Tuesday - Spicy Chinese Turkey

Jo was quite ill yesterday but she is a hardy Scot who won't let a little thing like a sore throat get in her way! So after getting through a full day in the office, she then got to work in the kitchen. In a flash, she has knocked together turkey mince into a deliciously spicy dish, to go with stir-fry and soba noodles - remind me why I am marrying her again?? ;o)

Spicy Turkey

Stir-fry and noodles

My first plate!

Tuesday - Chicken Fried Rice & Vegetables

Jo and I are postponing valentines until the weekend as we want to make a day of it....to be honest it's another excuse (as if we need one) to eat good food, drink merrily and have fun!! So tonight was a staple of ours - the trusty stir-fry!! This time with chicken fried rice - excellent work Jo! See you on Saturday for valentines treats when I am in the kitchen!

The vegetables

Chicken fried rice

The whole show!

Monday - Turkey Stir-Fry

Stir-fry is one of our staple dinners - isn't it everyone's??! As we are on a bit of a health kick (let's not talk about the biscuits) so this one was with turkey, a few noodles and load of vegetables. It looked like alot for us to get through but we managed it! - great success.

The big bowl

My little bowl with my first serving

Tuesday - Back to Work!....Boo

After having such a hefty time off work, for some reason Tuesday and being back to work rolled round very quickly!  We both had a proper back-to-school feeling on Tuesday morning - struggling to get out of bed, do anything at any sort of speed, or feel remotely enthusiastic about the day ahead!  It probably didn't help that it was blowing a gale, pouring with rain, and bloody dark.  God, I hate January!

Anyways, much like the first day back at school, being back at work wasn't actually so bad!  It felt like everyone was still waking up from hibernation, but I'm sure that won't last!  Joe and I are both now struggling with disgusting illnesses too, but hey ho...  I do at least know how to make myself feel better - spicy stir fried turkey with cashews and green peppers and stir fried noodles with pak choi and broccoli.  Lots of leafy greens, ginger and chilli - the perfect way to blast out a cold!  Still no booze too....how very virtuous!

Turkey with cashews and green peppers

Stir fried noodles, broccoli and pak choi

Tuesday Back to Reality (Jo Girl)

So unfortunately my celebrations of my debating triumph (promise that is the last mention!) were short lived - I was back in Manchester today which meant an early start!  I can definitely tell that Winter is coming fast - gutted - I was hoping the snow would hold off at least until after Christmas!  It was cold and damp in Manchester (although I was not battered by hailstones, unlike yesterday!).  We could also see snow falling on the moors from our court which is definitely a sign that the Indian Summer is over!

Anyways, late nights as always mean quick dinners and tonight was no exception!  A hastily put together prawn and cashew stir fry, with Japanese soba noodles and organic veg.  I love stir fries because they are so healthy and you can put in so many flavours: cashews and prawns are definitely a winner for me!  Heated with a little chilli and ginger, it was yummy!

The stir fry

And again - a close up!

Monday - Pheasant Plucking and Gutting - BEWARE!!

When James Work mentioned that his girlfriends dad was a feathered game hunter last week, I was quick to say bring me a brace!!....little did I know he would actually deliver them to the office on Monday morning.....

Now, Jo has previously boasted of her rabbit skinning skills from her younger days, and I have witnessed her taking apart a pigeon, but these beasts where a whole different ball game. NB. I have never gutted a thing in my life!

Yesterday it was a normal late one, with us not getting through the front door until gone 8pm.....so after a really top drawer chicken stirfry we got cracking!....see below;

Chicken Stir fry

Back to the birds. I'm not going to write an essay about the process but here is a quick run down. Rather than being sensible on the location, we took a bird each and did the in the lounge rather than the kitchen, splitting our viewing between this video and Desperate Scousewives (which was horrific!). There were ALOT of feathers - way more than I thought there would be, although I have no point of reference about this. The cutting a hole in the bum bit and pulling the guts out wasn't particularly pleasant but not as bad as I thought it would be - I could do it again!! Looking at the finished articles below, they don't look particularly well but I am sure they will be ok - there will be roasting over the weekend........the process took around 1.30 hours all in including hoovering the flat of feathers.

The brace

My one is the boy near my feet!

De-feathering action

Progress being made

Off with your head!

The head

Cutting the bum

The guts from the boy bird - Yuck!

The finished articles - not quite how they look in Tescos!

Tuesday Night Feast (Jo Girl)

So anytime I decide it's time for the fall back option of stir fry, Joe always manages to convince me to have some treats with it.  Usually it's limited to prawn crackers (surprisingly low in calories!) but for some reason we were quite giddy on the way home and extended the treats to prawn crackers AND spring rolls.  OMG.

Quite clearly I didn't make either of these treats: spring rolls are beyond me at 8pm on a Tuesday and I wouldn't even know where to start with prawn crackers.  However, the stir fries were all mine - egg fried noodles and veg and super spicy prawns.  Poor Joe, every week I seem to make a dish absolutely overloaded with fish sauce and chillis and tonight was no exception - most of the chillis were left uneaten.  WEAK!  It did taste pretty good though.

Oh...and to round off, and a very small homage to the biscuits part of our title...Foxes crinkles for dessert!

Super spicy prawns

Egg fried noodles

Co-op's spring rolls (I am slightly ashamed by this!)

And the prawn crackers!

A Boring Monday Post - Stir-Fry (Joe)

Tonight I made stir-fry with chicken, and tempura prawns (Tesco's Finest) on the side - it was nice. Now its time for bed and we are both still in recovery from the weekend! - night night.

Monday - Jo is back.....thank the Lord!! - Lemon Salmon with Stir Fry Vegetables

Regular readers of the blog (whoever you are!) will know that Jo left me to fend for myself for a lot of last week as she was working late......but now she is back and we are back to normal hours! Phew.....tonight Jo knocked together this lovely Lemon Salmon with Stir Fry Vegetables in under 20 minutes.

Lemon Salmon with Stir Fry Vegetables shot 1

Lemon Salmon with Stir Fry Vegetables shot 2

Jo also asked for me to mention that she went to Town Hall Tavern in Leeds for a quick post work drink and wanted to say that they make some very interesting scotch eggs (they were my favourite snack until pork pies came into my life) - today she had one with slow cooked pigs cheek which I will try next time I am in!

Monday - Happy Birthday Mum (and Chicken Stir Fry)

Happy Birthday Mum! 

These are cup cakes that Jo made for her last year (with her face on!) for her birthday with some pictures from a day out at the Harewood House Country Fair. (the was a semi-colon here but I have had to replace it with a full stop as it was 'illegal grammar' - I didn't know there was such a thing!)

Brilliantly fun treats

Mum and a parrot

Jo and Mum

Mum, Auntie Karen, Dave Bro & me

All of us!!

For tonights dinner, Jo made good use of the veg that is filling the fridge with a fresh and zingy chicken stir-fry with rice noodles...

Prawn crackers - I am addicted!

Monday - Vegetable stir fry, sweet chilli & basil sauce with a glass of red

Tomorrow we are off to sample the burger and rib delights at Cattlegrid in Leeds after receiving an invite via the power of twitter, so it was a simple and health stir fry for us with lots of good stuff in it.....we did have a glass or two of red wine, but as Jo said "it's the first day of winter!"...so here is what we had;

Stir fry

Sweet chilli & basil sauce

The wine - still some left!

Brownie points for me - the flowers I bought Jo at the weekend!