In sun and in rain . . .

There is a lovely bunch of Livingstone Daisies that grows in one corner of our front garden, bordering our short drive. Livingstone Daisies come with red, yellow and pink petals. Ours are the pink ones. They are almost finished now, but when they were at the height of their growth, they were stunning . . .

A bit odd though . . . for they open up and turn their faces to the sun, whenever it is shining . . . but let the day get dull, or dusk roll in . . . and they close right up. You won't see their pretty petals until the sun comes out again.



Some people are like that. As long as things are going great, they're fine and showing all their petals, but let things get hard and troublesome and they close right up and hide their finery . . .



What a shame that is. It's no way to live though. It's actually not living at all. You miss ever so much when you hide your petals away . . . We were meant to find joy in all things, both the good and the bad, else why bother blooming at all. I'm glad I am not like a Livingstone Daisy, and that I can feel both the sunshine and the rain on my petals.



We were walking along yesterday and we came across a prickly little ball in the grass. It was a little hedgehog all curled up and trying to hide from us, right in the middle of the day! Todd built a hedgehog house at the end of our garden quite some time back and has been trying to introduce hedgehogs to it, so he carefully picked it up and we brought it back to our garden, which wasn't too far away. (Lest you think we were taking it far away from it's kith and kin. It was only a few hundred yards) We put out a dish of food for it and then went off on our travels again. Alas, when we got home it had completely disappeared! But for one brief shining moment, Todd actually had a hedgehog in his garden! It had a really sweet little face, at least from what I could see of it, all tucked up inside!

I made this delicious chicken dish for our supper last night. Kind of like a Chicken Kiev, but instead of being filled with garlic butter, these are filled with a delicious cheese and herb mixture! They were very easy to do and went down a real treat with some buttery new potatoes and beans from the garden.




*Cheese and Herb Stuffed Chicken Breasts*
Serves 2, but can easily be multiplied to serve more
Printable Recipe

Chicken breasts can often be dry and lacking in taste. Not these ones! These are always moist and delicious!

2 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
2 TBS softened cream cheese
3 spring onions, chopped finely
4 TBS chopped fresh oregano, basil or sage leaves
sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste
1 tsp sweet paprika
1/3 cup flour
1 large egg, beaten with 1 tsp water
1/4 cup plain dried bread crumbs
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp garlic powder
2 TBS melted butter

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.

Slice the chicken breasts through the middle almost all the way, but leaving them attached on one side. Open them up like a book. Spread one half of each with 1 TBS of cream cheese. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with the chopped onion and herbs. Fold the other half over top and press tightly to seal the cheese, onion and herbs inside.

Combine the flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika in a shallow dish. Beat the egg and water together in another shallow dish. Place the breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese into a third shallow dish and mix well together. Dip each breast first in the flour, shaking off any excess. Then dip it into the egg. Finally roll it in the breadcrumb mixture. Place on a lightly buttered baking dish. Drizzle with the melted butter. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until lightly browned and done.

Delicious!!



There are some scrummy Fruit and Nut Scrolls over on The English Kitchen today!