A Quiet Day

 Which has been wet, damp and nippy.  Certainly, a dismal day. I have wrapped myself up in a fleece track suit and top to try and keep myself warm. Sadly, it looks as though it is going to be a wet and windy weekend here in Peterborough.

I have been pottering starting to sort things out in the study, a job long overdue.  This by its very nature means that I am ending up sorting out a load of paperwork, books, magazines and crafting stuff which seems to have accumulated in a heap. I may be here sometime.  I did start the actual tidying yesterday, which is why I was able to show off some of my resource books in a post earlier today.  I have since found a lot more books which have been stacked on top of the ones sorted yesterday.  Temporarily.  My Embroidery machine is to be moved, but the desk it is going on is not ready for it to be moved.  So many of the stacked books will be going alongside the ones shown yesterday.  Two steps forward one step back.  However, it will be organised by the time I have finished.

I have in the natural course of things, found handwritten recipes for one of my folders, recipe cards from Waitrose which have since been filed, magazine articles for crafting, knitting, sewing etc and also recipes.  It is a form of "scrapbooking" not in the strictest sense I pop the recipes into plastic sleeves for reference further along in the day.  I periodically scan through them and plan and plot what I am going to use.  In the latest stash there is a lovely jumper knitting pattern which I am going to drag out and source the wool for in due course. However, I have a few projects to deal with before that.  It may be something that I ask OH to buy me the wool at some point.

I have not really got to any crafting since being home. I am tending to spend much of my time cooking and cleaning as well as doing a little preserving along the way.  I am not getting much time to play, but hopefully that will get sorted soon.  Once this room is sorted out, I should be able to sit and concentrate on a project at a time, and I have quite a few of those including quite a lot of knitting projects.  I intend to have a squaring up session.  Then I can start new projects that I have stacked in a box waiting their turn.  It could be sometime!

We needed something warm for tea tonight.  Although time consuming from the point of preparation, I decided to cook Italian coiled sausage (from the Italian shop in town).  This is just pure meat and does not have any rusk added. It is delicious.  Today as I have said I used the coiled sausage however it does come in big fat sausages as well some with different flavourings such as Fennel which I love but OH is not as keen on. I like both types of sausage, so there is no problem as to which one we come home with.  I cooked it with a chopped onion on a flat tray in the oven and once cooked, put it to one side to rest whilst the roasted veggies cooked.

The veggies I chose to use today were 2 x medium sized potatoes, 2 x sweet potato, a little chopped celery, a large parsnip, chopped leek, chopped onion (I used two small ones) and one Italian Red pepper.

The potato, sweet potato and parsnip were peeled, and then cut into thickish slices and then popped into a saucepan to blanch them for about five minutes.  They were then taken out and sliced and chopped into small chunks and added to a roasting tray.  Celery, Leek and onion went in together with chopped onion.  Then the Red Pepper chopped and sliced.  All mixed up with a little sunflower oil to roast in a hot oven Gas mark 6.

To serve, I chopped the coiled sausage in half and filled the middle of each plate with the roasted veg with the sausage encircling the veggies.

The blend of the veggies really makes this a lovely and tasty meal.  It very much is a favourite here. It is warming and has gone down very nicely.  As the weather is threatened to be cold and miserable again, I think it will be stew for tea tomorrow night.

Whilst I have been sorting out little piles of this and little piles of that in the study, I have started to accumulate packets of seeds.  I am therefore creating a stash of these to put to one side for using in the coming year.  If I stack things of like with like it usually means will be able to find stuff later on.

This is what I found today:

I am not saying a word, but no doubt I will find more as I go along.

I have been watching a lovely new programme on Channel 5 this evening Paris to Rome with Bettany Hughes.  Has been really interesting as she has been covering a different period of history altogether.  Have quite enjoyed it and will watch again next week when it is on again at 9pm.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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