Another day

Good morning all.  Another chilly one we have a thick frost and yesterdays snow is still in places where the sun didn't get to it.  I have given the book a good read and decided that it is a cuisine of the poor rather than the rich.  Most of the ingredients are from the cheaper range but then enhanced with assorted flavourings.  I can see me mixing and matching Korean vegetable dished with more western meats. For example there is a nice dish made with kale which would go well with pork chops and a Korean potato dish.  It is all going to be very experimental but fun.  I can also see me muddling up Japanese and other oriental dishes.  When I come to think of it there are dishes from all around the world that I like and use.  It is nice to ring the changes and have different dishes made from similar ingredients.   Today I have to take a trip to B&Q as my bucket has lost its handle so a new one is in order.  Does anybody r...

Good morning all well we had a sprinkle of the white stuff overnight but it isn't enough to make a snowman just enough to make getting the car going a pain.  Denzil is out for the day and I have my kombucha to wrack off and I have a packet of defrosted strawberries to add for flavouring.  All my ingredients for my Korean cookery arrived yesterday so now I will have to decide which of the recipes to attempt.  The shredded omelette made an interesting addition to a salad.  I now have the dried anchovies which appear in many of the dishes so I feel I have adequate supplies to make something nice.  I think I will leave it until tomorrow when I have a full complement for meals.   This is the book I have and there are lots of her recipes on Youtube she is holding a plate of honey butter chicken which is about a million calories a bite. I made a large pot of bolognese sauce so now that it is cool I can box it up and get it in the freezer....

Good morning all well yesterday was a shopping day and Denzil and I did a massive shop in both Aldi and Tesco.  There are some things Aldi doesn't carry so we had to go to Tesco for those and then I put an order in with Amazon for some of the ingredients for the Korean extravaganza.  Anyway, I will have to wait for the stuff to arrive before I get stuck into the recipes that I can manage.  The list of ingredients can look terrifyingly long until you realise that it is all things like a tsp of soy sauce and a tsp of sugar.  I had a little play yesterday and made two omelettes one of only yolks and one of only whites and then sliced and shredded them as a garnish for another dish.  It would have been better if I had managed not to get any colour on the whites but the pan was a bit hot. Today I think the omelette will end up as a garnish for a salad to go with some duck legs which will get blasted in the halogen oven.  I also have ...

Good morning all, I had a bit of a bad day yesterday I was so tired as I have been sleeping badly and then to make my life complete I had an earache.  Nothing very painful but just there and annoying.  Anyway, after spending the day doing a very passable impression of a sloth I slept like the dead last night and feel a hundred times better this morning.  I gave my new recipe book a good read and have discovered that there are recipes I can do and some which are quite beyond me in as much as I cannot get the ingredients.  Have you ever heard of fernbrake or fermented anchovies to name but two?  The book is aimed at the American market where they have Korean grocers shops.  I don't think we have a sufficiently strong Korean community to allow for some of the ingredients to be available.  Anyway, there are dishes which I am able to do and I have all but one base ingredient [fermented soybean paste] now the decision is whethe...

Good morning all, my new recipe book is here and after a quick scan it looks good 90% vegetables some pork and beef only one chicken but lots of seafood recipes.  No dairy and the smallest section is on desserts.  So right up my street.  It is going to take a bit of studying but I am keen to get started. Sadly there are lots of items which I cannot get and some for which there is a substitute. I guess there will be lots of tinkering. I have nothing planned for today but Denzil brought home some miced beef so I will have to make some burgers perhaps.  I also have some sprouts so maybe a bubble and squeak but I am out of potatoes.  I do have lots of salad ingredients and can’t quite decide what to do with it all. Just a short one this morning I hear both the shower and the coffee calling me.  Have a peaceful Sunday.

Good morning all it is much warmer today but very dull and grey.  It might take me a bit longer to make a cup of coffee in the mornings but I am enjoying the change.  I normally drink my coffee black but have decided that today I will have a milky coffee as I am sure I need the iodine as I drink very little milk.  The only milk I normally have is a splash in a cup of tea in the afternoons so I really think I should increase my intake.   On the menu today I have some pork belly strips which are marinating in some Korean red pepper paste before they go in the pot along with some savoy cabbage and some potatoes.  This will be a one-pot wonder Korean style. I have been very surprised that the red pepper is nowhere near as spicy as I thought it would be but it does have a nice flavour.  Their recipes use liberal amounts of the red pepper along with soy sauce and sesame oil and seeds all of which I like.  And don't even men...

Good morning all I am a happy bunny sitting here with a lovely cup of coffee.  It is above freezing this morning no frost and yesterdays snow was just a flurry but it was nice to watch. Yesterday for lunch we had a bowl of artichoke soup and a Japanese rolled omelette and a portion of my homemade kimchi and for supper, we had a cottage pie the top of which had a nice crisp layer of cheese.  Needless to say, the artichoke soup had the usual effect that is a pretty windy afternoon.  I love artichoke soup but the effects are quite dramatic so I am careful when I serve it that we are not expecting visitors.  I now have a small coffee machine for emergencies and some nice ground coffee which as luck would have it comes from Trieste so sort of my home town.  It is funny because you can now bet I will not need the emergency coffee machine ever again but it is small so I can tuck it away in a corner just in case.  I suppose if we ev...

Good morning all and yes it is a good morning I have a cup of coffee so I am a happy bunny.  The old machine still works fine and makes a passable cup of espresso.  When I had the caravan I had multiple ways to make coffee but all that went with the van so thank heavens I clung on desperately to the ancient Neapolitan coffee maker more for sentimental reasons than anything else I never thought for one moment it would be pressed into service.  It is perishingly cold this morning again subzero but according to the weather forecast it is set to get a bit warmer as the week progresses.  As yet, bar one big flurry, we have had no snow which is fine by me though I do love it when it first falls the novelty soon wears off when we have nothing but slush.   On the menu today I rather fancy a cottage pie nice and warm and comforting for a cold day.  Definitely not a day for a salad though I do have lots of salad ingredients in the fridge....

Sorry to be late again today but it really wasn't my fault the computer wanted to install an update so I sat and watch the progress bar do nothing for ages trying to be patient then realised the computer was frozen and had to be rebooted, it then took forever for the download and install to complete.  Well, it is all done now and I can finally get on with what I wanted to do.  I found my very old coffee maker which I have had since I was 18 years old so it is very ancient but it still makes two espressos.  As you can see it is in need of a jolly good clean before I put it into action but I suppose that is to be expected after years in the garage.  It is pretty battered as it has been used as a toy for small children on many an occasion they love the way it all fits together.  While I was waiting for all this stuff to get itself organised I was listening to the early morning TV and they were discussing the holiday market which is apparently avoid...

Good morning all.  Well no it isn't a good morning at all. The magnificent coffee machine is unwell with problems to the ceramic valve which cannot be fixed until the first week of February and what am I to do until then?   Two choices grotty coffee or tea and I have opted for tea.  I couldn't believe my misfortune when the coffee machine gave up the ghost just after I had made Shiona and her Aunt a cup each when I went to get mine disaster struck.  Needless to say, it is out of warranty by a couple of days just to make my life complete.  Where is your fairy godmother when you need her?  Anyway, we hit the shops as Shiona had a shower problem and needed another hose so it was a trip to B&Q for that and I got to use my blue badge for the first time.  Yes, it has arrived I had all but given up hope of ever seeing it.  We then decided to go to Dobbies and have a wander around their sale and have a bite of lunch in their cafeteria....

Good morning all another very cold one here down in the minus numbers so a bit of frost in places. I had a fun day in the kitchen yesterday making the onigiri which was much harder than it looked on the youtube videos.  However, I gave it a shot and the results tasted better than they look.   What did surprise me was that the proportion of rice to filling is quite high so I felt they did need some sort of dipping sauce to go with them.  I think it is just that we are not used to the amount of rice but wouldn't bat an eyelid at that amount of bread.  I guess it is a case of what you are used to. Anyway, it kept us fed and me amused so it served its purpose.  The instapot I have has a rice cooking facility which is perfect for this type of rice as it comes out nice and dry and sticky which of course means you have to work with wet hands or you end up with rice gloves!!!    All good fun and a learning experience.  I think I ...

Good morning all well I have just had the night from hell I fell asleep about 10pm only to wake at midnight and then be completely unable to nod off again until 6am only to wake at 8am.  It is perishingly cold here this morning and the temperature outside is below zero but we don't have any frost as it has been pretty dry and we are not in a frost hollow but on the brow of a hill. Yesterday's chicken went down well as we all love a roast chicken dinner it is easy to see why in years gone by it was the bird that graced many a Christmas table.  Today it will be the leftovers for James and I and of course some soup.  As Marjorie said the only part of the bird that goes in the bin are the bones which have been boiled for stock.  All the knobbly bits of cartilage etc the dogs deal with so there really is no appreciable waste.  Those of us who have been brought up with frugal cookery are in such a good position to make the most of what is a very ch...

Good morning all, I had quite a busy day yesterday while I waited for Amazon to deliver a bed table for Len which finally made it to our house at 5pm.  In the interim, I had started a batch of kombucha off and also finally dealt with the red cabbage which had been hanging around for ages and is now made into Kimchi which should be ready for eating in four days.  I had a bit of a glut of carrots and onions so lots of dicing and into the freezer they went. On the menu today I have a small chicken which I am going to roast whole and then make the leftovers into rissoles.  In anticipation, I have already made some mash with the addition of a parsnip ready for the rissoles and with the roast, we will be having roast potatoes and lashings of spring greens.  My diced veg will be just right for some stock with the carcas so I think I have all eventualities covered.  I certainly get my monies worth out of a bird. James came with me to deliver the ...

Good morning all at last a decent nights sleep and I feel so much better for it.  Yesterday was a bit messy, to say the least, I phoned to see how Len was only to discover that they had discharged him at 7pm at night.  OK, they need the beds but first Len has just had another stroke and is not able to walk he is in his mid 80's as is his wife.  She had been told that he was to go for rehabilitation so she was completely unprepared to have him back at a moments notice.  So it was fortunate that I phoned as she had no milk or bread etc and no means to get any as she couldn't leave Len alone.  Anyway, it was no big deal for me to do a Sainsbury's run for her and stock her up on the essentials.  It does, however, illustrate just how broken the health service is as this sort of thing would never have happened years ago.  Discharge was considered important if you didn't want the patient back in hospital because they were sent out too soon or to po...

Good morning all It is damp and chilly this morning and I have only managed about 2 hours sleep so I feel pretty shattered but not sleepy if that makes any sense.  I had my nails done yesterday and have chosen a pale pink colour but I don't think I like it now it is on.  It is difficult to choose colours I thought it was a more beige colour rather than baby pink anyway I have at least 6 weeks to get used to it.  I have landed myself with lots of work to do today sometime in the dim and distant past I must have ordered some winter flowering pansies.  Well 3 dozen of them have arrived so today I will be wandering around the garden trying to lose them.  I have absolutely no memory of placing the order but it must have seemed like a good idea at the time.  Anyway, they will make a cheerful addition to what is otherwise a very dull garden. Well, that's about it for this morning not much going on at the moment hopefully things will pi...

Good morning all.  Last night was bad tossing and turning and coughing but I did get a few hours sleep so I am not complaining.  It has to be one of the only good things to say about this stage in life it really doesn't matter as I can always catch up at some point.  Like most post illness I am having good days and bad days and my moods are swinging around crazily.  From wanting to kill the blue badge lady to feeding the pigeons rather than shooting them.   Joy of joys, the new halogen oven is here in remarkably quick time.  Reading the saga of Marjorie's lost licence reminds me of a retired friend of my sister [a German lady] who had her driving licence stolen so when back in Germany she reapplied for a licence and was told you don't live here now so you can't have a licence so she applied in Italy and was told she would have to go through a full driving test if she wanted a licence.  It is stories like these th...

Good morning all sorry about yesterday but I have two excuses.  First I really hit the buffers and was not good company and secondly, I took a knife to my hand and it is difficult to type wrapped in bandages.  I know that you can dictate to the machine but I must admit I have never tried somehow I feel stupid talking to a computer. Today is a busy day Dennie is coming for the first time since Christmas but the house is not in too bad a mess as I have been trying to keep things going in her absence.  Dan is off to have his hair done and I have put an order into Tesco for lots of stuff that is no fun shopping for you know stuff like rubbish bags, toilet paper, toothpaste etc. We had a disaster yesterday in that the halogen oven died.  Well, as I use it more than any other piece of equipment, I immediately placed an order for a new one which should arrive tomorrow.  Thank heavens for Amazon. Yesterday I had to see an occup...

Good morning all.  Had a bowl of vegetable soup it was all I could be bothered to make. The kitchen is a mess and I am not going to clean up.  Denzil is out at work all day I am going to hibernate just too depressed to care.

Good morning all.  Still here, still not right and getting very depressed with being off colour.  Every morning I hope to be feeling better but don't.  I have no energy and would willingly pull the duvet over my head.  I try to get myself going but fail miserably so before I make you all depressed I am off back to bed with a coffee.  I will try again tomorrow!!!!

Good morning all feeling a little brighter this morning I slept and slept yesterday and ate a ton of curly kale which I had a sudden passion for.  I sometimes think the body knows what it wants and if you have a sudden passion for something then maybe it is best to go along with it.  I like kale at the best of times but I just tossed it in a wok with a clove of garlic and a splash of soy sauce and a good sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds and ate it with a bowl of Japanese sticky rice.  Not a meal I would recommend but it was what I wanted.  Antibiotics are inclined to play havoc with your gut so if it was screaming for kale so be it.   I am taking it very easy as it is taking a while to regain my strength so I am not pushing myself I am just going with the flow if I feel like sleeping I do and if I feel like eating that is what I do.  Hopefully, it will not be too long before I am up and running again.  It is cold but dry here no sig...

Good morning all.  I have a cup of coffee but all I want to do is sleep so I think that is what I will do. I have a bit of catching up to do.  Have a good day

Good morning all a bit better night last night, at last, the coughing is slowing down and it doesn't feel as if I am breathing feathers.  Today is my last day of antibiotics and hopefully, they have prevented a secondary bacterial infection.  I have some lamb neck fillets which I am going to put in the pressure cooker along with some carrots onions and celery a bit of stock and then press the button and that will have to do for food for the day.  I also have some large baking potatoes so I might add one of those.  I am going to get on with it now while I still have the will and the strength.  Have good day one 

Sorry to be so late again but I had a rotten night and fell asleep at about 7am.  I know it doesn’t sound much like it but I am improving all be it slowly.  I have 2 more days of antibiotics to go and am taking things very gently.  So far I have had a couple of trips down stairs but the climb back up is a pain. Have a good day and I sincerely hope you don’t get this thing whatever it is I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

Good morning all I think it is Monday I am a little confused, to say the least, the nights have run into days and the days into nights.  I am not out of the woods yet and still extremely breathless and exhausted. Every time I move I end up in paroxysms of coughing and have successfully pulled muscles in the strangest of places. The boys are keeping me fed and watered and yesterday I managed a shower though it nearly killed me.  Today I have made it down the stairs but I must say I am not looking forward to climbing my way back up to my room. Sorry to be so boring but I am just letting you know I am still alive!!!!

Doctor visited prescription obtained 3 days should see some improvements

Sorry folks  I have been knocked off my feet tucked up in bed

Well here we go another year. Happy New Year