Cooking, Sewing and Snarling down the Phone.

What a day yesterday was, I could not decide what to eat so emptied the veggy drawer of the fridge and made a Rogan Josh.
I just chopped onion, carrot, peppers, squash, celery and sweet potato and sweated off in a little oil. Added a half jar of Rogan Josh paste, a little tomato puree, some garlic puree and enough veg stock to just cover. I brought it up to simmer and cooked covered for around 20 minutes, then I added some cauliflower florets and a tin of drained mixed beans from Mr S and cooked uncovered for 10 minutes.

Here it is with just 5 minutes left.

I just sprinkled some fresh coriander from the garden on top, because there were beans and potato in it I did not need rice.

I did stir in a dollop of this though, it is really good.

I got it from AF for about 30p a jar, and I could eat it straight from the jar!

I have not cooked Southern Fried Chicken for ages so I picked a RTC £1.70 chicken from the freezer and jointed it, it is sitting in the fridge in a slick of natural yogurt. I normally use buttermilk but the yogurt was RTC 20p!.

I will coat these with fresh breadcrumbs with a mix of spices in and then spray with a light coat of Fry Lite and cook in the oven. Hot with oven cooked chips and the last of the sweetcorn tonight and cold with Jacket potato and salad tomorrow.

The spice mix will be a random selection but will have cayenne, smoked paprika and cumin, probably a little turmeric both for taste and colour.

Now for the sewing.

This is the result of sewing all those strips together and will make the Santa Sack for my swap partner.

This will make a cushion cover to go in the sack, along with a pincushion and a mug rug that I have yet to make. I also fancy making a couple of yards of bunting.

I keep taking strips out of the basket, sewing, trimming and throwing all the little bits back and I swear that the basket is fuller now than when I started.

Now to the snarling bit.

My internet connection has been playing up and is very slow, this means that when I try to access outlook it cancels on "time out".

Today I managed to get through to BT and explained the problem to a very "helpful" woman , who was possibly in Delhi!

Her response was to tell me that my email was nothing to do with BT and she could not help, 3 TIMES I explained that it was the lack of speed that was the problem. Finally she got the message and put me through to the correct dept.

A VERY helpful young man went through a speed check and confirmed that there was a problem. However the corrective system was in the process of being upgraded and nothing could be done today. He then went out of his way to speak to a supervisor who assured me that we would get a call back as soon as the system was up and running and the issue would be resolved.

I stopped snarling but was a titchy bit sharp and asked for a time scale, it will be at least 24 hours.

Reasons to be grateful.

1. Dinner sorted for 2 days.

2. 3 generous portions of veg curry in the freezer.

3. A load of laundry dried on the line before the rain came.

4. A new recipe for pear chutney to try out.

5. My copy of SEW magazine arrived today, so copious cups of tea are on the agenda while I read it cover to cover.

On that note I am heading for the corner of the sofa.

                       TTFN                      Pam

P.S. Has anyone got a recipe for mustard pickle, I have made mine up for years now and would like to try a change, it needs to be hot rather than sweet. Pam