Skip to main content

Monthly Munch: June

We started the month feeling like a hotel (my parents, some university friends and Graham's family all visiting within ten days!) and ended the month staying in a hotel (our Newcastle trip).  In between we enjoyed the long days and sunshine with bike rides, barbeques, and Graham's new inflatable canoe.

Out for a walk with Graham's family
Toby



- has definitely entered the "Why?" stage.  I thought we'd skipped it, but sadly not.

- can do a scarily good snort (à la Peppa Pig) which entertains Theo no end.

- managed to sweet-talk his way behind the wheels of a Bentley Turbo R and a Massey Ferguson tractor at some recent events.




- announced that when he's five, he wants to drive a Subaru.

Quotes:

"I want to build with the avocado." (Meccano)

To one of the girls next door: "I'm three and you're four."
She: "I'm not four, I'm six."
Toby: "Six?? That's really old!"
Clearly he has a way with the ladies.


Theo

Blowing raspberries is one of his new tricks

- has definitely entered the "things in mouth" stage.

- giggles at Toby's antics, and when you tickle his cheeks.

- regularly sleeps through the night now, and gives you a big smile when you go in in the morning.  Such a sweet baby!

Do I look like a teacup?

Heeeellllppp!!!  I'm sinking!

Thankful for:

- strawberries from my very own plants

That's the canoe, having a trial inflation on the lawn
= several opportunities to do some cake decorating.  No paid gigs yet, but I feel like I'm not entirely forgetting all I once knew.

Recipe of the Month: Fish baked with fennel, red onion and orange


This is adapted from a recipe in the May edition of the Waitrose magazine.  I'm not sure what I think of fennel - raw, it has quite a strong aniseed flavour, but once cooked, it doesn't taste of anything much.  I liked the orange, though.  We ate this with a simple salad and some toast.

1 fennel bulb, finely sliced
1 large red onion, finely sliced
200g potatoes, finely sliced
1 orange, finely sliced (discard the ends)
2 white fish fillets, fresh or frozen
2 tbsp olive oil
dill or thyme

Preheat oven to 200°C.  Place fennel, onion, potatoes and orange in a baking tray.  Squeeze over any juice from the ends of the orange, and toss with 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil.   Roast for 10-15 minutes depending on whether your fish is fresh or frozen.

Give the veg a stir and add the fish (the original recipe used fresh cod; I used frozen pollock).  Drizzle with the remaining  1/2 tbsp olive oil, and season with the dill or thyme and salt and pepper.  Roast for 10-15 minutes longer.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Springtime walks: Croxden Abbey and Shining Cliff Woods

It seems to be taking a long time to get properly warm, this spring. But suddenly there are flowers everywhere and the world has turned green. We had to go and see it all. Croxden Abbey 800 years ago, there was a community of 70 monks at Croxden Abbey, hidden away in a beautiful nook of Staffordshire. Now there are peaceful ruins, carpeted with soft green grass. It was hard to imagine the space filled with busy worship and work. Croxden abbey cloisters the west door of the church We had parked at the village of Hollington and walked down the hill, playing a game of spot-the-animal. In just a few short fields we had seen sheep, cattle, horses, alpacas, rabbits, a dog, and even a donkey. We decided we only needed pigs to make our farm animal collection complete! It wasn't a long hike - we probably spent just as long eating snacks and playing hide and seek in the abbey ruins, as we did walking. Our return journey took us past a few horses, but sadly no pigs. We followed an old Roman r

God is Not a White Man: Spiritual Formation Book 8

"I studied Theology... Despite the fact that most of the world's religious people are not white, we learnt very little about the theological thinking and experiences of Black and brown people." Chine McDonald is director of Theos, an organisation which provides research and opinion on the place of religion in society. She moved to the UK from Nigeria at the age of four. McDonald has been involved with the Evangelical Alliance, Christian Aid, and Greenbelt, as well as working as a journalist, so she has some wide-ranging experiences within the Christian and secular culture. This book uses stories from her own life, and historical examples, to illustrate the problem of racism in the church. She focuses on the British church in particular, although she refers to American events too. What are the main themes of this book? McDonald's argument is that white people - men in particular - have been assumed to be superior. They are regarded as more intelligent, more authoritati

Walking the National Forest Way (with a two year break)

Remember when it was lockdown and we were all stuck in our houses for months on end? Well, way back then I hatched a plan of walking the National Forest Way as a family project. I ordered the map, downloaded the route guides, and we did the first section in 2021: Yoxall to the National Memorial Arboretum (Stage 12). The photos tell me it was a beautiful April day - I was wearing shorts! The 5-mile route was pleasant, across fields and through scraps of woodland, then hopping over the Trent and Mersey Canal into the village of Alrewas. After that we had a hair-raising walk along a pavement right next to the A38 dual carriageway, with cars zipping past at 70mph, but fortunately that was a very short section before we turned off towards the National Memorial Arboretum. Of course we had to celebrate with an ice cream - why else would we finish at the Arboretum instead of starting there?  Smaller boys! Lockdown haircuts! At the finishing point A well-deserved treat There followed a very. l