A Chance Missed

Today I have been doing the work I had promised, the dark wash and the bedding wash. Came upstairs from the laundry room and just sat down to draw breath when the phone rang, and it was daughter calling to invite me over for lunch. At that point, I still had to put the dark wash onto a fast spin, followed by a transfer to a tumble drier and then load the bedding into the vacated machine. It is often quite difficult to find a washing machine free here, so really couldn’t afford to give up this chance (and anyway the dark wash would still take a further hour to dry.

This is a great pity as I very much enjoy my visits to daughter and her family; however we have fixed a date for next Wednesday (her day off from work).

Daughter in fact had been planning to call an hour earlier, but got caught up in reading my blog as she likes to know how I am getting on and what I have been up to!

My ribs (or the “muscles” over them are still painful when I take a deep breath in and also on turning over in bed). However I see no point in doing anything about it, as the most that would possibly be done is strapping and I think I would find that at least as uncomfortable – (can’t hurt that much, then).

Sitting here at my computer I look out and am pleased to see that the weather is dry, although the tree opposite is fairly moving in the wind. The leaves are well turning to their autumn colours, and look so attractive.

Washing finished I went to cook some mince that I took from the freezer last night. Now that it had defrosted, I was able to determine that, while the label (from the farm shop) Said Highland Beef, Beef mince, what was actually there was chunks of beef for making a casserole.

Just to show that anything goes for my famous casseroles(I used to be known as the casserole queen), I looked in the fridge to see what ingredients I could use:

First I tossed the beef in flour in a poly bag and left it to one side.

Then:

half celeriac. chopped (left the other half under water.)
2 carrots, chopped
2 onions, chopped
half a pack of mushrooms, chopped.

Sauteed the onions in a mixture of a flavoured oil (part of a Christmas present) and butter
Added the vegetables (not mushrooms) and stirred around in the pan
Added the floured meat and gave a quick saute.
Poured over a pint of beef stock made using a Kallo beef stock cube
Poured on a bit of red wine (from an opened bottle)

After about an hour added the mushrooms.

Left all to cook for about 3 hours on a very low heat

Invitations and a Cook-In

Well, yesterday I had planned to be a cook-in day. On Friday evening I removed two chicken legs (rather large ones of the Marks and Spencer “Oakham” variety) and four chicken thighs.

I had intended to cook the chicken legs to have one for yesterday and one cold for today, and to use the thighs to make a curry for freezing.

However, “The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley”, so firstly daughter phones and suggests lunch followed by the cinema on Sunday. Great idea, so I suggested a garden centre near the multiplex for lunch. She would pick me up after church. After the cinema she would come back to inspect my new kitchen (but not stay long enough for the boys to get bored: it is hard to find enough to keep them occupied in a small flat.)

Secondly, I was sitting at the computer yesterday updating the previous blog off line prior to posting it, when in comes an email from S. inviting me over for dinner and a sleep over. Of course I jumped at the offer.

I then decided that the first priority was to cook the meat – can’t leave defrosted chicken hanging around uncooked. So I quickly looked in the fridge and cooked:-

CHICKEN CASSEROLE

2 chicken legs
2 leeks, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 onions, chopped
1 organic chicken stock cube

Place all in a casserole, cover with boiling water and cook at 180 for ½ hour, then 160 for 1 ½ hours. Leave to cool and put in the fridge till tomorrow,

CHICKEN SOUP

This is just a variation of the chicken soup I wrote about before. These things all depend on what you have in the store cupboard.

4 chicken thighs
1 leek, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
Handful of long grain rice

Place the first 4 ingredients in a heavy pan and cover with boiling water, bring to the boil and simmer for 2 hours.
Remove the thighs using a slotted spoon and leave to cool.

Add the rice and season to taste.
Bring to the boil and cook for 10 minutes

Remove the skin from the meat, then take the meat from the bones and cut it into the soup