Mid May photographic ventures

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
― Allen Saunders

It has been a while since I posted – I’ve been taking photos but they’ve been mostly shared on Facebook (or not at all!) So here’s a bit of a roundup of the latest bits and pieces that I’ve taken… Last week we did some final planting in the garden, setting up our Clematis to grow up the fence and putting some runner beans in to see what would happen. So far we don’t have a beanstalk. I was sort of hoping for one when I came downstairs the day after soaking them in a bowl of cold water overnight, but sadly nothing happened.

Maisy, our little bundle of loveable fluff and sunshine and all things cute and perfect decided that it would be a great idea to rip up the hallway carpet. Now, I’m mostly frustrated because she’s been so good for so long and I just don’t understand it – there’s no pattern to it at all. But it did mean that our weekend was spent looking at alternative flooring options as the hallway/kitchen is the place we leave her when she’s home alone. Queue the tilers who will be coming this week to give us a quote. No doubt the dog will surpass herself and succeed in ripping up tiles too… She was, earlier this week, dubbed ‘Hairy Potter’ by a friend on facebook when I posted her below the stairs hidey-hole…

We’ve been exploring the park somewhat, it’s growing up fast and it’s still every so quiet. We’ve walked around it in the evenings and met barely one or two other people when we do. The site is growing but the usage is not – it’s a good thing.

So it was the perect place for us to do some agility training. Maisy is now old enough to do some jumping as technically she’s all growed up now and at eighteen months her hips will allow her to bound about a bit more. We started off small and raided Argos for some children’s play equipment…

We started in the garden and Maisy did manage to jump the hoop a few times and almost enjoyed running through the tunnel after tennis balls and Schmackos. But she could not get the hang of weaving the cones…

What else has happened since I last posted? Well we’ve had BBQ’s and I’ve tested out some cake recipes without much of the naughty stuff in them – there’s banana loaf and oat cookies wafting through the kitchen right now and the BBQ has been used most evenings in the sunshine and has been very welcome.

Yesterday we hit the Sparsholt Countryside show (which inspired the agility with Maisy) as we watched Gundogs and Sheepdogs hard at work. Of course -we- know Maisy is never going to be hard at work and instead of rounding up dogs she’d probably pluck their feathers off in one big swoop but it’ll be fun to try her brain out on some activities. Look at these proper working doggies…

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Day 17: Kung Pao Chicken

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien

I wanted to get some of those ‘cookery book type shots’ – you know the kind that are either inside the book or on the front cover. The sort that make you want to buy the book but probably never use it, just have it placed somewhere strategically because it looks good. Well I didn’t quite get to the goal, nevertheless here is a recipe from this evening, with pictorial evidence too!

Ingredients:
3 Large chicken breasts
6 tbsp Soy Sauce
1 teaspoon of lazy chilli (or 2 dried chillies broken into lengths minus the seeds)
1 teaspoon of sweetener
1 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp tomato puree
300 ml chicken stock
Spring Onions/Peppers/3 Garlic cloves
1 Can of water chestnuts
1 Can of bamboo shoots

Noodles!

Method:
I marinated the chicken chunks in 1 Tbsp of Soy sauce for about half an hour, also added a little amount of chilli. Whilst this was marinating, I made up the ‘sauce’ by putting the Soy sauce into a bowl, adding the rest of the chilli, tomato puree, some garlic and the sweetener. I used the flour to thicken it slightly and added the 300ml of chicken stock.

I used fry light to fry the chicken and then added the chopped up vegetables (Pepper, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, spring onion and fresh garlic). Once this had cooked a little, I added the ‘sauce’ and let everything mix up nicely whilst I cooked the noodles.

It was a really tasty meal, when we have Chinese food I always order Kung Pao chicken and the taste of this homemade version wasn’t any different, if anything the fresh vegetables made it better. This was an altered recipe from the ‘Taste of Asia’ slimming world cookery book. The original recipe works out about 2 Syns per serving on an Extra Easy day.

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