A good friend of mine asked me for ideas for dinner, as she is getting tired cooking the same old stuff. I pontificated on this very subject not many posts ago: how cooking dinner starts to become a chore when one gets into a rut (which has definitely been the case with me for a while now). However, cooking new recipes can be daunting, especially when one is pressed for time; one has a busy day at work or studying or dashing around like a lunatic, and then one doesn't have the energy or the motivation to make complicated meals. Well, that's what happens in my house, anyway.

And then I discovered the joy of menus. If I write up a menu for the week, I know exactly what to do the night before (plonk the chicken in the marinade, put the beans on to soak), what to do before work (throw the whole thing in the slow cooker). And then I'll have made a brand-new dish and I've remembered how much fun food is and impressed Partner to boot. So I would like to share my last three menus (mostly for showing-off purposes. I don't actually know if the abovementioned friend even reads my blog. But I've made it smaller and easier to skip).

Sunday: Roast beef with Yorkshire puddings, cabbage, carrots, roast potatoes, and gravy
Monday: Stir fried fresh veg and leftover beef in Chinese insta-sauce with rice
Tuesday: Beef and vegetable lasagna
Wednesday: Marinated chicken curry with rice
Thursday: Slow-cooker sausage casserole
Friday: Baked chicken with herbs, roast potatoes, and green beans
Saturday: Pizza

Sunday: Roast chicken with cabbage, carrots, roast potatoes, and gravy
Monday: Stir fried fresh veg and leftover chicken in Chinese insta-sauce with rice
Tuesday: Slow-cooker casoulet
Wednesday: Chili with rice and tortilla chips
Thursday: Pork chops with herbs, garlic mash, and baby carrots
Friday: Slow-cooker beef hotpot
Saturday: Marinated grilled sea bream, refried beans, and red rice, with cheese and salsa

Sunday: Roast lamb with cabbage, carrots, roast potatoes, mint and gravy
Monday: Stir fried fresh veg and leftover lamb in Chinese insta-sauce with noodles
Tuesday: Pork chops in barbecue sauce, baked potatoes, and coleslaw
Wednesday: Chili with rice and tortilla chips
Thursday: Marinated chicken with garlic butter penne, and salad
Friday: Slow-cooker corned beef hash
Saturday: Pizza

Partner made me these last week for breakfast. He's such a sweet husband.

Gardening and robins and not-quite-wellness

I loved the raindrops on this rose. We had a thunderstorm this week which resulted in some very beautiful colors around the garden.

I'm still off work until Monday (paid holiday is great!) but I've been a bit under the weather yesterday and today. Yesterday I slept nearly all day, but woke up very awake at 7 AM today. I'm never willingly awake at seven; if I'm ever up early I like to do stuff (gardening, housekeeping, baking). But not today, and the day has just dragged for me; I haven't done much of anything except lay down.

My runner beans have begun flowering, and I even have a couple teeny bean pods forming. I also have one little green tomato so far, and the cabbage, while slug-eaten, is definitely forming heads. My slug traps are still catching them, but not as many as I'd like. We've also had the first of the baby carrots: yum yum.

I can proudly say that I've made a big dent in the weed population, and have even moved to a smaller bucket now. The weeds left are mostly small and easy to pull up, as they've only sprouted since I began weeding in earnest this spring. Of course, I can't get complacent. Small weeds become big weeds, after all.

And to conclude: our little fluffy ball of cuteness, learning to fly on our patio. This is a baby robin which was born in our garage, and has either graduated flying school or had a bad landing inside a cat. Either way, it's long gone.

I know I probably should have saved my money (I'm pretty broke), but I bought an orchid today. It's the first red orchid I've ever seen; red is my favorite color. I couldn't resist. I've put her on my dining table for the moment, but I've never grown this kind of orchid before. I hope I don't kill her. I have had an orchid fatality in the last two years: my dark pink phalaenopsis Mary Magdalen shriveled up a year and a half ago.



The only bouquet I took a picture of this week is on my coffee table, of pink roses, snapdragons, purple sage flowers, and some yellow shrub leaves. Partner picked a nice bouquet of sweet peas and daisies for the bathroom as well, and it smells lovely up there. My new orchid also has a gentle fragrance, surprisingly.

I've got the week off from work, as does Partner, and we've been going out a lot. I like to go walking in the mornings, before ten if possible, and the dog has started to expect it. When I come down in the morning she starts quivering and whining at me. Then when the leash comes out she jumps as high as my shoulder and does her best to contain her barking (if she barks I put the leash back until she stops), though she does make these peculiar yawning noises, which would probably be woofs if she moved her doggy lips during them. We go out as quickly as possible, so as to avoid as much noise as possible, and while I hold her at my side, because polite doggies do not walk ahead on the leash, she pulls me up the street as hard as she can, so hard that she can barely breathe. Yet when she gets off the leash, she always stays in sight of me, and if she thinks I'm lost she runs back to check on me. It's funny to see her up on her hind legs wildly straining to look over the tall grass to find me.

Flowers and treats

This week's offerings from the garden (click on the images to see them full-sized) : in my bathroom I have a mixture of lupins, daisies, and mint leaves. For my dining table I picked foxgloves, daisies, and laurel leaves. And finally on my mantle there is a large bunch of sweet peas which I cannot take credit for picking or arranging. Partner did that one. Incidently, above my mantle is my very very favorite waterlily painting by Monet; I once saw the original and searched for many years to find a print of it.

My gardening goals for the summer are small and not really worth mentioning separately. So I have decided to share my general goals for the summer instead. I printed them out for myself personally about two weeks ago, and since the month of June is more than halfway over I have completed some of these goals already. I think I will be adding new goals as old ones are completed.

I enjoyed making pretzels (shown here as before and after). The actual goal is to bake sweets once a week, but I'm counting pretzels in this category. I think maybe I should have chosen "bake treats" instead, to cover this sort of confusion. I made them last night, and today they have all gone but one. I think the recipe could use with a little tweaking to make them less sweet and more chewy, but Partner gobbled them down quickly enough, which is all the assurance I need.

Roofs, and (not) falling off them

Because I have had a fairly structured academic year with targets and deadlines, now that it's summer I've felt at a loss as to how to spend my time productively. I don't want the summer to end with a ton of projects that never got off the ground. With that in mind I have written myself a list of goals for the summer, and a specific list of goals for the month of June.

I think I've mentioned in the past that our garage roof leaked in two places. And that we had buckets underneath the leaks to catch the rain. Well, I made it a goal to fix the roof this month, and today that is exactly what I did. The only help I had from Partner was to get the new roofing felt up the ladder, and the underlaying wood shifted. I tacked the new patch down and sealed it myself. Partner doesn't like ladders, and I admit it was a little scary climbing on and off the top bit. But the view up there was quite nice and I am satisfied in my accomplishment. It should hold for at least a few more years now.

Partner brought his camera when we went walking this morning and we found two different orchids. The pink one with my hand in the photo is the bee orchid, and the purply one with lots of flowers we think is a common spotted orchid, or possibly a northern marsh orchid. Anyhow, on further reading we have discovered there are about two dozen kinds of orchids native to Britain. Both of these were quite small, with the stalks no bigger than about four inches; we were so pleased to have found two(!) kinds.




And it is poppy season here, with whole fields gone red with them. I took a picture of our village (our house is somewhere to the right of the tower), and an action shot from the motorway, going about 65-70 mph. I was not driving at the time.

Simple pleasures

After a long day's work, indeed, after a long week's work, the simple pleasures of life take on new meaning. We bought strawberries for the first time this year, and had them after dinner the other night. With sweetened crème fraîche and leftover homemade chocolate sauce they became the food of gods.

Other simple things which give me joy:

• a jug of iced tea glistening in the fridge
  
• fresh flowers on my table, picked from my own garden
• newly washed sheets on my bed
• listening to the wild bird who sings "Charge!" all day
• searching for orchids while walking the dog (still haven't found them)**
• Coming downstairs in the morning to a clean kitchen

**UPDATE (June 11) Found one today! Will try and remember to bring camera next time.

I've been in a blogging mood recently. My goal is one post a week, but lately I've been exceeding that target. I hope I'm not going into overkill. It seems that just the past month or so I've been excited about blogging. And more recently, I've finished all assignments! I only have one exam looming, but I know the material and don't feel too worried about it. As for the rest, I haven't received my marks, but they're submitted and there's nothing I can do about it now, so why stress? As a result, I have about twelve or sixteen free hours a week which I haven't had since last September. It's so liberating.

The other morning I woke up about two hours earlier than normal and couldn't get to sleep. So I got up and did some gardening. Then when it got really warm and sunny that afternoon, I kicked myself for not going for a nice long walk while it was still cool. So I resolved that if I got up early again, I'd go walk the dog. The next morning, no such luck. I could barely drag myself out of bed to get to work on time. But this morning, I was much better and leapt out of bed as soon as I woke up, threw on some clothing and moisturiser, and out we went. I want to do this regularly, as I've noticed some little love handles forming; it's nothing to panic about yet, as I still fit in all my clothing and really have had a constant weight for the past several years, but I don't want them to progress. What with my recovery from surgery (I was pretty inactive for about three months or more), plus the whole constantly-stay-at-home-studying thing I've had going on, I haven't gone dog walking in ages. So this morning was great.

And finally, before this post drags on too much, I thought I'd post photographic evidence of my first gardening goal for June. I also have two single roses upstairs in vases: one in the bathroom and one in the bedroom, but I can't be bothered to go up and snap them. On my living room windowsill I have irises, orange roses, daisies, and laurel leaves; on my dining table is a heady mix of daisies, sweet peas, and mint leaves. They are both scented bouquets, but the sweet peas in the dining room are especially pungent. As soon as I walk in the room I smell them.

Remember this fluffy ball of cuteness? Last week while gardening two robins perched on the fence across from me, and one gave the softest little "peep" at its mother. That's right, Junior has left the nest. It's a good thing, too, because not long after when it rained, their whole house just flopped out of the eaves. It fell straight onto my rainbow chard, but no damage was done.


However, we are overflowing with nests at the moment. The robins built another one in the garage but we don't think they finished because we still use the garage and it disturbed them too much. There is also a sparrow nest under one of the roof tiles on the back of our house, though we can't see it. However, father makes several trips an hour from our birdfeeders to the roof and there is constant cheeping.

Partner told me he shut the shed door overnight and when he opened it the next morning, he was nearly decapitated by "a huge bird" bursting out. Anyhow, this "eagle" hasn't been back to her nest, for obvious reasons. No eggs or babies, though, so it's ok. And we're leaving it open now just to make sure.

And lastly, the final nest that I know of, right at the center of this bush. It was impossible for me to get a good picture of it, but there are actually two nestlings in it. I'm not entirely sure what kind of birds they are, but I would hazard a guess at blackbirds. All I know is that the mother is dark with a long tail.

I managed to squeeze in some gardening this weekend. My runner beans are now planted in the ground and all the bulbs from their bed have been dug up. I need to replant them still, but hopefully I can get that done within the next two or three days. We put three upright poles with netting strung between them for the beans to climb up. Last year they all had their own bamboo canes, but this year the sweet peas have monopolized them. Rather than buy new canes I improvised with some materials already at hand. Hopefully it works out. If it does work, it should be really good, seeing as we planted them at the edge of the patio, meaning they will give us a bit of shade without shading any other plants.

After I swore off growing tomatoes, Partner has gone and accepted ten free plants. I guess I give them one more chance. However, if they again disappoint, I will have to put my foot down for next year. I simply cannot waste valuable growing space on plants that do not perform.

Also pictured is my little bed of broccoli and rainbow chard with roses and a flowering currant bush behind them, and some other flowery perennial in front.

Still stressing out about my schoolwork...even though it's down to the nitty gritty with only two projects left to submit. And one exam to take.

It's the first day for at least a week in which I woke up to dry pavement outside; two hours later it's still dry. I tentatively put out my laundry on the line and even went so far as to put another load on. Because of the way washing machines work in this country, a load of laundry takes anywhere from one to two hours. I generally put a load on the last thing before I go to bed and then hang it up when I get up in the morning. Today after I hung mine out I decided to do the next load, in case we don't get another sunny day this week. On Friday, my last post, when it rained so much all day long, we were surprised to see bright sunny football games on tv from other parts of the country. Indecently bright and sunny, compared to our soggy misery. It's not like it's a big country; how come we got so much rain where 150 miles away it was all happy daisies and bunnies sunshine?

I can hardly believe May is nearly over; I have accomplished only one of my gardening goals for this month: the planting out of the broccoli. I'm almost afraid to admit how many broccoli seedlings I planted in the ground. But I will: sixty-three. And, uh...there's still about thirty more not yet planted...As far as other veg goes, I think I planted about forty rainbow chard seedlings, fifteen or so broad bean plants, and maybe twenty runner bean plants. And five squash and seven zuccini. I couldn't possibly comment on the number of carrots (pictured in last week's rain) as I have three big planters of them, one planter of lettuce, and one of beets.

Partner was trying to take a simple portrait of me for an ID. He has such patience.

Once again, for your viewing pleasure, here is a self-portrait. It is raining and I am in my garden. Incidently, I am also in my pajamas. Since it is my day off, I had hoped to do some major gardening. Alas, this is not to be. So I took a few photos instead. Our garage roof leaks in two places, and we have buckets strategically placed to catch the water. When I went out this morning, both were overflowing from the rain we had last night. I changed them both for fresh buckets (rain water comes in handy so we like to save it--maybe we should get a water barrel) and one of the buckets holds about 6 or 7 gallons. And I might add, it wasn't raining when I went to bed last night. This reflection of me is from the garage window, in case it is hard to tell what those things are in the foreground. They are various man-objects that are mysteriously attracted to garages, and like light in black holes, cannot escape. I try not to spend much time in the garage, lest I too become trapped for eternity. Partner and I have had several conversations along the lines of: P, frustrated, "Where's my screwdrivers? I can't find a screwdriver!" G, impatiently (trying to pay attention to the computer screen in order to blog), "Garage." P, one hour later, "I'm going to the hardware store; I'll be back later." G, upon P's return, "You bought a screwdriver, didn't you?" P, walking off quickly, hiding something behind his back, "None of your business."



I did pull out a few weeds while I was wandering about with my umbrella and camera. I took a photo of my last lonely tulip, and one of the cabbages. I'm beginning to think I planted them a bit too close together. Partner promised me that he was getting some free cabbage seeds in the mail from the BBC, so my gardening goal to plant more cabbage has been on hold until they arrived. Which they did, two days ago. But they weren't cabbage. So now I don't know if I should buy some seeds or just not bother. (I did plant most of the seeds that arrived, however: lettuce, beets, and squash).

I moved my geranium pots out of the cold frame today and onto the patio. And watered the runner beans still in the cold frame (with rain water, of course). That's pretty much it for my gardening plans for today, unless there's a major change in the weather.

Here I am in my kitchen, making a quick salad for dinner. I think I look moderately presentable; I combed my hair this morning--though it doesn't look much like it. We went shopping this evening, spent less than £40, and bought a pair of baby gem lettuces for £0.08. That's right, eight pence. We are pretty good at getting good bargains when shopping, though I admit we don't buy as much fresh meat and produce as we used to. Now it's mostly frozen, and while I definitely like broccoli and peas, they do start to get a bit boring. And I picked the first of the broad beans today to put in the salad. They were excellent. Eating fresh vegetables straight from the garden in early May is incredible.

I just love my red cupboard doors. Partner painted them for me last year. The walls are white and the curtains are red and white gingham. My kitchen is not exactly how I want it, but it's pretty darned cute anyhow. I was very careful not to get any of the mess in the photographs. Ok, so there are a few more pans than necessary on the stove...I hate cooking in a messy kitchen, but sometimes the mess just creeps up out of nowhere. One or the other of us tries to do dishes every evening, but you know how it is. We're both tired after work and just want to eat and sleep. The best way, I think, is to clean up during the cooking. There's always that bit where you're waiting for the rice to cook, or the lasagna's just gone in the oven, and you can just wash a few dishes and wipe down the counters while you wait.

Seven beans! And may I say, they were the best seven beans I ever ate. In other edible gardening news, we've decided the asparagus is still too young to eat and we'll have to wait till next spring. I'm so disappointed. I've been bragging to everyone about them, but now I have to eat my words instead.

While planting out some seedlings in the broad bean/cabbage bed, I heard some gentle chirping above me. I looked up into the garage eaves and saw a robin with a mouthful of food holding very very still, pretending to be a statue. The robin was perched on a bit of mossy debris, and behind it was a tiny beak just visible. I realized what it was. I rushed inside to tell Partner that I'd discovered the reason we'd been seeing robins so often in the garden. And I sent him out with the camera to see if he could photo it. I couldn't actually see any fledglings from my vantage point, so when I saw this picture, I nearly melted from the cuteness.

Also pictured is a photo from a few years back, just to show what an adult English robin looks like. They are slightly smaller than a sparrow, gray all over with a red throat and white breast. Apparently they are very territorial and only during the mating season will you see two together.



I haven't been sleeping well lately. I think it's the end of term stress. Too many assignments in too short a period. I'm working on at least one every day, but with five still to finish and submit...

Even though I work in a kitchen, I sometimes get bored with cooking. We have a new menu change twice a year but as I have absolutely no say in what goes on it, it can get old fast. I was thinking also that my home cooking has been in a rut for a while. I have a list of things I make and the list hasn't changed for a few years really. I make stir-fry, lasagna, cottage pie, spagetti, pork chops...you get the idea. Just basic cooking. I have several nice cookbooks: the best one by far is The Joy of Cooking, and it's always my first point of reference when I need to find something. It seriously has it all. Last night I made a vanilla cream pie with cookie-crumb crust and meringue topping, compliments of Joy. I was too impatient to wait the full three hours of cooling time, so we dug into it at the two-hour mark and it bled just a little of its filling, but it's so nummy; the meringue is just perfect. Actually, I couldn't believe how much meringue there was. I made a 7-inch pie with four egg yolks, so I used the leftover whites in the meringue and it ended up with more volume than the filling.

I also made a home-made tandoori curry marinade for our leftover lamb roast from Sunday. I used mostly equal parts cumin, coriander, cinnamon, fresh garlic, salt, and ginger, with a touch of chili, all mixed together in plain yogurt and vegetable oil. I marinated the chopped meat for about an hour and then just quickly cooked it on the stove. It was So Nice, and so easy. The pie also was very easy, though I used quite a few pans, bowls, and utensils. It made me remember how much I actually do love cooking.

In other cooking news: I've learned to make homemade yogurt recently, and after a few failed starts, came up with an excellent method and a superior product. It's so much cheaper to make my own than to buy it. When I buy it I don't want to waste it in cooking; it's for eating only. I've also got a brand-new sourdough starter (pictured) in my fridge--made last week. I've used it once to make bread and I'll give it another go today. Technically it's a sponge starter and all I need to do is feed it some flour and water once a week and it'll keep indefinitely.

*Partner asked me why in my last post I wished to kill every tenth weed instead of them all. I looked up "decimate" and while it does mean to kill every tenth Roman soldier, I'm relieved to confirm it also means to damage badly.

I don't think I've really done the weeds justice in my previous posts, so I thought I'd do a little segment dedicated to them. First off, my weapons in the fight against weed domination:

• gloves, leather;
  
• bucket, plastic;
  
• pillow, sturdy;
  
• fork, handheld.

It doesn't seem like much, but it's all I have, and it does the job.

Next, the enemy contrasted with the victory; in the enemy photo, all plants pictured are either a) tulips, or b) weeds. Hint: the tulips are yellow streaked with red. In the victory photo, the two plants pictured are daffodils (finished flowering) and campanula (not yet flowering). Oh, and a tiny smidgeon of fuschia (also not yet flowering).


Next,view these two photos, both taken of my new (planted last spring) asparagus bed. This bed was weeded fully about six weeks ago. Emerging aspargus spears have been highlighted. The rest: weeds. Oh, and part of a cinder block, for some reason. I can't really explain it.


Now I would like to direct your attention to my cabbage and broad bean bed. This bed backs our garage wall and faces directly south. It's perfect for vegetables because it gets full sun and is well sheltered from the wind. It is also, however, extremely attractive to weeds, as the next two photos show. This bed was weeded one week ago. Those few bits of slate amongst the cabbages are my cutting edge high-tech slug traps. Slugs cannot resist crawling under a nice, cool, shady bit of slate during the day; and I cannot resist smushing them when I turn over the slate.

Since I first began my campaign in earnest three weeks ago, the casualties have been fierce. My goal has been a bucket full of weeds pulled up every day. Since my bucket holds about two gallons, it would seem that the war ought to be over by now, but my shock and awe tactics have so far not demoralized the enemy; they still fight back with as much vigor and strength as when I first fired the opening shots. When I capture occupied territories, the enemy reinvades; I begin to think this war will never end, yet I must continue to fight, until either they or I are decimated.