Potato Salad, Day Hospital

Yesterday, I managed to fit in a Tesco delivery, two loads of washing and a most enjoyable game of Scrabble.

Back to the ranch and I boiled potatoes for potato salad. Once cold, I cut them up into a large bowl and added chopped shallots, chopped parsley and chopped chives.

Looked in the freezer, but no cooked bacon., so took some out, defrosted it and then fried it and, after it cooled, trimmed it of fat and added it to the rest. Mixed it all up with Helmanns mayonnaise and, lo, potato salad.

This I served with a good slice of pot roast silverside removed from the freezer the night before and left to defrost.

Along with this, I served iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, spring onions and cucumber.

This evening I served the same meal, accompanied by a glass of Fleurie.

There is a story to go with the Fleurie. I was ordering a case of wine, unusually choosing bottles rather than taking a pre-mixed case and thought the Fleurie was a very good price, so I ordered 3 bottles.

No wonder the price was good. The "bottles" were half bottles.

Never mind, the wine tasted very good.

I mentioned before that TBSITW gave me some Molton Brown shower gel.

When I came back from the Day Hospital, and went into the bathroom, this wonderful smell greeted me.

At the Day Hospital I am starting to see some real progress. Sadly, so are others and I got a letter today saying that as of next week I shall be going only once a week.

Bet this is the thin end of the wedge...

Trying to Become a Good Housewife

I started off this morning with a washing "oh, not again!" you cry, but I was thinking about what I was doing as I put the wash into the tumble dryer and carried two wool jumpers that can't be tumble dried upstairs and laid them on a large towel on my bed.

So, what I was thinking was that I was actually starting to get organised with cycling my jumpers. Instead of just hanging clean ones away next to others (which were clean of course, but not newly washed) I am hanging the washed ones on the other side of the wardrobe, with the idea that I wear only the ones that are on the not-washed side of the wardrobe.

And to think it took me 67 years to get that far!

Mind you there was a long time in my life when I didn't have enough clothes to make that necessary....

So, that done I went to prepare the evening meal and was torn between making a macaroni cheese or a potato salad. I decided on the potato salad and had all the work done (including frying the lardons) when I discovered that I had no shallots or even onions. So the cooked potatoes are now in a jug covered with foil and the lardons are on a covered plate.

So it was back to square one again.

Now the macaroni is boiled and the cheese is grated, so all I have to do now is make the cheese sauce. I felt I was due a rest at this point so I came to talk to you lot out there.

Never mind, shallots will arrive tomorrow and otherwise nearly all the work is done for that meal too.

Continuing a Sunny Day

This morning I made Pea and Pancetta Soup having been stimulated to do so by the frolicking foodie. I had it hot at lunchtime and chilled in the evening.

I have posted the recipe in my recipe blog, so won’t repeat it here.

After that I ventured into the “garden” and added fertiliser to the bay and the rosemary, then I went and filled up a watering can, added some Baby Bio and watered all my recently planted begonias.

As I was taking the watering can back, I was very glad to have a helping hand as I was starting to find it difficult keeping my balance.

After that I made potato salad to add to some lettuce, Marks and Spencer 4 Mediterranean salads, tomatoes and cucumber.

The sun has shone all day and the temperature has been really warm. I kept the top half of the French window open all day. I can’t remember the last time I was able to do that.

I do hope it lasts…….

Just a Normal Friday

This morning I was up really early and managed to get showered, dressed and down to the laundry room with two loads, one all my bedding and so on (which is a very bulky wash) and the other with my towels, which is also fairly bulky.

Despite getting there before 8am (you can't start a machine before 8am) someone was already there and had a remarkably small load in the big machine, so I had to cram my washes, 1 at a time into one of the smaller machines. I wasn't best pleased.....

Never mind, carried on starting to prepare my evening meal, which is a salad.

Eggs on to hard boil, then plunged under a cold tap.

Potatoes peeled (while eggs were coming to the boil) and put on on the timer.

Beetroot rubbed gently under the tap then put on at the same time as the potatoes, although they would take longer to cook.

In the middle of all this, the best sister in the world arrived. Left the potatoes on a timer while I made a cup of tea. Took potatoes off hob when timer went off, and plunged them under a cold tap.

Put timer on beetroot.

Enjoyed cup of tea and a chat.

Best sister in the world then did 3 jobs which I find difficult, starting with putting in an earring and affixing the back. She also brought a shoehorn.

Later:

Went to mix all the ingredients of the potato salad in mayonnaise. Discovered there was only a little left in the jar in the fridge and NONE in the store cupboard.

I shall just have to make do.

Can't face taking the car out and running the risk of not finding a place when I return.

(Expletive deleted) Scottish Power digging up half the car park. Finding a space is not easy at the best of times, but with all this work going on it has become almost impossible.