SPAGHETTI WITH GARLIC, CHILLI AND SPINACH

Good Morning to you,

To everything, turn, turn, turn,

There is a season, turn, turn, turn,

.... and my, is the season turning. We had our first taste of Autumn yesterday..... it was cold, so very cold.  The North wind blew and the rain came down and for the first time in quite a while, I wore my coat, scarf and gloves.... that felt strange, as we have enjoyed  some beautiful, summer weather in the past couple of months.  As I look out of my window, I can see people passing by, wrapped up in their winter coats, on their way to the newsagents, to collect their morning papers.

Tuesdays are an odd day for me, as when I return home from my sewing group, I am always hungry.  I have decided it's because I am up that little bit earlier and I have my breakfast at seven, whereas normally, I would potter around a little and then eat breakfast at 9.30ish.  One thing is certain, I am always ready to eat, the moment I step inside the door.

So yesterday I made myself some fast food,

Spaghetti with garlic, chilli and spinach

and it has to be said, I was really content afterwards.

So it is on with the apron and the music I have chosen to listen to today is,

Harry Connick Jnr.  I  love his slow,  relaxed  style  of singing.   Listen to "Between Us" you will love it.

If you are ready, the ingredients we will need for this quick meal are,

INGREDIENTS

A quarter of a packet of dried spaghetti,

I chose to use whole wheat spaghetti today.

1 clove of garlic

and

1 teaspoon of chilli flakes

4 tablespoons of olive oil

one teaspoon of sea salt

and

one teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper

50g fresh baby spinach

2 tablespoons of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 red onion

METHOD

Heat a pan of salted water

and

cook the spaghetti as directed by the manufacturer.

Make sure the spaghetti is al dente (has a little bite to it)

Whilst the spaghetti is cooking,

finely slice the red onion

Place 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a pan,

add the onions and cook over a moderate heat.

Cook until the onions take on a golden colour

Crush the garlic and

add to the pan.

Cook for a  minute

Add the chilli flakes,

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

and cook for a further two minutes.

When the spaghetti is cooked, drain, and add to the

pan with the browned onions.

Toss together

Wash the baby spinach

and

add to the spaghetti and toss together.

Pop a lid on the pan, as this will help retain the heat,
 so that the spinach wilts.

If the spinach does not wilt after a couple of minutes,

return to a low heat, for a minute or so.

Once the spinach has wilted, remove from the heat.

Grate 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese

and

add to the spaghetti, then toss together

At this point I drizzle over a couple of tablespoons of olive oil

and toss again.

Once you have plated your spaghetti,
as a final flourish,
finely grate just a little more Parmesan cheese over
the spaghetti,

.... and there you have it, a quick and easy lunch for two.  When we eat spaghetti at lunch time, we only have a light snack for supper.  

You may feel there are a lot of steps to this dish, but trust me, this is a quick dish. Do you know, I have even been known, to slice the onions the night before, to make this dish even quicker to make, but you will find that as soon as the spaghetti is cooked, the meal is practically ready..... so it takes about 20 minutes from start to finish..... not bad for an enjoyable  meal.

If you prefer a little more liquid with this garlic, chilli and spinach spaghetti, then you can always add small halved tomatoes to the dish at the same time as you add the chilli and this will create a little sauce for you.

Just to let you know, this Sunday, I had fully intended cooking with the Preserved Lemons, but they are not quite ready yet, so I have decided to give them a couple of more weeks to mature and then I shall be making a Tagine.

On a final note, I am slowly, but surely catching up with my emails, but I have decided that if you are kind enough to leave a comment, then I will respond in the reply section of my blog.  This way I am certain that I have replied to each and everyone of you.  

So take care and I will see you later in the week.

This week I will be joining,

Kim at Savvy Southern Style

and

Yvonne at StoneGable
and
D at The Shady Porch

LEMON AND GINGER TEA

Good Morning to you,

As I sit down to catch up with you, there is a waft of sausages and bacon floating through the air. George is cooking breakfast today and I have been given strict instructions that I have a limited amount of time before my breakfast is ready.

Natasha and Danielle will be reading this and I know they will be smiling, as George never used to cook.  It was a standard joke in the family, that when I was away,  "How would dad cope???" "Who would make his bacon sandwich in the morning???"  I think the thought of me not always being around to make his breakfast, has spurred him on, to learn how to do a little cooking.... well I think that is a slight exaggeration, it has spurred George on, to learn how to cook sausages, bacon and eggs, but I have to be fair, I have shown him how to poach an egg, and do you know he now makes a fabulous poached egg. Now there's a thought, maybe I should show him how to make a few more meals.

Anyway, I had better get on as our time is limited before breakfast is ready.

Do you remember last week, when we made the Greek Olives I said I would tell you what I did with the remaining three quartered lemons, well, this is what I make with surplus lemons,

a refreshing cup of lemon and ginger tea.  I enjoy this tea when it is warm, as if the tea is too hot, you cannot appreciate the flavours.

So, it's on with the apron and the music I am listening to today, I know you will love.

Alfie Boe.... he is the most wonderful singer. Normally, when I listen to this Cd, I will lay down on the settee, close my eyes and just get lost in this beautiful music.  When Alfie sings "Bring Him Home" it brings tears to my eyes.  My other favourite song is "Come What May".... what am I saying, the whole Cd is wonderful. If you have not heard of Alfie, please, go to UTube, I am sure you will be able to find a clip of him singing "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserable.

Right, that is enough of me waxing lyrical about Alfie, let us get on with the Lemon and Ginger Tea.

INGREDIENTS

2 quartered lemons

 1 1/2" piece of root ginger

METHOD

Juice the two quartered lemons

Scrape off the brown skin from the ginger,

I find it easy to use a teaspoon for this.

Cut into small pieces

place in a heatproof bowl

add the lemon juice

Add enough hot water to make two cups of tea,
one for me and one for George,

and stir.

Transfer the lemon juice, water and ginger to a 
saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer,

allow to simmer for ten minutes,

but remove any foam which forms.

Return the lemon and ginger tea, from the saucepan to
the bowl and place a plate on the top, to 

allow the tea to steep for five minutes

Strain the pieces of ginger,

then pour yourself a cup of lemon and ginger tea

and sit back and

enjoy.

As I mentioned earlier, we made enough lemon and ginger tea for two cups.

For me, this is the perfect flavour, I can taste the lemon and there is a lovely background hit of ginger.  When you first taste the tea, you might think, mmm, there is not enough ginger for you, take a second sip and then a third, and you will find the ginger is most definitely there, you will enjoy a lovely ginger aftertaste.

I started making my own lemon and ginger tea, because a while ago now, I bought the dried tea bags and I found the taste of ginger was too overpowering and I did not enjoy the tea.  This way, I can adjust the flavour to my own taste.  Which is what I know you will do, maybe you do like an intense ginger flavour, then certainly add a little more ginger.

I don't discard the ginger straight away as I  use the ginger a second time to make tea, but only within the same day.

Just a little tip.  I used to find, that as I do not use a lot of ginger in my cooking, when I bought a root, if I was not in the mood for ginger and lemon tea, that as often as not, the ginger would go off. Now you know how I hate waste, so I tried freezing the ginger, I felt I had nothing to lose and do you know it worked.  It was easy to slice a piece of frozen ginger, my knife cut straight through it, without any difficulty.The piece of ginger I used today was frozen, it also made it easy to remove the skin with a teaspoon.  A teaspoon may sound a strange implement to use for removing the ginger skin, but because I always use such small quantities of ginger, I find the pieces difficult to handle and I did not want to cut myself with a knife, so I tried using a teaspoon and it works beautifully.  Give it a try and you will see what I mean.

You may be asking yourself what I did with the third and final piece of lemon..... well, we ate the first batch of Greek olives which I made last week and we do love Greek olives in this house, so I sliced the third piece of lemon and added the slices to another batch of olives, so nothing was wasted. Truly with a little thought, there is no reason to throw away any food.

Take care and I will see you later in the week.

This week I will be joining,

Karen from Sew Many Ways

and
Diane Wants to Write
and

Brenda from Cozy Little House

and

Kathy from Creative Home Expressions

GREEK OLIVES

Good Morning to you,

Life is returning to normal after the Summer Break.  Children are returning to school after their long summer holidays and I met with my good friends from my sewing group yesterday.  It was so lovely to see everyone, as  we all had lots to catch up on.

When I returned home,  it was lunch time.  George had gone for a swim and a sauna, so I was on my own for lunch. I was hungry when I arrived home and I needed  to assemble my lunch very quickly, before I reached for the biscuit barrel.  I found some olives, Feta Cheese and I had some fresh crusty bread.  Simple food but full of flavour and it certainly hit the spot.

I think you either love olives or you hate them, there seems to be no in between..... personally I love them. 

As you know, we used to grow olives when we lived in Cyprus. We would harvest some of the olives during November, whilst the olives were still green and before they turned into rich black olives. I would then preserve them by turning them into cracked olives (tsakistes).  George discovered a great way of cracking the olives, he would use a large flat stone as a base, where he would place the olive and then he would use a smaller flat stone to carefully crack open each olive, these two flat stones were perfect tools.  Mind you, it did take a long time, as he had to avoid cracking open the olive stone and one word of warning if you try this yourself, olive juice stains, so don't wear good clothes. After George had finished cracking the olives, I then soaked the olives in water for 2 weeks, making sure, each day, I changed the water, until the olives lost their bitterness.  When they were ready, I placed the olives in a large container, I then made a brine to cover the olives and  we enjoyed olives all winter long and into the spring.

Today I am going to show you how I jazz up plain olives, it is the same method as I used to do for the cracked olives (tsakistes) when I removed them from the brine. Now that I am living in England, I do not have  olive trees in my garden, so if I don't have the time to go to the market, then I will buy a jar.  Normally I buy olives with their stones intact as I feel they give a much better flavour, but I could not find any..... isn't that always the way, so on this occasion, I settled for some Greek olives stuffed with pimento, and this is what I did,

don't they look appetising.

So it is on with the apron, yes even for this small task, as I have my nice clothes on and I don't want to be splattered with olive oil. There is no music for you to enjoy today, as I am listening to Radio 2 and The Steve Wright Show.... he plays lots of old and new songs and he has a fabulous sense of humour.

INGREDIENTS

350g  jar of olives in brine

1 lemon

1 clove of garlic

1 tablespoon of oregano

1 tablespoon of wine vinegar

3 tablespoons of olive oil

METHOD

Drain the olives and rinse under cold water

Place in a bowl and set aside

Thinly slice a garlic clove

Quarter the lemon

then

thinly slice one quartered lemon

Remove the oregano from the stem and crush a little
as you do not want large pieces of oregano.
If you are using shop bought oregano then add
1 1/2 tablespoons and there will be no need
to crush the oregano  as it will be very fine.

 Add  the lemon, garlic and oregano to the olives in the bowl

In a separate bowl mix together the 

wine vinegar and olive oil

and add to the olives, garlic, oregano, 

then toss together

I then put the olives into a larger glass jar and I keep them in my store cupboard until needed.  Try not to eat the olives on the day you make them, give them a day or so, for the flavours to develop.

If you prefer you can keep them in the fridge, but remember to take them out a couple of hours before you want to eat them, as you certainly do not want to eat cold olives.

In place of oregano you can use crushed coriander seeds, you can also add chillies if you like a bit of heat.

The amounts I have given you for the olives, are personal to our taste, you might like to increase the amount of wine vinegar or olive oil, you might like to use one of the quartered lemons to add extra lemon flavour. It is really up to you, but what I would say, is try the way I have shown you first, then you can add or subtract as needed.

Oh and by the way...... I thought I would reassure you,  yes, there were the odd one or two olives left for George to enjoy when he returned home.

On Sunday, I will show you how I used the three remaining quartered lemons.

Take care and I will see you later in the week. 

This week I will be joining,

Yvonne at StoneGable

and

Sherry at No Minimalist Here

and
Leslie at Lambert's Lately

ROSES BEAUTIFUL ROSES

Good Morning to you,

Phyllis has arrived home safe and sound. We took her to the airport, booked her onto her flight and handed her over to a young man called Joe, who gently took Phyllis by the arm and guided her through Security, sat her in Departures, then when the time was right, he walked her to the aircraft and seated her in her allotted seat.  I spoke to her when she arrived home, and she said Joe was a lovely young man, as he walked arm in arm with her all the way to the aircraft.  

Isn't that the way all our mothers should be treated.... with love and kindness.

Before Phyllis left us, I received a lovely treat.  

this beautiful bunch of roses..... aren't they just gorgeous.

Normally I would place them in a large vase, as I love big blousey displays of flowers.  I am not a lover, of a single stem, in  a vase, I much prefer to see a vase, overflowing with flowers, but there was something about these beautiful roses, that said they needed  to be placed in my rose bowl. So I snipped off about six inches of stems, placed the stems in a cup of hot water for about five seconds, to allow any air bubbles to be removed and arranged them in my rose bowl.  I am so pleased with the effect as they have a soft, romantic feel about them.

Talking about snipping stems, I'll tell you a little story. 

A number of years ago, probably about ten or so years ago, we were visiting Natasha.  On her coffee table, she had placed an oblong vase which contained a dozen pink roses. She had snipped the stems of all the roses, to about six inches in height, so that they were all a uniform size, so when they were placed in the vase, they were all the same height.  When George looked at the vase of roses, he asked Natasha, if the florist had run out of roses, as it was such a shame, that the florist had sold Natasha roses with such short stems. He felt they would have looked much better if they were long stemmed roses, he continued by saying that Natasha really should take them back and complain and ask for her money to be returned. Natasha and I looked at each other and smiled, and Natasha told her dad, that she had been sold long stemmed roses, but that she had purposely trimmed the stems and that was how she wanted the roses to look. George looked at Natasha, and said "Really.... what a shame!"

We both laughed, and George really did not know what we were laughing about, we tried to explain again, but he would not have it, he said roses looked beautiful in a tall vase, not packed together in a tiny vase...... oh well, that's George for you. Having said that, I am pleased to say that time has moved on and so have George's opinions, he has accepted that it is alright to cut rose stems and he likes how the roses look in the rose bowl.

I have no idea what this white rose is called, it has a very faint perfume and Phyllis didn't know it's name either.  I said what a shame that we did not know, but it brought to mind the poem,

 "Nobody Knows This Little Rose" 

by Emily Dickinson.

Nobody knows this little rose,

It might a pilgrim be

Did I not take it from the ways

and lift it up to thee.

Only a bee will miss it,

Only a butterfly,

Hastening from far journey

On it's breast to lie

Only a bird will wonder

Only a breeze will sigh,

Ah little rose,

How easy,

For such as thee to die!

The bouquet is a mixture of pure white roses and  roses which look like their petals have been dipped into raspberry sauce.... can you tell I enjoy cooking. What would you say they looked like they were dipped in.... maybe red coloured ink.

...... they have such a dreamy quality about them and they look perfect with these beautiful old pearls.

and this beautiful ornament which George bought me when we holidayed in Sorrento, Italy. This young man sits perfectly beside my cut glass rose bowl and my beautiful pearls.

When I looked at the photograph of this pearl necklace, do you know what piece of music came to my mind?  I started humming,

do-do-do-do-do-dah-do

do-do-do-do-do-dah-do

do-do-do-do-do-dah-do-do-do

dah-do-do-do-do

Well it will be a miracle if you can translate that..... the piece of music I was humming along to was "A String of Pearls" by Glenn Miller.

I love the big band sound, as it is music that makes me want to dance around the room with George....... which, on occasion, we have been known to do.

Oh yes, just before I go, one thing you did not know about Phyllis' is that her middle name is, Rose...... isn't that just perfect.

Take care and I will see you later in the week.

This week I shall be joining,

Kathy at Creative Home Expressions

and

Kim at Savvy Southern Style

and
Diane at Diane Wants to Write
and
Paula at Ivy and Elephants