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.

                                                             

I didn't get to cook for us last night. Kids asked if we could go for Chinese food. They love a Chinese buffet. Husband and I are not huge fans, but they don't ask often, so of course we went. I remember how much I liked going out to eat when I was a kid.

Back then in the tiny town were we lived there weren't that many options of different cuisines. We used to go most Sundays for lunch to the same restaurant on top of a cliff with beautiful views to a big lake. Mum and dad had wiener schnitzels or something equally 70s. My older brothers had Frankfurters and fries and I had a mushroom omelette. Not hugely adventurous perhaps, but we were happy with our choices. My younger sister and brother were still on baby food, so they just sat in their baby chairs at the end of the table having no clue and chewing their toys. My brother had a squeaky plastic teddy bear wearing green overalls that he loved and would probably still be hugging and chewing it if it was socially acceptable.

And afterwards dad gave us some change and me and my older brothers ran to the bar to buy some spearmint chewing gum. About 12 years later on many a Saturday night I was standing at the same bar with my older brother and some friends downing Tequila Sunrises, Tom Collinses and Cuba Libres. Happy times, both the mushroom omelette days and the disco nights.

So to Chinese buffet we went. We tried to avoid the pretty horrible Dragon King near where we live. It's always too busy and noisy, but everywhere else we tried either didn't have a buffet, were permanently closed, or just closed at the time, because we were kind of between lunch and dinner. But if you advertise an all day buffet, then you have a buffet all day. A buffet that is closed for a couple of hours between lunch and dinner is not an all day buffet, I had to tell the guy at the Hungry Yeti. I don't think he took my feedback very seriously, there was much too much shoulder shrugging and not enough apologies for my liking.

So after driving around West London for over an hour, we finally ended up at the dreaded Dragon King. It was as bad as we remembered, maybe slightly less busy because we were still quite early. But everything including the drinks was deep fried. I managed to find some non-deep-fried vegetables and rice. The kids loved it at least.

So today I wanted to demonstrate how much nicer and more satisfying a fresh home cooked healthy meal can be. There really is no need to ever deep fry anything, if you ask me. I stuck to the Far Eastern theme and made a soy and honey glazed side of salmon with egg-fried rice and king prawns. Very pretty and colourful. And tasty. I'm not sure if the kids were thinking "OMG, why did I ever eat KFC, I must have been out of my teenage mind" or that they are any less likely to ask for the occasional fast food treat, but my food went down well. We finished the whole 1kg side of salmon and all that was left over was a spoonful of rice.

Egg fried rice with peas and prawns (serves 4)

2 1/2 cups of basmati rice
Oil
2 garlic cloves
4 spring onions
1 cup of peas
3 eggs
Salt
Pepper
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp butter
350g raw king prawns
garlic oil
1/2 lime, zest and juice

In the meanwhile devein the shrimp and season with salt and pepper, drizzle with garlic oil, add the lime zest and juice. Mix and leave to one side.

Wash the rice in a sieve under running water and soak at least 30 minutes in cold water and a sprinkle of salt. Drain and cook in plenty of water until just done. Drain.

Mince the garlic and chop the spring onion. Crack the eggs in a bowl and whisk lightly with a fork.

Heat oil in a large non-stick frying pan or wok. Fry the garlic on medium heat for a couple of minutes, add the spring onion, peas and rice. Move the rice to one side and pour in the eggs. Scramble the eggs and just as they start to set mix everything together.

In a separate pan melt the butter. Add the shrimps and fry on medium heat until they turn pink. Add the shrimps to the rice and mix everything together making sure it hot.

Soy, honey and lime glazed salmon (serves 4)

1 kg side of salmon
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp oil
3 tbsp honey
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 lime, zest and juice

Pre-heat oven to 200C.

Make sure salmon has no bones. Oil the bottom of an oven dish lightly and place the salmon in the dish. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Don't go overboard with the salt, because the soy sauce adds sals to the dish.

Mix oil, honey, soy and the lime zest and juice. Pour over the fish. Bake for 20-25 minutes until done basting with the juices a couple of times during cooking.

There hasn't been much epic cooking to write about lately. Last week I can't remember if I really cooked much at all, mostly just used bad language on M4 and defrosted stuff. This weekend I made pasta. Or I didn't really make pasta. I cooked some ready made pasta and tossed it with some veg. That was my culinary achievement of the week.

We went out to our favourite bar with some friends on Friday and the men started a bit of a drink buying competition. Not that I disapprove, it is actually one of my favourite kinds of competitions. And we had a great night. After our friends gave up and went home we found a random nice couple who we started buying rounds with, so for the rest of the weekend we were maybe a bit less energetic than planned.

So I made this non-challenging but satisfying and tasty pasta dish Saturday night and we ate in front of the TV. We don't do that often, we usually sit around a table like actual human beings (oh hello mother, I think I can hear your voice in my head, yes yes, no elbows on the table), but now it was all about hangover cure and being kind to our bodies and minds. Also, I doubt the conversation around the table would have been particularly riveting. So husband watched football and I read a book on my Kindle while shoveling the food in. Sometimes you have to.

Sunday I was going to do some baking, but instead decided to take a four hour nap. I'm not sure if technically you can even call it a nap. But it had been a long week and it was lovely, lots of excellent REM sleep! I had a fantastic dream that I was selling medical technology to private healthcare providers, so far not that unimaginable, pretty much what I do. BUT! In the dream my closest work mate was Keanu Reeves. I like my real life colleagues, but was still quite exciting to discuss pricing strategy and partnership agreements with Keanu. We even organised an awesome sales conference together and he was a surprisingly good salesman and wasn't just climbing roofs and jumping around in a sexy full length leather jacket. Although that would have been fine by me too. And he didn't try to kiss me or anything. Or me him, definitely.

Garlic and lemon mushroom tagliatelle (serves 2)

3 tbsp of olive oil (+ 1 tbsp for frying)
3 gloves of garlic, minced
250g organic brown mushroom (or regular chestnut), thinly sliced
2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
4 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
Zest and juice of a lemon
1 courgette, chopped
Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
75 g parmesan grated
3/4 cup of pasta cooking water
2 tbsp soft cheese
Salt
Blackpepper
300-350g linguine or tagliatelle
Fresh parsley and grated parmesan to sprinkle on top

Mix the mushrooms, garlic, lemon zest, thyme, parsley and olive oil.

Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large pan. Add the mushroom mixture and fry on medium heat for a few minutes. As the mushroom are starting to colour a little add the courgette and continue frying. Once courgette is almost done add the halved tomatoes, salt and pepper and continue frying until the tomatoes soften and all the vegetables are done.

In the meanwhile cook the pasta according to pack instructions. Drain reserving a 3/4 cup of the cooking water. Return the pasta into the pan. Add in the mushroom-vegetable mixture. Add the pasta cooking water, lemon juice. parmesan and soft cheese. Add some salt and pepper and mix well. Check the seasoning and add more if necessary. Sprinkle some fresh herbs and grated parmesan on top.

You know when you have something itchy in your bra and you just automatically put your hand in there to rummage around and then notice that young Andreas from the Munich office is looking at you across the meeting room table and you then pretend you're fiddling with your necklace? No, me neither.

I once had an ant in my bra through an entire guided tour in an art museum. I was the guide.

But now it's weekend, nothing untoward in my bra to ruin my mood as I potter around in my kitchen.

We started the day with a healthy bowl of porridge, or I did. Husband refused as I had made it with fruit juice instead of milk, because we didn't have enough milk. The fucking princess wouldn't eat it, because it "tasted weird" (hear the whiny three-year-old voice?) so he had a bagel.

He then went to see Deadpool with the kids, I didn't join because I was pissed off about the porridge I had some work to do and dinner to prepare and I think if the world never saw another Marvel film we'd probably be OK.

Why do superheroes always wear tights? I'm not complaining, particularly if Ryan Reynolds (or Ronald Reagan as husband calls him) is the one in the tights. But just wondering.

But the answers are out there and they are very practical! Superheroes wear tights because
- tights allow for the greatest range of movement while providing the entire body with protection
- tights allow quick and easy costume change (providing the hero is wearing the spandex under their everyday clothes, every girl knows that wriggling into a pair of tights is not easy or quick)
- tights are easy to fly in
- they are really comfy

So while the boys were admiring Ronald Reagan's red tights I prepared us this red wine marinated beef stew inspired by a meal that mum and dad cooked for me last time I visited them in Finland. Mum did most of the cooking, but for some reason dad was summoned to check the seasoning at regular intervals and administer the red wine.

They used strips of beef that were sold already in a peppery red-wine marinade. They then just browned the meat added some red peppers, fond and red wine. It was awesome served with creamy garlic potatoes.

I decided to do the exact the same meal, red-wine beef, garlic potatoes and an apple tarte tatin with vanilla custard for dessert. I got some topside roast yesterday, cut it into strips and put it in a marinade trying to guess what was in the Finnish shop marinade. And I left it in the fridge overnight.

Red-wine marinated beef strip stew (serves 6)

1.2 kg beef top-side or silverside roast

Marinade
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried parsley
2 tsp ground black or mixed pepper
2-3 bay leaves
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
4 garlic cloves
1 - 1.5 cups redwine
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cups liquid from a jar of red peppers (optional)

Stew
oil
1 onion
150g roasted red peppers
2-3 tbsp of game or beef fond (you can use 2 beef stock pots)
1 cup red wine
1/2 cup water
salt and blackpepper

Cut the meat into thin strips (kind of like stir fry size strips). Mince the garlic and mix all the marinade ingredients. You can use other herbs if you like, or fresh herbs. 1 tbsp for chopped fresh equals 1 tsp of dried. Mix in the meat making sure it's all covered. Marinade overnight in the fridge stirring it once or twice.

Take the meat out at least an hour before cooking to bring it to room temperature. Chop the onion. in a non stick frying pan heat a tbsp of vegetable oil. Brown the meat in batches removing to a dutch oven or other large pan. Once you have fried your last batch of the beef use the same frying pan to saute the onions until soft. Add the onions to the meat and place the dutch oven on medium heat.

Slice the roasted red peppers and add to the mix. Add the red wine. fond and water. Bring to boil, check seasoning and add salt and pepper if necessary.

Place in a preheated oven for about 45 minutes to an hour or until the meat is superbly soft. Do a final seasoning check, it should be quite peppery, so don't be shy with your peppermill.

Here's another healthy manproof weeknight dinner. Whenever cooking healthy foods for husband I have to make sure it's also filling. I am quite happy with a bowl of tomato soup, but husband needs something a bit more substantial. Something that can't be classed as girl food, this is particularly important for vegetarian or vegan foods, which in his head are inherently unmanly. Beans are great in this respect because cowboys eat them too.


This bean soup is cheap, healthy, quick, easy, comforting and filling. What else do you want?? Oh, yes. It's also very tasty. For maximum taste you would probably want to cook your own beans and get some flavour into the beans at that stage already. I used canned beans, but will improve my slothful ways and start soaking and cooking my own beans. God knows I have enough bags of dried beans and other legumes of all kinds in the cupboard to take us through an average length war.

I made this soup last night quickly after work before heading out to meet our next feline lodger. My colleague is going away for a couple of weeks at the end of September so I have said we'll look after her cat, Samuel.

Initially I went a bit over the top with garlic. I thought it's not possible to have too much garlic. It is! So I had to add a bit of this and that to dilute down the garlic a little. I chucked in a handful of parsley also in the hope of toning down the garlic. End result tasted good and there was lots of it. Below the amounts I should have used and will next time around.

The soup was ready on the stove for husband for when he got home from work and I went to meet Samuel, who is a very cute little boy. We bonded over some Dreamies tuna snacks and had a little cuddle already. (Treats and cuddles are part of the deal in our all-inclusive luxury cattery.) He will come for a two-night practice stay this weekend to get to know us both better and check the amenities before his 2 week stay next month. That's a long time for a little boy to be away from his mummy.

Rustic Tuscan bean soup recipe (serves 2)

Oil
1 small onion
1/2 leek
1 carrot
1 stick of celery
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary (or sage)
1/2 courgette (optional, I only added this because I had some lying around)
400g can of chopped tomatoes
1.5 cups of vegetable stock
Salt
Pepper
300g mixed beans (I had cannellini, kidney and pinto)

Chop the onion, leek, celery and carrot. Heat the oil, add the chopped vegetables and sauté gently for up to 10 minutes until vegetables start to soften. Mince the garlic, chop the herbs, add to the pan and cook for another minute or two.

Add the tomatoes,stock, salt and pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add the courgette and simmer for another 5-10 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Add the beans and heat through. Check seasoning and sprinkle some fresh herbs on top. Serve with a thick slice of warm home-baked crusty bread,



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I was originally planning to do my pretty awesome BBQ moose burgers today, but then the weather turned a bit crap and also I remembered the plump lamb shanks in the freezer that I just knew husband would love.


Lamb shanks are husband's one true love. Besides the wife of course. I didn't even ask him, because he usually is quite laid back and lets me decide about these things, but apparently he had been thinking about plump lamb shanks all day! So it seems we are quite telepathic like that, we just quietly understand each others deepest needs.

Like yesterday when he understood that I really liked the little necklace he offered to buy me, even though I modestly said I didn't need one. But of course he knew it's not about needing and got it for me anyway. So at least when it comes to lamb or jewellery our spiritual connection is mind-boggling.

I often go for Middle-Eastern flavours with lamb shanks, but today I decided to do them kind of French slash European style with loads of fresh herbs and a generous helping of Port! They were delicious, flavoursome and quite elegant served on plain basmati rice. I had to cut my other arm off not to add saffron or dill in the rice.