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    Home » recipes » mid-week meals

    By Amanda Smyth 14 Comments

    school holidays, scientific discoveries and squid

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    Remember when I wrote a food blog?  Me neither.

    Casa de Cooker is currently experiencing a spate of bed wetting, persistent coughs and two-year-old molars.  Yet again, I’m failing at school holidays.  The miserable weather isn't helping my cause, the Big Sister wants to craft all the freaking time and the Little Sister is attempting to beat her personal best “mummys per minute”.  Me? I've been spending my days washing and frantically drying sheets, raising my voice at the girls and coughing up a lung.

    On Tuesday, when it came time to load my arguing children in the car and venture out into the world, I buckled them in, shut the doors and walked five metres from the car.  Then I just stood there for a few minutes trying to collect my scheiße and hoping they'd sort it out themselves.  They didn’t.

    Where was I? Right cooking!

    Mum and Dad returned from the European adventure last week.  We caught up with them on the weekend and JC cook up a fabulous and simple octopus dish on the BBQ.baby octopus, greek, seafood, lemon cheek, char-grilled octopus, cephalopods,

    BBQ baby octopus

    Ingredients:

    500g whole baby octopus, cleaned
    ¼ cup olive oil
    juice and zest of a lemon
    2 tablespoon fresh oregano
    1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
    3 cloves garlic, minced
    2 teaspoon salt
    ½ teaspoon ground cloves

    Method:

    Combine all the ingredients and marinate for 3 – 4 hours.
    Cook in batches on a very hot BBQ plate until the hoods are opaque, about three minutes each side.
    Serve hot with lemon cheeks to squeeze over the little cephalopods before tucking in.

    See that little bit of science that I seamlessly squeezed into conversation there?  That’s the product of three and a half years of university, and it seems I'm not the only zoologist in the family.  This week during the incessant crafting the Big Sister produced this diagram of the lesser known life stages of the butterfly.

    nothing new here
    nothing new here
    burn, butterfly, burn
    burn, butterfly, burn

    No sentimentality.  Just science.  Disturbing smoky science.  The girl is clearly the product of one of the great scientific minds of our time..... (or she could be mine!) 😉

    made any scientific discoveries at your place recently?

    how are you handling the school holidays at your place?

    how many 'mummy's is it possible to squeeze into a minute?

     

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Sarah @ Slapdash Mama says

      July 05, 2013 at 3:37 pm

      I too am coughing up a lung. The humanity. I can't do baby octopus. I know it's terribly unsophisticated of me but I'm freaked out by them. There I said it.

      Reply
      • Amanda, Cooker and a Looker says

        July 05, 2013 at 3:55 pm

        That photo will no doubt be helping the cause Slapdash!

        Reply
    2. Lisa @ bakebikeblog says

      July 05, 2013 at 3:51 pm

      ugh hope things start to look a little brighter soon!

      Reply
      • Amanda, Cooker and a Looker says

        July 05, 2013 at 3:56 pm

        Thanks Lisa. I'm a bit of a whinger aren't I? Luckily kindy is back on Monday if the Big Sister's cough clears up by then. 🙂

        Reply
    3. eliz a buf says

      July 05, 2013 at 5:48 pm

      roflmao!! oh nooooooooooo, more proof that we were meant to find each other in this life time....... i've got a photo of my husband doing the 'octopus-in-mouth' bit, too!

      we all got the dreaded lurgy the last week of school; you know those precious few days when the weather was great, the tests given and the report cards already issued, and the theme parks were practically empty............ yeah. so when the holidays began, and the weather turned, we were totally. cabin. fevered.

      hope the zoologist is feeling good enough to go back to school by monday. gawd knows mothers everywhere are pulling for ya!

      xoxo, buf

      Reply
      • Amanda, Cooker and a Looker says

        July 06, 2013 at 5:12 pm

        Thanks Buf, sorry to hear you were crook. The GP said to me this morning "Do you have to work on Monday?" When I told him I was a stay-at-home Mum, he said "Oh, so you have to work today. 🙂 It's looking promising for a return to kindy on Monday. Fingers crossed!

        Reply
        • eliz a buf says

          July 06, 2013 at 9:08 pm

          looove your doc! and yeah, finger crossed.. xoxo

          Reply
    4. Anne @ Domesblissity says

      July 05, 2013 at 11:11 pm

      I feel your pain mate. Colds for the second week of school hols for my two although I've been throwing back the Vitamin C and garlic tablets like they're going out of fashion trying to avoid it. My daughter was a crafter like yours. There's no end to what parts of the body they can cover with paper creations. It calms down by about Grade 3 so that will give you something to look forward to. LOL

      Anne xx

      Reply
      • Amanda, Cooker and a Looker says

        July 06, 2013 at 5:09 pm

        I have a feeling that the Little Sister may be similarly inclined. By your estimations I'll only be drowning in craft until 2020. What a cheery thought! 😛

        Reply
    5. Kim Frost (@Kimbooli) says

      July 06, 2013 at 10:06 am

      Oh yuk- I hear you Amanda. I've been there too many times. Craft must be STOPPED! Mine keeps hoarding bottles from the recycling... Visions of her future swimming around her newsaper-piled house. Get better!

      Reply
      • Amanda, Cooker and a Looker says

        July 06, 2013 at 5:07 pm

        You know exactly what I'm talking about Kim! Every creation is a treasure that must be kept and preserved for prosperity. When she discovers anything I've accidentally binned there are tears. Maybe they'll be on the same episode of Hoarders. 🙂

        Reply
        • eliz a buf says

          July 06, 2013 at 9:18 pm

          there is a light at the end of the tunnel... but it's a VERY LONG tunnel, alas. every year during the BIIIGGG CLEANOUT of "the boy child's" room, i'd hold up some of the very precious *rockets* he'd made during his prep year and he'd always reply that the memories were very important, and he loved his little rockets and i'd sigh and roll my eyes and put them back on the shelf. well, doncha know, that this year, i held up the last remaining *rockets* and asked if we were still keeping them....... and he looked at them, and squinted, and stared at me blankly before saying "i don't even know what those things ARE, much less why they're in my room!"

          naturally, i laughed until i cried. and then could not bring myself to throw them away!!!

          xoxo, buf

          Reply
    6. BOYEATSWORLD says

      July 06, 2013 at 10:08 pm

      I'd be coughing up my lungs but I have none left. The lurgy has me by the ear, nose and throat as well. Love the Big Sisters gothic science. 🙂

      Reply

    Trackbacks

    1. 20 superb seafood recipes - Cooker and a Looker says:
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      […] still warm enough for barbecue dinners, these BBQ baby octopus are delicious little morsels that take no time at all! […]

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