I’m having a baking evening- banana bread, apricot oat slices, ham and mushroom quiche and cheese straws so far.  In heels.  So glamourous!

Our researchers were thrown into disarray last night when an unexpected cooking disaster threw the Hutgirl into a flurry of activity!  Assuming it would be a standard Monday Night Supper Club (where the Hutgirl and friends take it in turns to cook mains and desserts, consume the meal and catch up, then watch the latest Game of Thrones episode), we’d left one research assistant observing the Hutgirl while the rest of us had nipped to the pub for a swift half. 

Imagine our dismay when the research assistant called to say the Hutgirls’ Sweet and Sour turkey was a disaster, and that the Hutgirl was engaging in rapid re-planning and backup plan assessments!  It is very rare that we get to see this behaviour, so naturally we all hustled back to the lair to see this phenomena up close and in person. 

We got back just as the Hutgirl was placing a phone-call to her dam, asking if she had any fresh meat, as the few fresh ingredients the Hutgirl had would now be useless without some sort of meat or protein addition… receiving a reply to the negative, the Hutgirl began rummaging through her freezer, coming up with half a dozen pork chops.  Starting these defrosting in the microwave, she then methodically went through the fridge, cupboards and shelves, laying things on the bench to create a backup meal.   We watched in astonishment as a few carrots, an onion, some mixed peppercorns, some leftover cream and a small bottle of white wine made a sauce to cook the pork chops in (casserole dish, oven, an hour).  Small tins of garden peas and sweetcorn were mixed and put in a small saucepan to provide some sort of vitamin-y goodness, and a few unloved potatoes were cut into wedges and dusted with salt, pepper, mixed herbs and a bit of paprika, before being shaken in a bag with some olive oil and turned onto a baking tray for 40 minutes.

Luckily, the other members of the Monday Night Supper Club were delayed, and the Hutgirl gained an extra vital few minutes to tidy the lair and lay the table.  Overall, the responses were tolerably positive- clearly not the Hutgirl’s best culinary work, but more than acceptable appeared to be the general verdict!

Now we just have to write it all up properly, and hope another disaster of moderate proportions occurs so we can observe the Hutgirl’s behaviour in this situation from the start.  Pub trips in shifts from now on…

Ok- trying to distract myself with what I’m doing for Monday Night Supper Club tonight.  I cut up some turkey breast yesterday and left it marinading in soy sauce and sesame oil, then threw it in the slow cooker this morning with sweet and sour sauce, so it should be nice and tender and cooked by the time I get in.

I also picked up a couple of packs of pre-shredded oriental vegetables (don’t judge me, time is very tight on a monday night!), so I think I’ll stir fry them and boil up some egg noodles to make chow mein, then cook some plain rice in the noodle water… and that’s where I’m drawing a blank.  There are only 3 of us eating this week, and I know Helen had sone a caramel chocolate torte for dessert, so I’m figuring that sweet and sour, chow mein and rice might be enough, but if anyone else has any ideas?

It’s been a few days since my last update, so I’ll just do a super-speedy summation of the last week or so :D

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As the weather has warmed up quite a bit just recently, Chris and I are BBQ-ing tonight!  He texted last night to confess he’d been utterly disorganised and had neither shopped for food nor stolen back the DVD we’d planned to watch from his brother, so I popped to the shops this morning to pick up a few cheap cuts of meat- I gathered thin cut Irish beef steaks, pork belly slices and chicken drumsticks, all for around £6 and grabbed a cabbage and some sweetcorn on the way out too.

I’ve done quick marinades* for all of the meat and popped it in the fridge for the afternoon, rubbed the sweetcorn with butter and rolled it in tinfoil and set some bread dough to rise.  Left on the list for later this afternoon- bake a couple of small potatoes, make coleslaw and bake the bread rolls.  Total cost for 4 person BBQ- around £9.  I don’t think that’s bad at all!

*For the pork belly slices (8), I combined 1 1/2 tsp chinese 5 spice with 2 tbsp dark soy sauce and 1tbsp toasted sesame oil.

The beef steaks (4) are marinading in 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp ground black pepper- simple and delicious.

The chicken drumsticks (10) are in 3 tbsp tomato ketchup mixed with 2tsp Lea & Perrins and 2 tsp Barbeque blended herbs.

My week in food!  Leftovers omelette, lemon and black pepper chicken in the slow cooker, and cheese scones…

A flying update, as too much to cram into today!  Last night was the Admin Assistant’s leaving do, so we drank cocktails in the student bar before heading down into Durham for an Indian… the cocktails were cheap and almost too delicious, so I may have been slightly tipsy by the time we got to the Indian!  We ordered a veritable feast too- 9 of us, and there was far too much for us to eat- several of the party went home with doggy bags!  I had a delicious lamb mumtaz and a garlic nan (and onion bhaji, naturally!) and went back to college feeling utterly satiated.  I actually had a really good night, which is surprising as I was expecting Durham to be really busy due to end of term- but we all had a fantastic time.

What made my night even better was that I’d borrowed a room at the College I studied at for 4 years, so I was in very familiar surroundings and got to show the boy a little bit of the College where I’d lived before hitting the sack.  It was so nice to wake up and watch the sunrise from the same balcony I’ve watched it so many times before and remember the times I’d shared it with friends, lovers and others.  It was even better when the ducks started serenading me with a chorus of quacks at 6am- honestly, for a minute I was 19 again and had my whole time to do over!

This early start came with it’s own punishment however- came home this morning via the shops and picked up a few more bargains and some butter, did a smidgen of housework, then fell asleep again :/  While I have been kind of productive since and put a chicken in the slow cooker for tomorrow and baked some cheese scones, it’s an overall fail on the housework today!  Hoping for decent weather tomorrow so I can get the rest of the garden infrastructure in place though!

While the Hutgirl generally grazes her way through the day, eating a large breakfast, something small for lunch and generally nothing for dinner unless the boy reminds her (unless of course she’s craving indian or chinese, in which case all bets are off!), occasionally she’ll come home and engage in a bout of cookery.

Usually this is prompted by one of three things. One- she’s running low on lunch money this month, and has turned to the heavily stocked cupboards and freezers to create something she can take to work for the next few days. Two- the food she got during the big shop she did at the supermarket a week ago and then hasn’t looked at since is nearing it’s expiry date and needs cooking so she can extend it’s viable lifespan. Three- she has friends coming over and needs to whip something up quickly (unless she thought ahead and stuck something in the slow cooker that morning).

As she came in from work (and extra work for her dad’s business!) it appeared that one of those phenomena must be in effect, as she threw some dough in the breadmaker, stuck a gammon joint on the hob on a slow boil, and put another joint in the slow cooker with some apples that were sitting on the windowsill looking rather sorry for themselves, a generous blob of honey, the chopped up remnants of a leek left from baking quiches last week, two bay leaves and a sprinkle of mustard powder.

As it’s payday tomorrow, and she’s made no effort to tidy the frankly shameful living room (the suitcases are still sitting there from Vegas!), we surmise that it must be the second option- the gammon needed cooking and she doesn’t want to go to the store for just a loaf of bread. We’ll observe her behaviour closely and see if this theory is bourne out.