I crashed Out

 Does not happen very often, but often as a result to too much going on in real life and my body protesting.  I slept the sleep of the dead last night and I certainly feel better for it.  With the wet weather and high pressure and humidity of the past few weeks it has had a knock on effect on my system.  It also causes a lot of pain and discomfort which I try to countermand by exercising and only when things get a little too much do I opt for pain killers;  I have been told to take paracetamol in preference to anything else at the moment due to the fact that my temperature does rise very quickly and can trigger off other problems which we would rather keep under control and in abeyance.  It is therefore very much a matter of "firefighting" what is going on at any particular moment and making sure an even keel is established wherever possible which is not always easy.  I tend to be pretty independent in any event, and deal with whatever is going on at any one particular time.  I feel brighter because I have slept, but I know that I will have to keep a lid on things in the next few days.

As I mentioned the other day, I am trying to drink more water where I can, which I think is helping.  I am also doing back exercises each day and I need to sort some exercises out for my midriff.  I am hoping to get the rowing machine out and having a go with this on a regular basis to try and slim that down a bit, however no room to site it at the moment.  Need to get on with the bedroom a bit more before that will be achieved.  However I am trying to keep moving to keep suppleness and mobility where I can.

I have something lovely for my tea tonight - well I think it is lovely.  I have always been a fan of fish.  I love kippers, and all kinds of smoked fish including smoked Haddock.  I have a large piece of naturally smoked Haddock for my tea tonight and for tomorrow.  It is a larger fillet which I have split into two meals and on both days I will serve it simply with a poached egg, some butter and some bread and butter.  That will suit me nicely.  G is having a Cod loin.  Yet again a larger fillet and will be split into two meals also.  He will have chips and perhaps something else to go with it as well as bread and butter.

I was having a general discussion with G and said that if I had the freezer, I would have frozen the second meal of fish for both of us away so that we could have another day.  I nearly always try and get as many meals as I can out of whatever food we are having.  This is one of the reasons why where possible I prefer to buy a larger joint and then split it (if have a freezer) so that you get more meals for your money and a little stock of food to hand (with the freezer).  However, I am considering bottling some sliced meat in gravy at some point for the Pantry shelf.  Specifically I am thinking of cooking a larger joint and slicing it when it is cold.  Then decanting so much meat into each jar and then adding a gravy.  Will see how this goes on.  Am in the planning stage of this at the moment.

I am also keen to get vegetables on the shelves.  Reason for this is that there does not at the moment seem to be a lot about on the vegetable front.  I had initially done some vegetables for the shelf for the poorer time of the month when pennies become a bit tighter.  However I think a good general mixture of veggies would be useful.  I am thinking, carrots, new potatoes, chips, scallops, chunks for roast potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, and carrots, parsnips, They can always be added to soups, stews, casseroles etc.  I am also keen to top up on the green powders I make for the Pantry shelf.  I add these to stews, casseroles, soups, to add a bit more flavour and a bit more wholesomeness.  As I have said before I consider myself a simple home cook although I can do a few more complicated things as well.

I am also going to preserve confit mushrooms again under fat in the fridge.  They have turned out to last quite a while and add a lot of flavour either to an English breakfast or indeed to soups, etc.  The fat does not go to waste either as I use that in frying.

I still have not made it out into the garden.  I will have to get out there soon as the weeds are in overdrive.  Hopefully the next few days will be drier and will be able to get sorted a little bit better.  There are one or two leaves that I want to press along the way though for decorating crafts later down the line.

I managed to rescue my washing today, which was all lovely and dry.  Have put more out and hopefully should have all the remaining washing dry before I start on the next batch.  This includes a lot of linens that I have not been able to get at and hence them being freshened up.

I do however need to revamp and review my plan of attack as I seem to have got tied up a bit in the back room and lost my focus just a little bit.  Even though it needs carrying on with, there are other things I need to do too so am going to be "bitting" about between tasks for a few days I think.

Tonight for tea we had the fish. G had fried Cod Loin with chips and I had natural Smoked Haddock served with a poached egg and butter as well as bread and butter.  Went down very nicely and we have a duplicate meal for tomorrow night which should help a lot.

Right am off to potter.

Have a lovely evening.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

xx