger - ever since. There really is something miraculous about a chicken producing an egg. Every day. Respect to our feathery friends. I know it is hackneyed to say it, but is has brought us all closer to nature in a completely Good Life kind of way.

Although they are officially free range, in truth we thought we'd let them out more than we do. Foxes are a chicken-eating menace. I once pulled back the curtains on a Saturday night to find a skanky-suited fox, sitting calm-as-you-like on the window sill. He didn't flinch when he saw me, just gave me an insouciant gaze - a kind of vulpine WHATEVS - before wandering off.

The chooks seem unfazed though and are happy enough pecking at their toy mirror, eating vegetable scraps and digging in the dirt.

To Dry For - Tea Towels

I've just spent £50 on tea towels. I know! FIFTY QUID! I'm not particularly extravagant. I've been known to make entire meals out of a tomato and some breadcrumbs, so spending that kind of money on tea towels does not come naturally.
But these aren't just any tea towels. Some of them are works of art. Others make you laugh. Out loud. (Yes, LOL, really). And they're just a tenner each.
I started looking at the website, searching for some jubilee gear for a blog post, and was immediately hooked. I have now bought birthday presents for all my friends who have birthdays in the next few months. Annoyingly I've already bought a wedding present for a friend, as there are some brilliant/beautiful/funny ones here.
I have discovered that there is a tea towel for everyone. You know that impossible-to-buy-for friend? Bet they don't have a Mr T tea towel. The wine lover who you wouldn't dare buy wine for? There's a tea towel for them too. Dog owners, dish-lovers, dinosaur enthusiasts. You name it, there's a tea towel for them.  I could continue eulogising, but really, ignore me and click here for a full rundown.
I'm not working on commission, I promise.
www.todryfor.com

Chop chop

When I think of chops, I think of lamb. My favourite ones are those tiny spindly ones that you get in Greece that are just delicious with some home made tzatiki and a Greek salad. But occasionally I do have a pork chop and I am always surprised by how good they taste. Last week I got home from work to find out that those lovely people at M&S had sent over a goody hamper containing a chicken, some sausages and two fat Gloucester Spot chops. We had them last Tuesday night with a white wine, mustard and cream sauce from Nigel Slater’s The Kitchen Diaries. If you’ve not seen this, it is a lovely diary of what he eats from the beginning of the year to the end. Some days it is a proper meal like this, others a take out, others bread and cheese. It is reassuring to know that even proper cooks don’t “cook” every night and a good meal can be just as much about clever shopping than anything else.

It was from February 13, everything from May being just too summery. The rain is torrential as I write this btw.

It was easy and delicious and felt a bit special, especially when served with mini-roasties (whole new potatoes roasted with garlic, rosemary and olive oil) and savoy cabbage with butter and fennel seeds. One thing I did under-estimate is how long a pork chop – especially a fat one - takes to cook, around 25 minutes in my case. The richness of the double cream sauce is nicely undercut by throwing in a few cornichons at the end.

Pork chops with white wine, mustard and cream

Serves: 2

Takes: About 30 mins - but mostly cooking time. Hardly any prep. 

Two pork chops 

Butter – 25 g

Olive oil – 1 tbsp

Garlic – 2 unpeeled cloves, squashed flat

Glass of white wine

Double or whipping cream – 150ml

Grain mustard – 1 ½ tbsp

Dijon mustard – 1 ½ tbsp

8 cornichons - chopped

Rub the chops all over with salt and pepper. Put butter and oil in shallow pan over a medium heat and when they start to froth add the garlic and chops. Leave to brown, turning once to brown the other side. Lower the heat and leave cooking, until they are no longer pink.

Take chops out and pour off most of the oil from the pan, leaving the sediment behind, turn up the heat and pour in the wine. Let it boil for a minute or two, scraping at the sediment and letting it dissolve. Pour in the cream, swirl about, leave to bubble up, before adding mustard and chopped cornichons. Season with salt and black pepper, if needed. Enough for two. Serve to children with the sauce on the side and tell them it’s gravy. Inexplicably my children will eat gravy, but not sauce, apart from ketchup obviously.

Nutty about muesli

So, three days in, with just muesli to eat, how do I feel? Nuts.
It's a strange conundrum, just eating three ingredients for three days. The organic box arrives, you think of what to cook, but then remember you can't eat any of it. It's lunchtime, you really fancy an egg, or some cheese. Protein and fat. Instead you pull out the Alpen. When every meal is the same you realise so much of hunger is your body/brain thinking about what you fancy, which is probably what you nutritionally need.
My three day muesli marathon wasn't an exercise in masochism. Save The Children asked if I could do it to highlight malnutrition, the cause of a third of child deaths worldwide. They want this petition to be signed by as many people as possible before 11am Wednesday to get David Cameron to put malnutrition on the G8 leaders' agenda. So please do sign, it takes seconds.
Usually meals are the highlight and focus of my day and I could bang on about all the hardships of eating just three ingredients for three days, but I'm not going to be malnourished by it. My children aren't going to be malnourished. When you read that Maritu, a 9-year-old Ethiopian girl gets "a small piece of injera (flatbread served with a basic sauce) for breakfast – and I had the same for lunch. We don’t eat anything else – I might get egg or meat once a year for special occasions." It makes my quandary about how wrong it is to drink red wine with my muesli on Saturday night pale in comparison. An egg? Once a year? My disappointment at not being able to have the bacon butties which my family were tucking into doesn't really cut it.
More info here.

The three food challenge

Yesterday I ate 20 different types of food. Today I am eating three.
Yesterday I had muesli, banana and milk for breakfast. Peanut butter on wholegrain toast for a mid-morning snack. Lentil soup and toast for lunch, a digestive biscuit at tea, and then chicken and pea risotto for dinner. Oh, and a third of a (big) bar of Green&Blacks ginger chocolate.
Today I am eating muesli. Oats, nuts and raisins, that's three different ingredients.
Why? A good question.
Save the Children approached Crumbs and asked if we would do a 3 food challenge to highlight the ongoing problems which malnutrition cause. In a nutshell, it's not just starvation that kills children. Malnutrition is the reason for a third of children's deaths worldwide. That's 2.6 million every year, 300 children an hour. But because it is not named as the cause of death on a death certificate, it is a subject which has been ignored for decades.
As well as death, malnutrition causes mental and physical stunting. For example, iodine deficiency is believed to lessen an IQ by between 10-15 points. This will have an economic effect on a child and their country: a stunted child is predicted to earn 20% less as an adult and it is estimated that 2-3% of a countries' national income can be lost due to malnutrition. These figures mean it is hard for a country to grow and prosper when some of it's people are physically and mentally stunted.
With all the recent economic crises, the developed world has been focusing on other issues, but Save the Children believe if the situation is not dealt with now there will be massive long term repercussions. They say "well-nourished children are less prone to disease and illness. Investing in nutrition is investing in the future of a country – it creates stronger communities with a healthier, smarter and more productive population." And, obviously, not investing in nutrition causes the exact opposite.
Next week the G8 leaders are meeting to discuss food security. Save the Children want them to put malnutrition on the agenda too. You can help. And it isn't by eating muesli. All you need to do is sign this petition, asking the G8 leaders to discuss food initiatives.
And then go and eat something really delicious and be thankful that a) you're not me, looking dismally at my muesli, or b) your children are not growing up in Niger, set to become the hungriest place on earth.
Sunday night: read about how I manage

Coronation coleslaw

Have you figured out what you're doing for the Jubilee weekend yet? Lots of my friends are going away as it is also the beginning of half term, but I think we're going to stick around. Partly because we're saving our pennies for the house move (fingers crossed it actually happens) and partly because I think it will be nice to take part in the celebrations.
I remember the Silver Jubilee of 1977 (when I was a foetus, I'm obviously FAR too young to really remember it. No, really.). It was a time of red, white and blue, bunting, alice bands, salad cream sarnies and crisps where the salt came in a separate blue packet.
I'd quite like my kids to have that kind of memory, a vignette of time, so they can look back and remember where they were living, who their friends were, the games they played, how young their parents looked....
There's also something quite nice about doing something with the rest of the country. I don't watch things like Xfactor or Children in Need, so it's rare I feel part of something bigger. And for some reason the Jubilee feels like it is something real, not manufactured, which I want to be part of.
So, we will be going to Battersea Park to see the flotilla on the Thames on Sunay June 3rd. I'm still not entirely sure what a flotilla is (are?), but we are seeing another one on the Saturday, so I should be an expert by the end of the weekend.
I've been wracking my brains for stuff to cook over the weekend. We've also got a street party on the Monday, so I've been toying with doing a savoury traybake. But last night I went to a Jubilee cookery class put on by Tesco Real Food. They came up with several great ideas, but this twist on Coronation chicken was my favourite. It was delicious, easy to transport and its sweetness (that mango chutney) means I think it will be a winner with kids and adults alike. They may even overlook the cabbage content.
What are you making for the Jubilee weekend? Tesco are running a competition, so if you've got any great ideas or recipes you've devised yourselves, you can upload them here  and win a weekend for two at Ashburton Cookery School.
Coronation Coleslaw
Start to finish: 15 minutes
Serves: 8
2 cooked chicken breasts
half a white cabbage, shredded
red onion, thinly sliced
25g thinly chopped coriander
100g sultanas
Dressing
150g natural yoghurt
3 tbsp korma curry paste
6tbsp mango chutney
toasted flaked almonds, to serve
Shred the chicken, put in a large serving bowl with the shredded cabbage, onion, coriander (keep back some for garnish) and sultanas.
Mix the yoghurt, korma paste and mango chutney in a separate bowl.
Add the dressing to the chicken and cabbage - mix well.
Scatter over the toasted almonds and a little coriander.