All I want for Christmas is peas on Earth...
It`s a wonderful World we live in for us the lucky ones. Every night when the lights are low and my children are asleep I peak into their rooms , tuck them in, unplug earphones and chargers, kiss them unawares and go to bed knowing they are safe.
This freedom, this safety cannot be underestimated. Just lately the wars and bombs that are the stuff of gritty middle east news casts easily switched over, have exploded into all our backyards.
We cannot blithely continue living in La la land, but hitting people in their heartlands breaks my heart not just as a mother but as a human being.
25 years ago I was training to be a teacher in Leicester, beautiful children of many Faiths all got on in the playground. If ever anyone got smacked in the mouth with a football, or hit in the eye with a cricket ball a runner would be sent up to the staff room.
"Can I have the Hand of Peace please" a small boy called Jatinderpal asked me. Some genius old tartar had thought of that one, in those days before risk assessments and ice packs.
She went to the freezer and took out a rubber glove filled with frozen peas which when applied with TLC and her authoritative gentleness, could cure any ill and provide balm for hurt feelings. She never advised them to go back out and whack the perpetrator with a cricket bat, funny that.
Tonight we need to pray for Peace and balm for the hurt minds of those who wish to destroy it.
Pea guacamole
2 large avocados
juice of 1 lemon
1 clove garlic crushed
handful of peas fresh or frozen
chilli flakes
sea salt
olive oil
whizz all up in a blender, just divine!
Thursday, 26 November 2015
Wednesday, 11 November 2015
Grandad`s sprouts
On this Remembrance day, I went to church and saw my Jemima singing hymns and showing respect for the brave and fallen heroes of Wars or conflicts as they are now euphemistically called.
Proper hymns , no "cauliflowers fluffy" to be heard. To hear young voices singing and praying thanks for those who had made the ultimate sacrifice to preserve the liberty we enjoy today made me proud and made me cry. I also remember taking the twins to a similar church service when they were young and apple green!
After Church , Lily said defiantly "well I`m not going to church again!"
"Yes" James joined in "Me no like church!"
I was horrified "What do you mean, we have to say thank you for all the people in the services that died". I snapped.
(We used to go to 10 O`clock mass but we sometimes went on a Saturday at 6pm or Sunday night at 6pm so they were aware of different "services".)
" I don`t want to go and get killed in the services" Lily chimed. I explained that the armed services were a completely different matter and she wasn`t going to get shot at church!
We all owe our lives of freedom and plenty and peace to young men whose Mums never got to make them dinner again...
Tonight we had our first sprouts of the Season, despite protestations, they all had to eat a few. As a nation we eat a billion of the slippery suckers a year and 5000 years ago Chinese doctors prescribed them as medicine for you`ve guessed it bowel disorders. They are first thought to have come from Iran and Afghanistan and these green holy terrors are really good for us but that joke "What`s the difference between a brussel sprout and a bogey?" "Little boys won`t eat Brussel sprouts!!" is so true.
If you over cook them they get really nasty , no more than 4-6 mins or else the sulphorous odour and sludgy texture will offend everyone. I digress from War memories to sprout memories because whenever we have them Matty tells us about his Irish grandfather Bill, who survived the Blitz in Liverpool, bravely putting out fires allover Birkenhead, sometimes not coming home for days. He could forgive the Germans in later years for many things it seems but not for blowing up his sprouts on his allotment!
If ever a war movie came on he would look up from his Pipe and whiskey and tut "Bloody Germans , they blew up mi sprouts!!"
How to make sprouts edible
1 stem of sprouts (really fresh)
seasalt
1 pack of pancetta lardons
butter
Pepper
Boil the sprouts for 4 mins and slice roughly, fry the lardons in the butter til crispy and toss the sprouts in until golden brown on the edges, add salt and pepper and a pinch of nutmeg. Yummy not cremated like Grandad`s sprouts!
Sunday, 8 November 2015
What`s for dinner Clarey?: Comfort and Joy
What`s for dinner Clarey?: Comfort and Joy: We recently went to Cornwall. It was magical. No Wifi- so the teenagers were in revolt at first at finding themselves disconnected. Happily ...
Comfort and Joy
We recently went to Cornwall. It was magical. No Wifi- so the teenagers were in revolt at first at finding themselves disconnected. Happily they forgave us and we all reconnected after a few midnight paddles,Cornish pasties and family quiz nights.
I just LOVE my family.
We are by no means perfect , like every family we fall out, but we always fall in again like a pack of cards. Sitting on the beach watching my brothers playing cricket like we did 40 years ago was like being dealt a Royal flush. Swimming in the sea every morning bathed in late Autumn sunshine with Jemima was a pair of Aces. Turning up at the beach to find my Mum wearing the same dress as me was like getting a full house! Surfing in the velvety Cornish waves with my beautiful twins, who now don`t need their hands holding, made me deliriously happy, they are the Jokers in our pack.
One morning I swam alone and got caught in a rip tide, I barely had a moment to panic, I looked up and there was my big brother who had been watching me from his window, next my Matty whom I had left snoring like a walrus of love, appeared in his wetsuit and swam out to meet me. The very thought of those two coming to "rescue" me makes my heart glad,but as usual I had already got myself out of deep water.
Throughout the week I remembered all the many Summers we had spent on that very same beach,catching Mackerel with my Grandad who had been a sailor in the Royal Navy. Both my Grandfathers had loved this special place and so I`m sure they sent us the sunshine.My Poppa Roy had been a navigator in the RAF and he had brought my Dad there in the 50s after the War.So it is his map of Love that we followed to Gorran last week.
The last day we met up with friends and we chatted and laughed and somehow all managed to crash in the waves and even jumped off the Harbour wall, which looked like madness but felt like heaven.
On this Remembrance Sunday I give thanks for my Grandfathers and the legacies of Love they left me and the love and friendships of friends and family. We all have heartbreaks, worries, illnesses and sadness that can overshadow our sunny days. I was jumping off that harbour wall, holding hands with all my special loved ones who had gone before, because I could and they could not and I have never felt more alive. I believe in holidays they are essential to take stock of where we are in our lives, I believe in moonlit walks and curry on the beach and even though I`m ever so old , more than ever I still believe in love.
Lily`s Chilli
On holiday Lily made a most memorable meal , it took her three hours and she used every pan in sight but I knew the moment I tasted it, my girl has grown up.
500g minced steak
2 red onions
4 cloves of garlic
1 red chilli
1 green chilli
1 tube of tomato paste
butter
1 glass of red wine(in the chilli not the teenager)
1 tin of plum tomatoes
1tbs dark brown sugar
chilli powder
2 tins kidney beans
Fry the steak mince and onions in a little oil and butter until brown , add chillis and chilli powder and tomato puree. cook for a further 10 mins until the tomato puree has caramelised. Add the wine and tomatoes and sugar and the kidney beans. season well and serve with rice, Nachos and cheese.
Best rice ever
fry basmati rice and 2 sliced red onions in lots of butter until they go translucent. Add seasalt and boiling water and cook for 15 mins , so the rice is fluffy and the onions are sweet and tender just like Lily!
I just LOVE my family.
We are by no means perfect , like every family we fall out, but we always fall in again like a pack of cards. Sitting on the beach watching my brothers playing cricket like we did 40 years ago was like being dealt a Royal flush. Swimming in the sea every morning bathed in late Autumn sunshine with Jemima was a pair of Aces. Turning up at the beach to find my Mum wearing the same dress as me was like getting a full house! Surfing in the velvety Cornish waves with my beautiful twins, who now don`t need their hands holding, made me deliriously happy, they are the Jokers in our pack.
One morning I swam alone and got caught in a rip tide, I barely had a moment to panic, I looked up and there was my big brother who had been watching me from his window, next my Matty whom I had left snoring like a walrus of love, appeared in his wetsuit and swam out to meet me. The very thought of those two coming to "rescue" me makes my heart glad,but as usual I had already got myself out of deep water.
Throughout the week I remembered all the many Summers we had spent on that very same beach,catching Mackerel with my Grandad who had been a sailor in the Royal Navy. Both my Grandfathers had loved this special place and so I`m sure they sent us the sunshine.My Poppa Roy had been a navigator in the RAF and he had brought my Dad there in the 50s after the War.So it is his map of Love that we followed to Gorran last week.
The last day we met up with friends and we chatted and laughed and somehow all managed to crash in the waves and even jumped off the Harbour wall, which looked like madness but felt like heaven.
On this Remembrance Sunday I give thanks for my Grandfathers and the legacies of Love they left me and the love and friendships of friends and family. We all have heartbreaks, worries, illnesses and sadness that can overshadow our sunny days. I was jumping off that harbour wall, holding hands with all my special loved ones who had gone before, because I could and they could not and I have never felt more alive. I believe in holidays they are essential to take stock of where we are in our lives, I believe in moonlit walks and curry on the beach and even though I`m ever so old , more than ever I still believe in love.
Lily`s Chilli
On holiday Lily made a most memorable meal , it took her three hours and she used every pan in sight but I knew the moment I tasted it, my girl has grown up.
500g minced steak
2 red onions
4 cloves of garlic
1 red chilli
1 green chilli
1 tube of tomato paste
butter
1 glass of red wine(in the chilli not the teenager)
1 tin of plum tomatoes
1tbs dark brown sugar
chilli powder
2 tins kidney beans
Fry the steak mince and onions in a little oil and butter until brown , add chillis and chilli powder and tomato puree. cook for a further 10 mins until the tomato puree has caramelised. Add the wine and tomatoes and sugar and the kidney beans. season well and serve with rice, Nachos and cheese.
Best rice ever
fry basmati rice and 2 sliced red onions in lots of butter until they go translucent. Add seasalt and boiling water and cook for 15 mins , so the rice is fluffy and the onions are sweet and tender just like Lily!
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