CHRISTMAS 01#

So yesterday Christmas Day was put on hold. There was no opening of presents, no christmas Turkey and no crackers today!!!

I hear your gasps! Why, you may ask? Well my wonderful nephew and niece weren't coming over till the evening and after a discussion with my sister we decided we thought it was important to do whole hog. Do it properly or not all! When Louise and I were kids the favourite part was the morning getting up together and opening presents together. It was very much a ritual!

As this year it is her in-laws turn to get them, we thought we'd just do two days! Why not!? So Boxing Day will be this years festive feast! More about that on the next post.

So today Dad and I released mum from her apron strings to take over the kitchen and cooking for the day. We decided that as we'd be heading on a walk to distract us from what day it was it was a good idea to do a Slow Cooker Chicken Curry. So on our return lunch would be ready.

We headed out after a brekkie of scrambled eggs and smoked salmon

 that set us up for a good two hour walk.

Monty was a little less than enthusiastic about having his photo been taken.

But after some persuasion mum and I managed to change his mind.

I found this tasty Chicken Curry on the Lemon Bowl Blog and it was a perfect recipe that very straight forward. I tweaked the recipe ever so slightly to suit the ingredients that were in my mum's pantry.

RECIPE

Ingredients

• 500g boneless chicken thighs
• 1 medium onion – thinly sliced
• 1 can chickpeas – drained and rinsed
• 2 medium sweet potatoes – peeled and diced

 (I used white sweet potatoes ones but the standard orange ones are good too) 

• 1 can of coconut milk or a sachet of coconut cream mixed with hot water up too 400ml
• 200ml chicken stock – low sodium
• 1 can of Chopped Tomatoes 
• 1 tablespoon of Tomato Puree
• 2 tablespoons Hot Curry Powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon cayenne powder – optional
• 100g frozen green peas 
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• Coriander chopped to garnish

Instructions

1. In the bottom of the slow cooker, whisk together coconut milk, chicken stock, tomato sauce, curry powder, salt and cayenne.
2. Add chicken breasts, onion, chickpeas and sweet potatoes. Using tongs, gently toss ingredients together to ensure evenly coated.
3. Cook on Low for 8 hours or High for 4 hours.
4. Stir in peas and lemon juice 5 minutes before serving.
5. Serve over brown basmati rice and with plenty of fresh coriander.

A perfect comforting meal to come home to after a bracing winter walk.

OLD SWAN AT MILL MINSTER

This August was my mum's birthday, her 60th to be precise. It was decided that for a change the immediate family would stay at a country pub in Mill Minster which is a village based in the Oxfordshire countryside near to Charlbury.

We stayed at the Old Swan & Minster Mill. This is actually two buildings opposite each other. The Old Swan Inn has 16 historic bedrooms and across the road the Minster Mill which has been done up with more of a contemporary twist, has 44 bedrooms. The people at The Old Swan, couldn't do enough for us and even helped us to do a secret afternoon tea for mum serving up a stunning fruit cake that my sister had made and iced!

It is the first weekend away with the whole family including my wonderful nephew Josh. My mum was a little concerned that there wouldn't be much for him to do. However at nearly two years old he was loving having the full attention of the family and dragging us in turn over to the kids playroom (full of bean bags, retro train tracks and painting equipment) Not to mention the Kitchen Gardens, Chickens, Coquet, Giant chess and general running around.

Ben and I even managed to go for an early walk one morning to catch the sun rise. The Cotswold countryside is beautiful, especially at 4.50 in the morning!

As well having their own kitchen gardens, which they incorporate as much as possible in the menu, they have also just set up their very own bee hives for honey. It's only been going for a couple of months but they hope to be harvesting honey comb soon!

With all these activities it even managed to wear little Josh out too!