Unusually I have spent the day at home today. At the start of the day I was required to sit in to wait for the return of a hopefully working dishwasher and then for British Gas who were going to sort out the hot water, which has been intermittent. I had vague plans on staying in front of the this thing and making a new start on the book about mackerel but there were telephone calls to be made and emails to be answered and by the time I was ready the dishwasher and British Gas had arrived and the morning was gone.

Over lunch I picked Galen up from school and then sat on him all afternoon for revision.

For supper I wanted to make something that all the kids would eat and enjoy. Byrons is due to be opening in Liverpool soon so I suggested burgers. The girls rejected burgers but said they would eat some chicken in a bun so long as there were chips as well.

The only real effort required was in making breadcrumbs. As always there were some stale pieces of bread to be had. It was just a question of hacking off the bits that looked mouldy before putting them into the Magimix. Some good mince was then mixed with a handful of breadcrumbs, thyme, salt, pepper and a good few dashes of Worcester Sauce. This was all squidged into appropriately shaped patties and left for a while to rest.

In the meantime I coated two chicken breasts with some more of the breadcrumbs and flavoured them with paprika.

A shout then went up to the kids, ‘Ten minutes to go, get down here to help!’

That was ignored of course and so I shouted again, ‘Unless you get in here its going in the bin,’

They came slowly and got out their plates. There was no need for knives and forks and we ate at the food greedily with our fingers.