Sitting in the sun!

It was wonderful to wake up to another glorious day and after popping to Tesco we called to see Mum and Dad on the way home and had a look at their new lawnmower. Mum had been finding it difficult to mow the lawn with their petrol model and had ordered a Flymo online. Keith took it out of the box and we adjusted the blade so it cut the grass a bit shorter. I think he would have carried on and mowed the whole lawn if I'd let him!

We drove home and had an early lunch of leftovers from yesterday's dinner. I then tackled some jobs that needed doing - washing Sophie's black furry throw (a.k.a. Jeremy - don't ask) which was a mammoth job as it's quite big and I hand washed it in our kitchen sink! I also hoovered the top of the conservatory from our bedroom window and cleaned the windows from all the washing we did yesterday as they were covered in water droplet marks.

Sophie and I went to Beckworth in the afternoon and enjoyed a snack in the restaurant. I enjoyed their delicious "Spaghetti" ice-cream while Sophie chose the pulled pork sandwich. We sat outside in the sun and it was gorgeous!

After we'd eaten I bought some geraniums and a cheerful Sunflower and as soon as we arrived home I potted them all up. Keith came out with me and we sat in the sun for a while before going in and playing cards.

This evening Sophie and I had chosen Chicken Almondine as our recipe of the week and we'd decided to have Dauphinoise potatoes with the meal. I peeled and thinly sliced the potatoes and we layered them in a dish with garlic and cream. I then butterflied the chicken and we coated the breasts in a mixture of flour and almonds after dipping them in buttermilk.

We then shallow fried them in a mixture of butter and oil and kept them warm in the oven. To make the almond sauce we mixed flaked almonds with capers, parsley and lemon juice and heated the sauce up in the frying pan.

It wasn't one of our best meals - I think I had the gas turned up too high to cook the chicken and the  coating was a bit overcooked! I don't really like shallow frying chicken and prefer to let it cook in the oven. The almondy sauce was OK but the capers and lemon juice made it very sharp. We heated up the mushroom sauce we'd bought yesterday and Sophie and Mike had that instead of the sauce we'd made. The potatoes were lovely but could have done with another ten minutes in the oven! I don't think we will try this recipe again...perhaps we should steer clear of nutty recipes!