My cooking and writing have been disrupted by a much needed decorating project: Dulux, LittleGreen (which apparently is THE paint brand, which I don’t like one bit: it’s shiny), gloss and eggshell have replaced duxelle, green beans, glace and egg shells in my vocabulary. Except of course I’ve had to bake biscuits; cups of tea and biscuits are definitely the appealing aspects of the trade.
If you’re in similar circumstances, and looking at the number of building projects around I’d say a lot of you will be; and if you’re too proud to buy Fox’s Creams, here’s a bunch of easy ways to keep your builders happy.
Cookies with condensed milk and cranberries once won me the Biscuit of the Year award with my friendly decorators. Everyone likes chocolate biscuits so maybe choc crack cookies or triple choc chip cookies will hit the spot more precisely. And then there are simple crunchy biscuits which you might want to bake a batch of even if you have no builders around.
For quick dinners on the decorating battlefield I can recommend pasta with lemon and asparagus; swap asparagus for broccoli if the season’s not kicked in yet where you live. Or get a pack of ready made filled pasta and do them potsticker style. Empty a couple of tins of haricot beans for a veggie chilli or make a sizzling beef stir fry if you must have meat.
Quick and easy weeknight dinner ideas are always welcome, I know, so here’s more. How about a one-pot dish of lemon chilli chicken? Or quick lamb koftas, which may but don’t have to be cooked on a barbecue? There’s also pasta with smoked salmon and pesto and salmon and potato tray bake.
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