Hairy dogs and suppers.

Walley really suffers in the summer with his long and luxuriously thick coat. I've seriously considered it for spinning, but I've heard that it's hard to get rid of the doggy smell!
We treated him to a set of clippers and after a good deal of dog wrangling in the kitchen, he was mostly clipped.

I took so much off, but it doesn't look too drastic, although his ears look a bit girly!

It's so hard to get a decent picture of him, especially in my garden as they both love to run around like crazies :D

There's always so much to sniff at in my garden and Walley is always on the look out for cats. He's fascinated and scared in equal measures!

I made dough for a Lebanese spiced flatbread but unfortunately dropped two sachets of yeast into the mix and had to double up on everything else! The small dough ball is for the flatbreads and the big piece was just bread. I used half chapati flour and half plain and it made a perfect flatbread but a really heavy loaf. It was excellect with bacon and eggs though!

Sorry for the blurry picture, I was in a hurry to eat it ;) Spicey meat topped with yogurt and rocket.

This was lunch the following day and it was just as good cold.

Monday the weather was wet and stormy, so I decided to go for comfort food. I've been making a sort of mediterranean fish stew for years but decided to use a recipe from the Rick Stein cookbook my lovely BF got for my birthday. It was a surprise to find how similar it was to my usual one, only Rick's is made in a big old stewpot and mine goes in the oven.

Lots of chopped veg go into the pan for 10 minutes or so, then followed by tomatoes and garlic.

When it's all beginning to soften add a big glug of pastis (I'll use it up eventually!) and a mug of stock.

Now this is where my version takes over. I layer potatoes on the top, dot with butter and bake in the oven for an hour or so, until the potatoes are soft. Then I sprinkle handfuls of cheese over and leave to brown and bubble. This version gives me time to clear up the kitchen or take the dogs out while dinner cooks itself. I don't like standing guard over a stove, waiting for something to cook, unless I'm in the mood for rissotto when I use the time for mindful contemplation, so not very often!

Served with more rocket, as it's my favourite leaf at the moment, and relax in front of a good movie, or in our case, a slightly mediocre movie!

You may have noticed all of my mismatched plates. We only have a few decent plates left after the dishwater took bites out of all of them and I'm not buying any new ones until after we move. That's one less thing to pack :D