Skip to main content

Monthly Munch: April

Is that really the end of another month already? Time flies when you're getting no sleep...

Toby
- relates almost everything in life to a Peppa Pig episode.

Peppa Pig Easter egg. (I should have cropped this photo, shouldn't I?)

- loved hunting for small chocolate eggs so much that we had to do it over and over again, until they started melting from so much handling.

Wearing my boots

- will argue about pretty much anything.
Toby: "I don't like curry."
Graham: "You like chicken tikka masala, don't you?   That's curry."
Toby: "Yes, but I don't like all curry.  I don't like... bird poo curry!"
Since this got a laugh, he followed up with dog poo, cat poo, book poo, DVD poo...

- was worried about his baby teeth falling out.
Me: "Don't worry, yours won't fall out for a long time. When they do, it's fun! You put the tooth under the pillow, and in the morning there's a piece of money there instead."
Toby (gives me incredulous look): "What, in my mouth??"

Theo

- weighed 11 lb 14 oz at his 2-month checkup.


- has started sleeping through at nights - although not yet every night, unfortunately!


- loves his monkey mobile

Thankful for:
- a few full nights' sleep, and the promise of more.

- visiting my parents for Easter.  They seem to have an amazingly calming effect on both boys!

- some lovely warm sunny days.

Bluebells!  Toby said they should be called purplebells, really.

Recipe of the Month
I wanted this to be hot cross scones, which my friend Sally linked to and I thought was a brilliant idea.  But I haven't quite got round to making them yet.  This hasn't been a particularly good month for creative cooking.  So here's a recipe I've made a few times.  It's something like a quiche, but with a drier filling.

Rustic Greek Pie


1 large sheet ready-rolled shortcrust pastry, or pastry made with 150g / 6 oz flour
450g / 1 lb frozen spinach, thawed
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
150g / 6 oz haloumi cheese, grated
120g / 4 oz feta cheese, crumbled
1 tbsp fresh oregano, or 1 tsp dried
2 eggs
3 tbsp cream or milk

Preheat oven to 200°C / 400°F.  If you made your own pastry, roll out to a rectangle.  It doesn't have to be too precise, as you can see from the ragged edges on the picture.  Place on a baking sheet.

Squeeze out as much water as you can from the spinach, and spread over the pastry, leaving a 3cm / 1 1/4 inch border.  Scatter over the garlic, cheeses and oregano.  Fold up the edges of the pastry to form a border.

Beat the eggs with the cream or milk.  Carefully pour over the filling.  Bake 30-40 minutes, until the pastry is golden and the filling is set.

Serves 4.

Comments

Sally Eyre said…
Finally got around to reading the blog. Thanks for the honourable mention. True fame!

Popular posts from this blog

Greece is the word! Part 2: Epidaurus

For the first part of our Greek holiday, see here . Day 4 - continued After much waiting around, we acquired a hire car and set off for the second part of our holiday. I am so glad that Graham can get into a strange car in a foreign country and drive away with no problems. I would be a nervous wreck. Even Graham was a little spooked by the Athens traffic - very narrow lanes crowded with cars and buses, and mopeds zipping in and out of every available gap. I had left Google Maps set to "avoid tolls", which meant that we stayed off the fancy new highway and took the old road towards Corinth instead. There was practically no traffic, so although it was slower, it felt very relaxed. We passed hills, hotels and oil refineries. Along the way, we stopped at a supermarket for supplies and drank Green Cola at the beach over the road. Crossing the Corinth Canal at Isthmia, we started heading south through the mountains of the Peloponnese. The sky had been growing darker and darker, and...

Greece is the word! Part 1: Athens

The last few times we have been on holiday, my family has asked, "Mum, are you going to blog about this one?" It's felt like an overwhelming task. For a start, we now have FOUR phones with photos on, rather than one digital camera. Also, I regularly write quite long blog posts about three-hour walks. How on earth will I summarise a full week's holiday? But this time, I thought I should try. It's one of the most enjoyable holidays we've had in a while, and I've definitely done too many Peak District posts recently. Everyone needs a change of scenery. So here we go, jetting off to Athens. Day 1 We landed at Athens airport in a looming thunderstorm, but the worst of the rain held off until we'd made it safely to our apartment. Graham had earmarked a nice little restaurant called Lolos for dinner - eating shell-on prawns in tomato sauce was a deliciously messy experience - and we went to bed early after our 3am start. Day 2 Next day we climbed Philopappos ...

Derwent Valley: Derby City and the Derwent Pilgrimage

It was 8 am and I was already hayfeverish, headachey and hot. Why on earth was I setting out to walk through the middle of Derby, when I could be up in the hills of the Peak District? No one was forcing me to do this section. I could skip it entirely. But I knew I wouldn't, because this was the next part of the Derwent Valley Heritage Way. And besides, I had a suspicion that it would be better than it looked. Alvaston Park was certainly a good start. It's a wide sweep of green grass and mature trees. I used to come here quite often when the boys were small. I was glad to see some of the planets were still there - although Mars has had a lot of feet standing on it, I think. Here's a tiny Toby in 2013 with Mars... ... and a more battered Mars today. Alvaston Park I kept off the roads for a while by following a cycle route. Even when I joined the traffic, it wasn't bad. The factories and office blocks had roses outside. This road, now the A5194, used to be the A6 coming in...