Tuesday 14th January - Busy busy day...

The day started gently enough; second coffee and more January Cover Story collaboration stitching. That's going pretty well; I can start on embellishment soon.

Looking at the rest of the week it became very obvious that if we didn't go round to the flat this morning we would regret it later. We loaded up with some strong shopping bags and set off. 

BB settled into taking copies of all the data on my father’s computer. His machine is the wrong side of 10 years old and it's days are numbered; getting everything backed up was a high priority.  

I started on the kitchen. Dubious looking jars in the fridge, dodgy cans in the cupboards, questionable packets of ancient foodstuffs all to be sorted into keep, chuck, food bank. (Did you know that 10 year old bottles of soy sauce rattle when you pick them up? Or that after 15 years Jamie Oliver premium balsamic vinegar turns into a thick sludge?)

I was thankful that nothing exploded, or had corroded and stuck to the cupboard shelves!

I found some more 'treasures';

My copy of 'One is Fun'. My mother gave this to me, and I cooked out of it extensively. I can recommend the pork chops with garlic and crushed pepper and the creme caramel for one!

Also a nutmeg grater like the one we had and loved until it sold destructed, and my mother's little wood spoon. The top left hand edge is worn away ((she was right-handed). The spoon is looking dark as I was in the middle of using it to make our supper.

BB was pretty done in when we got home, from carting endless bags of rubbish and recycling down to the basement, and another hundred (so it seemed) bags to the car. So I saw to lunch, and at the same time finished making the bara brith.

That's looking pretty good, but we won't know for a couple of days; Nigella says to wrap it well and keep it for two days before eating. 

She says you can freeze it, double wrapped in cling film and then in foil, for three months. So I cut the 2lb loaf into 4; froze three pieces and saved one to start on Thursday. 

The afternoon was taken up with dealing with the papers and food stuffs we had bought back, while BB scanned the discs for viruses and dodgy bit (he found several). Top tip; always scan EVERYTHING  before you let it loose on your own machine.

This is what I was using my mother's spoon to create; 

We had a small packet of sliced beef about to go out date. I made a soup-ish sauce-ish sort of thing with chopped veg and the simple tomato sauce from the other day. I had been thinking of making soup, and chopped the beef into little pieces and adding it. I reckoned that BB could do with something more substantial,  so I left it as sauce and cooked some pasta. BB had at least twice as much as me; he deserved it!

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I even played the piano for a short while after supper!

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Psalm 23

'He leads me through green pastures'. 

Green is meant to be a very calming, restful colour. Especially grass green. After today, in spite of everything I've done today, I do feel calm and restful.