Saturday, 25 October 2014

Feeling very content this morning....



25th October 2014
Two things to remember in life - take care of your thoughts when you are alone, and take care of your words when you are with people.


So already decided is today’s forecast, frequent cups of tea throughout the day, with  blustery bursts of cooking, housework and domesticity and 99% chance of wine moving in by this evening!

Yeah I’m not going to sit down till teatime, it’s too easy to spend every weekend at this time of year stuck in front of the TV and that’s not happening around here today!

I had a lovely day yesterday, after doing my paperwork, I had a lovely massage, followed by lunch with my bestie at a fabulous new pub we found, followed by a walk round a garden centre, then I nipped in for a chat and coffee with AnnMarie, and then Vicky popped round on the night to do my nails – how fab a day is that and how lucky am I to have a friend who does nails, I made her chocolate brownies as a thank you.

So the pub we had lunch at was The Bullshead at Shenstone, and if you log onto their website all the Vintage pubs have a £10 off a £40 or more bill, http://www.vintageinn.co.uk/thebullsheadshenstone/ well worth it in my opinion, we had a fabulous meal and I can’t wait to go back and eat there again.  We sat on two armchairs just like the ones in my living room in front of an open fire, I honestly could have sat there all day just chatting or even on my own with a good book, it was blissful.   It’s also a chain pub so there are quite a few to choose from, including the Mermaid in Wolverhampton, the food was excellent quality, highly recommend the Salt Beef Hash, actually might be trying to do something similar myself today, I do love a hash, they’d used brisket beef, but corned beefs how I’d normally make it.   

Here’s my take on Corned Beef & Sweetcorn hash;
Serves 4 = 13pp each, costs approx £1.33 per person
Takes 10 Minutes to make, 25 Minutes to cook

Replace the tinned sweetcorn with frozen peas, if you like.

2½ tbsp olive oil
1 large red onion, sliced into thin wedges
Knob of butter
400g waxy potatoes (such as charlotte), cut into 2cm chunks  (i used the small ones, left skin on and cut in half)
1 tsp chilli flakes
2 tsp dried thyme or 2 or 3 sprigs of fresh
300g tin corned beef, cut into chunks
120g tin sweetcorn, drained and rinsed
4 large free-range eggs

Parboil potatoes for about 6-8 minutes. At the same time, add 1 tbsp of the oil to a large frying pan and gently fry the onion over a low heat for 6 minutes to soften. Remove to a bowl and set aside.

Add another splash of oil and the butter to the pan, increase the heat to medium-high and fry the potatoes for 10 minutes until beginning to crisp and turn golden. Stir in the chilli flakes and dried thyme, fry for another minute or so, then add the corned beef. Season

Continue frying the corned beef, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes until starting to crisp. Stir in the sweetcorn and return the cooked onion to the pan. Cook for a couple more minutes to warm through.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining olive oil in another large frying pan, crack the eggs into the pan and fry until the white has just set. Serve
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So the first job on the list today is the kitchen, I’m going to go through the cupboards and sort, and anything that hasn’t been used in the last 12 months is out!  Drastic!  I’m contemplating doing the same with my book shelf, getting rid of some books.  My thinking is the less ‘stuff’ in the house, they less mess we can make!  Good principle in theory, whether it’ll work in reality I don’t know. 

I’m also going to work on a meal planner this weekend, not shopping until at least Monday as I want to use up some of the foods we’ve already got in the house, that’s another thing I do, keep buying and not using what I’ve bought already!

Clocks go back this weekend so I’m going to try and use at least that extra hour to do something worthwhile if not much more than the hour.  But first another cuppa….

Enjoy your Saturday BeYOUtiful, I’m looking forward to listening to Radio 2, Pick of the Pops this afternoon – NOW that’s really middle-aged ain’t it and I love it! I believe I’m really enjoying middle-agedness more than any other time of my life, the only downside, actually no not even the hormonal mood swings are a downside, they’re there to remind me I’m alive and I’m a living, feeling, crazy lady and I loves being her.

Yep, enjoy your Saturday, I’m going to.


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