Been an odd week in the kitchen as I’ve had bouts of back
ache and I’ve started a new job two evenings a week, meaning I’m dragging out
the slow cooker from the depths of the dusty drawer and using that for
dinners. Not been too adventurous with it
at the moment, but I’m sure I’ll start Winging It up within the next few weeks.
On the up side it looks like Autumn has finally
arrived. No more scorching hot days
where I neither want to cook, nor bake or, to be honest, do much else. The weather is still warm, T-shirt weather
for me anyway, but with a glorious breeze and there have been a refreshing
couple of days of rain. The tomatoes are
continuing to turn red, so I’ll leave them for a few more weeks before I dig them
up and use the remaining green toms in either a chutney or ‘marmalade’.
Anyway, back to the week.
Monday didn’t start too fab as woke up with back ache; so a slow start. Finally cut and rolled up my plum leather and
it’s now stored in the cupboard. Then
attacked the basket in the chest freezer to clear out stuff that wouldn’t get
used in a month of Sundays and to chuck away ice cubes that had taken on the
smell of surrounding foods; not pleasant.
This led to discovering sliced bananas and cut strawberries which I’d
frozen to make a ‘healthy’ ice-cream; both were food processed to a smooth
creamy consistency and it’s now in an ice-cream tub waiting to be eaten. Then after squeezing out the remaining juice
from the crab apples that had been straining overnight, the juice was measured,
sugar added along with lemon juice and crushed dried mint and the whole lot
boiled until setting point reached and then jarred; apple and mint jelly! Quick wash up as kitchen now looked a mess
and a quick cuppa before prepping dinner.
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Plum Leather
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Raided the fridge for any veg that was left which included
some celery, a punnet of baby plum tomatoes, three quarters of a red pepper and
a small bunch of spring onions; this lot was chopped and poured into a roasting
tin with three large garlic cloves, salt, pepper and paprika, bit of olive oil
and a glug of balsamic. Roasted off for
20mins then a tin of chopped tomatoes added and half a large bag of quorn
‘chicken’ cubes and back in the oven for approx another 20mins; served with
pasta. I know I did something similar
last week, but it’s nice and simple and can be adapted week by week to use up
bits and bobs in the fridge and happens to be, not only simple, but a family
favourite.
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| Fridge raiding |
Tuesday was the first of the slow cooker days and, after a
morning trip to our local Aldi, it was slow cooked ratatouille with
instructions left for partner to cook a jacket spud for me that I could have
when I got in at 9.15pm and mashed potato and the buttered chicken pieces I
found in yesterday’s freezer raid for them.
Wednesday was non-existent as I woke up feeling awful. I must have slept awkward, as my spine and
surrounding area from back of head all the way down to shoulder blades hurt
like hell and it was causing a mini migraine with nausea; so back to bed with
ice pack and painkillers for me. Managed
to feel a little better by lunchtime and did paninis with ham, pepperoni,
grilled cheese and salad for son’s lunch and a cup of soup for me as still
didn’t feel that brill in the stomach area.
By 4pm, I was feeling really rough again, stomach playing up, felt
incredibly sleepy and generally unwell, so text partner to say he was in charge
of dinner, he did shop bought pizza and garlic bread, and I went back to bed
and slept until 7.30pm. Bake Off on the
telly, an episode of Criminal Minds and back in bed by 11pm!!! Was really annoyed as I’d had to cancel
breakfast with a friend that morning.
Luckily, Thursday, I was back on my feet as we had my son’s
ESA assessment in the afternoon and I was back in work that evening. Slow cooker dinner of beef mince, chopped
potatoes and carrots, last of the mushrooms, onions and fresh spinach and
flavoured with salt, pepper and horseradish mustard.
Friday was a beautiful day and I had intended to do some
baking, but decided to have an impromptu trip to Dobbies Garden Centre (
https://www.dobbies.com/) instead
for a browse and a coffee; bumped in to a friend which was an unexpected bonus. Needed candles which I managed to get in the
sale and after walking around and around the plants for a second time found a
gorgeous white old rose in the sale at £7.
I kept picking it up, putting it down and picking it up again; mainly as
I was going to have to transport it on the bus and it wasn’t that tiny. In the end I decided to get it as it was the
only one left of its kind and also picked up a packet of perpetual spinach
which I should still be able to plant out as it’s still quite warm. Got to the till, found out the rose had been
further reduced and with my 10% off and my £2.80 voucher I got both the seeds
and the rose for less than £4; bargain! Mixed salad with cheese and ham for me
tonight as they were having chips.
Weekend was shopping and then a glorious walk down by the river to pick rosehips and hawthorns, also managed to find more red crabbies and an eating apple tree; that’s next week sorted out then.
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| Eaters |
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| Crabbies |
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| Rosehips and Hawthorn berries |
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| Hawthorns |
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| Rosehips |
