from somewhere in my imagination

What's For Dinner? - Chicken & Chorizo Spicy Ricey

Ordinarily I probably wouldn't name a dish Spicy Ricey, but that's what the kids called it and it sounded fun, so I'm going with it.

This all in one was born on Monday night, partly in an attempt to use what's in the fridge and freezer and partly to satisfy the longing I was having for something spicy with vegetables in it. 

It is a modified mish mash of two different dishes I've made before and it worked out beautifully.  Reminiscent of a slightly more high brow version of 'savoury rice' mum used to make when we were growing up...there was a packet involved so undoubtedly there were a few not so delightful numbers in the packet but it tasted good...but this tastes better!

It's the sort of thing you can make in the slow cooker on a hot day but it still tastes nice and summery.

Chicken & Chorizo Spicy Ricey - Serves 6 adults

Ingredients

2 Chorizo Sausages, sliced

500g Chicken Thighs, cut into 1" chunks

1 Large Brown Onion, sliced into moons

1 Large Red Capsicum, cut into 1" squares

1 Large Green Capsicum, cut into 1" squares

3 Sticks Celery, strings peeled and sliced on the diagonal into 1" lengths

6 Roma Tomatoes, cut into 1" dice

3-4 Cloves Garlic, crushed

3 tsp Paprika

1 tsp Chilli Flakes

Pinch Saffron Threads (optional)

1 1/2 cups long grain rice (I used Jasmine Rice)

2 Cups Chicken Stock (or water)

1 Bunch Coriander, washed well, trimmed and roughly chopped

1 Lemon, cut into wedges (to serve)

Sour Cream (to serve)

Method

My saucepans have copper walls so they retain heat for ages, I can use the big one kind of like a slow cooker.  If your saucepan doesn't retain heat very well then you might like to transfer it all to a slow cooker when you get the point where you add tomatoes, stock and rice.  Alternatively you could put it in a large casserole dish and finish in the oven (covered) for about 20 minutes.

Heat a Tbs of olive oil in a saucepan.  Throw in the onions, garlic and chorizo.  Cook until the chorizo starts to get some colour and the onions are softening.

Add the chicken and when it starts to brown throw in the capsicums and celery.

Add tomatoes, paprika and chilli and stir everything together.

Add rice, chicken stock and saffron.  Bring to a simmer with the lid on.  Finish cooking with the heat on very low (you don't want to end up with everything stuck to the bottom) or in a slow cooker or in the oven.  Give it a stir occasionally to make sure you don't end up with crunchy bits of rice floating on the top.

When your rice is cooked stir through the chopped coriander and serve with wedges of lemon and a dollop of sour cream.

Delish.

Tatum xx

The Three G's

Gossip Girl, Glee and Grey's Anatomy.

These are the 3 G's I go searching for each week.  I'm revealing my dark side here.  I don't like my television too serious, I tend to prefer escapist.

So far this season I have found...

Grey's Anatomy a little boring.  I cried in every single episode last season, whether it was quiet sobs or a few silent tears rolling down my cheek I cried.  For those who know me well they'll know that is no mean feat, to get the tears rolling but keep me coming back week after week.  I guess that's got something to do with the fact it also got me (almost) wetting myself with laughter.

In the words of Dolly Parton in Steel Magnolias 'laughter through tears is my favourite emotion'.  Unfortunately you aren't giving me that this season Grey's and I want it back.

Gossip Girl is going around and around in circles.  I'm loosing patience with the storyline but it won't stop me going gaga over the fashion or wanting to cry because I want to go back to NYC oh so badly.

I think it's the prince that's spoiling it.  Take your pompous ass back to Monaco dude.

Glee, hmmm, well Glee has been so stop start that I'm not really sure what has happened.  Although, it probably doesn't help that I am watching the end of last season at the same time on Fox 8 and getting everything mashed together.

However, I suspect I like where it is headed.  I have a bad boy crush on Puck.

When we were in the US we saw ads for so many TV shows, both new and old, that I had never heard of and haven't shown up on TV here.  What it makes it to our screens is definitely only the tip of the iceberg.  Some I liked the look of, there was some lawyer series with Breckin Meyer in it that looked particularly funny.

With our upcoming changes I'm going to need some new shows to watch at night (actually having channel 10 will no doubt be a novelty for a while).  I'm thinking Mad Men might be a good place for me to start.

Do you have any kickass TV series recommendations for me?

Tatum xx

It's All About the Little Moments - Point + Shoot

This weekend was something of an emotional one.

We drove to Adelaide Thursday afternoon to be there in time for the baseball on Thursday night and Sebastian's first school transition visit on Friday morning.  In the drizzling rain we didn't quite manage a photo of the boy.  He looks so grown up in his school shirt.  I had a few big gulp, nearly teary moments during our one hour visit.

Friday night was more baseball.  My red boots made it through the day with me as the mumvember challenge had to drop the mum uniform and wear something you wouldn't normally.  Heels were the obvious choice for me.

Saturday morning we enjoyed a breakfast out with mum and my sister sam and her family.  It was lovely (and kind of funny) seeing mum lined up on the banquette with all but one of her grandchildren.

I dared lil to wear her 'geek' glasses for the whole day, she pulled it off.  Funny girl.

After breakfast we headed to the park for a play.  A friend of Lil's was there too and the kids all climbed 'the tree'.  You can just see Lil dangling from the canopy.  I love this big old Moreton Bay Fig.  I used to climb it when I was a kid too, I love it that my kids are climbing it now.

During breakfast Steven rang his mum to organise a time to visit at the hospital.  Here begins a story of how words can get lost in translation.  My father in law had said 'they are discharging me because there is nothing they can do'...the all important 'over the weekend' was left off...I took Steven up to the hospital to sit with his dad until his mum got there.  His dad has been diagnosed with a secondary brain tumor following his diagnosis and treatment for cancer of the oesophagus 12 months ago.  Cancer sucks.

Saturday night we rounded out our weekend of baseball watching with a double header.  I suspect it's only a matter of time before Sebastian starts offering autographs of his own. 

It was really cool watching him throwing and catching with another (older) kid during the break between games.  The other kid was fantastically encouraging and supportive of him.

Sebastian tried the geek glasses on for size.

We finished off our weekend with a detour to visit Steven's parents on our way home.  The kids posed with santa on their front verandah.

Now we are home for 4 sleeps before we turn around and do it all again, but next time we have Sebastian's birthday, a market for Green Dandelion and the Foo Fighters concert added in.

Madness. 

I'm linking up with Point + Shoot for the first time in ages!  Why don't you link up too sharing some of your little moments from the weekend.

Happy Monday,

Tatum xx