This week's new pots and easy chicken casserole - I only make easy ones, but, belive me, they are yummy!

Hi everyone! We have had another cold day. The snow hasn't completely melted around us yet. I keep dog walks to minimum. When it is as cold as this, we really look forward to a hot meal after a hard working day. Don't you? Here is my very easy chicken casserole. Meat falls off from bones. Very tender and yummy! After eating all meats and vegetables, we will have soup for a lunch. You need to remove the fat on the top before warming up.

• Heat a large pan.
• Place chicken (thighs, drumsticks etc) skin side down in the pan.
• Peel and cut vegetables into chunks (carrots, potatoes, swedes, onions, mushrooms), and add them on top of the meat.
• Cook them on a gentle heat for about three hours. Add any wine you have got into the pot. (1-2 TBS)
• Season and enjoy.

 

Midori's very simple casserole

Vase inspired by volcano

I made this vase in 2010. I had kept them unglazed for a long time. When I got it glazed, I didn't like the way the glaze behaved, so I got it fired two more times. Finally it became something I expected. The lines on the pot are atrractive and dynamic. I imagine flowers look great in this vase. I can't wait to pick some flowers from the garden in spring!

Volcano vase

Here is Mike's new cup. It is lovely! We really like this combination of glazes. There are more of his cups coming up later. He did some experiment on one of them. We hope it will come out pretty!

Mike's beautiful cup

This little white bowl is our glaze sample. It looks like icing sugar! This glaze usually crackles on any clay containing frits. We used to use German smooth white stoneware with this glaze. It was a perfect match. But the price for Greman clay quadrupled; I had to source another clay locally. So I bought specially this smooth clay to try last summer. It takes us a bit of practise to throw this clay well, but we will get there. I intend to make a rabbit mug, and use this white glaze for it. Watch this space!

Glaze Sample

Mike is making a cake for our parrots and our polenta muffins, right now. The casserole is on the hob. I can smell it. I am getting hungry. See you tomorrow!

Blue sky, 'Santa' Midori and another quick dish!

It was a lovely day albeit cold. There was not much cloud until three o'clock. My energy level was up! We had a busy day.

Euro summit kept me busy this morning. Here is the my choice of quote of the day,
Terry Smith of interdealer broker Tullett Prebon:
"[The UK is] as isolated as somebody who refused to join the Titanic just before it sailed"

Christmas gifts

I am a girl, but I also mark myself!

After lunch, Mike drove me to the post office to send the gifts away. At incredible speed and efficiency, we weighed them, sorted, tax-labelled them, and paid them up.

 Then I dropped Mike at his office, and drove back. After checking the market, I took Pearl for a long walk to the green. On both ways, we met a same cat twice. And both times, Pearl became bonkers! So I had to carry her away as she will be quiet when she is carried. She was heavy though...

Empty green

Then after work and quick dinner we went to town for shopping. A nice surprise was that the restaurants and pubs were full of people. There were some tourists too, but lots of local people came out for good drinks and for a fun!

Dramatic cloud came over

Mike's quick pasta for busy people.

Bacon tomato sauce

He is a good cook. This one is easy and quick. A kind of 'let's make something from what left in the fridge' meal. lol He used olive oil from a jar of sun-dried tomatoes. Yummy!

Fry garlic and bacon, then add cherry tomatoes. Once pasta is cooked al dente, stir them in, and season. That's all.It goes well Italian red wine. Mine was Piccini reserva. Desert was my favourite pannacotta!

Delicious and healthy dinner for busy people

I am good at preparing healthy meals in a short time. The reason why we keep our weight unchanged for almost two decades must be our healthy diet. 

So here are things we made this evening. The meat was chicken breast without skin. They were marinaded in soy sauce, ginger, sesame oil and a bit of sun flower oil  for about 10 minutes, Then Dust them with flour, and shallow fry them in a frying pan. The batter becomes crispy and very delicious.

Healthy dinner

While marinading, I prepared a vegetable dish. Stir fry carrots and Chinese cabbages, add Shiitake when vegetables are almost cooked. Microwave broccoli. and add them at the end. I cooked rice beforehand to go with the dishes. Cider goes well with Japanese food. I have a bad habit of starting drinkd whilst cooking. So when the meal is ready I am usually on the second glass! 

Desert was fruits. I have a kaki, persimmon. Mike also had tangerines and a banana.

After dinner, we prepared Pannacotta for tomorrow. Mike bought Dutchy's whole milk. It is very creamy and good to make pannacotta.

Whole milk, gelatin in milk, and single cream

Soak gelatin in milk, and warm up milk in microwave until hot. Then add vanilla essence and gelatin into the hot milk. Stir well until gelatin melts. Then whip the cream, and mix it into the hot milk. That's all. It takes about 10 minutes.

We used single cream because we had leftover. But of course the double cream is proper ingredient. I basically prefer single cream only because double cream clogs me so much that I can't eat them two days continuously.     

Pannacotta