Clean Sheets

Menu Planning, not as scary as it sounds.

When I had one child I used to find myself shopping daily for dinner, she was a patient shopper and it was easy enough to fit it in around naps and carry my few bits along with the buggy. Even when the Happy One arrived and I was on Maternity Leave it was possible as The Princess was still in childcare in the mornings, but when I returned to work, this had to stop.

Transformation: Pine Chest (Step 3)

Like many things in life, preparation is key when painting, so another step along the way is the primer. Thankfully no nails were sacrificed this week and the box looks a bit smarter.

Tools:       Paintbrush 8.50  euro

                Tin of aluminium wood primer ( 250ml would be enough for this job)

                I have other projects so I bought a litre for 19.80 euro

Aluminium wood primer is solvent based so, you need white spirit to clean the brush                

Cheap paintbrushes are not worth it, they shed their bristles in your nice new paintwork so buy the best you can afford and ask advice at the shop.

I find the service in the large DIY chain stores hopeless, unless you are lucky it's often a young student who through no fault of their own just doesn't have the experience required to advise you. Check out your local old fashioned hardware store if you are lucky enough to live near one- the other bonus is that you never know what bargain treasure you may discover! 

Time: less than an hour.The primer takes 16 hours to dry. So the next day I turned the box upside down to paint the the legs. I intend to leave it this way and paint the legs first with 2 coats of the colour.

Box upside down

I am very excited about choosing a colour for next weeks stage, I am already surrounded by colour cards and ideas for decorating the box are already swirling around in my mind!

Recipe Source: Website

I find recipe books irresistible. The best of them are well thumbed and spattered tomes that contain several recipes that have become part of my regular repertoire or are simply so sumptuously presented that a flick through them is a little like gastric pornography and is satisfying even if I never attempt their extravagant contents. The worst of them are just not applicable to my needs or the recipes are not tried and tested with regular equipment in a home kitchen.

My recipe book addiction can be an expensive habit to feed but there are lots of alternative sources of recipes other than expensive bound volumes.

Of course there's cleansheets.ie, where you'll get one at least once a month!

My second favourite website is the BBC Good Food website. This is a really clever site. You can search by ingredient, degree of simplicity, calories... a multitude of options exist, but the highlight is the great site users who kindly take the time to let you know how they got on with the recipes and give tips on tweaking and improving them. There really is an amazing amount of knowledge and any cook would be inspired. I love the fact that the recipes are graded with a degree of difficulty and it's ideal if you have a miscellaneous ingredient you want to use, or a new ingredient that you bought for something specific.

Here's the link... Add it to your favourites and have fun, oh, and let us know if you find a gem!

Cleansheets second favourite food website.

  

Transformation: Pine Chest - delay

If you've logged on for the next episode of the pine chest transformation, I am very sorry but it didn't happen this week, I bought the Aluminium Wood Primer, brush and white spirit but the weather didn't cooperate, and my only other secure space is the guest room and that has been occupied all week. So I promise to catch up over the weekend and update you on Monday.

Console yourself with some Teriyaki Salmon! (recipe posted yesterday)

Recipe: Teriyaki Salmon

More oily fish for our brains in the cleansheets household last night and it was so quick and easy. It's another of the BIM postcards that I picked up in our local fish shop, the very friendly and helpful Quinlans on the Mall in Tralee.

BIM's photo, not mine (too hungry to look for camera when dinner was ready!)

For 4 people you will need 600g salmon fillet skinned and cut into cubes.

Marinade it for 10 minutes in 4 Tablespoons of Teriyaki sauce. (I had Kikkoman Teriyaki marinade and it was perfect for the job.) 

Heat your frying pan and add the fish with the sauce. Cook on a moderate heat for 8-10 minutes turning as required.

I served it with Chinese egg noodles (they cook in 3 minutes!) and some new season local carrots. I steamed them and when they were almost cooked I melted some butter in a saucepan added some grated ginger (a peeled piece about half an inch long) and a dessertspoon of honey. Toss the carrots in the mixture and throw over some sesame seeds, (toasted if you've time). Empty plates all round!

The slowest part of cooking this dinner was peeling the carrots,from starting to cook to sitting down to eat was less than 30 minutes.

New Habits

Starting to do something new is not easy. Changing anything is a challenge, and the first hurdle will usually be provided by ourselves. If we don't want to to something we won't. I am guilty of this... a friend would suggest I do something new or in a different way and I would be able to come up with several reasons why it was easier for her but,  if I was honest there was usually several different reasons why it would be easier for me, but I chose to ignore those.

If you really want to become more organised, get fitter, or learn something new then do it, if not, accept you don't really want to and let it go. I am afraid this realisation did not come from soul searching within, but a fundraiser for Breast Cancer Awareness at a friends house where a pragmatic style coach made me confront the fact that the only thing between me and change was my lack of will to actually do it.

Since then I have found it much easier to dismiss habits or routines I don't adopt, with the knowledge that I just didn't want that badly enough right now and I have taken up new habits such as weekly menu planning with much less fuss. Less guilt, more action. Good for me and those around me.

Put simply:    WANT IT?       DO IT!

Cheap treat: Make your bling sing...

I feel strangely protective of Brian O'Driscoll and Amy Huberman. Amy's brother is a friend of a friend, and as a rugby fan Brian has given us so much, I will never forget his hat trick in Paris, through my teens I dreaded the winter afternoons watching Ireland bravely battle for up to 60 minutes against the French only to have them mercilessly breach our defense repeatedly  with style and flair to leave the scoreline make us look like a team who should have known better than to have any hope or expectations, those days are thankfully history and while Brian is not alone responsible, his hat trick showed we were right to believe... so for that, I will be eternally grateful. The rugby player and I also saw them on what I assume to be one of their first dates at The Olympia Theatre in Dublin at a wonderful one man show  about Tom Crean. I know that all of this is a tenous connection but, I did admit it's strange that I feel this way.

In the papers recently I read how much they apparently spent on their engagement ring, I won't be repeating  it here. I don't think it's any of our business, but it is gorgeous and sparkly in the photos which got me to thinking about how long it had been since I had my own sparkler cleaned, The answer was a shameful 2 years. So off to the jewellers I went and as always the results are stunning and here on my hand for me to admire all day. Do it today, drop into your local jeweller and when you return I guarantee you will not be disappointed. This goes for any jewellery but there's an extra special buzz if it's a piece that brings back great memories. 

Transformation: Pine Chest (Step 2)

I did it, it's Friday and here I am with a sanded box.

Tools: 2 sheets of coarse sand paper cut into 4

I decided the sanding pads I had purchased were too fine and the sheets were a mere 25c each!

So as not to wreck my scissors I put them upside down on a chopping board and cut them in quarters with a sharp knife, worked a treat.

Time: an hour and a half

Sanding is dusty work, so I got the rugby player to haul the box outside (I need to remind myself of these advantages when the season is in full swing, the washing machine and dryer are full of mud and sand and Sunday after Sunday is spent on the sideline of windswept pitches around Munster!)

So I spent a pleasant fine evening outside  this wasn't very strenuous I wasn't trying to remove all the varnish and stain, simply roughen the surface so the paint will stick to it. I have also washed the dust off thoroughly with water and now we are ready for Aluminium Primer. (I get the knowledge and lingo from my Mum who works in a hardware shop selling paint - very useful.)

 

Two nails perished while completing this task but I feel it will be worth it.  The hardest part was the detail and recesses. I did it by folding the sandpaper and squeezing it into the corners.

I sanded the back too and almost forgot the legs. I sanded the inside of the lid in about 4 cm from the edge all around.

One sanded pine chest complete, BUT no laundry done since Friday! I'm blaming the unpredictable weather.

Quick and Easy Window boxes - update

A reader kindly pointed out that the correct spelling of lobelia is with an o not a u, I have amended the original post, and learnt that the spell check is no botanical expert! 

They also had the following tip: Scraping your fingernails over a bar of soap before gardening will allow you to easily remove any dirt and grime afterwards with an orange stick. (good to know how to keep them clean now that I have grown them!) Thank you, Mary.

The window boxes have bloomed despite my lack of gardening experience, see for yourself:

                                            

If you think they look a little wind blown from the west you would be right, that's the Atlantic making it's presence felt.

Steamy tips for steak recipe

Cooking New Potatoes to perfection can be a challenge but cleansheets finds it’s much easier using a steamer. The delicious floury ones hold their shape and don’t become too moist. I steam potatoes all year round, and lots of veg too. Some research suggests as much as 70% less nutrients are lost.

My local kitchen shop is Utensils (Castle Street, Tralee) and they have all the options from bamboo or silicone steamers to a stainless steel basket for less than ten euro, or if you’d like to steam lots more vegetables, or even chicken and fish you should check out the gorgeous stainless steel double steamer from Stellar that’ll last you and perhaps the next generation a lifetime of healthy cooking!

Utensils will soon be online - I will keep you posted!

Tips for steaming

Fill the water to just barely beneath the steamer basket and don’t forget to check on it during cooking to make sure the water doesn’t all evaporate. Be careful! steam can burn.

 New Potatoes on the bar-b-q.

Cook your potatoes as normal, and while the steak is cooking put the potatoes on the bar-b-q around the edge or the coolest section, turning once. 10 minutes is plenty - 5 each side gives them a slightly charred taste and baked texture which I love, with butter (mmmm...) or low fat yogurt if I'm being good. (mmmm... too, I have to say)

previous post: Wash spuds quickly and easily....

Tasty Toasted seeds.

Garnish your salad with some sunflower and pumpkin seeds. Toasting them adds flavour. Heat a pan on a high heat on the hob (no oil required) and add the seeds, stir continuously as they can burn easily. These make a great healthy snack for kids and adults anytime and in lunch boxes. Keep in an airtight container when cooled.