Today I cut Charlie’s hair. Previously he’d been having it cut by a friend of my mothers. This hairdresser is one of those who visit you at home, so rather than have someone staring up your nose as they lather your hair, they have a rather fine view of your bent over backside.
Charlie doesn’t like my mother’s hairdressing friend. In fact he went as far as to injure himself on one occasion, drawing blood on my mother’s watch, in order to escape her snippy clutches. This is sad as she cut my late grandmother’s hair, my mothers and now Charlies. But the tradition can’t continue. Charlie is so distressed by her presence it seems unfair on her more than him. No-one wants to be treated like the child catcher.
I was ready for a fight so I had all my weapons lined up. Cbeebies was the first one to be released. I had yoghurt covered raisins, banana chips and orange squash all lined up as placation tools. If it got serious there was always Daddy who was upstairs photographing things for eBay. As always, Charlie surprised me by not giving a damn. I snipped away and he hummed nursery rhymes with baby blue eyes glued to the box. His hair looks okay-ish. Not bad enough to make anyone feel sorry for him anyway. I feel a huge sense of achievement as I sit on the sofa this evening.
A recipe tonight for steak in disguise. I think this treatment of beef suits those who aren’t exactly keen on huge hunks of thick bloody steak but do like a bit of the iron rich stuff now and again. I’ve used a version of chimichurri sauce but rather than using it post cooking, have used it as a marinade. So you end up with a kind of grassy looking steak.
Ingredients:
- minute steak (I got mine from Asda and it was sliced pleasingly thin.)
- a good handful of fresh flat leaf parsley, leaves removed from the stalks and chopped finely
- 1 tbsp of dried oregano
- 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 5 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
Whizz everything together in a food processor except for the beef. Cover the minute steak in the marinade and refrigerate for 4 hours minimum or overnight if poss. Remove from the fridge about an hour before you want to cook the beef. Then either pop on the barbecue for about 1 minute either side (or longer if you’re preggers like me – see pic) or under the grill for the same amount of time. Serve with rice or cous cous or if you need more green in your life, a green salad.
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