Italian inspired 2 course meal

Mmm, sorry but there are no photographs of this one as it got eaten too quickly.

For the first course (primi): Pasta with cheesy tomato and mushroom sauce.

I used pasta spirals for this. I put them on at the same time as the secundi (second course) - see below.

First, I prepared the sauce - chopped an onion and half each a yellow and green pepper and sauteéd them while I chopped some button mushrooms. Added the mushrooms as the onion was just starting to brown and let them cook, then added one 500ml carton of tomato passata and one tin of chopped tomatoes. Then added a good shake of powdered garlic and some dried basil, brought to the boil then turned down to simmer.

Next, I put on the pasta.

For the second course (secundi): Herby chicken thighs with sweet potato wedges and basilly green beans.

I peeled and sliced the sweet potatoes into good chunky wedges, then put a little sunflower oil on them and put them in the oven with the chicken thighs, slathered in herbs, all in one tray, at about 200 degrees C.

Meanwhile I put on a pot of frozen green beans on to boil.

As that all cooked away by itself I prepared a salad to go with the pasta - a selection of leaves (mostly baby spinach and rocket), tomato, cucumber, chunks of red pepper and olives stuffed with little wedges of fresh garlic. Dressed with a splash each of Donegal rapeseed oil and balsamic vinegar.

When the beans were done I drained them and left them aside.

Next, I grated half a block of Burren gold cheese into the tomato sauce. Any cheese would do really! When the pasta was al dente, after draining and leaving it for a minute to soak up any last bit of water, I threw it in along with the sauce and grated a little more cheese into it, then served it with the salad on the side.

Yum.


After the first course, I had time to heat a drop of oil in a frying pan, season it with plenty of basil and black pepper, and quickly stir fry the green beans in it to give them a lovely flavour. When the chicken and sweet potatoes were ready I just served them with the green beans on the side. The second course isn't exactly Italian the way the first was, but it is inspired by the Italian way of having a first course with pasta (or rice) and a second course of meat and vegetables on the side without a starchy carb.

We had just enough room left afterwards for a little ice cream. So it was pretty much a perfect dinner.

Clowning around town...

This is the only hat that E would agree to wear today. At least it's a hat - I reckon it's not a bad outcome considering she got out of bed on the argumentative side this morning!

Break up songs...

My break up music is rooted in the 1990s. Probably because it was the 90s last time I actually broke up with someone...well, actually I think it was January 2000. But close enough!

Now that I finally have all my stuff out of the house, I feel like I've closed a door on things a bit and can actually start to deal with the fact that a 12.5 year relationship has ended. My marriage has fallen apart.

I'm angry, but I'm also sad. There were dreams of a future that have been torn away from me. Hopes and expectations left to languish. I have to say goodbye not just to the man I have loved for more than a third of my life, but to the person I was when I was with him. To my role as wife, as partner. To the life that I had, that we shared.

My emotions are suitably mixed around it. The anger is quite well taken care of my this Alanis Morrissette classic, about a cheating ex - though my ex didn't exactly cheat on me, the fury she feels and feeds into her music here captures a lot of what I'm feeling.






Continuing the theme of anger, here is the only non-90s song to feature in this playlist, so far - So What by Pink, about a bad breakup. She's strong and independent or at least that's what she's showing the world!




And still feeling angry, this was recommended to me by my sister who is a huge Fiona Apple fan:





And as I passed through all the anger and embraced it and rocked out to it, so it was that I came to feel sad. Really bloody sad. And for the first time I properly acknowledged that.

These were both my breakup songs in the 90s, not that I had a lot of relationships - not long term ones anyway - but they did see me through a couple of sad man-related occasions.

No Doubt - Don't Speak:


And Hello (Turn Your Radio On) by Shakespeare Sister. Don't think this is about a breakup. Actually I have no idea what it's about, but it was played on repeat for at least a day when I broke up with a boyfriend of 6 weeks back in the summer of '99, so to me it's a breakup song.


And finally, to finish - a song about looking forward. I got my hair done today, a new look for a new life! The fabulous Ella Fitzgerald's version of I'm Gonna Wash that Man Right out of my Hair. Actually, this isn't a 90s song either - it's way older, and it sure has stood the test of time!

A blog I read

I find the Meming of Life blog by Dale McGowan a great read. He's the editor and author of a number of books on atheism and secular parenting in particular. I am a big fan of the book Parenting Beyond Belief, in which various different atheist and agnostic people discuss how they addressed issues confronting secular parents.

In particular I loved how the book presents different options and opinions, sometimes conflicting ones, and assumes the readers are perfectly capable of deciding what will work best for them.














I really loved this recent post. It's an answer to a reader's question about the comfort that religion can bring, and how secular parents can replace this in their child's lives.

The answer suggested is real people, real relationships. The support networks of friends and family.

I've certainly found that, through my recent crisis. My friends and family have gotten me through it. It has been difficult, but had I been alone, it would have been impossible.



Thank you, dearest mother, sister and wider circle of support. I love you all. You are where I draw my strength and inspiration from, and I know that you are there for my daughter as well, and will be into the future. No matter what life throws at us, we will be fine, because we have you. 

Poem - A Sense of Consequence

A Sense of Consequence

Even in a dream, I am still me. I cannot

Escape the sense of consequence that so easily eludes him.

In my dream he grabs me, tries to hold me down, sneers at me daring to tell him no.

I fight back, I shrug off the grip he has upon my wrists. I reach my phone and call the Gardai,

But they don’t come. I await sirens and saviours, but there is just him, sneering.

I reach for the nearest thing, an extension lead, and beat him to death with it.

Partly in self-defence.

Partly in fury and anger as I feel a banshee rise up inside me.

I check his neck for a pulse, and feel only my own heartbeat racing through my fingertips.

I phone the Gardai again. I tell them what has happened – what I have done.

No sense of glory, no feeling that I’ve won.

I feel sick. I am free from him, but facing another horrible fate.

As I draw toward wakening, I am sitting in the back of a Garda car, while

Massachusetts by the BeeGees plays on the radio. I am facing jail.

Facing the consequences of my actions. Even in a dream where I am strong,

I cannot escape reality. I wake up with that song swimming round in my head.

Lorna's Tree

This is the hardest thing to leave behind. The tree planted in memory of the baby I lost.
I'll drive past, in the spring, and see her flowers.

A new way to describe a cough...

I have a horrible dose at the moment. Worse than when I had swine flu. I feel like I was hit by a train, and then my body was run over by several trucks.

Also, vomiting.

And a cough.

It's a rattly, chesty cough. Today E was sitting on my lap when I had a bit of a coughing fit.

"Mama had a fart from her neck" was how she described it.

Being in a fit of coughing and one of uncontrollable laughter at the same time is really dangerous...