Thanks to the efforts of her lovely Irish granny Benny, Alannah now has two of her very own Planet Phonics characters, Nat the nurse and jumping Jack! Feedback is good; Alannah and Oscar both love the toys and granny says they were easy to knit, "just a bit fiddly to sew up".
We were discussing the joys of feeding large families when Benny mentioned cabbage and bacon, which is coincidentally what we'll be having tonight with sausages. Cabbages are cheap at the mo and I've come up with this really yummy recipe, based on something I read in the Waitrose magazine. It's so quick and simple, and (in my experience) meets the approval of children who wouldn't ordinarily dream of eating cabbage.
Creamy bacon and cabbage
Peel and slice a red onion and fry in a little oil, together with 300g or so of lardons or smoked streaky bacon cut into small pieces. After a couple of minutes, sprinkle on some thyme leaves - fresh is best, but dried will do.
Add as much thinly sliced cabbage as you need, but remember is shrinks down. Savoy cabbage works particularly well, but so does any other type of green or white cabbage, including spring greens and even sliced sprouts.
Stir for a couple more minutes, add a splash of water from the kettle, cover with a lid, reduce the heat and leave to cook through for about 10 more minutes.
Add lots of black pepper and (if necessary) some salt and stir through a good splash of double cream. Excellent with sausages, but great too with fish.
Omit the cream if you're feeling virtuous and perhaps add a handful of chopped hazelnuts instead. Delicious either way.
Will post photo tonight, once I've cooked it for the Wheeler hoards!
