Complete
and utter psycho are the only words that I can use to describe Dear Father’s
rooster. Well, it’s no longer his rooster as Dear Mother told me he sold it to
a man the other week. Hey, wait a minute! That’s what they used to tell me when
I was child when suddenly there was one less poor old chicken or duck up the
garden!!! I can’t believe I didn’t cop that one on before now. Well, all I can
say is that the chicken used in tonight’s dinner definitely wasn’t our rooster.
It really was a complete and utter fruit cake. Any time Dear Father would go up
in the morning to let it, the chickens and ducks out or to put them all to bed
at night, the rooster would go berserk and start attacking him by jumping on
him and pecking him. Of course, it was ok for us safe within the confines of
the house, looking out the kitchen window at this comedy show. We’re all heart,
aren’t we?! Well, if he is gone to another home, it’d be fair to say that
we won’t be surprised if it lands back with the owner looking for a refund on
the grounds of the rooster having mental health issues. Speaking of which, I
think I’ve mentioned this before but one of our dogs (Darwin Dog, to be exact) is
also in need of a pet psychologist because I’m convinced that he is a
compulsive eater. He honestly can’t stop eating. If we were to continually give
him food, he’d keep eating it. He is the size of a sheep, the poor thing but he
is never happier than when he is eating. Hmmm, reminds me of someone else…
Anyway,
as I said, tonight it was chicken – Chicken
and chorizo with rice to be precise. Dear Husband and I were going out for
dinner so the babysitters were summonsed which consisted of Dear Sister No.1
and her husband. I had to find a name for him and thought of Rugby Dude but
Dear Sister insisted that I called him something else which I have shortened
down to the initials – the GG. Not sure if we thought that one out but that’s
his name for now until he protests and wants a different name! So, the deal
with babysitting in our house is that they do the babysitting and I feed them. Usually,
they are en route home from work too. And if there is any mention of me making
anyone else dinner other than Dear Husband and the two children, then Dear Sister No.3 lands. Dear Sister No.3 is the
youngest and all four of us sisters live within a mile of each other so she
spends a lot of the time going from house to house for dinner. She’s the
youngest and most spoilt, of course. And yes, my Dear Mother has been known to
still send her down dinner with one of my other sisters for fear she’d starve! Seriously.
Well,
seeing as it was my first day of summer holidays (one of the many joys of working in education), I was
able to get dinner started earlier than normal on a Friday. First of all, I added
rapeseed oil to my lovely big casserole dish. I then fried diced chorizo for
about 4 minutes before taking it out and putting it aside on a plate. I then
put the chicken into the dish which I had seasoned beforehand. Now, the recipe
actually said to use 1kg of chicken thighs or drumsticks but I actually used a
combination of chicken thighs, a few breast of chicken and diced breast of
chicken – simply to use up what was already in the fridge. After 8 minutes, I added
diced onion and sliced garlic which I fried for about 5 minutes. In went 200ml of
white wine and 300g of rice which simmered for 4 minutes before adding chicken stock.
Once it came up to the boil, I put the lid on and simmered it for 20 minutes.
To finish, I added in the diced chorizo again and garnished with freshly
chopped parsley. I took a photo of it and, at that point, ran out the door as
my chariot awaited.
The verdict...
Dear
Husband and I had the most delicious meal in the Beach House again and when we
got home, I had to get a full rendition of how they enjoyed (or didn’t enjoy)
the chicken. Unbeknownst to me, I had actually received a text towards the end of our dinner from Rugby
Dude/the GG to say (in his Galway accent) that it was a ‘fine feed’ and gave it 10
out of 10. Dear Sister No.1 gave it 10 out of 10 and so did Dear Sister No.3. Really
delicious, they said. What a result!
I enjoyed making this recipe because it was a
one-pot-wonder and the preparation wasn’t difficult. It probably took me closer
to 20 minutes to prepare but I’m not a proper chef who is super-practised in
peeling and chopping but I’m definitely getting faster. It looked nice in the dish even though my photography skills don't do the picture justice.
Overall,
I was most happy with the scores for tonight’s efforts but, as if that wasn’t
enough, Dear Sister No.1 had managed to put Baby Daughter to bed and got her to
sleep even with Dear Son in the room yapping away. Amazing! I can’t even do
that. Usually, it requires me bribing Dear Son to watch TV while I put the baby
down to sleep. Oh, the joys of having super sisters and them being super
aunties! A really good evening all round on many counts. Now,
that’s the kind of thing I could get used to over the summer. Hmmm, I wonder if
they are doing anything tomorrow night?!!
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