Another Week Begins...
After two days of lovely weather do hope you all managed to have a good weekend. Although today is a Bank Holiday, the weather has changed to very windy and cold. Maybe it is this that makes me feel fed up, or the fact that for the first time I feel my age. And I don't like it!
Think blame has to be the pills. As I now take them mid-evening, then go to bed an hour later, there is time for the side effects to wear off by the time I wake (or at least by 9.00am). Even so, I'm left with a rather blanked-out feeling the rest of the day when it comes to using my brain. Considering these pills are supposed to be for depression, have to say they are making me feel more depressed than happy. Had to smile (almost) when the pill-details that come with the pack say that "If you are depressed and sometimes have thoughts of harming or killing yourself, these may be increased when first starting antidepressants...." Nothing like feeling more depressed when that is the last thing you need.
Luckily depression is not the reason why I take them, as - according to the doctor, they also relieve pain but it can take at least two weeks - or longer - before they begin to work.
Feel apologies are necessary as I'm really not able to blog the way I normally do. My concentration has gone, and although I used to write down what came into my head at that very moment, nothing seems to be coming into my head now (already I've had to make several corrections as I've made spelling mistakes etc).
One thing made me feel a bit ashamed. Yesterday a lady from the sailing club asked B if we could use some of her home-grown tomatoes, and as he knows I love these, she said she'd bring some round during the afternoon. Which she did. A lovely lady and she was 91 years old!!! She joined the sailing club when she was 10! She still has the occasional sail, and she walks to the club (over a mile from where she lives). Such energy. Just shows that walking is the best exercise to keep us young.
Was able to give her some of our cooking apples in return for the tomatoes. Not sure what variety the toms were but the skins were very thin, unlike the shop bought ones, they also had a reasonably good flavour (but still not as good a flavour as I remember my dad growing).
Beloved made a BIG mistake when he went to Morrison's on Saturday. He phoned me to say they had fish pie mix for £1.10 a kilo. I said that was a very good price, so could he bring me a kilo. When he came home he said he'd read the price ticket wrongly, it said £1.10 per 100g. He said as he'd bought almost all the fish 'mix' (more like offcuts), and only a bit left on the tray he said to the assistant he'd take the lot. So ended up paying £15!!!!!!!
At least he had the good grace to give me £10 of his own money to pay for the error.
Have to say that the mix wasn't all that good. At least half of it was salmon (shows how cheap salmon is now compared to other fish, the white fish was haddock (so that was a bonus) but there didn't seem to be much smoked haddock.
I sorted the fish out so that it could be shared equally, and enough to make four good 'fish risottos', B having one on Sunday for his supper, the other packs of fish now in the freezer.
I'm asking B to write down the kg price of 'son's haddock, smoked haddock, and salmon next time he goes to the store, as I'm sure the fish 'mix' was very expensive considering a lot of it must have been more 'scraps' than fillets cut into chunks (only the salmon was in proper chunks). If there is very little difference, then it makes sense for me to buy whole fillets and then cut them into chunks myself to make up my own 'mix', perhaps using a cheaper white fish (coley etc) instead of haddock.
Beloved said "it was the best ever" when I asked him if the fish risotto was OK. He said that the previous time, so whether he was trying to make me (or himself) fell better about the above mistake, or it did taste better because it had haddock in it (normally I use Tesco's frozen 'Value' white fish fillets - which could be anything I suppose). Mind you, I do make it properly, a chef would be proud of me, but I have mentioned how before so won't bore you with the details again.
Now the weather has turned colder, am really beginning to look forward to cooking casseroles again. Still haven't sorted out the freezers, and really must do them this week, then use up as much as I can so I can restock with plenty of minced meats and chunks of stewing meat. Time also to buy a large(ish) joint of topside (or silverside) to roast along with extra fat. Then there will be plenty of beef dripping for B to spread on his toast, and plenty of sliced beef to freeze (some in gravy).
The mention of toast has reminded me that today I decided to make myself some toasted cheese sarnies using toaster-bags, and when I'd put the sarnies in the bags found the bags were too large to fit into the toaster. It wasn't that the bags were large, it was that B had recently bought a toaster that had smaller slots that the one we had previously (that had broken if you remember). He said the one he had bought was the right size for the slices cut from the loaves I make. Which is true, but he can now toast only one crumpet (we call them pikelets) at a time, instead of two, side by side.
Considering all the problems in the world at the moment, the size of the toaster slots is really not worth fussing about. Anyway, we always have the oven grill we can use if we want to toast anything larger, or more at any one time.
I remember the days when we used to sit in front of the fire with a piece of bread stuck on the end of a toasting fork. Just thinking about it (my brain has begun to work again) is making me feel nostalgic.
Don't know if anyone has eaten cinnamon toast, but if not do try it. Just mash together some softened butter with sugar and cinnamon (to taste), then spread this on hot toast. Yummeeeeee!!
My brain has shut down again because it's an hour since I took the pills, so it is time for me to go to bed. One of the side effects is nightmares, and I am having loads of these at the moment, but nothing scary, just 'annoyances' like dreaming about returning home from a distant land but finding I've lost my passport, my money, my mobile phone....etc. l
Can't say at the moment whether I'll be blogging tomorrow or not, may take another day off - so this week hope you don't mind if I am a bit erratic. Am hoping that in a couple of weeks I should be back to normal. But please keep on sending comments for even if my brain has shut down, at least I will be able to find enough grey cells working to allow me to give you a reply. TTFN.
Think blame has to be the pills. As I now take them mid-evening, then go to bed an hour later, there is time for the side effects to wear off by the time I wake (or at least by 9.00am). Even so, I'm left with a rather blanked-out feeling the rest of the day when it comes to using my brain. Considering these pills are supposed to be for depression, have to say they are making me feel more depressed than happy. Had to smile (almost) when the pill-details that come with the pack say that "If you are depressed and sometimes have thoughts of harming or killing yourself, these may be increased when first starting antidepressants...." Nothing like feeling more depressed when that is the last thing you need.
Luckily depression is not the reason why I take them, as - according to the doctor, they also relieve pain but it can take at least two weeks - or longer - before they begin to work.
Feel apologies are necessary as I'm really not able to blog the way I normally do. My concentration has gone, and although I used to write down what came into my head at that very moment, nothing seems to be coming into my head now (already I've had to make several corrections as I've made spelling mistakes etc).
One thing made me feel a bit ashamed. Yesterday a lady from the sailing club asked B if we could use some of her home-grown tomatoes, and as he knows I love these, she said she'd bring some round during the afternoon. Which she did. A lovely lady and she was 91 years old!!! She joined the sailing club when she was 10! She still has the occasional sail, and she walks to the club (over a mile from where she lives). Such energy. Just shows that walking is the best exercise to keep us young.
Was able to give her some of our cooking apples in return for the tomatoes. Not sure what variety the toms were but the skins were very thin, unlike the shop bought ones, they also had a reasonably good flavour (but still not as good a flavour as I remember my dad growing).
Beloved made a BIG mistake when he went to Morrison's on Saturday. He phoned me to say they had fish pie mix for £1.10 a kilo. I said that was a very good price, so could he bring me a kilo. When he came home he said he'd read the price ticket wrongly, it said £1.10 per 100g. He said as he'd bought almost all the fish 'mix' (more like offcuts), and only a bit left on the tray he said to the assistant he'd take the lot. So ended up paying £15!!!!!!!
At least he had the good grace to give me £10 of his own money to pay for the error.
Have to say that the mix wasn't all that good. At least half of it was salmon (shows how cheap salmon is now compared to other fish, the white fish was haddock (so that was a bonus) but there didn't seem to be much smoked haddock.
I sorted the fish out so that it could be shared equally, and enough to make four good 'fish risottos', B having one on Sunday for his supper, the other packs of fish now in the freezer.
I'm asking B to write down the kg price of 'son's haddock, smoked haddock, and salmon next time he goes to the store, as I'm sure the fish 'mix' was very expensive considering a lot of it must have been more 'scraps' than fillets cut into chunks (only the salmon was in proper chunks). If there is very little difference, then it makes sense for me to buy whole fillets and then cut them into chunks myself to make up my own 'mix', perhaps using a cheaper white fish (coley etc) instead of haddock.
Beloved said "it was the best ever" when I asked him if the fish risotto was OK. He said that the previous time, so whether he was trying to make me (or himself) fell better about the above mistake, or it did taste better because it had haddock in it (normally I use Tesco's frozen 'Value' white fish fillets - which could be anything I suppose). Mind you, I do make it properly, a chef would be proud of me, but I have mentioned how before so won't bore you with the details again.
Now the weather has turned colder, am really beginning to look forward to cooking casseroles again. Still haven't sorted out the freezers, and really must do them this week, then use up as much as I can so I can restock with plenty of minced meats and chunks of stewing meat. Time also to buy a large(ish) joint of topside (or silverside) to roast along with extra fat. Then there will be plenty of beef dripping for B to spread on his toast, and plenty of sliced beef to freeze (some in gravy).
The mention of toast has reminded me that today I decided to make myself some toasted cheese sarnies using toaster-bags, and when I'd put the sarnies in the bags found the bags were too large to fit into the toaster. It wasn't that the bags were large, it was that B had recently bought a toaster that had smaller slots that the one we had previously (that had broken if you remember). He said the one he had bought was the right size for the slices cut from the loaves I make. Which is true, but he can now toast only one crumpet (we call them pikelets) at a time, instead of two, side by side.
Considering all the problems in the world at the moment, the size of the toaster slots is really not worth fussing about. Anyway, we always have the oven grill we can use if we want to toast anything larger, or more at any one time.
I remember the days when we used to sit in front of the fire with a piece of bread stuck on the end of a toasting fork. Just thinking about it (my brain has begun to work again) is making me feel nostalgic.
Don't know if anyone has eaten cinnamon toast, but if not do try it. Just mash together some softened butter with sugar and cinnamon (to taste), then spread this on hot toast. Yummeeeeee!!
My brain has shut down again because it's an hour since I took the pills, so it is time for me to go to bed. One of the side effects is nightmares, and I am having loads of these at the moment, but nothing scary, just 'annoyances' like dreaming about returning home from a distant land but finding I've lost my passport, my money, my mobile phone....etc. l
Can't say at the moment whether I'll be blogging tomorrow or not, may take another day off - so this week hope you don't mind if I am a bit erratic. Am hoping that in a couple of weeks I should be back to normal. But please keep on sending comments for even if my brain has shut down, at least I will be able to find enough grey cells working to allow me to give you a reply. TTFN.
posted by Shirley at 8:52 pm
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