Who is responsible for clearing the snow from the pavements in the UK??
The walk to John’s shop – the post office and general store in our village – was quite arduous today. Usually it’s a five minute stroll. But the snow made it heavy going. Even in my trusty Bearpaw sheepskin boots. Walking in snow that’s over 10 cm is quite tiring as you have to lift your feet as high as a badly operated puppet. At some points in the journey it was easier to walk in the road. Just a handful of houses had cleared the pavement in front of their houses. The rest, like me, had left the snow. In the old days everyone...
read moreRecipe for chicken, mushroom and tomato risotto
I’m not very keen on the combination of chicken and cooked tomatoes. Would never have chicken on a pizza. But I had half a tin of tomatoes left over from our favourite sausage and bean dish and thought that I’d bung them into a chicken risotto as an experiment. Risottos are so easy to make and are a great way of using up scraps that are knocking about in the fridge. The result was really tasty and good. Danny was amazed – I hadn’t told him about the experiment just passed him his plate of food and slipped nervously into the kitchen as...
read moreThank you for your comments. And a bit of silly bath time fun with the Frothing Sea Monster trick!
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who commented on my last post. Lots of really useful information and food for thought. In fact I reckon that the comments are far more valuable than the post! Danny informed me last night that he doesn’t want to grapple with a black shower bag and hand pumped sprayer. He’d rather stay dirty or boil a kettle and have a strip wash. Do you remember strip washes? We used to have these at boarding school in between bath nights. So an efficient shower that heats only the water that’s needed is now on...
read moreCutting energy costs
We have been very lucky to have had such a mild winter so far. Last year I invested in two cheap convector heaters and we use these around the house to keep warm. They’re really good as they heat a room very quickly, have three settings from 750 watts to 2000 watts and have a good thermostat. The oil based central heating and hot water system is just too expensive to use regularly these days. It has an override and comes on automatically if the temperature falls below zero degrees. We are hoping that the remaining third of a tank of oil will...
read moreRecipe for sausages baked with herby garlic infused beans, bacon and tomato
There are two words that sent Danny into a fluster. “Bake” and “penne”. There is just one phrase that makes him visibly pale and narrow his dark Irish eyes. “Pasta bake”. The reverberations that take place when I dare to mouthe these two innocent words deserve their own paragraph. I watch with envy as families in the TV commercials tuck happily into pasta bakes. I love simple, sling in the oven and repair to a comfy chair sort of recipes. Between you and me I’m planning a baked risotto for next week but I wouldn’t dream of...
read moreTracing some of my ancestors has taken me on a long journey
Do you remember these words? “Fred Jesson: You’ve been a long way away. Laura Jesson: Yes. Fred Jesson: Thank you for coming back to me.” Brief Encounter 1945 Yes, I’ve been a long way away. Not in the arms of Trevor Howard. And Danny was actually quite happy about my circuitous journey. I’ve been researching some of my family history. Particularly my Scots grandmother, Jean Fletcher Taylor. I know very little about her except that she was beautiful in her prime and managed to hook a rich husband and marry him at the age...
read moreRecipe for lamb shanks braised in red wine with shallots: slow cooker/crockpot
Lamb shanks are perfect for long slow cooking. The price has shot up over the years and now they are expensive to buy. Luckily Danny found some on the Tesco CFC* and I came up with this recipe. Lamb shanks actually have quite a bit of meat on them so we managed to get six good meaty portions out of the shanks. And of course bone in meat makes a much better casserole. The key ingredients were the shallots and tomato. Our one remaining onion had gone bad so I grabbed some of the shallots that we grew last summer. We had our best ever harvest...
read moreThe cupboard was bare – so what was The Contessa going to eat last night?
Yesterday I motored down to Newmarket to fetch our medications, visit Waitrose and pick up The Contessa’s trays of diabetic prescription diet from the vet. This food is salmon and rice based as she is extremely allergic to any sort of chicken from breast fillets to derivatives. I suspect the latter are ground up beaks, claws and such like. Somewhere between Waitrose car park and the traffic lights, where I should have turned left for the vet’s surgery, I forgot my final port of call. Perhaps it was the open bag of Hula Hoops on my lap (no...
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