An 'At Home' Day

It was a strange overcast dust in the atmosphere sort of day today not surprising as 9th February is the date for the coptic dust storm gale called Haboob.  You might be skeptical about the coptic chart but having lived here now seven years you cannot argue with the fact that on or around the published dates the weather behaves exactly as predicted.

It wasn't cold outside and even though our cupboards are just about bare we decided we could manage with a day at home and would do our shopping on Monday as Sheila will be away and my art is cancelled.

With that in mind we had a lazy morning - we got up and fed the cats, put the washing on, grabbed our coffees and return to the warmth and sanctuary of the bedroom to peruse the papers.  This is John's idea of heaven and, as he pointed out, all four cats were in the vicinity keeping us company.

Once the wash cycle was complete I ventured outside, it was warm and still and hazy and as I hung out the laundry I noticed a welcome visitor - one of the daffodils from the bulbs our lovely Welsh friend Mark sent us was poking its head up.  I had thought these bulbs had turned blind but this one has proved me wrong.

Bare cupboards takes fridge surprise and my culinary skills to a new level.  To be fair I had in mind that I had enough ingredients to make a curry for supper but in the meantime we still had to eat so I was planning a brunch until I realised we had no bread and no eggs!!!  What we did have was some roast potatoes left over from our trip to Paps last night and some cooked sausages, a couple of rashers of bacon and an onion so we had what I called 'Ranch Potatoes' - healthy it was not, delicious it most certainly was!!!

I caramelised the onions, fried the bacon in little crunchy bits, added the sausage and then added the potatoes until they were cooked through and crispy.  This set us up for the remainder of the day until the curry was ready - using up the chicken we had purchased from Paps last night - this was to be a 'Kings of Leon' curry as it happened - you know the one where we both start singing Woah Oh - My Mouth is on Fire!!!! and very nice it was too.

Whilst in the kitchen and stripping the fridge from anything that could be used up John asked if there was any chance of a pudding or cake or something.  Tricky with no eggs but I searched through the internet to see what I could find and found a recipe for an egg-less lemon cake which was good news as I had no eggs but plenty of lemons!

So this was what the cake looked like and it was very tasty but had quite a heavy consistency which John said would go beautifully with custard so more of a pudding than a cake but that could be because I used the yoghurt and not just milk.

If you substituted the milk/yoghurt with soya milk or similar then this would be fine for non-dairy eaters or vegans and it was a good way to use up some of the massive carrier bag of lemons that we have - we hate to throw anything away but there is only so much I can to with lemons and the freezer is full so I can't freeze any - I have the preserved, pickled and frozen!!

It has been a much milder and warmer winter than in previous years and the garden is somewhat confused - I have my fingers crossed very firmly that we will not get a late cold snap because otherwise it will be decimated.  Bulbs are coming up and some, like the daffodils, are flowering.  Plants which last year lost their leaves in the winter like the duranta have not done so - yet.  Some of the new plants which I purchased like the climber outside the back door and another climber by the roof terrace ladder are looking rather sad - and because I don't know exactly what they are I am not sure if they are supposed to look like that.  I have but them back and hope that they will survive.

It was a mega day today if you are a Sheffield United supporter because they were playing at home against their arch rivals Leeds well second to their No 1 arch rivals Sheffield Wednesday.  All set to watch the match with Chivvy Pops just getting comfortable on his lap poor Chivvy Pops got a rude awakening just a minute into the game when SUFC skipper Billy Sharp scored an absolutely cracking  goal via an overhead kick - John jumped up in excitement, Chivers shot off confused.

As you know I cannot watch John watching his beloved blades so I set up my art, having borrowed the pencils from Sheila whilst she is away, and while the light was reasonable continued with my current picture concentrating on the books which are beginning to take shape.  When the light deteriorated I retired to the conservatory to do the ironing!!!  When SUFC were awarded a penalty John couldn't watch, came out and asked me to let him know if Billy Sharp managed to score - he did and the final score was SUFC 2 - Leeds Utd 1.

Our day was rounded off by a corking curry and a fire (fed only by what John calls 'guff) that was so hot we had to open the back door at one point!!!!  Ain't we lucky!!!