Hi everyone, I hope you all had a good week despite all the winter storms. Life has gone on pretty normally here at the kitchen table. Here is another roundup of what we’ve been up to this week.
My week in the kitchen:
A busy week in the kitchen as usual. Our menu plan looked like this (pretty much all homemade from scratch) …
- Monday: Breakfast – porridge and maple syrup with orange juice, tea/coffee. Elevenses – Oranges. Lunch – Roast chicken and salad sandwiches on wholemeal sandwich bread with an apple and hot blackcurrant cordial. Tea-time – Tea and fork biscuits. Dinner – cheese and tomato pizzas with a green salad. Pudding – poached apple and custard. Supper – Milk and biscuits.
- Tuesday: Breakfast – boiled egg and soldiers with orange juice, tea/coffee. Elevenses – bananas. Lunch – roast beef and rocket sandwiches on wholemeal sandwich bread with a plum and hot lemon cordial. Tea-time – Tea and chocolate chip cookies. Dinner – Lasagne with a green salad. Pudding – jam tarts. Supper – milk and biscuits.
- Wednesday: Breakfast – muesli with orange juice, tea/coffee. Elevenses – pears. Lunch – Tuna Pasta Salad with an apple and hot blackcurrant cordial. Tea-time – tea and scones. Dinner – chicken curry and naan bread. Pudding – stewed plums and greek yoghurt. Supper – milk and biscuits.
- Thursday: Breakfast – pancakes with leftover stewed plum and yoghurt with orange juice, tea/coffee. Elevenses – satsumas. Lunch – ham and tomato sandwiches on wholemeal sandwich bread with hot chocolate and marshmallows. Tea-time – tea and raspberry and white chocolate cookies. Dinner – chicken fried rice. Pudding – toaster pastries. Supper – milk and crackers.
- Friday: Breakfast – cereal and orange juice, tea/coffee. Elevenses – bananas. Lunch – crudites and dip with wholemeal bread and butter, sweets and blackcurrant cordial. Tea-time – tea and jammy dodgers. Dinner – sausage traybake. Pudding – was meant to be strawberry mousse but an emergency trip to the vets meant it ended up being strawberries and cream. Supper – milkshakes.
- Saturday: Breakfast – bacon and egg rolls. Elevenses – satsumas. Lunch – chicken sandwiches on wholemeal bread with an apple and lemon cordial. Tea-time – tea and popcorn. Dinner – Valentine’s date night – Indian take-away (the children had grilled chicken, fries and salad.)
- Sunday: Breakfast – cereal and orange juice, tea/coffee. Lunch – roast beef, roast potatoes, yorkshires, carrots, broccoli, and gravy with apple crumble and custard to follow. Tea-time – tea and strawberry wafers. Dinner – wholemeal buttered toast. Supper – milk and biscuits.
My week home-educating:
This week was worms week in our exploring nature with children curriculum. We learned about their physical make-up, what they eat, how they live, and how useful they are in the garden.
We also learned how to multiply by 3, about farming around the world, Noah’s ark, and about opaque objects and shadows.
We went to the skate park with our scooters to meet friends.
We played Lego.
And we went for our annual opticians checkup and learned all about what an optometrist does and how to keep our eyes healthy. Very surprisingly Lara was diagnosed with a lazy eye (this was her first time at the opticians) her eyesight in her right eye is actually extremely poor and she will need glasses for the rest of her life and has been referred to the hospital for treatment. We had absolutely no idea she had any problems with her sight. It just goes to show how important visiting your optician can be.
My week in home-making:
This week in the exciting world of keeping house, on top of my usual jobs, I washed the master bedroom windows, cleaned the front door and scrubbed the step – much to the amusement or horror of our new neighbour over the road who stared at me totally unabashed, perhaps she wants to be friends or maybe she was admiring my scrubbing brush, who can say? Haha! I disinfected the bins, cleaned the dishwasher inside and out and also washed the back door (without an audience thank goodness). I made up some more homemade rosemary and orange shampoo and conditioner, I really love this blend for my fine hair and it smells amazing.
My week in books:
I am currently reading Fascinating Womanhood by Helen Andelin for an online book club I’m a part of. What it says on the cover:’ Fascinating Womanhood offers timeless wisdom, practical advice, and enduring values to meet the needs and challenges of a new generation of women – happy, fulfilled, adored, and cherished – who want to rediscover the magic of their own feminine selves.’ This book, which seems to be a product of difference theory thinking, along the lines of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, despite being originally published in 1965 advocates complementarianism and a return to strictly defined gender roles to improve your marriage relationship. A lot of women reading this book today would be amused and horrified by its contents, calling for women to be traditionally feminine and to bring out the masculinity in their husbands. The writer bases her text on the premise that men have a very different view of what the ideal woman is and by becoming more like an ideal of femininity one can awaken a protective masculinity on one’s husband and deepen his affection. Andelin bases the ‘ideal woman’ on female characters in fiction by masculine authors, on the premise that they will have based these characters on real women. It’s my belief that writers actually rarely base a character entirely on someone they know and the ‘ideal women’ cited in these texts are idealised for a literary purpose and it’s perfectly possible that had the authors met their characters in person they may well have hated them.
However, the numerous testimonials about the effectiveness of the strategies outlined in this book are hard to ignore. It’s easy to see why wholly accepting the flaws of ones marriage partner and ceasing to complain about them can lead to a happier marriage. It also makes sense that dividing the labour down traditional lines could lead to much less conflict in a marriage when both partners fully accept those roles. Less obvious is how being more feminine and encouraging masculinity from your husband improves the relationship. I’m not done reading it yet, and I’m unsure of exactly where I stand with this topic but the book is interesting and easy to read. If you’ve read it please let me know your thoughts in the comments section.
Cocktail of the week
We celebrated valentine’s in style with a romantic meal for 9 (haha) and love potion cocktails. This cocktail is 1 part peach schnapps, 1 part vodka, 1 part malibu rum and 6 parts cranberry juice over ice with strawberry hearts to garnish. Very tasty, but you only need one hehe!
Kate’s Kitchen Valentine’s
We decided to delay our Valentine’s date until the next day this year so as not to interfere with Friday night dinner, we ended up just having an Indian take-away and a glass of wine at home once the children were in bed and it was lovely. We’d agreed not to buy gifts, but my darling romantic hubby still came home on Friday morning with a single red rose and a book of ‘coupons’ for me which include things like breakfast in bed and an uninterrupted nap! I’m very much looking forward to using them lol! How was your Valentine’s?
Until next time
K x
Kate’s Kitchen Table 