Yucky Weather and Yummy Food

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Horrible, horrible weather again today. Driving rain, high winds, so dark its almost like night. DH went off to church during a dry break but got soaked on the walk back home. While he was gone I spent the morning cleaning out a corner of the kitchen that was long overdue for a clear out. I also did some rearranging and now have a nice long stretch of work top so I'm not all crammed into a small corner when I'm baking or rolling out pastry.  It will look even better when we've painted the walls during the summer, at the moment there's a lot of flaking paint and plaster and black mould stains due to condensation problems that remain even after everything has been washed down.

The next house we have I'm going for as much kitchen cupboard space as possible so I can store all my gadgets away and not have them cluttering up my worktops.  It only took about 2 hours and I'd been putting it off for months. I got that lovely sense of achievement when it was all done.

DH cooked dinner, a huge vegetarian lasagne served with spicy potato wedges. He just fried up various vegetables cut into chunks, cooked them in a wine and herb sauce and then layered them alternately with sheets of dried lasagne and cheese sauce (made from sachets of white sauce mix) and topped with sliced tomato and grated cheddar. It was baked in the oven for about 45 minutes.

 Before cooking

 After cooking

 Ready for my tummy

To go with it I made an Apple and Blackberry Crumble using fruit from the freezer that we were either given or picked ourselves for free last summer.

 Apples and Blackberries and sugar  prepared in the microwave.

With crumble topping before baking

After baking

The crumble was simply 4oz plain white flour, 2 oz plain wholemeal flour, 4 oz butter, 2 oz caster sugar, 1 oz demerara sugar and 1 oz porridge oats. All blitzed together in my food processor, sprinkled over the fruit and baked in the oven for about 25-30 minutes. I baked it at the same time as the potato wedges and lasagne to save on gas.

Yummy, yummy in my tummy

I'm using DD moving out as an excuse to take my diet a little easy this week; its going to be stressful and I need the leeway to eat a bit more when I'm upset. Plus we're having a moving out dinner on Friday night and DH will make vege sausage meatballs and I'm baking my American cupcakes. I'm not planning on going crazy with food, but I'm not going to be watching everything that goes in my mouth either.

DD and BF have been buying bits and pieces for their new home and managed to get a vacuum cleaner from a boot fair this morning. The seller was asking £8 and didn't want to take it home so accepted £6. They've tried it out (actually vacuumed the living room carpet for me!) and its a bit noisy but picks up fine. They've also been given lots of stuff by friends and relatives. I have a spare set of crockery they can have, loads of mugs, towels that were my mum's and have been sitting in the airing cupboard since she died 8 years ago etc. They already had their own bed, BF's grandmother has given them 2 sofas as she was just about to buy new ones anyway, and they got a lovely table and chairs from GumTree for just over £100, and a washing machine for free from a friend who had originally wanted £50 for it, but gave it as a birthday pressie for BF. There's a built-in cooker and fridge/freezer in the flat already. Isn't is amazing how people rally round, and things just come together when something like this happens? Apart from the deposit, credit check costs and first month's rent in advance, they've had very little actual monetary outlay to furnish and stock the flat.

DS2 is playing another gig next weekend, but its in Broadstairs which is about a 40 minutes drive away, and its on the day DD and BF are moving out so I'm not sure if we'll make it or not. We'll have to see how worn out we are by the end of the day. Luckily he won't need us to drive him as his best friend lives in the Thanet area so he can go over by train and crash at his friend's flat for the night. It will be a shame if we have to miss him, but being realistic I think it might just be too much driving all that way when we've been driving back and forth between Dover and Folkestone all day helping with the move. He does have another gig coming up in Canterbury shortly, arranged by the college, so we'll get to see him play soon.

Apart from all that cleaning and cooking today I've finished off the first sock and have made a start on the second. Depending on how busy I am I'm hoping to get the pair finished by the end of the week if not sooner. I'm dying to make some more in different colours, trying out some of the other designs in the pattern.

That's it for now, time for vegging out on the sofa, stuffed full of lasagne and crumble, for the remainder of the night.