Suddenly Monday!

Where did the weekend go?  DH is away and I have spent the weekend keeping bear company.  Bear does not approve of a lack of DH and is missing him.  I've kept him busy and we have been reading our way through the first of the Wombles books as a sort of story comfort food, but it isn't the same for bear.  

Saturday was particularly tough.  Not only did bear bitterly miss DH but the computer didn't work.  I was hoping to sleep until eight but a desolated bear woke me up at 7am.  Bear was very clear that this would never have happened if his father had been present.  He had checked all the cables and tried unplugging it and then plugging it in again and it still didn't work!  I got on to the phone to my brother and begged.  

Brother was awesome.  He works IT support so he looked at the computer, sighed, pressed a button and it was working again!  Something something something restart, apparently.  Bear understood it.  I just handed over coconut cookies and a lot of gratitude.

Yesterday I did some more practice with bear's pal's mum with the lads in the back.  I swooshed into parking bays with smooth elegance.  Bear and his pal insisted on adopting the brace position until I threatened them with disciplinary tickles.  

Today was another lesson.  Still no casualties.  I was driving at the time I would have been picking up bear, and it was busy.  It's going to be quite a challenge.  I was glad to get home to feed bear and a different pal and then give bear utter reassurance and some sort of stern words added because he has lost his book and the homework, due in tomorrow, not only hasn't been done but he doesn't really understand it.  I have been fighting to keep all bear's books in one place, but it's like trying to bail the sea with a sieve, so this way I hope bear will get some motivation.  

Writing stuff - I will be posting about this most of this month, but I know that it's not everyone's cup of tea, so I'm putting it at the end and you can stop reading whenever you see 'writing stuff'.  There's nothing from me today but someone has produced a YouTube video trailer of their new book!  How cool is that, trailer here.  There's some spooky recommendations here.  And for the pic, I'm going to include one of the quotes from the Glass and Ashes anthology which includes one of my stories.  

That Time of Year

I've just booked my Morrisons Christmas delivery.  I've built up some useful vouchers, but I've had one too many bad experiences with their meat, so I will probably just get treats from them.  Bear didn't believe me when I said it would be busy, but I saw the email releasing Christmas dates around an hour after it was sent and the site had already crashed.  Meanwhile, remember this tree that was caught in the wind?

Well, it now looks like this

It seems a shame, but I don't suppose it could be easily saved and it is next to a major main road. 

Driving lessons are really helping me in odd ways.  Today I went out!  I didn't have a lesson but I popped into Leeds and bought some unnecessary candles from Home Sense.  I seem to be really picking up with confidence.  Of course, I should really have stayed at home and done housework, but I also had to physically call in to town to sort out bear's lost bus pass and pick up an emergency birthday present. 

Today's link to the 31 Days of Halloween from Timothy Bateson is an article about wizards and witches in history.  I love dipping into these. 

Firetrap Shirt

Photo by Filip Mroz on Unsplash

Today I ironed a Firetrap shirt.  It looks very nice and I believe that Firetrap, as a brand, is quite expensive compared to my usual purchases and also generally good quality.  The shirt itself was excellent.  I have no idea where it came from. 

DH is a good man in many ways, but he doesn't buy clothes.  He's not really interested, and will happily accept the results of my shopping habit as new clothes appear in his wardrobe.  He sometimes gets the perfect thing for himself - just recently he bought himself an amazing jacket - but on the whole, clothes shopping happens to someone else. 

I don't remember buying him the shirt.  It's possible that I bought on autopilot.  DH has recently lost a lot of weight in a healthy and sustainable way (I have so much respect for him!) so needs new clothes.  I've left him to his own devices with trousers, but I've picked up a few shirts.  In fact, I even paid full price for some of them, because he needed good ones for work and I didn't see any deals in the type of shirt he liked.  I've also picked up a few in charity shops, some of which he has been happy with, but I don't remember this! 

The last few months have been quite hectic, and there have been times when I haven't know whether it was face first or Tuesday, so unless shirts are randomly appearing, I think I need to start pulling myself together and tracking my shopping.  I had another long driving lesson today, rattling around trying to work out junctions.  Both next week and the week after I will be having long driving lessons on four separate days. I have made an executive decision that while I am spending so much time in driving lessons I am going to be living out of the freezer for easy meals.  It's not so much meals that are easy to make, but meals that are easy to think of.  I may make another batch of soup as bear and his pal inhaled another couple of portions of the soup I froze a few days ago.

On the writing front, I've been at the poetry again, which you can read here if you are interested.  The 31 Days of Halloween continue with a spotlight on Katherine Gilbert here and her book 'Protecting the Dead'.  Sarah Head has also recommended a macabre book, 'Strange Creatures' by Peter Eldritch, and you can see her recommendation in the comments on yesterday's post. 

It's a great time of year for spooky stories.

Bear is Invested

Bear does not approve of the 'school sweater'.  To be honest, I'm not sure I do either.  There is very little substance to it, and it wasn't cheap!  I can't remember how much it cost, but I think it was around £15, and bear wore it for the first time yesterday.  This morning he utterly rejected the sweater and wore two vests instead. 

The local flower shop has completely failed to buy winter pansies so I am leaving my garden in it's current dishevelled state until spring when bear and I will paint some more tyres and plant things in them.

I had another long driving lesson today.  I'm feeling more confident, and I swept around some awkward turns like a boss.  Shame about the parallel park!  The lessons are taking a toll, though.  It was another long lesson today and I am shattered.  You can probably tell.

Today's 31 Days of Halloween link is to a quick review of a book of 13 spooky tales - here if you are interested.  It's not linked to me in anyway, but if you are into the spooky stuff it may be worth checking out. 

Sort of Okay Day

I failed on an epic scale with the saag aloo.  I'll get it next time.

It was really frustrating because I had had such an action packed day and I was so pleased that I was still going ahead with trying new things.  I was up early, of course, for bear and I found myself answering emails about writing stuff (link to today's instalment of 31 Days of Halloween here for anyone interested) and stuff for publicity and before the first cough of the sparrow. 

I got a load of washing in, sorted out some stuff for bear, had a pootle around some housewifery and then went for a walk where I met a mum of one of bear's friends and we had a good catch up.  Then I had a driving lesson from 11.30am to 3pm.  I was tired afterwards.  It wasn't constant driving, but the five minute breaks were quite few and spread out.  I don't know how my driving instructor does it! 

I crawled in and slumped until bear got in at around 4.30pm, which I am a little ashamed of, as I could have done quite a bit in that time.  Then I kept bear company, tried to work out what was going on with the homework and generally helped him wind down before I attempted the saag aloo and sausages.  I failed with the sausages as well.  They were cooked, but not well cooked, which was a shame as they were the expensive ones.

Then I hung out with DH and now I am going to crawl off to bed. 

I have no new pics, so I thought I would share this, as although I am not currently drinking, I really feel like it!  The image is from free-images.com

A Slice of Soup

I wish I had remembered to take a picture.  Bear got very enthusiastic with the new knife and chopped and sliced with gusto and in quantity.  It was mainly veggies with some stock added.  The stockpot takes 5 litres and it was full.  I just bunged in the veggies (I had room for parsnip, leek, onion, potato and carrot) with some oil, plenty of garlic, a couple of stock cubes, some curry powder and lentils and simmered away!  It ended up very thick indeed.  It wasn't quite at the 'eat it with a knife and fork' stage, but it was a solid meal.  DH went back for seconds just because he liked the taste, and bear and his pal emptied their dishes without any complaint.  They have both said that I can do that again.  I also froze five portions, so I have a good snack for bear when he comes home from school in this cold weather.  

I think it was a good value meal.  There is a lot of nutrition in there, especially as it was eaten with wholemeal bread, and even if you add in all the oil, spices, stock cubes, electric and lentils, it could not have come to much more than £4 for @ ten portions, and I didn't even use all of the £3 veg box.  

As for the rest - Sarah Head very kindly posted this recipe in the comments and her recipes have been pretty awesome so far.  I shall be testing this out tomorrow (all being well!)

Cabbage soup can be a bit hard to live with (lots of after effects!) but great if you're wanting to lose weight. My go-to recipe now for any green stuff is home made saag aloo, which means "greens and potatoes". Peel and dice how ever many potatoes you usually serve for the number of people or twice the amount if you like leftovers. Peel and dice one onion. Chop up your greens (I use whatever I have to hand, usually kale or cabbage, broccoli, spinach etc) Heat 5 tablespoons of oil in a large saucepan. When it comes to the heat, add 2 teaspoons of yellow or black mustard seeds and a quarter of a tsp of chilli powder (more if you like really hot food). Wait until the mustard seeds pop then add your potatoes and stir. Put the lid on and cook for fifteen minutes, stirring so it doesn't stick. About five minutes before the end of cooking, add the greens (longer if the cabbage is old or thick). Let them wilt on the top for a few minutes then stir them in with the potatoes. This can be served with any kind of meat or sausages. My daughter goes mad over it and her boyfriend really liked it even though it contained onions! Bear should enjoy cooking this. You can leave out the chilli if you don't like hot things at all. This tastes even better the second day and freezes well. - Sarah Head

I have a driving lesson tomorrow and it usually includes a comfort stop at a Morrisons big enough to stock Mustard seed.  I also have in some posh sausages with caramelised onion from Tesco.  The side effect of being gluten free is that the only sausages you can eat are the really good ones.  Tesco are really reducing their range, but so far they still have the good sausages.  I went through my 'favourites' list on their online shop the other day and so many of my items were 'no longer part of our range'.  Fortunately, Morrisons are expanding their online range, and it's perhaps why this morning's delivery came from there.  

News about writing here for those interested.  Also, it is apparently really important to include a pic in a blog post and I forgot to take a pic of the soup, so here is a pretty picture from free-images.com which is a version of saag aloo that is probably nowhere near as good as Sarah's.

I Blinked

I didn't realise that it had been so long since I posted!  I have been full of a very minor cold and very tired.  Also, bear has been very bear as he has had a cold as well and is feeling very fed up.  The four portions of home made soup I froze on Friday have gone.  Bear knows his comfort food! 

I agreed, with some reservations, that bear could make some more home made soup tonight.  I had a Morrisons order coming this morning, so I included a box of wonky veg.  All the contents are going to become soup, except for the kale.  It's going to be the same routine - chop, soften, plenty of garlic, plenty of stock, some spices like turmeric and cumin, blend and freeze. 

This is what a £3 box of wonky veg looked like this morning.

There's quite a bit of kale under there, which is going to be steamed and served with kedgeree tonight. 

I also got an ordinary box of veg for £5, which seemed much the same but with more cabbage/kale/greens.

I don't know that the veg was better quality, but it was prettier. I'm going to look up recipes for cabbage soup.

Bear will be happy to be making soup.  It's not about the actual soup that he may be eating, but more about using the new knife set that I got. 

For those interested, the latest instalment from the White Hart is here.  It was the hardest one I have written so far.