I'm done with cooking! 13/11/23

This was the setting for our meal for Nick's siblings on Saturday - we emptied out the living room and used folding tables, our dining room chairs and the new folding chairs I'd ordered so we could seat everyone comfortably. 

The dining table was used for drinks and nibbles.

The menu consisted of:

Velvety chicken liver parfait (posh word for pate lol)

Followed by Fruity lamb tagine with couscous

Finished with Chocolate & coffee truffle pots accompanied with crisp orange shortbread.

Except I forgot to serve the biscuits with the dessert so we had them with tea and coffee afterwards.  

We also had cheese and biscuits ready but everyone was too full.

The pictures above are taken from the recipe book I used.  The only photo I took was this one of the empty dessert pots! (I didn't have enough coffee cups but the glass dishes saved from shop bought desserts worked just as well.)

It was worth all the hard work though as everyone seemed to enjoy their food and we had a lovely evening.  One sister and her husband stayed overnight but they left fairly early on Sunday morning so Sunday was a nice relaxing day of doing nothing once all the clearing up had been done.  So glad I have a dishwasher.

Today I've been busy finishing Maisie!

Just in time for Ella's birthday on Friday.

I had previously bought more wool to make another animal but I found assembling the body quite a challenge so I'll probably use the wool to make more clothes for Maisie.  Thankfully as Ella is our only granddaughter I can get away with that option.

I also managed a walk today as it was dry although very windy.  So a good weekend and a good start to the week.

Hope your week started well too.

I'm a blogger who blogs.

I noticed this title come up in my reading feed today:
Are you a blogger who writes or a writer who blogs?

I think I'm a blogger who blogs.  Of course I know by blogging I'm writing but I have no real ambition to become an acknowledged as in published writer.  I write here for various reasons, mainly because I enjoy it and it provides a sort of journal but also because I love the interaction with other bloggers.

I also have fits and starts.  Some months, particularly like April where I'm following a challenge, I'll blog most days.  Then there are quiet spells when I'm either too busy to get on the laptop and blog or I just don't feel there's anything worth blogging about.

I'm having a better spell at the moment but that was mostly facilitated by having a bad leg and not being able to get out.  That's changing.  The leg is improving, slowly, and today I managed to drive the car without it being too painful so I no longer feel housebound.  Yesterday hubby and I also managed to successfully babysit Nathan and will do so again tomorrow, one of my regular days.  I'm not doing Thursday this week though as I don't think I could get him upstairs yet on my own.  Stairs are still proving a bit of a challenge.  Today in particular as I probably overdid it a bit yesterday.  Two steps forward one back!

That also happened with new meals.  I made a lovely mushroom and ricotta filo tart at the weekend.  I've never used filo pastry before and yes I confess, it was shop bought not homemade.  Why would you make your own?  Have you seen how difficult it is?  I looked up a recipe that gave the instructions but more or less told you not to bother and wished you good luck at the end!

Anyway the tart was delicious and I remembered (in time) to take a photo.

So that was a step forward although I won't be making it too often as it has a lot of butter and Hubby needs to get his bad cholesterol level down so we're working on that.

Today I attempted another new recipe, a prawn curry.  Well that was a step back, in fact a giant step back.  It was edible, just, but not one I will be repeating.  Not sure what went wrong but definitely needed a stronger curry powder as even I thought it was bland! (I used mild as I don't like things too spicy.) I also overcooked it so the prawns were too chewy.  In fact it was just a disaster so I've binned the photographic evidence.  Actually it didn't even merit a photo being taken.

But today wasn't a total write off.  We managed to drop off and collect Hubby's CPAP machine for its annual service at the hospital.  We (ha as in the royal "we" as Hubby did both trips for this) also got the car through its annual safety check.  We thought we might have to get at least one new tyre but they all passed and we got the garage to replace one of the brake lights we knew wasn't working.  We were going to attempt that ourselves but they're a bit tricky to get to and neither of us are that hands on.  

We also secured a new window cleaner.  Hopefully she will turn out to be more reliable than the last one who just stopped coming.

I mentioned a few weeks back about securing some label holders for drawers online well today I actually got 2 of the 3 sets of drawers kitted out with the holders:

I'll get things organised even if it does leave a blister on my hand from tightening the screws!

Tomorrow we're back on Nathan duty so I think I should get an early night plus I've done enough waffling (writing?) on this post!

Sunday snoozing 21/2/16

I would love to be able to say that I'm fully recovered from whatever bug has recently invaded my system but that wouldn't be totally true.  I am feeling much better but the cough hasn't gone (although it's not as annoying) and I keep getting the pressure feeling in one ear like you get during a plane take off.  

I did manage to venture out for a walk today.  Not far but it was good to get some fresh air especially as I'd started to snooze on the sofa so needed to do something to wake me up.

I also managed to get myself to a get together with some old work colleagues on Friday evening.  That took me back a bit - we met in a pub I used to frequent when hubby and I were courting.  The pub hasn't really changed that much.  Still very much an East End pub.  

I've also managed to get an online shop done with delivery scheduled between 10-11 am tomorrow morning.  That will give me a good reason to be up and showered at a reasonable time.  Don't want to embarrass the delivery guy by still being in my pjs!

Hubby has just got back from an outing to listen to some live music.  He is so daft sometimes though.  He told me when he got back that he had nearly phoned me from the corner shop to see if we needed anything.  We then had a conversation about milk - me saying we had enough milk until the morning and then some would be delivered.  When he then got on to the subject of cooking dinner he mentioned making a parsley sauce to go with some fish.  However, somehow, when I said that there wasn't enough milk for that he was moaning that I should have told him when he was at the shop.  

But I didn't know you were at the shop I responded. 
You could have called me and told me we needed milk before I got to the shop.  
But we didn't need milk.
Yes we do for the parsley sauce.
But I didn't know you were going to make parsley sauce!

And then he wonders why I get cross sometimes.  He'd undertaken to prepare dinner but somehow it was my fault that he hadn't checked the milk situation! I'm really not complaining because he does do most of the cooking but sometimes his logic is definitely skewed.

Totally Random

Yes it does begin with T but it’s not my planned A – Z Challenge post.  I just felt like doing a totally random post.

However I couldn’t not include something about the A – Z Challenge as it’s taking up a big chunk of my time at present.  I started off at participant no 1152 today I’m at 1071 but there are still just over 1600 people taking part.  Some people even have more than one entry!  I hadn’t been blogging regularly for ages and I was so out of the habit.  Many of the people I used to connect with regularly also seem to have fallen by the wayside.  Even my cousin who got me started on the whole thing originally is not as prolific as she once was.

But I’ve embraced this challenge and so far so good.  I also did as I was told and visited other blogs starting with the people immediately after me on the list but I also started working through the list from the beginning of the list.  I do like the way you can see which blogs you’ve visited so you don’t keep back tracking.  Maybe it would also be good to start at the end of the list and work backwards so I can meet myself somewhere in the middle.

I’ve found several blogs that have kept my interest so I have added them to my feeds or on google+.  Some of my favourites are (I stress SOME – if I listed them all you might just as well go back to the A-Z links list):

The Witty Ways of a Wayward Wife

From This Side of the Pond

Wendy of the Rock... 'Coz no woman is an island

A Postcard a Day

plane whimsy &

Shrinkrapped

Hopefully no one is feeling stalked.

There are obviously a lot of writers on the list (some published others hopeful) but I prefer to visit blogs where I feel I have at least a little in common with the blogger and I’m not someone who thinks they have a book in them somewhere.  I probably do – I just don’t have the ambition or determination to see it through.  I much prefer to engage in a bit of (hopefully) light hearted blogging with like-minded individuals.  (Although some of the people on my favourites list are published writers.  I envy them their staying power.)

One thing I do need to improve is my photo taking.  As in actually taking photos.  The photos I do take often come out okay – I’m not usually a decapitator or any other such nonsense I just don’t take lots of photos.  For example at the weekend my daughter and her partner took hubby and I out for a lovely meal.  It was a tasting menu at a really nice restaurant in Shoreditch.  We had 10 courses 9 of which were delicious and beautifully presented.  (Strangely, for me of the sweet tooth, it was one of the dessert courses that I wasn’t as keen on – which was Passion fruit jelly with lychee tapioca – it was nice but just not my favourite.) It was for my husband’s birthday but I didn’t take any pictures.  My daughter took pictures of the food, most of which were taken before we’d started eating the course so the presentation was evident.  The staff were also very attentive and overall it was a lovely evening.  The restaurant was HKK for anyone who wants to check it out.  I’ve avoided doing so as I don’t want to see how expensive it was!

 
Now it’s time for sausages.  Again not my S post, that’s already posted, but as in dinner. I thought I’d surprise hubby by having things prepared for when he gets home.  I’m beginning to feel a little guilty that he’s still cooking dinner most nights even though I’m not working at the moment.  Notice I said a “little” guilty. Not a lot, certainly not enough to make me volunteer to take over the cooking.  Well not yet anyway.  Truth be told he wouldn’t want me to do it all the time as my cooking is very boring in comparison to his.  Good tactic that on my part don’t you think?!