Busy Doing Nothing, Working the whole day long.

I have been pottering around all day, in and out of the garden, pushing the vacuum cleaner round the whole cottage, picking things up and putting them where they belong, walking Ben in the sunshine and the rain. Sorted out a few things to take to the CS, and filled a recycling bag with very elderly magazines, all glossy so no good for compost.
I am sure that lots of you have days like that, butterfly days when you flit from room to room and job to job. Perpetual motion without doing much of anything. It does not feel as though I have been working but looking round I see more space, empty flat surfaces, nothing glaringly out of place.
By 3.00 I was starting to feel hungry, I had taken a bacon chop out of the freezer (Cooking Bacon from Mr S), I diced it small and poured boiling water over it to take out the salt and put it to drain after 15 minutes or so. I had a dish of homemade chunky veg soup and I strained the veg out and mixed with the bacon. That was the filling sorted, now what to wrap it in? Ding! I have some herby dumpling mix from AF. I put a pan of water on to boil and got busy. I made the mix up and rolled it out to a rough square, spread the filling over and rolled it up like a Swiss Roll, wrap loosely in baking Paper then foil and drop into boiling watere onto the trivet from my pressure cooker. I let it simmer and steam for nearly 3 hours. Now I did think about using the pressure cooker but I like the crust to be brown and a bit crisp and that needs time.

Served with cabbage, 3 hungry servings, it,s a good job that I have 2 neighbours, I turned the stained soup into a tomatoey gravy and it disappeared at an alarming rate.

I put an old fashioned steamer basket on top of the pan and in that I put a basin with around 3/4 pt of water and a chopped up chicken carcass. That gave me some concentrated stock and a dish of meat for Ben.

I had boned the chicken out a while ago and put the bones in the freezer, there was not a huge amount of meat left on the bones, I use a very good, very sharp boning knife.

I think that dinner worked out at around £1.50 including the electricity, not bad for such a good dinner.

Reasons to be grateful.

1. Lots of little jobs added up to a good days work.

2. Good food, great cost, minimal work.

3. Bones is on TV tomorrow.

4. Bright sunshine for most of the day, heavy rain was forecast.

5. Mr T has sent me some very good vouchers, I haven't been to see him for months he must be missing me.

Needless to say I will be shopping there this weekend, I have a £6 off a £40 pound shop voucher and some money off coupons for various items that I often buy, I may not need to buy them this time but I will as the savings will be worth it.

I am going to start cutting the next quilt top tomorrow, there will not be too much to cut as I will be using my scrap stash to make Courthouse Step blocks.
I am off to the wool shop this week to get some yarn ready for when my crochet hooks arrive, they have to come down the Amazon, delivery date is next Monday. I have decided on my first project and will share it however it turns out.

I feel a cup of tea is called for, then I am going to get my fabric boxes out and some fat quarters ready for the morning.

                 TTFN                                    Pam