Weekly Menu

Monday: James's birthday, we ate Suya.
Tuesday: Pizza night.
Wednesday: Chilli. My Chilli is amazing, using many different chilli types. I can't promise that it's authentic, but it's tasty.
Thursday: I have chicken breast. I might do this. The Pioneer Woman hasn't failed me yet!
Friday: Greek filo pie, as before. Haven't made this yet. Filo isn't a frequently used cheese for us.
Saturday: James's other happy birthday meal. The going-out meal!
Sunday: Japanese curry.

Announcement: Catfriend

Cat friend's name is Catfriend.

Cat: Pudu Lord

We took the cat down to the vet to have her scanned for a microchip - she's chipless and, therefore, ours. We'll have to tell the landlord about her and continue trying to track her owner - she's a lovely cat and extremely well trained. She's toilet trained, waits outside the bedroom door and returns to us when we put her out, instead of where she came from. Possibly, she currently cannot return to her previous location.

She's taken to waiting outside the bathroom for me in the morning, while I get ready for work, and yesterday, when I was taking a bath. I was initially wary of allowing her into the bathroom, but I do leave the door open and let her walk in while I'm getting ready in the morning. She only really just wants to sit quietly and watch me brush my teeth, doesn't get into anything potentially toxic like nail polish and soap etc., and I can supervise her while I'm there.

Her name is Pudu Lord. She'll eat the Felix pouches but not Whiskas. The cans are cheaper and I've thought about getting Felix cans, but the pouches are easier to open and we'll need to store half-opened cans in the kitchen, which will then smell like cat food.



She has a game, a pounce game. In this game she pounces on the catnip mouse and runs away, into the kitchen. You follow her in the kitchen with the catnip mouse, show her the mouse and run with it. She'll follow you. You then throw the mouse somewhere and she'll pounce on it. Once I threw the mouse out the living room door into the hallway but she didn't pounce it. I wondered what was going on and checked cautiously: I could see her hiding behind the wall:


Map

She was crouched in her pouncing position and was waiting to pounce: me! I didn't leave the room. Yes it was kinda creepy. Cute, but creepy.

I must have taken too long, because eventually she just ran into the room and pounced me. She missed - pouncing on the ground just in front of me with her crazy hunting face. I hope it was a deliberate miss, and she hadn't just misjudged my distance, and is plotting to do better next time.

Aww. Cat <3

Sometimes she likes to snuggle her head against you.

Fried beef noodles

I made fried beef noodles instead of kway teow. Same concept, slightly different ingredients.

I didn't have shallots, so I used one regular onion, about 5 garlic cloves and many dried red chillies (African bird's eye, from the African groceries shop).

First step: blend them up with a little water to make a paste.



I love my little food processor.

Fry strips of beef. Drain.

Add noodles.

I used these:

Add paste and mix:

Add light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and oyster sauce, according to taste:

Fry:

Fried beef noodles!!

The cat, we put her out and she returned.

London Fashion Weekend

Last week, I went to London Fashion Weekend with James. We saw the Fashion Weekend catwalk, where a lady summarises the 'key trends' for you, and then there's a little catwalk section that illustrates this.



I think this is the 'Black Swan' trend. I like Aranofsky, wasn't a huge fan of the movie though.



Bora Aksu catwalk bit.
In between they explain the hair and makeup trends to you. These hair and makeup trends, they rotate just enough to distract you.



The 'brights' trend, and



Mark Fast, designer of tight knitted things.



Final model walkout.

London Fashion Weekend is good for getting really good basic accessories, like hats, and nice items of clothing that are a bit different to what's in the shops, and at a much better price than they normally would be.

I got a Lowie hat and a dress with lovely fabric, by corey lynn calter. The Lowie hat is ethical, handmade, bright green and ten pounds.



Thumb!



It's silky. It's not flawless: I'll have to wear a slip under it and it's too thin for right now, possibly in the near future when it warms up a bit.

On Tuesday I made this:

It's not fancy, it's really easy and I used a pasta sauce.



We like the Paul Newman pasta sauce.



Proceeds go to charity!

I have some butternut squash in the freezer, and roasted some of that, as well as some unpeeled garlic cloves. After roasting I popped out the garlic cloves into the pasta and mixed the squash in. I also added little cubes of Comte cheese while the pasta was simmering. I got it from Sourced Market at St Pancras station, they get theirs from Neal's Yard Dairy.



Also in the background is my beautiful Mexican oilcloth tablecloth.

This cheese, it's great, but I think the Comte cheese that I'd got from Borough Market is better. The thing is, most Saturdays I like waking up late and chilling, or I have other things to do, so is a bit of a hassle. I'm not sure what the stall's called either, I just kind of wander around tasting all the cheese until I get to the right one.

It was a flavourful pasta dish but not very colourful, most of the ingredients are yellow.

New: Menu! Friday menu.

New weekly menu, beginning tomorrow (Friday). Friday menu, were doing our Tesco order right now.

Tomorrow (Friday):
James will make spaghetti bolognese.

Saturday:
I will make Crispy Greek-style pie.

Sunday:
Italian-style beef stew with roast new potatoes.

Monday:
To use up the new potatoes: This, but with barbecue sauce, new potatoes and an asparagus side.

Tuesday:
Pizza night

Wednesday:
Kway Teow! Using pad thai noodles, and I will probably use prawns, as we have frozen. Wednesday night is a good night for easy foods.