Plant

Plant

Saturday 28 June 2014

Onwards from my birthday

While travelling through the pretty Cotswold towns, we stopped off at Bourton-on-the-Water after walking around a delightful little village called Bibury beforehand. We had lunch at a cafe by the water, which was lovely, except there were far too many pickles in my ploughman's lunch. The salad was delightful, very refreshing, and not drowned in dressing, and the ham was very tasty. Personally, I would have preferred a little more ham, and less pickle :-) We came home via Stroud, stopping for a cuppa, from the flasks I'd packed to take along with us, at Birdlip in Gloucestershire and got in a tangle thanks to the SatNav!!!! When we found where we wanted it started to rain, so we headed back home. Progrress home was slowed slightly by some lovely cattle in the road :-) An added treat to the day was an invite to one of my girls and her husband's place for dinner. also invited was another of my girls and her husband and one of my sons :-) A lovely dinner of Cottage Pie and an Eton Mess pud :-)

Yesterday we needed to do shopping. Didn't need a lot, though I do need to get some food stuff for the freezer at some point. Dinner last night was jacket potatoes, and I used up some prawns whose due date was up, mixing them in a homemade seafood sauce. It was only hubby and I eating in last night, so jackets were nice and simple and an easy meal to do after shopping.

Today, we helped set up a Mad Hatter's tea party on a local green. All part of the Summer Festival event in our town. Think they got caught in a down pour a couple of times :-( We couldn't stay on, as we were picking up a daughter from Bristol Airport. She arrived home from Tunisia this afternoon. All brown, bruised toe, and itchy from bites, but says she had a fantastic time :-) I have another daughter returning from her holiday in Greece tomorrow, she's getting a lift home from someone else, which is helpful, as we are in Cardiff tomorrow visiting our son. Hubby is laying a carpet in his new flat, which is above the restaurant where his hubby works (they are both hubby's)
On the way home from Bristol, I suddenly thought I hadn't planned dinner for tonight, and DD hadn't eaten since leaving Tunisia. Only junk stuff, not 'proper food' !!! Our town was closed off for the parade, so getting to a shop would have been difficult, so I raided the freezer to see what dinner stuff I could find to make into a meal. Wasn't sure what I would find as I know it's pretty low. Happily, I found three pink Salmon fillets, and one lonely white fish fillet. There were three of us eating in tonight, so that was just right as two of the salmon fillets were slightly small. Hubby had the large fillet, and DD and I had the smaller ones, and shared the white fillet. I did some boiled potatoes and mixed broccoli and cauliflower and tinned chopped tomatoes :-)

Yesterday I made a fruit cake, attempting to conquer my halogen, aka The Monster, by cooking it in there. I was cooking it with the Mad Hatter's Tea Party in mind, but it was very slightly under done. Fine for us, but I didn't want to use it for the party, so thankfully I had white sponge in the freezer for another use, but decided to use that instead. So my offering to the party was a white Victoria Sandwich :-) Monday I will have a baking day. I need to replace the sponge I used for today, as I'm providing some cake for a Stay and Play Cafe, friends run on a Friday morning, and it's my turn on the cake rota, which the sponge cake was originally made for.

While in Cardiff tomorrow, I'm going to visit Lakeland. I want to buy one of those sippy type soup cups that will heat up soup in the microwave for hubby. I thought he could use one for work in the winter. he doesn't really have time to heat up soup in the mornings before leaving for work, and the bad wife that I am, I refuse to get out of bed in the early hours of the morning to do it for him, so I thought one of those cups would be perfect :-) He could take the soup cold, in the cup, then bung it in the microwave they have at work :-) Also I want to get some 1lb loaf tin liners. I need to make smaller cakes. Hubby and I need to lose a stone or two, and as we can't stand to see food go in the bin, we end up eating far too much cake, because they are so big, and not enough of those at home eat it, so I plan to do two small ones, instead of one big one :-)

Cotswold's visit



















June 26th

It was my birthday on Thursday and I was spoilt something rotten :-) I had a lot of lovely pressies, and taken out to the Cotswolds by my lovely hubbie :-)