Mid February - where is the sun??

We are two weeks into February and it is shitty to say the least.   Cold, wet and grey we decided that we would not be going ANYWHERE today even though I normally go to do my food shopping so that there is something nice for tea after the football and something nice for lunch tomorrow when Mum comes.  I had a little look in the fridge and the freezer and the veggie box and decided I had enough to cobble something together at which point John broke out into a cold sweat - he gets very nervous when I tell him we have 'fridge surprise' and even more so when that covers the meals for today and tomorrow!!!

My morning started with a SAMCO (Short Air Maintenance Course) on lighting a fire.  Normally we would pack away the woodburner by now but we are not anticipating doing that for a while and as John is going back to the UK soon he wanted to make sure that I would be able to warm myself in his absence.  I now have my Girl Guide Arson Badge all sorted!!



Just to prove a point about the weather these pictures were taken a week apart, the left today and the right previously - what a difference - today this was the only time I ventured outside and I was mightily glad to be in the kitchen cooking and preparing food as that kept me warm.  I so want and need to get out in the garden but sadly that is going to have to wait.

We had some super black bananas lurking in the fruit bowl which are ideal for my banana cake recipe so they were soon whipped up into that.  Mum loves it so that means pudding on a Sunday is sorted.  I don't know if it was because they were so ripe and therefore super flavoursome but when mashed 'wetter' than usual that the cake didn't cook so well - in the end it didn't look very good but tasted superb.

I had planned to use up some goat's cheese evening (although in the end I used up some brie) and to go with it wanted some caramelised onion chutney because I remember eating and loving that combination when we used to go to ASK in Yeovil.  I have never made that chutney before but had the requisite ingredients so decided to give it a go and was so glad I did because it was fabulous.

Whilst John was relishing tonight's football match when Sheffield United thumped Reading 4-0 scoring in the first minute and then putting on a magnificent performance and not conceding unlike the other week when they threw away a 3-0 lead I was getting our fridge surprise ready.  I had some salad leaves and a wrinkly red pepper in the depths of the fridge and two very very sad old potatoes in the veg box and with those ingredients, the ciabatta I had bought yesterday and the slice of brie and my onion chutney this is what we had for supper and it was absolutely fantastic if I do say so myself.  The onion chutney was just delicious and I shall definitely be making a lot more of that as it lasts quite a few months in the fridge.

To round off the evening we actually watched a film - John had seen "Can you Ever Forgive me?" featured on the television because it has been nominated for a whole host of awards.  It is a quirky film - not the normal thing we watch but we enjoyed it enormously and Richard E Grant is fabulous in that lovely camp eccentric British fashion that he has perfected.  The synopsis of the film was as follows...

...Celebrity biographer Lee Israel makes her living profiling the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Tallulah Bankhead, Estee Lauder and journalist Dorothy Kilgallen. When Lee is no longer able to get published because she has fallen out of step with current tastes, she turns her art form to deception, abetted by her loyal friend Jack.

It is based on a true story - I am now going to find out a bit more about the two characters!