Feeding Friends

So this morning was spent in the kitchen - me in charge, John sous-chef and a mute sous-chef at that.  I have a thing about someone standing looking over my shoulder but John will insist!   Anyway as Gail is away and we were due to go round to her and Pete this evening for a takeaway we invited Pete to us and we were doing a curry.  I have the last remains of my Curry Frenzy kits and they need using up so it was to be a Malaysian Chicken curry with extra peppers and tomato.  This is the base mix of spices and onion, pepper and tomato before the chicken and the fluid went in.  It smelt amazing but I think I knew it was going to be on the hot to very-hot side when we chucked in some chilis and the green one blew John's head off.

So we were having home-made onion bhajis to start and I have finally perfected my technique to make sure they are crispy and cooked right through without being burnt to a crisp.  These were being served with an Indian salad, lemon pickle and mango and chili chutney and poppadoms then the curry with pilau rice and home made roti.  

Once all the food was ready and we had washed up and packed away I went out into the garden to continue with my tidying up.  Dip and Karen and Kirt and Donna are coming up on Tuesday and I want the garden to look half decent although the weather forecast is abysmal so we are very unlikely to be sitting out.  In fact snow is forecast for Wednesday which is unbelievable.

Anyway after many years of being a no show our Arum lily has put in an appearance and currently has three lovely blooms.  It is still in the original pot which is gradually disintegrating so we will have to look for a replacement and I need to see what else is growing in with the lily and have a clear out.

I pleased John no end by tidying up a load of the wild poppies that are in the garden.  The windy weather has made them really untidy and he has moaned about the ones outside the back door so I relented and got rid of them.  There are still plenty left to self seed but I had been nurturing some of them so that I could collect the seed for Liselotte who loves poppies.  I have to admit that outside the back door looks better without the poppies.

Although the weather was weird today - there is a lot of dust in the atmosphere - it was warm out in the garden.  Janet popped round with some Easter Eggs and remarked on how much warmer it felt in our garden so stopped for a cup of tea and persuaded Derek to come and have one too before they returned to their DIY and Ikea delivery.

I have some Freesias growing in the garden.  I love them but they are leggy and top heavy when in bloom so generally end up lying on the soil so I cut some today and put them in a pot on our new table.  

Joani's Place is resplendent with the weather vane and the new sign and our lovely new table and chairs.  I just need to work out what to do with The General to include him in our tribute to her.

Whilst I was out in the garden I noticed that the pots were exceptionally dry even though we have had rain recently so I actually got the hosepipe out and gave them all a good soaking - a bit of a waste of time as it happens because later in the evening we had rain!

As I was watering I had a text from Nicky wanting to escape the trials and tribulations of their kitchen installation.  Unbelievably for the second time they have built the oven housing incorrectly so the electrician who had come today could not fit the oven.  I do feel for her - she has waited so long to have a proper kitchen and they thought long and hard about where they were going to get it from and what it was going to look like and it has been fraught with issues - it is all so very frustrating for them.

So Pete came round for his curry supper and thoroughly enjoyed the food which is great.  We had invited Richard to come too but he declined because he needed to be up early with a clear head tomorrow as he too has work being planned and the builder was coming.

Pete is good company and we had a nice evening.  We text Gail whilst he was with us so that she could feel included even though she is away.  She returns next week.

It was not a late night as Pete doesn't like to leave the dogs Hector and Dot on their own for too long so I packed him up with a carry out so he can have a meal again in the week even though Gail says he is capable of looking after himself which I am sure he is!  I gave him the last two bhajis - John wasn't impressed!