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

Three Mile an Hour God: Spiritual Formation Book 10

"The affirmed life must not become either a lazy life or a happy-ever-after, easy life. The affirmed life is not a life of the power of positive thinking. To be affirmed by God means to live with danger and promise."   Kosuke Koyama's book Three Mile an Hour God was written out of the experience of the Second World War and its aftermath in Japan. As Koyama says in his preface, it is "a collection of biblical reflections by one who is seeking the source of healing from the wounds... inflicted by the destructive power of idolatry." The title speaks of a God who moves at walking pace - three miles an hour - and even, in Jesus, comes to a "full stop" - nailed to a cross. If we try to move faster than the love of God, says Koyama, we fall into idolatry. What is the book about? Three Mile an Hour God has 45 chapters, each a separate short reflection headed by a Bible verse. Some deal specifically with Japan, considering her role in WWII, the damage inflicte

National Forest Way: Ellistown, Bagworth, Nailstone

You may well say, "Where?" I'd never heard of any of these three villages before I planned to walk through them. Back in the 1970s, it would have been possible to travel between them underground. All three had collieries producing exceptional amounts of coal (Bagworth set a Guinness World Record). Nailstone and Bagworth collieries were connected in 1967, and Ellistown was merged with the other two in 1971. All the mines are long closed now. The railway lines have been taken up, the winding wheels turned into civic sculptures, and the pit sites transformed into country parks. It was a beautiful sunny day, but we'd had a lot of rain recently. Within five minutes of leaving Ellistown, I was glad I'd worn my wellies.   The way took me alongside a quarry site and then into a collection of woods: Common Hill Wood, Workmans Wood, Battram Wood. The colours of the trees in the November sunshine were beautiful. The path was a muddy mess. At Battram village I crossed a newly

National Forest Way: Normanton le Heath to Ellistown

This 9-mile walk took me through the Queen Elizabeth Jubilee Woods and Sence Valley Forest Park, and into the heavily-quarried countryside south of Coalville (no prizes for guessing what was mined there!) I originally planned to walk from Normanton le Heath to Donington le Heath, which had a pleasing symmetry. But I decided to go a bit further, to the hamlet of Ellistown.   It was a cold morning. I'd been in shorts the previous weekend, but today there was a frost. I added a flask of coffee, a scarf and gloves to my kit, and set off. For a small village, Normanton le Heath has a surprisingly wide road. I parked there rather than using the car park for the Jubilee Woods. That meant I was at my starting point straight away. I followed a road past some rather nice houses, crossed a field, and entered the Queen Elizabeth Jubilee Woods. The NFW leaflet told me that I was on the route of the Via Devana, a Roman road from Colchester to Chester. There isn't much left of it. a mosaic,