Back in January, I posted about my goals for 2012. Now we are (just over!) one third of the way through the year, how am I doing?
I also made some commitments in my spring cleaning post:
- Clean the kitchen cupboards – done!
- Unpack shoes – done!
- Sort out wardrobe – done!
- Organise dressing table – done!
- Create a cleaning schedule – not done
All in all, I’m making progress!
Tagged as:
cleaning,
organisation,
Sorted!
Here’s a super yummy recipe from my friend Anna:
Fruity Pork Medallions (serves 2)
Ingredientology:
300g Pork Medallions / Loin chops
1/2 Onion
1 1/2 tsp Honey
2 shots (35 ml) Cider, Pimms or Gin (note that’s “OR” not “AND”!) I prefer Pimms
300ml water
1 tbsp Plain Flour (heaped)
Salt & Pepper to Season
Garlic Pepper
1 tsp tarragon
1 tbsp Vegetable Oil
1/2 Stock Cube for more intense flavour
Methodology:
1. Chop and fry onion in Vegetable Oil until golden brown.
2. Add Pork, cover in flour and fry for 2 minutes on each side to seal.
3. Add remaining ingredients, bring to boil and simmer for 20 mins,
turning pork occasionally.
4. Serve with sauteed potatoes and seasonal veg.
Sautéed potatoes:
Can use any potato variety, but New Potatoes work best.
Chop potatoes into small cubes.
Place potatoes in pan of water and bring to boil. Allow to boil for 5 minutes.
Drain potatoes and transfer to a large frying pan or wok (wok works
best for rotating the potatoes).
Cover generously in oil, season with salt, peper and mild chilli
powder (tiny sprinkling of sugar for sweet tooth).
Heat potatoes over a medium heat for about 20 minutes, continually
rotating potatoes to ensure cooked throughout and even golden brown
texture.
Tagged as:
dinner,
Pork
What a busy couple of weeks! My Mum came to stay last weekend, and we had our first rental inspection of our house (they like to check you haven’t trashed the place!) so I took the day off work and blitzed through the house with my cleaning gear.
I started by sitting down with a drink and my notepad & pen to write a plan of action:
Then I gathered together my cleaning equipment:
I used:
- cream cleaner
- spray polish
- bleach
- microfibre cloth (for polishing bathrooms & mirrors)
- all-purpose cloth (for wet cleaning)
- yellow dusting cloth
- feather duster (for getting into those hard-to-reach corners)
- marigolds (to save my hands!)
- toothbrush (for scrubbing around the taps etc)
Then I poured myself a large glass of juice, put the radio on, opened the windows and headed to the top of the house. It only took 4 hours. Stay focused, take a break halfway, and think of it as a workout! (apparently you burn about 200 calories per hour cleaning).
Once the house was spickety-span (is that a word? it is now!), I attempted to turn our hobby room into a guest room for my Mum.
I moved a little coffee table up into the room and put a lamp and some magazines on it. I also re-purposed a little basket and put some essentials such as toothpaste and a facecloth in it.
We inflated the airbed and made it up with the spare duvet, added some towels, et voila! A guest room!
We had great fun with my Mum over; playing scrabble of an evening with a glass of wine, visiting my sister (we took pulled pork & coleslaw), and catching up. Mum lives in France so we don’t see each other often. We also had a bonus couple of days with my Mum courtesy of the French air traffic control strike, so I’m glad I made such an effort with the ‘guest’ room!
Tagged as:
cleaning,
guests,
house
A tip from France…
These are not made the same as British Breadcrumbs, as I live in France I use French Bread. Which, by the way, doesn’t go mouldy as British bread does so it’s quite safe to leave old off-cuts or ends of baguettes to dry for a week or two.
When totally dry, cover the bread with a tea towel and bash it with a rolling pin until it’s chunky. (A good therapy on a bad day!).
At this point save some of the larger bits to use as croutons, ideal for adding to Salads in the summer or Soups in the winter.
Then simply blitz the rest in a food processor to crumbs, as fine as you need.
Store in an airtight container until required.
Tagged as:
breadcrumbs,
croutons
