Chicken Schnitzel, Scalloped Potatoes, and homegrown Zucchinis with Spring Onions and Baby Peas

Just when I was starting to despair, and thinking about calling for take away, the cool change hit. I opened all the windows, and with a beautiful cool breeze blowing through the house, felt up to turning the oven on to 200°C to cook tonight's dinner.

Earlier, the temp outside had hit 37°C, so I was dubious about tonight's planned menu, but I managed to pull it all together in time... well, sort of, dinner was almost an hour late, well, about 15 minutes later than normal, but more than half an hour later than when I always plan on having dinner served.

So, I sliced a whole bunch of potatoes up thinly. Don't ask me how much, it was just whatever was left in the cupboard. About 3 large potatoes, and 5 or 6 small ones I think, from memory. I layered them in a greased pan stopping to sprinkle a finely sliced half onion over every potato layer, except the last layer. Then I whisked together a cup of milk, and half a cup of cream, and a packet of McCormick Scalloped Potato mix, poured the lot over the top, and finshed with a sprinkle of grated tasty and mozzarella cheeses. Well, it's the end of the fortnight, I have to empty the fridge!

While that baked for 40 minutes (next time I'll give it 50 or an hour, but we were starving!), I scrounged through the fridge to see what else was there. I'd originally planned to serve some frozen beans with this, but I finshed them off last week sometime, and only had a bare handful of baby peas left. But, I did find 4 spring onions, and even better, 3 small zucchinis from my mother's garden, that she'd brought up a few days ago.

My mum grew me some zucchinis!


Don't know if you can see the gorgeous pale yellow colour of the insides here

After slicing the onions and zucchinis, I fried them with a generous amount of butter, and some Season-All spice (my fall back, good for everything seasoning!), adding the peas in at the last second. Then I tipped them into a small saucepan, because it was handy, and small, and wouldn't let much of the heat escape, and fried up our schnitzels. Tipped the veg back in at the last minute to reheat any cold bits, and to add all those lovely juices to the pan. Then I dished it all up and made gravy.

I was dead tired and very hot by the time I sat down, but everyone enjoyed it, and no one has gotten sick from half cooked potatoes... yet!