Here's another easy, healthy weekday dinner. We were good boys and girls with husband today, he went to gym and I went for a run up and down the hills of Ealing. I made this sound maybe a bit like an Alpine ultra-marathon which husband was slightly dubious about not being able to think of any particularly steep hills around our area. Which is because he drives everywhere. But really it is quite hilly or does he think the streets are called Highview, Edgehill or Mount Avenue for nothing. What? No, they are called so, because they are designed for particularly fearless and hardy runners like me with legs and wills of iron.

Not the type who once they get to the top of the hill mountain stop there pretending they are looking at their runner's app  on the smart phone strapped to their arm for a quick check on distance / pace / vitals or something, but really are just stopping because otherwise they might actually die.

Afterwards while husband was showering I put together this quick soup. He's a thorough and slow showerer so usually that's not such a limiting factor in recipe choices, could manage a roast dinner in the time, but this soup is quite a favourite with us anyway. I modify it in many ways depending on what veg I have, but the four key ingredients that remain are chicken, dill, leak and lemon. White wine goes really well of course, but I omitted it today not for any particular health purpose, but actually just forgot.

Chicken, leak, dill and lemon soup (serves 4)

Oil
1 leek
4-5 of spring onions
Juice and zest of half a lemon
1/3 cup chopped fresh dill (I added in some parsley as well)
1/2 cup white wine (optional)
500g chicken (skinless and boneless thigh or breast)
1 cup of chicken stock
1/2 - 1 cup water
salt
1 level tsp lemon pepper
1 large courgette

A perfect weekend - I got to cook for husband and kids both Saturday and Sunday. Sometimes we are out and about on Sunday or decide to eat out on Saturday, so disappointingly I only get to cook once. But this time I got lucky.

On Saturday I did a reasonably quick chicken dinner as I had only come back home from the shops when husband appeared with the two ravenous boys, so I gave them some fruit and got on with quick roast lemon, garlic and rosemary chicken thighs with parmesan and taleggio tagliatelle with peas and herby garlic bread. Not fast food exactly, but reasonably speedy and very lovely!

And on Sunday after a hearty breakfast of omelette, baked beans, smoked salmon, ciabatta and croissants we went for a walk on Northala Fields. If you have ever approached London on A40 / Western Avenue you may have seen the four conical mounds on the side of the road around Northolt. Despite what you might think they are not ancient burial mounds or anything mythological or unexplained, but the rubble from the demolition of the original Wembley Stadium in 2003.

After a lively discussion about whether it made more sense to just park somewhere and walk the rest of the way as we had come there specifically for some fresh air and exercise to begin with or to circle endlessly around the full car parks in search of the ideal parking spot within spitting distance of the park, we finally parked in husband approved spot just an arm's length from the highest of the mounds. Which we then climbed. It's not Mount Everest or Meru exactly, you can get a buggy up there without breaking a sweat. But the views across London are pretty impressive, you can see as far as the Docklands from there.

Anyway, it was windy and fucking freezing up there, so after fake-smiling for a few photographs for Facebook pretending we were a bunch of hardy hikers having a fab time and that it wasn't eye-wateringly freezing up there and that we all loved it a lot more than the sofa, a film and a cup of tea, we took the shortcut down and went to find some tea and latte for husband and me and ice-cream for kids. Never too cold for an ice-cream for them it seems.

Back home boys happily parked in front of TV and Sunday football I was faced with a welcome challenge to get some food on the table quickly so that they wouldn't miss their train. But also I don't want to put them on the train unless they are properly fed. I am my Mothers daughter and no one will leave my house hungry, if I have anything to say about it.

So I did a quick warming beef chilli with Mexican rice. Jamie would have done a couple of lovely Mexican inspired salads with some kind of tortilla invention and churros and chocolate sauce in the time as well. All served on a wooden board no doubt. For me this was quite enough with just some cucumber, tomato and baby gem thrown on a plate as a salad and fruit from the fruit basket for dessert.

Mexican rice with tomatoes, pepper and lime

1 yellow onion
Half of  a 400g can of chopped tomatoes
1 garlic clove
2 cups of basmati rice
1 bell pepper
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
2 cups chicken stock
Handful of chopped fresh coriander (optional, I left out as husband hates)
1 lime, zest and juice
2 cobs of corn
chopped jalopeno pepper or a pinch of red pepper flakes (depending on how hot you like it)

Wash the basmati rice under cold running water and leave to soak in salted water.

Place the peeled and roughly chopped onion and tomatoes in a blender and blend until smooth. Place in a large lidded non-stick sauce pan. Bring to boil. Press in the garlic clove. Chop the bell pepper and cut the corn kernels from the cob (you can also use canned corn) and add to the pan.

Drain the rice and add to the pan. Add the cumin, salt, chicken stock, coriander, zest and juice of lime and the red pepper flakes / jalopeno and cook on low to medium heat until liquid is absorbed and rice is done. Check seasoning and add salt if necessary, fluff with a fork and serve with the chilli and segments of lime.


Quick ground beef Chilli con Carne

Oil
1 kg lean ground beef
1 yellow onion
3 garlic cloves
1-2 cans of beans(kidney or mixed beans)
1 can (400g) tomato passata
1/2 cans of chopped tomatoes
1 cup beef stock
2 tsp cumin
pinch of cayenne pepper
black pepper
salt
2 tsp coriander

Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a large pan or Dutch oven. Chop the onion and mince the garlic and add to the pan. Fry on medium heat for a couple of minutes, add the meat. Keep frying on medium heat breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon until all meat is browned. Add the tomatoes, beans, stock, spices and seasoning and leave to cook for about 20 minutes (or longer if you have time). When ready to serve check seasoning and add liquid if necessary.

Excellent Sunday - I was testing my new walking shoes. We did a 5k test walk yesterday, and today a 10k walk around the sunny Ealing stopping at the shops in Ealing Broadway on the way home. I found some much needed work attire. I used to be quite a keen shopper, but lately the focus has not really been there. I found two pairs of heels, nude and black, same style. I couldn't decide which colour to get, so I got both. They were quite cheap. And 3 really nice tops for work and some bits and pieces (camis, t-shirts etc). Oh, and the obligatory scarf. I love scarfs. I think my neck has become so accustomed to scarfs that I feel cold and vulnerable without one. Which is fab because once my neck becomes too wrinkly to see daylight it doesn't really matter because it never would anyway.

Back home I made husband a big pot of creamy salmon and cod chowder to keep him fed and warm while I'm gone for Monday and Tuesday in a meeting somewhere near Coventry in a place called Coombe Abbey. It looks lovely and I'll take my running gear in case there is time after the meeting for a quick run in fresh country air. It makes me think of Combe Magna and Marianne and Willoughby and the wonderful Colonel Brandon. Maybe it will start raining and I'll faint daintily while running on the moor (not sure if there is a moor there) and I'm not sweaty at all in my running pants but fresh and fragrant and Alan Rickman who's obviously not dead comes and sweeps me on his arms and so on.

I love Jane Austen (the actual books also, not just the films and Alan Rickman and Colin Firth). We watched the Jane Austen Book Club this weekend and husband pronounced it was the most boring film ever. Whenever something bad happened to someone he suspected someone else or FBI or CIA and I was trying to explain it's not that kind of a film, there is no FBI or CIA or MI6 there and the book clubbers aren't really probably trying to kill each other. I of course loved it.

Then husband watched the Hateful Eight, which I couldn't stomach. I hate Quentin Tarantino films. I think he must be mentally ill. So it looks like even if mostly dear husband and I have but one mind and one way of thinking it doesn't seem to stretch to motion picture arts.

I just realised this soup is very close to the traditional Finnish salmon soup which I make quite often, just more finely cut and mushy of texture. But ingredient and flavour wise very close. Yummy and comforting.

Salmon and cod chowder (serves 4)

Oil
1 leek
1 yellow onion
500 g potatoes
2 cups of fish stock
1/2 cup of milk
2 tbsp fresh chopped dill
2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
zest and juice of a lemon
100g garden peas
140g can of corn
salt
lemon pepper
250g salmon
250g cod
2 heaped TBSP of creme fraiche

Debone your fish and remove any skin. Cube the fish and sprinkle with salt. Zest your lemon keeping the zest to one side. Juice the lemon and pour the juice on top of the fish.

Wash the leak. Chop the leak and onion. Peel potatoes and cut to small cubes. Heat oil in a pan. Add the leak and onion and sauté on medium heat until soft. Add the potatoes and continue cooking for a few minutes. Add the fish stock. Cover and cook on low to medium heat until potatoes are soft.

Add the milk and mash some of the soup with a potato masher, or you can use a hand blender. Leave about half of the soup unmashed. Add the herbs, lemon zest, corn and peas. Season with salt and lemon pepper. Cook for a few minutes and add the fish. Cook for a minute or two on gentle heat until the fish is done. Blend in the creme fraiche, check seasoning, sprinkle with fresh dill and serve with fresh bread.

It was my birthday this week. It's great to get older, at least compared to the alternative. Otherwise it's not so much fun once you've turned ten.

A friend asked if I was aware that I was now closer to 60 than 30. Sixty is the new thirty, I have decided. To be honest I have been closer to sixty than thirty for a while.


But it's kind of a nice day always, you feel a bit special. It doesn't even matter that your own parents forget it completely.

Not even a text message.

Husband surprised me with a lovely pair of walking trainers, exactly what I needed. I have two great pairs of running shoes, but my walking shoes were knackered. It's like with face creams you need a different one for all different facial areas (when you are closer to 60 than 30). There is one for under the eyes, another for above the eyes, one for around the mouth, one for neck etc. It would be easier to just pull a bag over the whole thing. As one of my brothers always used to suggest when he saw me doing my make-up.


But anyway similarly with trainers there are different ones for all possible exercise and activity. I'm very boring with my exercise, city terrain running and walking is all I do with a bit of gym thrown in. I don't body jam or zumba or engage in any other kind of humiliating group exercise involving flinging your arms around. Trail running sounds fun and I'm sure would require specific shoes, but it's too dangerous for someone with gait as low as mine. I once tripped and broke my ribs because the pavement was a bit uneven and caught my toe.

It turned out to be a stroke of luck, because soon after we had a team meeting with my back-stabbing colleagues in a previous job with curling as evening activity. So I didn't have to take part, but got to watch as they all kept painfully falling over on the ice. Completely worth the broken ribs and the pain of laughing with the broken ribs.

When I was leaving the job my colleagues asked what I would like as my leaving gift to remember them by. I said a set of knives. They got me the set.


Advice nugget: If you break your ribs, do not sneeze for at least 3 weeks.

I got a piece of lovely Hummingbird bakery cake from a work mate, which works perfectly with the trainers. Eat the cake and then walk approximately 29 miles to burn off the calories.


But my best birthday present was our little blackbird. He has lived in a tree outside our bedroom window ever since we moved here. Or maybe he doesn't actually live in the tree, but just works there, I don't really know much about blackbirds. But every morning from early spring till summer he arrives in the tree promptly at 4 am and starts bellowing out some formidable tunes. He's got two main melodies that he keeps repeating a bit like many modern pop-stars, although they usually just have the one. Dee-de-dee-de-dee and dee-dee-dee-dee-dedde-dee goes the blackbird and chirrup chirrup in between. He is very loud and energetic. The earlier the louder I think. He may have influenced our decision to get double-glazing, which work like ear plugs in a heavy metal concert.

But this spring he didn't come. It was April already and not a song. Every morning I woke up at 4 am as perimenopausal women do and listened. But he wasn't there. I googled the average life expectancy for blackbirds and found out they only live for 3.5 years on average. Although there were individuals (on Mediterranean diets I bet) known to have lived past 20 years. We have been in this house for 5 years this summer.

That made me really sad. Our screamy little ASBO bird had died. I was wondering how he had died. Was it of natural causes or an accident? Was he alone? Where was his little body lying? I thought of the sad bird funerals that we organised as kids for all the birds that flew against our windows and died. And there were loads, stupid seventies full wall windows.

But then one sunny and bright evening this week, my birthday, walking home from the train I heard him. Just up the road from where we live. I stopped and listened wondering if another blackbird could just be mimicking him exactly, but decided it must be him and the thought made me very happy.  I listened to his familiar tunes for a while before walking home. God bless you little blackbird, I hope people under your new tree have double-glazing and no hand-guns.

For my birthday dinner I cooked a lovely seafood pasta. Husband did offer to take me out, but we soon agreed we wanted me to cook because
- I love cooking and not letting me cook for my own Birthday dinner would be cruel
- I had bought a lot of lovely fish and seafood from John Lewis Food Hall
- Husband gets stomach ache from restaurant food
- My food is so good that we couldn't think of anywhere in London with better food than mine

I may have slightly tweaked the last bullet point. But the pasta was pretty awesome.

Seafood pasta with garlic and herbs (serves 4)

Oil
4 anchovy fillets
1 large yellow onion
2 cloves of garlic
Pinch of crushed red pepper
1 cup of white wine
Salt
Pepper
2 tbsp of fresh oregano (or 2 tsp dried)
2 tbsp fresh basil (or 2 tsp dried)
2 tbsp of fresh parsley (or 2 tsp dried)
2 tbsp tomato paste
250g cherry tomatoes
1 cup pasta boiling water
1 fish stock pot (or cube)
250g mussels or clams
200g jumbo prawns
250g tuna (or other fish/seafood, squid would be lovely)
2 tbsp of grated parmesan and some extra for decoration

Prep your seafood, I used ready cooked mussels in garlic and white wine for this, so they were ready to go. Devein the shrimp and cube the fish. Drizzle with oil or garlic oil and sprinkle on a bit of salt and pepper.

Boil the pasta according the the pack instructions leaving it slightly undone and preserving 1 cup of the cooking water.

Chop the onion and mince the garlic. Heat oil in a large non-stick saucepan. I used some of the anchovy oil. Add the anchovy fillets, garlic, onion and red pepper flakes in the pan and saute until soft. Add the white wine and let reduce until the liquid is almost gone.

Chop your herbs if using fresh and halve the cherry tomatoes. Add the herbs, tomato paste, tomatoes and the fish stock pot or cube to the pan. Saute until tomatoes start to soften Add a cup of the pasta cooking water and the parmesan.

You have to estimate how long your seafood take to cook depending on what you use and add them in the right order at the right times. My seafood all took about the same 5 minutes so I added them all at the same time. So stir in you seafood and cook until almost done. Toss your sauce and drained pasta together and let simmer giving the pasta a chance to absorb some of the sauce.

Sprinkle with fresh herbs and parmesan.

This week seems a bit slow somehow,  post-Easter blues maybe?



Also I called Dad to wish him Happy Birthday. A month early. So now I'm obviously thinking I have early onset Alzheimer's.

Also I can't find a bag of pitta bread anywhere. I know I had one in the bread basket and it's gone. Either the mouse who sometimes visits our breadbasket has taken the whole unopened bag this time or, well, early onset Alzheimer's.

Anyway. What was I saying?

No point wallowing in negativity when you can also cook. So I whizzed together a quick dill pesto. If dill doesn't make you happy then I don't know what will.

I did a scrummy little filo tart. Which brings me onto a lunch on Sunday with a friend in the Real Greek in Shepherds Bush Westfields. They put the calories of each of the dishes on the menu. WHY? It's cruel. It's so unhelpful to anyone who wants to enjoy their lunch, but maybe helpful if someone doesn't, but wants to obsess about calories and eat carrots. Because a lot of the nice stuff like filo filled with feta was loads of calories and all the stupid stuff like crudites was reasonable calories. Like crudites 47 vs taramosalata abt 1000 kcal. How is that even possible, It's just fish roe for Poseidon's sake.

My fun when growing up was to draw family trees of Greek Gods, instead of hanging out in town with the cool kids because they had no understanding of Greek mythology.

Who would go to a restaurant and order crudites. Really. If you do, find help,

Anything with filo was around a 1000 kcal. And this whole fat math finally got me to choose some stupid green bean fava at less than 200 kcal instead of the probably awesome taramasalata.

And I think my friend liked the sound of the Greek Sundae for dessert, but after 6 shared mezze and several glasses of white wine the 1200 kcal sounded a bit much.

This little filo tart is probably not Weight Watchers approved either, but filled with healthy fresh stuff, tastes pretty awesome and not crazy on the calorie front. It would make a stylish starter or evening snack with a crisp glass of bubbly or white wine. Husband and I just had it as an after gym snack.

Dill pesto

1 - 1 1/5 cup (one big bunch) of fresh dill
1/4 - 1/3 cup of oil (I had half olive half vegetable)
1/3 cup grated parmesan
2 tbsp of pine nuts, pistachios or almonds
1 garlic clove
zest and juice of half a lemon
salt
pepper

Put everything in a blender and blitz until smooth. You can use less or more oil depending on what you are going to use it for and how thick or thin you like it (or you).

Smoked salmon, feta and dill pesto filo tart

1 pack of filo pastry
Oil
2 - 3 tbsp dill pesto
200g warm smoked salmon
1 courgette
1/2 red onion
2 spring onions
80 g feta
fresh dill

For fish in this I used a lovely flame smoked (hot not cold smoked) salmon, but you could use any salmon, also cold smoked, or even poached or baked.

Preheat the oven to 200C

Lightly oil a wide baking tray or pie dish. Layer 5 sheets of feta on the tray. Proper filo usage calls for brushing each layer with melted butter, but if you want a reasonably healthy weeknight meal just spread the shop-bought sheets on the tray and it'll be just fine.

Add the dill pesto on top of the filo and spread evenly.

Slice the red onion and courgette very thinly and chop the spring onion finely. Break the salmon into pieces with your fingers and drop on the filo, sprinkle on the onions and courgette slices. Crumble the feta on top and place in the oven.

Bake until filo is brown and crispy at the sides, about 15-20 minutes. Garnish with fresh chopped dill and serve with mixed salad.

What a lovely sunny weekend finally! On Saturday I couldn't wait for husband to wake up so we could go out and play. But I restrained myself, because he has to get up early during the week and he really needs those extra hours of sleep. Momentarily I was hopeful that upstairs neighbour's building project would do the job, but nothing. Husband slept like a cute, bald, bearded baby until midday after which I shoved a quick omelette down him and off we headed to Henley-on-Thames.

Like all pretty little towns Henley can only be reached through one narrow ancient bridge which is of course completely blocked with traffic. To make sure these single entry points to towns worth visiting are absolutely blocked there always is also a set of random unnecessary traffic lights with the single purpose of pissing off the tourists. Maybe it's the same as with nightclubs, there needs to be a queue otherwise people might think that it's not popular / worth visiting. Growing up in Finland I remember the extreme fun of queuing in minus 40 C only to enter a virtually empty nightclub.

There is always lack of parking too, which just makes it so much more worth while when you finally get out of the car and shake off the sciatica to enjoy the hour and a half left before the sun sets. So when we finally got there after husband had repeatedly refused to abandon the car on the roadside and walk, the sun had disappeared behind the clouds and the shops were closing.

Well they were not closing exactly, but shops do close really early in these picturesque little towns, so don't leave buying your colourful secondhand plates for blog photography purposes too late, otherwise you might be going home without any new plates and continue photographing the same bloody white IKEA plate.

The blimmin' bridge

We still had a really nice stroll on the riverside, with husband teaching me how to walk calmly and in a leisurely manner rather than rush forward pushing other people out of the way and into the river. Really. I've never pushed anyone into the river. Even though he's practically asked for it on several occasions. He then helpfully demonstrated how I walk. I always thought athletically and with strength and poise - but apparently like a madman. Completely cracked me up.

So we had a fun time admiring the pretty town and finished our visit with a drink in a riverside pub before heading back home for our favourite things: evening football TV for husband and dinner cooking for me.

I had seen a recipe for tuna steaks with a herby lemon butter somewhere recently, but I couldn't find the exact one anywhere. But I found some others and just chucked in what I thought might work. And it turned out really nice. I still like my orange and soy marinated tuna steaks, but this is another quick way to do fresh tuna.

I served it with a roasted asparagus pasta and a mixed salad.

Tuna on an IKEA plate

Seared tuna steaks with oregano lemon butter (Serves 4)

4 fresh tuna steaks
salt
pepper
oil

Lemon butter:
60g butter
1 garlic clove
1 tbsp fresh chopped oregano
zest and juice of a small lemon
salt
pepper

Sprinkle the tuna steaks with salt and pepper and drizzle lightly with oil.

Heat a griddle pan to medium high heat. Add the tuna steaks on the pan and fry for 2-3 minutes per side.

In the meanwhile prepare the butter sauce. Mince the fresh oregano and the garlic clove. Heat a small pan  and melt the butter in the pan. Add the garlic, oregano, zest and juice of a lemon, salt and pepper, Cook gently for a couple of minutes until the garlic is soft.

By this time your tuna should be done. Pour the lemony garlic and oregano butter over the tuna steaks and serve with pasta or rice and a fresh salad.