Category: cooking

Today I went shopping – 22 September 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp wasn’t feeling very bright and cheery, so I offered to do the Monday shop.

She very kindly made a list of everything we needed and even recited the list in the places I’d find them in Tesco. That meant I didn’t have to wander all round the shop looking for butter when I was in the aisle for orange juice. I appreciated that Scamp.

That didn’t take too long because I was out early … well, earlyish! But there were very few folk browsing the shelves, so I was done and dusted in half an hour at the most. Not so lucky when I was looking for petrol for the wee blue car, because the pumps were either displaying the yellow NO PETROL signs or there was a long queue waiting for fuel. I decided I wasn’t that desperate, and drove home to have lunch.

After lunch, and assured that Scamp wasn’t feeling that bad, I was encouraged to go for a walk. I chose to go up to Fannyside Moor to see if there was anything interesting to snap. I almost bumped into a dragonfly, a black one – can’t remember its name and then watched a field of bullocks running about in one of the fields. Finally got the photo I wanted of a group of cows watching me and making sure I wasn’t doing anything that needed to be referred to the farmer. PoD captured.

Drove home, remembering that I didn’t need to hurry, because Kirsty had cancelled today’s dance class because she was too busy working in her house. Instead, I took my time back home and made Oozy Tuna and Apple Pasta Bake From the Mowgli book. It was a bit complicated, because it told me to par-cook the spaghetti then cut it up into bit sized pieces before completing the cooking for 15 minutes. It looked a bit strange and sweet, but other than that it was fine.

Scamp is intending to get a Covid test kit tomorrow, just to be sure, because she’s meeting two groups of friends in the next few days and then we have friends coming for lunch on Friday. She say’s she’s fine and she does sound a lot better tonight, but she’s just making sure …

Other than that, no plans for tomorrow.

A busy day – 20 August 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Much of my work had been done yesterday. Today was Scamp’s day.

I took the easy way out and drove to Glasgow. I’d a shirt to exchange at Slaters which was easily accomplished and that left me enough time to get my hair cut and my beard trimmed . Much easier getting somebody who knows what he’s doing to do the work than trying to work with cutters and scissors while staring intently in the mirror. I also managed to find time to source some white chocolate for the topping of the cake Scamp was baking. Easy, especially if you’ve planned your route in advance.

Not so easy was getting to Glasgow in the first place and getting home again as the council had decided the roundabout at the bottom of the road needed a sprucing up, complete with 4-way traffic lights. There had been no notice this was happening, so it was a nice surprise!! Ratbags!

When I got home, after another 15 minute delay, stuck in the queue, I realised I’d forgotten to get olives. Rather than face the queue again, I walked down to the shops and got the olives, then got soaked walking home.

After a change of clothes I was given the job of finding, and clearing, the table in the living room where it lay hidden under a pile of magazines, cables, SSDs, a computer and assorted rubbish (all mine). Then finding a place to put said rubbish where I’d find it again when needed.

After that I helped out in the kitchen with the fiddly bits of dressing the Portobello mushrooms for the starter and re-heating the main course I’d made yesterday while Scamp made the pudding. All achieved just in time to welcome John & Marion.

Dinner was:
Starter: Portobello Mushrooms with Cheese, Spinach and Parma Ham
Main: Chicken Tagine
Dessert: Baked Apricot Brioche.

It was a good night. Lots to discuss. The new grandchild for J&M, Erin. John’s new car, (although he says it’s Marion’s), a Renault Clio and a hybrid to boot! Holidays were discussed and days away too. Much later than any of us intended we let them go and we started the clearing up.

Another glass of wine for Scamp and a small whisky for me and it was time for bed.

PoD was a view looking down Buchanan Street from the opposite side of the subway entrance.

Plans for tomorrow will start with whoever is making breakfast, switching on the dish washer. I’m intending meeting Alex for a photowalk in Glasgow.

A busy day – 13 January 2024

Posted on by Zogman

It was a busy day today. I was lucky, I was only making the main course, while Scamp was making starter and dessert. Dinner would be about 7.30pm, but the work started about 11am, in fact, Scamp’s dessert was started yesterday and left to infuse overnight.

Once the kitchen was cleared, I powered up the Instant Pot and got it to fry the chicken. That was a mistake, because it’s difficult to get the heat at the right setting. Too low and it just stews the chicken, too high and it burns, and there are only three settings. Even the middle setting is a bit fierce. In the end, I used the wok to fry the chicken. Ten chicken thighs done in three batches. For some reason the three onions that were to be sliced and fried worked perfectly in the pot! Some things work better than others. From there in, it was just a case of following the recipe and after about 45 minutes everything was working well and the Instant Pot was in Slow Cooker mode and just chugging along.

We’d missed a couple of ingredients, so I volunteered to drive to Tesco to get them while Scamp worked on at the ice cream. When I returned, we began deep frying the haggis bonbon starters. Scamp formed them and fried them while I transferred them to the kitchen paper on a tin in the oven.

By the afternoon we could have lunch and rest a while, knowing that everything was fairly well under control and working. Later in the afternoon I took a camera out for a walk in St Mo’s and got a decent view over the pond with the clouds reflecting on the water. PoD in the bag.

It was nearly 8pm before Crawford & Nancy arrived. While I was at Tesco, I’d bought half a dozen bottles of beer, because I know Crawford likes his beer, only to find that he had nominated himself driver for the night! Ok, not a disaster, because I can always drink a bottle of beer!

Dinner was Haggis Bonbons for starter with Chicken Tagine for main, then Homemade Yoghurt Ice cream for pudding. The tagine was a bit tasteless, but the rest was lovely.

It was a great night, even if I did eat and drink too much and we said goodnight to them just before midnight. That left us about half an hour to load the dishwasher for morning and go to bed. Tired, but fairly happy.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go dancing at Brookfield.