Yummy simple dinner for tonight, and sister's firepit plans

 Husband fancied burgers in rolls with spicy wedges for tonight, I didn't, not even the Linda McCartney mozzarella burgers I like.  I fancied something plain and simple and homemade - so I've just made mac n cheese, with a homemade really cheesy sauce.  Actually, it's not macaroni, it's orecchiette, as that's what I've got, a nice Italian made pasta rather than the mass-produced cheap stuff.  The sauce I made with mature Cheddar and Parmesan for a good strong taste, I added chopped chives and black pepper to it.  I've just tasted a spoonful of the pasta and sauce and it's gorgeous, no doubt it'll taste even better later on.  Got some cheesy garlic bread to have with it.  I ought to have a side salad too, for the fibre, but have gone off the idea of salads at the moment, after the horrid D&V episode the other day.  I've got plenty of fresh fruit in so might make up a fruit salad for afters.

It's a day of short sharp showers and sunshine breaks, cold wind again too.  I did washing this morning but only put a few things on the line that's just outside the back door, in view of the showers, the rest is on the clothes airer, it was in the car port but I've just brought it inside, it wasn't drying out there.  I didn't want to be traipsing inside and out again with armfuls of washing every 5 minutes.  The forecast is much the same for the next few days, possibly being better for next weekend - I do hope so.  My sister said she'd like for her, her friend and me to sit in their holiday cottage garden around the firepit there in the evenings, drinking wine and toasting marshmallows!  Nice idea, but it'll be a cup of hot chocolate and possibly toasted crumpets for me, I don't drink alcohol nor eat marshmallows 😂

Sis is really getting excited, she's messaging me every day with a countdown and suggestions for things they'd like to do.  Like me, she's a carer looking after her disabled husband, although he's housebound so worse off than my husband.  But again like me, sis rarely gets a break or holiday, so it'll be a lovely carefree few days for both of us.  Their adult kids and a couple of good friends will be looking after her husband (and dog) whilst sis is down here.

Husband's youngest sister, 17 years younger than him, in fact the same age as his son, says she's really looking forward to seeing him again, she worked out it's around 11 or 12 years since we saw her last.  She'll notice a big difference in him, I'm sure.  As will we see a difference in her - apparently she now has severe arthritis and walks with 2 sticks, we're all getting older and more infirm.  I'm just thankful we've reached our ages and still have all (most) of our faculties.

The dreaded self service till experience

 So it could have been the salad that caused my food poisoning....thanks for that, Happy Introvert, it hadn't even occurred to me.  Now I know.  Thinking on it, husband has twice had an upset stomach after eating bagged salads in the past year or so, I wasn't even aware it was a thing.

We went and did a tiny top up shop this morning.....as I only had a basketful, we went through the self service tills.  Husband is a nightmare with these tills - I reminded him to place our shopping bag on the bagging shelf properly.  But, as has been the case before, he left the bag hanging off the edge of the shelf by a couple of inches, so the scanner wouldn't work - first mistake.  Once he'd pushed the bag back, the scanner still wouldn't work - I glanced sideways to find that husband was leaning on the edge of the scanner - mistake no. 2.  Once I could start scanning (when he'd lifted his arm off), he was very slow putting the scanned items in the bag, resulting in the infernal machine announcing "Please place your items in the bagging area" three times in a row 😒.  Don't you just hate being told off by a machine?!  And then, to add insult to injury, I'd bought 2 packs of paracetamol, which meant the blasted light was flashing red and a message on the screen told us we needed to wait for someone to come and verify our ages - husband said, very loudly "Do I look like I'm 14?!".  No, I thought but didn't say, but you're acting like it 😂😒  Hence why I much prefer husband to wait in the car whilst I do the shopping by myself - he insisted on coming into the shop as he wanted to look at something.

It's gone very cold and blowy here again today - in fact it must have been pretty cold overnight as our heating came on in the early hours.  I hope the weather's ok for when our visitors arrive in a week's time.  I'm pretty much all prepared foodwise, just got to go out next Thursday to get some fresh bits for the buffet lunch. 

Husband's side of the family want to go on a steam train trip on one of the weekend days, we won't go with them as we've been on it before a few times and sister isn't that keen on going, so husband, my sis and her friend will do something else.  In any case, although it's a very picturesque journey partly along the coast then travelling inland through very rural areas, being an old heritage railway the carriages are old and decidedly uncomfortable, I had terrible backache for several days after the last time we went on the train.  It is nice watching the steam trains go through the stations though, and I love the sound of them, we can hear them from our bungalow. 

Well that was a waste of a beautiful day

 Yesterday morning I think I had a case of food poisoning.  It started off with a very crampy stomach ache whilst I was writing the blog post, I initially didn't think much of it as that's a regular occurrence for me, a result of the Metformin I take for diabetes, it's known for causing stomach upsets.  However, it very rapidly developed into diarrhoea and projectile vomiting (sorry, TMI I know).  All I can say is I'm glad our toilet and wash basin are right next to each other, as I needed both at the same time 😳.  For the next couple of hours I more or less lived in the bathroom, then once the D&V stopped I was overcome with tiredness and slept in my recliner armchair for 2 hours, highly unusual for me during the day.  When I woke up I felt so much better, the whole episode had lasted around 5 or 6 hours.  But it meant our picnic in the park had gone out the window, on the nicest weather day this year, what a waste of a beautiful day.

I can't remember the last time I was sick.... husband was fine so I can only assume it was something I ate, we had different meals for dinner Tuesday evening.  Husband had gammon, egg and chips for his dinner, I had fishcakes and salad, perhaps it was the fishcakes?  Although I was feeling better by late afternoon, I thought it was prudent not to eat much for dinner yesterday (obviously I'd had no lunch), so I just had a little scrambled egg and a few beans.  Husband had sausages with his bigger portion of eggs and beans.  I feel ok this morning.

It's not picnic weather today, the temperature has dropped and it's cloudy with the possibility of some showers.  Never mind, there'll be another nice sunny day soon.  I've got the rest of the cheap Easter veg to deal with today, think I'll make a pot of spicy carrot and parsnip soup and another tray of roasted roots.  I'll save a couple of carrots for a cake to make tomorrow - carrot, date and walnut.... except it'll be pecans not walnuts, as that's what I have in.  The cake will be frozen for our visitors.

Lovely day yesterday, even nicer today

 It was a lovely day yesterday, both weather wise and job wise.  I got washing on the line first thing, it dried easily in the bright sunshine with a moderate breeze blowing.  Husband did some jobs in the garden - erecting the supporting cane structure for the climbing French beans we'll be putting in.  He also planted the courgette plantlets - I thought it was a bit early for them to go out, but he covered them up with fleece and insists they'll be fine (I hope so).  He sowed some more carrot seeds and some dried peas - I've read lots of times that people sow ordinary dried peas for cooking bought from the supermarket, they use them as pea shoots for salads, picking them when young....sounds good so we thought we'd give it a go.  We soaked them overnight first, as recommended.  He watered and weeded as necessary, then sat in the garden enjoying the sunshine in the afternoon.

I made 2 cottage pies - I don't have a dish large enough for a big 8-person one (nor a big enough oven, come to that, seeing as I've only got my Ninja multi cooker, another air fryer and a microwave).  So I made 2, 4-serving ones.....there was enough of the meat mixture left for another couple of meals for husband - it all went in the freezer.  I also made a raspberry and blueberry sponge-topped pudding, it'll do us for 3 days worth of puds.  I don't put sugar in the fruit, and cut down the sugar in the sponge mix by 1/3 to 1/2, I've reduced the sugar in baked goods for a few years now, it makes little difference to the taste and husband has never even noticed.  We shouldn't really be eating sweet or carby things anyway, due to diabetes, but at our ages I don't feel like denying ourselves simple pleasures once in a while.

My cleaner didn't come on Monday, due to it being a bank holiday, so I did a couple of the jobs that she normally does.  She did offer to squeeze me in yesterday instead, but I said it was fine, I'd manage.  I didn't want her having to rush through her other jobs and have a longer working day to accommodate me.  It was very kind of her to offer though, she is so thoughtful and caring.  I sat out in the garden with husband for an hour in the afternoon, it was lovely if a bit breezy.

Today though there's almost no breeze, bright blue sky and very warm already, it's going to be a gorgeous day.  We've decided to take a picnic and go to the park in town, people have been saying on our local FB page that the flower beds and blossom trees are looking wonderful right now.  Dogs aren't allowed so we can't take Betty (we wouldn't anyway as there are dozens of squirrels in that park, which she'd be wanting to chase).  It's usually very quiet in there as the park, although being in the centre of town, is hidden behind the shops so most tourists don't realise it's there.  It's very much a local secret.  It's busier in the summer holidays, there's a bandstand and lots of events take place in the park, which are publicised on posters and on FB so more people get to hear about it.

Early morning surprise

 Happy Easter to those who celebrate it with families, happy Sunday if you don't.

We woke up to a surprise first thing this morning, when husband let Betty out into the garden.  I always go out there with her, as she sometimes feels the need to start digging in the flowerbeds, which obviously I don't want her to do......husband, however, just stands in the doorway, mostly oblivious to what she's doing.  This morning, however, she started whining and scrabbling about behind his plastic tool store, obviously after something.  He thought a mouse, but it turned out to be a hedgehog, Betty was batting it with her paw (it had rolled into a ball)....it's the first time we've seen a hedgehog in this garden.  Husband immediately started shouting at Betty to "leave it alone and come here!" - of which she took no notice.  Betty is very single-minded and stubborn when she's up to something, and husband's response is always to shout at her.  I've explained to him numerous times that shouting will have the opposite effect - it just excites her and raises her adrenaline even more, and she's hardly going to come to him when he's shouting at her - who would?!  He got a piece of wood and was trying to block her from getting to the hedgehog, I got a treat (the best way to get her to stop doing something is to distract her with something else) and said to her, quietly but firmly "Betty.  Come.  Here" - which she did, so I quickly got her inside.  It helped that it had just started raining (a short sharp shower) and she really doesn't like being out in the rain.  Since then, of course, she keeps wanting to go in the garden....to play with her new toy!....but we haven't let her as yet, husband has taken her for a walk around the estate.  I'm happy we have a hedgehog here (it's escaped to safety somewhere now, thank goodness) and hopefully Betty will forget about it within a couple of days....meanwhile, we'll have to keep a closer eye on her in the garden.

Aren't these gorgeous, I do love bluebells....I think they're the Spanish ones though, not British, which is a pity but they were here already when we moved in.  They're still very pretty regardless of origin, although the Spanish ones apparently are more vigorous and can overpower native British ones.  Over the years they've become very crowded and lots are now coming up blind, so once they've finished flowering and are dying back I shall cut all the leaves back and dig up lots of the bulbs to thin them out.  I'll ask around to see if any neighbours want any.

I'm still processing the cut-price veggies, still have loads of them, particularly carrots.  I made a big panful of potato and carrot mash yesterday and froze it, today I'll do a trayful of honey and ginger roasted carrots and then freeze.  I think I'll do a carrot, date and walnut traybake cake as well, again to freeze for when the next visitors arrive.  Had a video call with sister yesterday, she's getting really excited, her friend who's driving is not now working the night before they come, so they'll be able to leave to come down here around 8 am, which is good, it means they'll get here for lunch.  Husband's siblings are also planning to get down around the same time.  I'm well organised for food provision, thankfully - I have to be organised in advance, for the sake of my sanity.

Love my garden

 It's a dull drizzly day so no gardening or washing today, at least it's not cold although it's quite windy, as usual.  Mixed weather forecast over the weekend, with Monday being a bright sunny day by the looks of things, so we might go to the boot sale, they hold it on bank holiday Mondays as well as the normal Saturdays.

The first thing I do when I get out of bed in the mornings is pull back the curtains and have a look at the garden, I have a lovely view over our back garden, husband has a nice view of the front garden where the bright yellow wallflowers are now in bloom.  Lots of the perennial shrubs and flowers I planted last year and the year before are now bursting into life, growing strongly and will soon fill out and bloom all summer.  We now have 6 trees along our border fence - 3 Ceanothus, different varieties, 2 blue and 1 white.  A green acer we already had in another part of the garden, now moved to a large pot beside the fence, it looks happy so doesn't seem to have minded being moved.  A tall bushy tree that will have pretty white clematis-type flowers, I can't remember what it's called.  And now a Magnolia Susan (my birth name....well, Susan, not Magnolia!), gorgeous deep pinky purple flowers, I bought it yesterday.  My lovely Mum bought one for me about 20 years ago, we had it in our front garden up in the Midlands, we couldn't bring it with us when we moved down here to Somerset as it had grown too big to dig up, I was very sad about that so am happy to have another one, it'll remind me of my Mum.  So once all these trees start to grow upwards and fill out more, which they're already starting to do, we'll have a lot more privacy.  

The veg raised beds are coming along nicely too, as I said the other day we already have shallot sets growing well in one raised bed, spuds in several old compost bags (we always grow them in bags, they do pretty well), carrot seeds sown in another raised bed.  We have little yellow and green courgette plantlets and tomato seedlings under cover in the car port, waiting to go out when the danger of frost is past.  Husband will be sowing climbing French beans into another raised bed early next month, and we'll buy some mini cucumber plants then as well.  The strawberry plants are coming to life, and the blackcurrant bush we were given by our neighbour last year is growing strongly, I love blackcurrants so am hopeful of fruit this year.

I'm beginning to really love our garden, it's going to look so good (and be so productive food-wise) this summer.  It's come a long way from the sea of gravel and very neglected roses and a few shrubs when we moved in.  I'm also so glad we got rid of the 3 horrible half dead leylandii trees that were in the middle of the garden, they weren't very tall but were very wide and took up loads of space and were so ugly, that was one of the first jobs we did in the garden.

The garden was obviously loved at one time by the previous tenant, but she eventually became too unwell to take care of it and her partner did nothing, he had no interest in the garden according to our neighbours.

Food aversions

 Chris from Always Smiling blog has put on a post about offal today, wondering if people will start eating more of it as prices shoot up.  Chris mentioned brains and tripe - neither or which I'd ever eaten, they just didn't appeal to me, I was far too squeamish for that.

I used to eat all kinds of meat, although the only offal I had was liver and kidneys.  Before I became (mostly) vegetarian, I had been struggling for a few months with eating beef and offal....I just wasn't enjoying the flavour or texture anymore, it tasted too strong to me, my tastes seemed to be changing as I was getting older.  I wasn't keen on lamb either, for similar reasons, although lamb always used to be my favourite meat.

One day we were invited to our friends for dinner, we'd been there for meals numerous times and they were good hosts.  On this occasion they served up beef stew - we'd had it there several times before.  I didn't know before we went that it would be beef stew, and at this point I hadn't actually mentioned to anyone, not even my husband, that I was going off the taste of some meats, beef in particular.  I didn't really give it much thought actually, just thought maybe it was a phase I was going through.  Whilst eating the stew however, I noticed some chunks of something which didn't look or taste like beef - I thought perhaps it was kidney, but something about it didn't suggest kidney to me.  So I asked what it was - and was told it was heart.  I was immediately horrified - I had never (knowingly) eaten heart before, it just wasn't something we ever ate at home when I was a child and I'd certainly never bought or cooked it.  I didn't make a big issue of it, just left the lumps of heart on the side of my plate - I think husband ate them.  I don't know if they'd put heart in their stews before, most likely they had, I just hadn't noticed, it was only because I was developing this dislike of beef and other strong tasting meats that I'd noticed it on this occasion.  Well, that was the beginning of my turning to vegetarianism - not that I've ever told them but it was that heart that put me off of most meats.  

As I've said before, I do occasionally eat a little chicken, I use chicken, or sometimes pork, mince in dishes like cottage pie or lasagne.  I occasionally, perhaps once every 3 or 4 weeks, eat a couple of sausages.  Bacon I do really like the smell of and sometimes think I fancy a bacon sandwich on a weekend morning....each time I have one though, straight away I realise I didn't really enjoy that and won't have it again for several weeks.  I sometimes make a pasta bake, quiche or risotto with a little chopped bacon in, but it's very much as a flavouring and not the main part of the meal.

Nowadays, I wouldn't touch any kind of offal with a barge pole - Betty loves liver (so does husband) so I do sometimes buy it for them.....husband cooks it and I have to leave the kitchen, as I really can't stand the smell of it anymore, it makes me want to heave.  Is there any food any of you readers dislike intensely now, after perhaps eating it quite happily years ago?  Annabeth, maybe my celery aversion is in my genes, never thought of that, I've always, always hated it and can't ever imagine wanting to eat it.

Today I'm making bread and a sticky ginger cake - one of husband's favourites, he especially likes it warm with icecream, cream or custard.