Cake Day

My dad's horse, or donkey, should I say, didn't win this time. Mum sent me a sad face and said 'I hope you didn't put your life savings on'. I sent her a .gif of Eeyore back.

This time fourteen years ago, I was absolutely banjaxed. Shitfaced. Trollied. Spannered. Mullered. You name it, I was it. I literally gave birth to my fourth (and FINAL, Mr G!) child, got discharged, called in Co-op on the way home for a box of wine and a load of frozen pizzas, and while the child slept peacefully, as newborns do, I sat in my kitchen, cooked pizza for everyone and got absolutely wankered. Nine months is a long time to go without wine. I still remember being stood in the queue, my stomach slightly flatter than it had been that morning, and the cashier looked puzzled. She said 'Have you had the baby?' I said 'Yes. About two hours ago, I'm on my way home from hospital'. Haha.

I think that was the last time he was silent, to be honest...

Bit of an anticlimactic birthday for the poor bugger, although he got to see his Nain and Taid, and uncle and auntie before they went back to Wiltshire. He wanted homemade pizza for tea, pepperoni and chorizo, so I obliged. Tomorrow he is meeting a few friends for a couple of hours, and then his birthday money is burning a hole for his shopping trip to Wrexham on Thursday. Although, the sort of clothes he buys, he's not going to get much bang for his buck. He's saved up through lockdown, and he splurged £25 on a pair of Nike shorts in JD the other day. £25?? Shorts? Trousers with the legs cut off them? Mr G was nearly blue, muttering 'You could have got 30 pairs in Primark for that the other day'. But, it's up to him how he spends his own money, he'd saved it up, and if he's willing to pay that for one pair of shorts, that's his choice.

I've been in the kitchen all day, although I hadn't got all that much done due to Mr G dozing on and off on the sofa, and people coming to stand on the front path, bearing birthday cards, and I had to help the boy set up his new iPhone. I made a curry base, to assemble all my homemade curries. I made this absolute gem of a dish from Sprinkles and Sprouts - Chinese takeaway style beef and mushrooms (recipe here). It is absolutely lush, and very, very takeaway-ish. Really simple to make.

I also made Slimming Eats Sweet and Sour Chicken (recipe here). It is an Instant Pot recipe, but it's not brain surgery, it can be adapted to be made in a pan.

I'm not the biggest fan of Sweet and Sour, but now and again I get the urge. I added a chopped chilli for a little spice.

I also made Dan Toombs' Chicken Patia (recipe here). I love Dan's recipes, he's brilliant, and a really nice chap to boot.

The picture doesn't do it justice, it's a really vivid red coloured curry, this one. I need to have a tinker with my phone settings. It's different. In addition to the curry base sauce and the spices, the patia sauce is made from pineapple juice, mango chutney, tomato ketchup, tandoori powder and mint sauce. Really interesting; sweet, sour, and spicy.

Tomorrow, more batch cooking. I want to make a Chicken Madras, a Chicken Saag, and I think a Chicken Tikka Bhuna Madras. Something with braising steaks in the slow cooker - either steak and ale casserole or the shredded beef chilli. I'm also making my favourite Butternut Squash and Roasted Red Pepper soup, and Mr G's Better than Heinz Vegetable soup.

Tea tonight was the leftover Chicken Tikka Masala with rice, naan bread and onion bhajis.

Tomorrow night, we are having Prawn Mango Avocado Summer Salad from RecipeTinEats (recipe here). Thursday night is Tandoori Salmon with Mango Salsa and salad, and Friday the Doner Kebab. I showed the video of the recipe to the kids and they're all equally as excited as we are to try it. I've bought plenty of salad and pitta bread and naan bread, and we have a weird and wonderful range of chilli sauces here, of all strengths. I do need to remember to try and source some metal cooking skewers from somewhere though, as I'm running on wooden at the moment and I don't think they would support the bulk of the kebab. All my metal ones seem to have vanished into the ether over the course of the last ten years or so. I know a couple have succumbed in the name of DIY.

So, I'm sat here, and I've had a real ale (or three four). Not as merry as I was fourteen years ago. Slimmer than I was fourteen years ago, older but wiser. Me and my boys have been looking through old photos of their births and birthdays gone by. My ego fluffed up by the boy telling me I look much better now at 44 than I did at 30. I think there was a compliment in there somewhere, I don't know what it was, I guess in a way it was a backhanded compliment, but hey, I'll take it, because compliments are thin on the ground these days ;-)