Slow Weekend

Given Tabitha's illness over the last week, we had a nice quiet weekend.  Visits on Friday evening from Godmother Sophie and my friend Amy.  A few visitors on Saturday (my godfather Tim, my godson/Tabitha's godfather Noah, my father) then in the afternoon we went for a nice long walk with Amy, with Tabitha wrapped high on my back, giggling the whole way.

Today, Sunday, we went for brunch at Snow Pony with my parents, sister, grandfather and aunt.  A lazy afternoon in the back garden, swinging on the hammock, watching Tabby race around, crawling madly after the cats with a broccoli florette in one fist, and some cold roast pork in the other fist, stopping every now and then to munch.  She also ate a whole lot of crunchy dried leaves.

This evening, made an early dinner - roast chicken, roast potatoes (which I do in duck fat and lemon juice), roast garlic, and gravy, which is dead easy to make - if you normally bother with measuring out Gravox powder, try one day to make ordinary gravy, which is easier, I think, and tastes better.  Strain a little fat off the juices in the roasting tray, sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of plain flour over the juices, stir well with a wooden spoon to loosen all the roasted-on bits, add about a half cup of water, then stir (in the roasting tin, if you have a heavy-bottomed one) over medium heat, stirring, until the gravy comes together and thickens.

I had run out of kitchen string, so my lovely free range chicken is all legs-akimbo!

Tabitha liked her dinner - a piece of chicken in one fist, and a 1/4 potato in the other:

Afterwards, I made some nice comforting rice pudding.  I think this is a nice finish to a roast, however I often make it for my lunch, and then eat the rest, cold or room temperature, digging it out of the dish, over the rest of the afternoon!  It makes the whole house smell brilliant - a rich, heavy fug of vanilla and nutmeg.

Rice pudding is just about the simplest dessert I know of:

Lightly grease a 4-cup shallow ovenproof dish (roughly 20cm x 30cm).

Wash 1/2 a cup of short or medium grain rice well under cold water, and drain well.

Combine, in the dish, the rice, 2 1/2 cups of full cream milk, 1/4 cup of caster sugar (I use vanilla-infused caster sugar, because I keep it in the house), 2 tablespoons of sultanas and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.  Mix lightly.

Dot the top with 2 teaspoons of butter, and sprinkle with freshly ground nutmeg (I don't have a fancy nutmeg grater - I just use a fine Microplane).

Bake in a 150 degree oven for 1.5 - 2 hours, or until most of the milk is absorbed and the rice is cooked.

Serve warm or cold with ice cream, cream, stewed fruit or jam.  Or eat cold from the dish with a fork!

The Daddy likes his with jam and cream:

This evening, the upstairs neighbours (who are expecting their baby Any Day Now) came knocking on our door - there was a baby possum in their pot-plant, they explained, and they came for our help (since we are known as 'the animal people').  I went up to look - in fact, it was just a young possum, not a baby, and I think had simply gotten 'lost'.  I gently scooped it into our large cane washing basket, with a towel, and then released it at the base of a tree near the back of the block.  It scurried up the tree and off into the dusk.  I must say, it was mighty cute, all soft fur and giant eyes.  Our younger cat is called Possum - because when he was a tiny kitten, he too was all soft brown fur and giant liquid-amber eyes.