 A cooling simple supper 20 June 2025 (Friday) We're up early again, in fact Richard was up about 4:30, opening windows to let the cooler air of the morning in. However, the cooler air is only cool compared to yesterday's daytime temperature and how the rest of the day will be, so it's still pretty warm. The good thing is, there’s a bit of a breeze today so that’s helping with the temperature feel at least. There's an amber warning for heat, which means that there's a threat to life, particularly for those with underlying health conditions. The reality is, human-induced climate warming is here to stay; it's not going to go away. As long as the world carries on burning fossil fuels at the rate that we are, we’ll continue missing all the revised targets that we’ve been missing since the Paris Treaty years and years ago (2015). Also, people will still keep on having more and more kids which is adding to the population, which in turn adds to the draws on the natural resources of this planet, which are all finite. Hey, ho… rant over… Richard’s trying another recipe for lunch today, and it's another salad, this time made with red quinoa - a seed rather than a grain, though still classed as a grain by many. Now quinoa is something that we both rather like, though in the past we’ve found that it tends to overcook pretty swiftly; one moment it's just under done and needs a little more time… the next second it's glooping at the base of the pan as a thick unwelcome slush. Anyway, Richard's got his way now of cooking it al dente, which gives the salad a nice crunch and texture. Of course, he's done a video of it and that will be up next Tuesday and I'll link to it here when it is. There's been work today and also work work, with various challenges on the work work front; it seems that as we get closer to Midsummer Revels on Sunday, the overwhelm for some is increasing. I have to say, I'll be glad when Sunday is over, as we then have a little respite over the next couple of months with only small Head, Heart & Health sessions going on at the Great Green Barn and gardens, and no major events or shows. Despite the overcast nature of the day, it’s again pretty hot and one of my fellow plotters is still away so I’m watering her plot. She's asked me to keep an eye on her beans and her tomatoes, and a cucumber, and a few other things, though in reality with the heat that we're having and the sun blazing down her whole plot needs a really good water, so I'm backwards and forwards with my watering can about 20 times… and then I need to water my own plot too! I have to say that with the heat, I'm not really feeling in the mood of getting on and doing work and would much rather just grab a pint at the pub and sit on the plot and enjoy the heat. However, if I don't actually get on and do things then things just don't get done, so I got on with tomatoes. We've got a bit of a busy weekend next weekend, so I decided to film this and then I'll refer back to it in next week's A Week at the Plot. Basically though, the first thing that I did was give the bed a little weed of any perennial weeds that are coming through, which in the case of this bed is always mainly bindweed, then cinquefoil. I then looked at any side shoots that were pretty large, and took them off and put them into a glass jar which had some water in it. I'll look at them more closely tomorrow, though with some beds empty and with the brassicas being mullered by pigeons at the moment I think it might be sensible to root some of the side shoots to put into a bed for a later crop of tomatoes. I then got on and took all of the remaining smaller side shoots off, using my fingers, though in doing that I noticed that a few of the plants had already split into two growing tips, and as both tips are pretty established I let them be.
I'm still pondering on how to stake the tomatoes this year. I'd love to do a frame and string them up; I think it’s the best way to stake tomatoes, though it seems quite a few of these tomatoes aren’t going to reach a great height so I pondered whether that’s just overkill. The other option is to put a bamboo cane next to each of the plants and then tie each tomato into the cane. As I was mulling this, a fellow plotter came along with a pint of Amstel from The Fox, and I looked at it lovingly. We had a chat and as we talked about our growing year and the heat of the moment, we also discussed staking of tomatoes, and I sort of made up my mind there and then that I'm going to initially put a bamboo cane in and tie them in. Also, with the heat that we have at the moment, I didn't fancy building a huge frame which would take me half a day under this glaring sun. If needs must at a later date, I’ll build the frame.
Once my fellow plotter had moved on to walk to his own plot, I got on with removing the lower leaves of the tomatoes - doing this with a knife as I find any wound heels more swiftly. Just with side shoots taking energy from the main growing stem, having too many lower leaves on a tomato means that that tomato needs to take up more water to feed that leaf. By taking the lower leaves off, and the unnecessary side shoots (if it's indeterminate, do NOT take too many off if it's a bushing variety), the plant can hopefully put all its energy into growing taller and producing fruit. With the sun beating down, I decided that staking of the tomatoes would wait for another day, though I was pleased that I’d at least got this tomato cares job started. Back at home, I found an old birthday card in the bowl on the coffee table of our middle room and wafted myself with it. Apart from also getting a big drink of Vimto, it was the only thing to do at that moment to cool myself down a little. Richard had had a nap whilst I'd been at the plot, and woke up to get ready to do his live at 6pm, which all went fine. Supper was made up of leftover salads, a quick homemade coleslaw and cottage cheese, and then it was time for some TV and bed. Weather: Hot at 30°, though more overcast and a breeze so feels JUST a little cooler than yesterday. Breakfast: Bran Sticks, yogurt, and banana Lunch: Quinoa & Cucumber Salad with Halloumi Supper: Leftover Bulgur Wheat Summer Salad & Quinoa & Cucumber Salad, homemade coleslaw, and cottage cheese with two Ryvita rye crispbreads
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 13 June 2025 (Friday)
Up early, and up first for a change - I wanted to get to Lidl early, the new one in Brentford which opened a week ago. Our local one, which is just a five minute walk away closed on Sunday until sometime in November; Lidl have acquired the similar-sized shop next door so it will.open up the whole space and double in size. However, once I was up I checked the fridge, and two cupboards, and the main freezer and decided that a shop can wait until after the weekend… I can get some tomatoes and pitta up the road as usual and make do until Monday, so I got on with other stuff. Early at my desk, I picked up on a few of the issues of For Earth’s Sake from yesterday, and spotted another that I needed to do some research on; I needed to find out who to go to to resolve the issue… and found the teacher and school that needed to be contacted. It was about borrowing their Maypole and Splat-the-Rat for our Midsummer Revels… in nine days time… without which there would be fewer revels! I then read a message from Vanessa… one of the longest serving members of staff in the shop is moving on, so the day she usually works is now a day that needs to be covered by another. It’s a real shame, though I hope the right move for the ex-staff member, who I’ll contact later to wish her well. The broadband was still not working in the shop, so I still couldn't see any sales data, nor make any price changes to the till or add any new stock items, of which we’ve two this week. I had by now had a reply and amends from Vanessa to the letter I drafted on Wednesday re the damage to the festoon lighting; having read it I decided to not make some of the amends and just get the letter off, via email, to the delivery company. A few hours later, a positive response… they’d send their electrician to sort it, and he’d have a look at the damage this afternoon, to decide what needed doing. Result! I hate these bitty days of struggle and stress, albeit minor struggles and stress, as in “there's no blood”, a saying my mum used in times of stress… “Is there blood? If not, there's time to sort it all out”. It feels like there's been quite a lot of stressful episodes this week, no blood, just stress. I’ll be glad once June has gone as we’ll be in a programming phase for the Great Green Barn for a few months, finalising something for September, Christmas and through to May or June next year. Vanessa and I are seeing a few shows in July, so that will feed in to our decisions. Rain and thunderstorms had been forecast, and we waited and waited, though hour by hour the storm was shifting and getting later and later in the day. So, I decided to go down, in the heat that I hadn't expected, and water virtually everything outside, and scatter chicken manure pellets too! If rain comes it will moisten the pellets to start the process of adding goodness to the soil. As I'm watering, I notice the Santolina, or Spanish Lavender is just about to open into thousands of gorgeous yellow buttons... lovely. By the time I got home, and despite wearing a hat, I was hot. It definitely felt like 27° and very humid, especially at the plot where, as I say, I had watered. I get a text from Vanessa… the festoon is up and the broadband should be working… and it was! Yay!! Richard did his Live at 6pm as planned, which was the usual fun, and then supper - pasta again for ease. Friday night’s currently Top of the Pops reruns night, and then we finished off with an episode of The Power of Parker, which we’re both getting in to… I’d seen it in schedules and idents a few times, and with series two arriving on the Beeb I thought we’d try the first episode of the first series… and now we’ve done four episodes! Weather: Sunny from the off, and warm - getting to pretty hot at 28°. The Met Office announces it’s got to 29.4° somewhere in Essex, and this is the hottest day of the year so far… no surprises there! Breakfast: Bran Sticks, yogurt, and banana Lunch: Hummus, pitta, tomatoes, carrot batons, radish, cucumber Supper: Puttanesca Sauce with wholewheat spaghetti, and a salad of olives, tomato, cucumber and basil  11 June 2025 (Wednesday)
Richard wakes especially early, and in doing so wakes me… and we’re both up straight away. You see, we both have silent anxiety today. We’re having tree work done in the garden, and despite knowing we’ve the best local tree surgeons doing it, we’re still both anxious - for numerous little reasons. I remember dad getting anxious about things, and I’d say to him “Dad, don’t worry. It’ll all be fine”, though whether it was getting to the airport on time, finding the right parking space, or wondering whether he had the right cash on him for any eventuality, he’d get anxious. Mum less so, though as the years progressed, the anxiety did too, coming in troughs and waves, and we’d look on slightly humorously with words of support and simply think to ourselves, “Chill…!” Now, decades on, I think anxiety is something I just live with, in fact that we just live with; not each day, though anything that steps even slightly across the bounds of my comfort zone brings about some level of anxiety. Tree work means Fenella needs to be moved out of the drive the day before to hold space for the big truck to park… though Richard doesn’t like Fenella on the road, especially overnight in case she is damaged…though needs must. Then a work area needs to be cleared, which I was stressing about and thought I’d do after coming back from the plot yesterday, though Richard had already done it. Then, of course, the individual minutiae of… Will the work be done well? Will the guys / gals turn up on time? Will they be nice, and considerate? How much mess will there be? Will the job be done properly? Will there be any damage to any of our neighbours’ property? What if one of them falls? The list sort of goes on… and on… Anxiety level… 6.5 out of 10 and rising… Then, I hear the truck outside… The guys turned up well in time, scoped the full job that’s on their docket (it was already quoted on and photos taken), determined what needed to be done and in what order… and they got on with it. Within two hours, the work was done, everything was fine, they’d chipped everything, cleaned up on the road, put everything (sort of…) into their truck, been thanked, said goodbye, and gone on their way to their next job… though a pair of shoes was left on the patio, and taken into safekeeping in the house until collected a few hours later - we certainly didn’t want a fox walking off with them! Now, we have a great view from the top office, we look out on the backs of sundry houses and rooftops, and interestingly a lot of curtain twitching went on when the work began In fact, it was more blinds opening and curtains being drawn wide, just to see what was going on… I guess not a surprise, as we would’ve done the same, though interesting nonetheless - two of our direct neighbours at the back I spied for the first time ever! Anxiety level… reducing to normal… miniscule! Though I still don’t think the broadband’s working at For Earth’s Sake, as I’ve nothing showing live on the till. Then I get a call from Vanessa, and my anxiety increases as she’s had an unfortunate call with the Operations Manager of the delivery company that damaged the festoon lighting on Monday - so would I write an email for her to send… I do, though it comes from me rather than Vanessa, adding some distance… fingers crossed. Oh, and indeed, the broadband is NOT working; it seems the cabling was damaged on Monday when the festoon lighting came down… Work work and work for the rest of the morning and through to mid-afternoon. Richard did his final edits to his weekly vlog to upload and put live - including footage from this morning’s tree work. In the afternoon I’m at the plot watering, and anxiety levels decline to negligible... and then home for a simple supper, then TV; tonight it’s Glow Up and The Power of Parker… Weather: Warmer, though overcast with a cooling breeze. The sun tries to break through, though the clouds persist. Breakfast: Bran Sticks, yogurt, and sultanas Lunch: Cottage Cheese, yeast extract, lettuce, tomato, cucumber and radish, and a rice cake Supper: Quorn Garlic & Herb Fillets, homemade oven chips. Lettuce, salad of red onion, tomato, cucumber, olives and radish  28 March 2025 (Friday) I didn't sleep well again. It seems to be one of those things now that when I’ve an important day ahead, where there's quite a lot of anxiety, I don't sleep great… have I already said that this week? I sort of feel I have, though don't really have time to read back and check. Today’s the final event of a week that seems very lengthy indeed, albeit that actually it's only been Sunday to Friday - An Exquisite Harmony, air quality monitoring equipment change at the allotment, three workshops at an academy, and The Shakespeare Solitaire, plus the usual work work that has to be done each week. Tonight, as mentioned above, we’ve The Shakespeare Solitaire at the Great Green Barn. It's quite a complex event this evening as there's a number who have booked to have a three course meal and the performance, and others who’ve just booked what’s called Ticket Only. This means that we're going to have about five tables of those who are having a meal and two tables of those who aren't. We decided to do Ticket Only as a number of people said that they'd like to come to the event but they either didn't want the meal or couldn't afford the meal. It didn't seem fair to exclude people from coming to the event simply because of the food element. I think it's become clear that we need a good five or six months to sell an event at the Great Green Barn well. This year, it's likely that each of the shows will have at least four months sales time if not six or more. We've already got shows scheduled and on sale in for the autumn, and I expect those to be near capacity. Anyway, back to today… Apart from getting to the plot to water the recently planted out broad beans, I got on with work work at my desk and also minuteing for a board meeting. This meant that Richard and myself (as Richard was coming with me) weren't able to leave until around 3pm - getting into rush hour. We got into Fenella and started the drive down to Shamley Green. There are various ways to go, and on Friday afternoon it seemed that each of these ways had blockages of traffic at one point or another, with the sat nav saying that it would take about 90 minutes to get down there - so I took it that it would take about two hours. In the end we decided to go straight down the M3, coming off near Aldershot and dropping down into the top of Guildford, through the city centre and then driving further south to reach Shamley Green. In the end I think it took us about two hours five minutes to get there - I guess not too bad on a Friday afternoon. When we walked into the Great Green Barn, I was really delighted to see that it looked so great; Vanessa and her helpers had worked hard and done a fantastic job in putting the tables out, laying them up, with each having a fabulous floral decoration with blooms and foliage from Vanessa's garden. The bar was also set up, which is where Richard and I would spend most of the evening, and Giorgos' of London’s The Life Goddess in Store Street had all the food prepared to finish off in the on-site Event Kitchen, before being plated and taken out to those having a meal.  Shortly after we arrived, the Guildford Shakespeare Company's cast and director arrived, and started blocking out how they’d work the show for that evening. I haven't been at a mixed performance event of tables and theater for quite some time. I've been to quite a bit of cabaret, though that’s mainly stage centered. This evening was always going to be a mix of promenade performance, with the actors in character bringing the customers sitting at the tables into the performance. Being a murder mystery evening, there was always going to be a lot of interrogation of the characters at the tables. That's how these evenings rumble.  Guildford Shakespeare Company cast of The Shakespeare Solitaire at the Great Green Barn. Photo by Richard Leighton (richardandpaul.com) With everything prepared, people started arriving around 6:30; a little earlier than expected. The thing is these people that arrived very early had not been to the Great Green Barn before, so they’d come early to make sure that they didn't get lost. That was absolutely fine, and we welcomed them through the great barn doors. They sat down at their table, ordered a few drinks, and twenty or so minutes later others started arriving too. By 7.25, five minutes before the show was to go up, everyone who had booked had arrived and Vanessa took to the stage to give a little speech, then the actors came out and it was ‘curtain up’
After about half an hour, the first course was served which was celeriac soup and a roll. Stupidly, we’d forgotten to get some gluten-free rolls so the three customers who were gluten intolerant, who had told us in advance, didn’t have a SØDT bread roll. This is a mistake that will not happen again! Vanessa apologised to each of the gluten-free customers personally, and they each took it in their stride, though this is something to note for the future. Once the soup bowls were cleared, the performance recommenced, which was further interrogation of the characters at the tables. After about another 20 minutes, there was another interval and the main course was served (a choice of Chicken in a Lemon Sauce or Feta Stuffed Aubergine - no vegans had booked). Within 40 minutes all main plates and cutlery was cleared then the performance began again, with a short break where puddings were served. The evening ended with the reveal of ‘who dunnit’ it just before 10pm. I have to say that despite actually working, and therefore not being able to partake directly in the interrogations, I really enjoyed the evening, and the Guildford Shakespeare Company did us proud. There were four mysteries to detect, including two murders - and I got three of the four. Happy Murder Mystery Days!! I didn’t hear one quibble about the evening, other than the missing gluten free rolls, and one table who bought a bottle of white wine and wanted an ice bucket, which was fair enough. The customers left in its usual orderly fashion, and that left us staff to do some clearing up… quite a bit of clearing up. There's another private event tomorrow evening, and the hall needs to be clear for that so the younger guys who were on hand cleared the tables out of the main hall and all of the chairs too. After about another half an hour, the hall was clear and partly prepared for tomorrow's event. Richard and I left just about this point, as we had to drive home. Everybody else lives locally or relatively locally so I think Vanessa was quite happy for us to get away because she knew we had at least an hour's drive back home, as the drive home most of the time is shorter than the drive there by at least 45 minutes. Thankfully, the M25 junction at Wisely was not yet closed (it’s fully closed this weekend with planned roadworks), even though I’d read it would be. This meant that we could go straight down the M25 and didn't have to go around the back roads that I sometimes have to drive down when the Wisley junction’s fully shut. We got home around half eleven, had an Ovaltine and watched Paranormal, the new series. Then it was time to get to bed. As I got between the sheets and duvet, picking up my book for a quick few pages, I breathed a huge sigh of relief that this heavy week was behind me, and that it had all gone extremely well. Happy Days!! Weather: A little bit of rain, though generally sunny and warm. Clear sky overnight. Breakfast: Bran sticks, yogurt, mashed banana Lunch: Microwave Frozen Mixed Veg Omelette, Pitta and Cucumber Supper: Spanakopita  7 March 2025 (Friday) Woke up remembering that I was going to be helping prune the cider orchard at the allotment site today... my heart sank, a little. I'm going to be doing it with the guy who makes the cider from the apples of our trees, and hoping that a couple of others will turn up as well. It wasn't that I didn't want to do it, it was just that I didn't really feel like doing it today, but it was in the diary, so… Doing a bit of work at my desk early on, I got a call from The Compost Centre (such nice guys!!!) to say that the bags of compost that I’d ordered about six weeks ago we're going to be delivered today…and then I remembered there's also a skip being delivered today at the allotment, which will be available for plotters to fill up over the weekend. At this point everything was feeling a little bit overwhelming. After breakfast, I got down to the allotment site and the skip had already been delivered. Yay!! I wasn't actually the one ordering the skip this time, so none of that organisation nor anxiety of if it would, when it would, would the driver be decent or frosty, fell to me. It's funny, maybe 10 years ago I wouldn't have had anxiety around things like I do now. I remember when my parents were in their 60s and they would get anxious about this or that, I’d say to them “Oh, don't worry about that. It's not a problem” or “Oh, I don't know why you're concerned about that”. And now, three decades on, I find I'm treading regularly in those anxiety footsteps of my parents, and have been for many years now. I'm not sure whether it's just the world moving too fast, or insecurity about doing things at my age that a decade ago I’d just have been a snip. But I appreciate my parents more and more as I get older… not in fits and jumps, but in a slow and happily progressive understanding of the life and knowledge they passed on through their words and actions; this understanding is rather comforting, as with ice cream slowly melting over hot apple pie. Anyway… After a little bit of weeding on the plot, a shout from a fellow plotter “Your man’s here!” and off to the gate I went… my fellow pruner had arrived and it was time to get to the site’s orchard. The trees haven’t been managed for a very long time. Four of them are of a variety that is particularly vigorous, and they’ve grown both too tall and too broad in the canopy. The area of the orchard is only three plots and has about 15 trees, so they’re packed a tad closer than is desired. I’m told the original idea was that they’d be kept pretty tight, with short productive branches and not allowed to grow beyond two meters in height. The guy who had these plots, and planted this orchard of apple trees almost two decades ago, himself succumbed to the decades. As he got older he was simply unable to manage the trees in the way they needed, both his mobility and health got in the way. The trees, largely unchecked, grew… and spread… and grew. Unless you're a tree, getting older isn’t much fun… maybe for some it is, though for most so many challenges arise that our younger selves would just shrug off, or put on our big boy pants and get on with. Anyway… These trees were pruned a little a few years ago, though they needed a concerted effort; we really needed to get into the trees and cut them back. Fortunately, this is what my fellow pruner and myself did, and the orchard looks significantly thinner now than it did when we began. Stupidly, as often happens with me, I didn't take any before shots so I’ve only the after shots. What’s clear from the arisings i.e the prunings of the trees, is that quite a lot has come off. We even took three or four large crowding limbs down, each about 15 foot long.  There were two main jobs planned: opening up the crown of the trees which had become relatively crowded out with growth, and cutting back the canopy of the most rigorous of the trees by about a third as they were encroaching into their neighbouring trees - canopy shyness was not a thing here!
I think we did a really good job, starting at 10.30am and then finishing around 1.15pm. In the end it was just myself and the cider man who were available to do it, though we cracked on and did the job, and did it well. Of course, there was a lot of arisings in a pile that will need to be processed at our next work social. Now, when I say processed, I mean the smaller branches of these prunings will be cut off and laid into a dead hedge, though the dead hedge may actually need to be another one that we create, just around the corner from the current one in the orchard as it’s pretty full already. Getting back home at around 1.30pm, I was pretty hungry. I’d taken a flask and a biscuit with me but just hadn't had time to have a break. So when I came in the door and Richard told me to wash my hands because he had a burger for me to try it was a big “Oh, yes please!” He's been really keen to create a burger from soya mince for some time, and the trial that he gave me was rather tasty, with a lovely crisp outside and soft inside. He wants it to be firmer inside than it was, so I can see more trials to come, which will be delicious! I went back to the allotment in the afternoon for an hour or so to just carry on with weeding, and then it was time for Richard’s Live at 6pm, before we had a swift broad bean and pesto pasta supper and sat down to some telly. Weather: Sunny much of the day, and warm - around 15°. Slightly cloudy from late afternoon. Breakfast: Bran sticks, yogurt, sultanas and sliced banana Lunch: Richard's trial soya burger, pitta, grated carrot and fried smoked tofu Supper: Frozen broad beans, some water, a chunk of garlic, and a tablespoon of miso slowly stewed and a half jar of Lidl pesto added at the end. Had with wholewheat spaghetti and grated cheddar.  7 February 2025 (Friday)
It’s grey, and is going to be so all day AND getting wet later so I’m glad that we got to Kew yesterday. I get on with some work work, which I try to keep off from doing on Friday's, though sometimes when the weather's not playing ball the best thing to do is work work at my desk and get ahead for the following day or, in this case, week. Tonight’s meal will be easy, as it’s the leftovers of two of last night’s meal items, Butterbean, Caramelised Red Onion & Carrot Stew and also the Braised Red Cabbage. Instead of baked potatoes though we'll be having wholemeal couscous (the wholemeal couscous being an absolute favourite of Richard). Now, this meal actually came together, or rather sort of did not come together two days ago, on Wednesday afternoon. I'd spent time at the plot and got back intending to cook the stew and the braised cabbage for our evening meal... though, basically, nothing went to plan! It happens sometimes, and I always think that inexperienced cooks might just give up, bin whatever's in the pan and reach for a phone to dial a meal to their door... however a meal's a meal and it's very unlikely that something delicious and edible won't come from a disaster of a cooking day! Butterbean, Caramelised Red Onion & Carrot Stew I’d already soaked the dried butter beans (250g) for a day, changing the water three times. As I was back from the plot later than I'd expected, I thought I'd speed up the cooking by giving the butter beans a quick pre-cook in the Instant Pot (High Pressure for 20 minutes). I could then add them to the caramelised onions and carrots and pop in the oven to finish off for an hour... best laid plans, etc. Whilst the butter beans were having a pre-cook I sauteed red onion slowly in the casserole on the stovetop in a tablespoon of olive oil. Once they'd began to soften and brown, I added six carrots that had been cut into hefty slices, and a few tablespoons of apple juice from a measure of 500ml (two cups). I gave all a good stir, brought to a bubble and then popped the lid on… at this point forgetting to turn the heat down to a low simmer! About fifteen minutes later, as I sat in the middle room engrossed in my book, a delicious smell of onions, sweet apple, carrots and a background of butter beans was wafting through the air. Yum! As Cal McGill was fending off the calls of journalists (The Sea Detective - very much worth a read!) my nose picked up another smell... a slight burning smell… definitely NOT yum!! Jumping quickly from my chair, I immediately realised I'd lost track of time AND not set any timer and, on lifting the lid, saw the mixture had dried out rather a lot as I’d also left it on too high a heat by mistake. The result was the red onion was WELL caramelised… as were quite a few chunks of the carrots. However, not to be beaten I took the pan off the heat, added the rest of the apple juice and popped the lid on immediately. Now, adding the apple juice would deglaze the pan, though to what extent all would be burnt I’d have to wait and see. After five minutes, I lifted the lid, gave all a stir, and saw that this was not a lost cause... it very rarely is. I added two level teaspoons of mixed herbs, took the butter beans out of the Instant Pot with a slotted spoon and popped them into the casserole, and then added two tablespoons of miso, carefully stirring it thoroughly until the paste was fully dispersed. Then I added about another 500ml of the cooking liquid from the Instant Pot to the casserole, stirred through then popped the lid on and then into the oven at 160c for an hour or so. With all the delays and the kerfuffle of me having a bad cooking day, I changed Wednesday’s meal to something simple, and we had the casserole on Thursday and Friday night instead. So, back to today and I put the oven on to reheat the casserole - again about 160° - and as the oven was going to be on for another hour or so, I popped two proper baking potatoes in the to have with the stew, and wanted another veg too, so I did a Braised Red Cabbage in the Instant Pot. Braised Red Cabbage (Instant Pot / Pressure Cooker version) This is a delicious spiced braised red cabbage. Ingredients 1 red onion (225g), chopped 1 lb red cabbage (450g), core removed, quartered and each quarter sliced thinly 75g sultanas (optional) 1/2 cup apple juice 4 cloves garlic 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp ground cloves 1 tbsp honey 2 tbsp cider vinegar 1 tbs liquid aminos or soy sauce Salt & Pepper if needed and as desired Method Put the ingredients into the Instant Pot cooking bowl in the order listed. Lock the lid, turn the steam vent to 'sealing' and set the cook time to 5 minutes at High Pressure. After it has come to heat and pressure, and after it has cooked for the requisite time, manually release the pressure with a wooden spoon. You could cook on high pressure for 3 minutes and then let it do a natural release instead. If you wanted to cook this on a hob instead of a pressure cooker I would expect it to take 30 minutes on a lowish heat (make sure you bring it to a bubble first), stirring every five minutes, and with a lid on. Weather: Grey, getting rather wet. Around 5°. Breakfast: Bran Sticks, yogurt, oat milk, a few freeze-dried strawberries Lunch: A soup of a small portion of curry from the freezer, defrosted and mashed and mixed with soften red lentils, homemade hummus, pitta, carrot batons and cucumber slices Supper: Butterbean, Caramelised Red Onion & Carrot Stew, Couscous, Braised Red Cabbage - apart from the coucous leftovers from yesterday.  7 January 2025 (Tuesday)
A frosty start to the morning, albeit slightly milder than I’d expected having seen the sub 0° forecast, yet certainly a more frustrating start too… as the plug sockets in our bedroom had stopped working. In all honesty, we’ve needed an electrician for a number of jobs about the house for some years. One significant job that needs doing is our cooker hood needs changing, as it’s not worked properly in years! The thing is this type of work being needed and done brings about much anxiety for us both. You see, sorting things like this are so far out of our comfort zone, and we don’t have our own little black book with the names of all the trusty tradesmen a house of this age needs. And, of all the professionals around, who can you trust? However, I guess now is the time to get the ball rolling on these jobs, as the sockets absolutely need to be sorted. Two options, one electrician who’s worked for a neighbour and one suggestion from our road’s WhatsApp group - and I’ve gone for the latter as the person recommended lives in our road. A quick call to him got his voicemail, and then a return call within minutes, which obviously bode well. He said he was working locally all day, though would pop over after his day’s work was done, at about 5pm, and have a look - if it was something simple he’d sort it, or if it needed more work we could discuss options. With this call, my anxiety was receding… for the time-being at least! The day wore on… hours of desk work first thing, a conference calI, lunch, a WhatsApp video call, a visit to the allotment, and the making of a pot of tea. It’s now mid evening, and coincidentally we have no electricity whatsoever, and I’m totally anxiety free! Our new-found friendly near neighbour electrician arrived as promised around 5.20pm, texting thirty minutes beforehand (again, as promised) to give us a better idea of when he’d arrive. Now, despite me not knowing him, I do now know where he lives, and over the years he and I have nodded at each other in passing, the way many neighbours who know their distant neighbours do… or is it just men who do this? This afternoon, after almost two decades of nodding, we finally met as he came through our front door to save the day, like a knight in shining armour, bedroom socket-wise at least! After testing and unscrewing faceplates, our issue was found to be a wire that had worked itself loose over the years. It turned out to be a relatively simple task to resolve, for a professional electrician that is! Whilst this sparky knight got our sockets working, we chatted, laughed, listened and learnt. It turned out neighbour’s rates were the currency of the day, and many thanks were also given. He’ll be back to do a few more jobs at some point, and all with far less anxiety for us than we initially had today. BUT, that wasn’t the end of the power shenanigans for the day, as not an hour later we had a power outage; a sheer coincidence and nothing to do with how our day had been saved. Fortunately, I had cooked rice in the Instant Pot and heated through defrosted falafel from the freezer by poaching them in a homemade tomato sauce. I also had a small saucepan of carrots, sliced and cooked through. At 18:35, all the lights went out, and all the sockets too… and the street light outside our house. However, looking out I noticed some neighbours had lights on still, and some street lights shone still too… but, a power outage it was. On checking the Scottish & Southern Electricity Network Power Track Map, I saw it was very localised, and for inexplicable reasons only affecting one in three homes… the downside was we were one of those one in three and it could take up to six hours to fix! So, as I write this, we’re two and a half hours into the power outage, and we’re cosy, have eaten a nutritious warm supper, are surrounded by candles and have fleeces and blankets draped over us. Despite the challenges of the day, I’m thankful for our situation, knowing many, many others have it far, far, far worse. Weather: Sunny… though the cold is really developing. It will definitely be sub 0° tonight. Breakfast: Bran Sticks, Yogurt, Banana Lunch: Minestrone Soup (tinned) and leftover leftovers of Sunday. Quorn Chicken Slices in Sandwiches, with cucumber and radish. Supper: Falafel (homemade, though from the freezer), reheated in a tomato sauce, served with boiled till soft carrots on brown rice. |
Paul SavidentFollowing on from A Guernsey Gardener in London, I've decided to try and write a regular blog, and we'll see how it AND 2025 go! Archives
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