Hello readers, welcome to the Weekend Blog Post. Today I share with you all "Childhood Haunts, Surreal Calenders, A Year of Wonderful Things and Chicken Tagine with Apricots." Happy Reading xo♥
A Childhood Haunt
When growing up, a favourite childhood haunt was the beautiful King River.
As kids, we would swim and sun bake on the rocks for hours at a time. During the hot weather on Sunday, this photo I snapped helped to rekindle some memories of my younger years. It really is picture perfect and once again it reminds me of how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place!
Today I was super thrilled when my Elle Moss calender arrived in the mail from the United States. I was so happy with the 2013 calender that kept me in gorgeous surreal photo prints each month that I couldn't help but buy another for the 2014 year.
I just adore the way that Elle Moss goodies come packaged ♥
and here is a peek of the selection of 13 unbound pages, 3.5 x 5 inches which allows you to cut out and keep the photos after the month ends. As you can see, I have popped January into a frame already! If you haven't seen the work of Elle Moss you can view and purchase goodies from her shop here:
A Year of Amazing Things
Well readers, it is well and truly underway. The daily recording of A Year of Amazing Things. I salvaged a plastic screw top jar from the pantry and prettied it up a little, I am very determined to stick this out for the 365 days of 2014! Did any of you take up this challenge also? I would love to hear from you if you did.
Chicken Tagine with Apricots
I tested this recipe on the weekend, looking for an alternative to the traditional Apricot Chicken and to be truthful, I was keen to cook in my tagine again. It was a resounding success (evidenced by empty plates) and tasted fantastic. If you haven't got a tagine, this can also be done as a stovetop dish.
Ingredients:
4 x 175g skinless, boneless Chicken Breasts
40g butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 brown onion sliced
250ml chicken stock
6 coriander sprigs tied in a bunch, plus extra to garnish
500g fresh apricots or 425g tin of apricot halves in natural juice
2 tablespoons honey
1 quantity of couscous
2 tablespoons slivered almonds, toasted
Method:
Trim the chicken breasts of any fat or gristle. Melt the butter in a large frying pan, add the spices and stir over low heat for 1 minute. Increase the heat and add the chicken breasts. Turn them in the spiced butter and cook for 1 minute each side, without allowing the spices to burn.
Add the onion to the pan around the chicken and cook for 5 minutes, stirring the onion and turning the chicken occasionally. Add the chicken stock and coriander sprigs and season if necessary. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes, turning the chicken once.
Wash and halve the fresh apricots and remove the stones. Place them, cut side down, around the chicken and drizzle with honey. Cover and simmer for 7-8 minutes, turning the apricots after 5 minutes. Remove the chicken to a plate, cover and rest for 2-3 minutes. Slice each breast on the diagonal.
Prepare the couscous as directed. Put the hot couscous on serving plates and top each with some sliced chicken. Remove the coriander sprigs from the sauce and spoon the sauce and apricots over the chicken. Scatter with the almonds and extra coriander and serve hot.
Lovely readers, I hope you enjoyed reading "Childhood Haunts, Surreal Calenders, A Year of Wonderful Things and Chicken Tagine with Apricots."
See you all on Wednesday for a new Wednesday Wishes blog post xo♥
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