Category: Food

Lazy – 28 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Today was the exact opposite of yesterday, thankfully.

Scamp was up and cleaning the pots and trays from last night’s dinner. I helped out and stacked away the plates. Then Scamp was off to FitSteps. The first class in more than a month. While she was away I scrubbed out the remaining pots and trays and then got on with yesterday’s blog which you regular readers will know happens a lot, especially after a late night.

After her exercise and my blogging we had pizza for lunch then some more reorganising, but gentle reorganising. I managed to find some of the stuff I stashed away yesterday. Some of it is still there and will be returned to the living room when I need it in an attempt to reduce the clutter.

All that done, the idea for today was to relax and I think we deserved it after yesterday’s cooking and baking. Dinner tonight ended up being Fish Fingers, Egg and Spaghetti with a couple of fried potatoes on the side. A bit different from last night.

PoD was a shot of a bunch of pansies growing in the back garden. I managed to get just one of them in sharp focus. Unfortunately that was simply luck. I’d like to say I did it on purpose, but it wasn’t! Maybe it’s just me, but I always think pansies and violas have human-like faces. These ones look fierce.

Hoping for a similarly lazy day with a bit of dancing thrown in.

A busy day – 27 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

A day that started fairly slowly, then accelerated.

After Wordle and Spelling Bee and a cup of coffee in the morning, I finally posted some of my recent photos to Alex. I’d meant to send them on Monday, but didn’t have the time. Told him yesterday that I’d post them that night but left it too late, but today they flew into the ether in two batches. Found the box for the A6000 and checked that all (most) of the bits and pieces were there. Did some last minute shopping later in the morning. Stew in the Instant Pot was set to Low and allowed to cook in slow cooker mode. Scamp made the Coffee and Brandy Trifles and then it was lunch. After lunch Scamp made the starters Portobello Mushrooms with Parma Ham then started hoovering downstairs while I dusted shelves and window sills then carted all my accoutrements (rubbish) upstairs to where I hoped I’d be able to find them again when I needed them!

Simonne texted to say that she was finished a bit earlier than she’d expected and arrived in mid afternoon. That left lots of time for Scamp to interrogate here about what was happening down south and also to break the news that Crawford and Nancy would be joining us. That didn’t faze her at all, I never thought it would. We talked for quite a while before the other two arrived.

Lots more to catch up on with Crawford’s eye injury. Who knew a floater in your eye could tear away the retina or that it could be laser ‘stitched’ back in place! My part in the dinner was the stew that would have potatoes and cabbage as an accompaniment while Scamp had a lentil stew instead. Lots more stories to tell after dinner but Simonne had to leave to drive back to her hotel in Edinburgh for a couple of hours sleep before her early flight the next day. We said our goodbyes and she drove away with the agreement that she’d come and stay the next time business brought her up north.

Crawford and I had a whisky later because Nancy was driving today. They also left a bit earlier than usual because Nancy was driving down to Wales in the morning and Crawford was following later in the day.

The dishwasher did the heavy lifting later and the rest was left until morning.

PoD was one of Scamp’s alliums with the seed buds just opening.

Tomorrow, a more relaxing day would be good.

 

 

A walk around Glasgow – 26 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Today I was meeting Alex for a walk around Glasgow and Scamp was off meeting the rest of the Witches for coffee.

I took the bus in to Glasgow today. Scamp had suggested I drive to the station and get the train, but a leisurely trip on the bus with a lady telling me the story of the Sinister Booksellers of Bath via my headphones was ideal for today. I was brave and only took the new A6500 with a couple of spare lenses. No big heavy A7iii with its collection of heavyweight glass today.

We started a long rambling walk by going down to Cathedral Street to see the new murals that had appeared and the College of Building & Printing which is currently being demolished. On the way back in the general direction of the bus station we passed the metalwork that guards the Buchanan Galleries carpark. The shapes in the artwork always intrigue me and one shot of it made PoD. We walked up Sauchiehall Street to Charing Cross without seeing much worth photographing, but a visit to the Mitchell Library just over the M8 motorway gave us some interesting views up and down the staircase. It also gave us a new place for lunch in the airy ground floor. From there we walked on to take a look at the Sikh Gurdwara where I ran out of space on my card. Something that hasn’t happened to me for ages. Luckily I’d packed a spare.

We walked further on, but the light just wasn’t there today, so instead we turned and walked back into the city centre. A cup of coffee later and we were heading for the bus home. Our long rambling walk had taken about four hours and accrued just over 14,000 steps.

Back home Scamp and after dinner I started the preparations for tomorrows meal. I was in charge of cooking the 600g of stew. Browned in the Le Creuset and then transferred to the Instant Pot to slow cook for three hours. I’ll let it cool overnight and do the rest of the cooking tomorrow.

We’re expecting our visitor to arrive tomorrow afternoon, so the morning will probably be busy.

The Auld Guys – 25 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Coffee, Sarcasm and Laughs. That’s what the Auld Guys are best at.

In the morning I drove Scamp up to the town centre to get her nails redone for Saturday. Back home I had time for a shower and browse through my photos on Flickr before Scamp returned with shiny pink nails and a smile on her face. These were non-sparkly nails this time Hazy.

Now I was driving over to Abronhill to pick up Val and we were meeting Fred for coffee in Costa. This was a Return of the Auld Guys. We’ve not met up for probably more than a year, and to be honest, probably not since Covid put an end to meetings entirely for two years! I think we all enjoyed the banter and the blether. Val’s in a wheel chair and I can see that he’s not happy about it, but at least he can get around with it, if slowly. The chair folds up quite neatly and fits in the back of the car quite comfortably. Fred was his usual charming self, and yes, that was sarcasm. After a couple of hours we were talked out and I drove Val back home where Jeanette was waiting for him.

I went home via Tesco where I’d been given a shopping list to bring back because Scamp was baking shortbread today. This was the first switching on of the new food processor. It was certainly efficient at mixing the butter flour and sugar and beating it into submission. With the shortbread in the oven, Scamp washed and dried the bowls of the machine and then demonstrated the fine slicing of a courgette. We didn’t really need sliced courgette today, but we’ve got in a little Tupperware box, just in case we find a use for it, yes, more sarcasm!

We were going to need some meat for Thursday, so we drove over to Muirhead to stock up on more meat and fish than we really needed, but the meat, especially in that shop is so enticing, I always buy too much. Drove there on the motorway and came back the scenic route, on the wee narrow country roads that Scamp hates but the views of the Campsies took her mind off that.

Back home again, I took the A6500 out for a walk in St Mo’s and found a strange wee yellow insect. It turned out to be the nymph of a Bronze Sheildbug. I’d never seen one before, but Google Images found it right away and confirmed its existence.

Yesterday I’d quite fancied the Mushroom and Bacon Carbonara at The Bothy and today, for dinner, I made my take on what I thought it would look like.

That was about it for a fairly well filled day. The shortbread, by the way, was probably the lighted Scamp has made in a long time.

I’m probably meeting Alex for coffee and serious camera talk and Scamp is booked for coffee with one of her ex-workmates.

 

Lunch at the Bothy – 24 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

After Wordle and Spelling Bee were done, the day was our own.

But first, even before Wordle, there was a big cardboard box to open, and inside as … another big cardboard box. Inside that was the usual amount of bumf you get when you buy something fairly expensive. “READ ME FIRST” was on the first page, so that was put to the side to read later. Next the inevitable expanded polystyrene to unpack and crumble into the carpet, then more bumf to read at a later date and finally the food processor was revealed in all its shiny plastic glory. Oh yes, and we got a recipe book, not an app to download and install on our phone, but an honest to goodness recipe book and a hard back one to boot! We might read that later, mainly because it didn’t scream at us “READ ME FIRST”!

While Scamp went into the kitchen to wash all the bowls and the lethal looking cutters and slicers, I read through some of the paperwork and some of the recipes. It’s amazing the variety of breads, cakes and soups you can make in one of these clever devices. I may even attempt some of them sometime.

Satisfied that all the washable bits had been washed and dried and after reading the recipe book and completing Wordle and Spelling Bee, Scamp suggested we go out to lunch as we’d planned at The Bothy just outside Stirling. As usual these days we were handed a buzzer and told to browse round the shop. Not long afterwards our buzzer buzzed. I did quite fancy the Mushroom and Bacon Carbonara on the ‘specials’ board, but inevitably I ordered the Sri Lankan Lamb Curry and Scamp had Mac ’n’ Cheese as I suspected. Two coffees to wash it down and two ginormous Cream Donuts to take home in a box.

Scamp was looking for another rose, but not for us this time and she wanted a pot to replant “Harley” the Harlequin Berberis we thought we’d lost in the June heatwave. It’s not quite recovered its variegation yet, but maybe once it’s repotted it will regain its colour. We drove round the outskirts of Stirling to Dobbies, but they had none of the rose variety she was looking for. We did get a heather plant to replace one that had died in June, a pop-up bin for the garden and a packet of basil seeds for me to plant.

I thought there was just a chance that we’d find the rose in Calders in Cumbersheugh, so we went there on our way home. Scamp knows one of the gardeners and she asked him if he had any and thankfully he had. A bit of local knowledge goes a long way, and it’s a true saying “It’s now what you know, but who you know. A quick visit to Tesco on the way home and we were done, or nearly.

I hadn’t a photo of the day so far, so back home I got my boots out and took the A6500 out with the big clumsy 105mm macro lens and in about an hour I took 130 photos. Most were rubbish, but I did capture a male Common Darter dragonfly. I’ve been keeping a careful eye on the battery performance of the new camera and it’s actually almost within the parameters that are advertised for it, so not such a big problem as I initially thought.

That was a good day. Weather wasn’t all that good, but it stayed dry all day. Scamp’s off to get her nails done again. I’m hoping to do an Auld Guys coffee morning tomorrow with Val and Fred.

Shifting Sheep – 23 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Well, not exactly shifting sheep, but they played their part later in the day.

After a fair bit of soul searching I eventually decided to take the new camera out to take photos. Not to do some testing this time, just go out somewhere and take photos. Fannyside was my destination. It’s quiet, has the potential for wonderful landscapes and I can walk and talk to myself without bothering anyone.  It did very well, even if it wasn’t a test!

Scamp was making a cherry pie today with the remainder of the cherries we’d been eating for past few days. Yesterday she removed the stones and today she was going to make the pie. The only thing in the recipe she didn’t have was cherry jam and as I would be passing Tesco on my way to Fannyside, I volunteered to buy a jar. Who knew there were so many flavours of jam but, it appeared, only one kind of cherry jam. With the purchase in the boot of the car, I set off to Fannyside.

It was a lovely bright breezy Fannyside today. Lots of blue sky and fluffy clouds. I walked up the road almost to the farm and got a collection of photos. Some with the ultra-wide angle lens, some with the standard lens and a few with the telephoto. Of the three, the ultra-wide is the best one and it has the widest range. I’ve hardly used the telephoto zoom and when I have, I’ve been disappointed with the results. Not so today. A panorama made with the tele was far and away the best shot, but it felt a bit empty.

Back home Scamp had made the short crust pastry for the pie, but was wondering how long her old Magimix food processor would last. The lid has been cracked for a while, and every time she clips it on to the body of the machine, that crack get bigger. She had started looking for replacement lids, then began thinking about maybe replacing it entirely. We searched the internet to get an idea of the variety of food processors available these days. We reckon the old one must be around 30 years old, and things have changed. I eventually convinced her to go to JL to see and touch the machines. That’s quite an important thing to us ‘oldies’. We like to actually see what we’re buying. Ok, sometime we look in a shop, see what the thing looks like then end up buying it off Amazon because it’s cheaper there. John Lewis had a fair amount of food processors on display and among them was one Scamp had her eye on. It wasn’t the one she’d initially set out to get, but it ticked all her boxes and was a fair bit smaller than the one we had. Having carried it up the two flights of stairs to the car, I can verify that it’s a heavy piece of kit too!

Back home she ignored it because the pie needed to go in to the oven. While she was engaged in this task, I processed today’s photos, all 92 of them! The landscape panorama was a potential PoD, but it looked so bare. I’d taken some photos of the wild looking sheep in a different field at Fannyside and back home I pasted the sheep into the panorama and that breathed a bit of life into what was an otherwise dull landscape! PoD sorted.

Dinner was Salmon with broccoli and potatoes, followed by that lovely cherry pie. Half of it was consumed tonight and that leaves another half for tomorrow.

Spoke to Jamie tonight and heard about his part in a marathon race. His leg was a five mile run while others were running a variety of distances. I liked the idea of a marathon relay!

Tomorrow we may go for a drive somewhere nice for lunch.

Slippin’ and a Slidin’ – 22 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

We were dancing in a restricted floor today. About a third of the floor was cordoned off because of the risk of sliding on a very slippery floor. Something to do with a kids party last week.

Only four couples and the teachers so the reduced dancing space wasn’t really much of a problem. Nobody seemed to know what had been applied to the floor, presumably to clean up after last week’s kids party, but it did make the floor quite slippy. Thankfully resourceful Jane had a solution. She poured some water in the corner of the area we were dancing in and encouraged everyone to dip their shoes in it and then wipe it off. It was supposed to make the suede soles more grippy, and it worked!

Two sequence dances to begin with then we launched into the nitty gritty of the Rumba routine we’ve been learning. We knew the figures in the rumba, but these were the little nuances, what Tom Paxton called “the John Wayne dance steps”, the details. If you don’t know who Tom Paxton is, Google him! We learned a lot, especially from Jayne’s instructions, but also from watching Stuart’s footwork. It brought the Rumba to life and made us feel we were ‘dancing’ it, not just going through the motions.

Another sequence dance to allow us to clear our heads, then a little Cha-Cha routine that was composed almost entirely from figures we already knew. I think this was a hastily ‘invented’ cha-cha to have something that could be danced within the reduced area we had available. We picked up most of it and Scamp filmed the demo and shared it on the class WhatsApp page, so we all have something to work on. Again there was an emphasis on the quality of the steps. This may be because we’re booked for a trip to the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool soon!

We drove home along a busy M8, but one without roadworks or 40mph restrictions. Oh Joy! We went to Tesco when we got home because I quite fancied a roll ’n’ sausage, but either the bakers were on strike or the ovens had packed in, but there were no rolls to be had, not real rolls, anyway. They had soft baps, but they’re not real rolls, not Scottish Roll! So it had to be a plain sliced loaf instead.

Dinner had been discussed on the drive home and we settled on Chicken & Pea Traybake. Simplicity itself unless you are scaling it up to feed six as we were a year or two ago in Cumbria. Thankfully it was only the two of us today and all the requirements were available in Tesco.

I was going to go for a walk in St Mo’s after lunch, but there was a soaking drizzle by then and I wasn’t interested in getting wet just to take some photos, so instead I took some photos in the garden instead. I still got wet, yes, but at least it wasn’t far to go to get into the dry again. PoD went to a bunch of daisies. I liked the fact that when I’d strimmed this area in the garden yesterday, I’d deliberately missed the daisies. I hate to chop them down, the are such survivors!

Tomorrow looks better than today, but there are no certainties about the weather these days.

Another box arrives – 21 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was out early to go to the dentist to get phase two of her tooth replacement completed. This one involved two injections and a reshaping of the old tooth to take the new ceramic crown. Also she had x-rays taken and an impression made. The procedure lasted just under an hour and a sorry looking Scamp arrived home with that numb mouth we’ve all suffered at some time.

Meanwhile there was a knock at the door just after 9pm and there stood a man holding a big cardboard box with my name on it. It was a new camera, well, it was a second-hand camera really. I rarely buy new now. It was a Sony A6500 first announced in 2016, so it is old, but not ancient. It will replace the A6000 I’ve had for a few years. I’m selling the A6000 to offset the price of the new kit. I had a look over the new camera and it does all the things I want it to and a few other things as well. I think it’s a keeper, but I’ve only had a few hours in a busy day to play test it. Over the weekend I’m hoping to find a dry hour or so in the midst of all the rain that’s predicted to test it out more fully.

 

When Scamp returned and after her mouth had thawed out, I though it might be a good idea to walk down to Broadwood Farm for lunch. I’d had their carvery a couple of times and fish ’n’ chips the last time. Both were perfectly fine and good value for what we paid. The fact that I could also have a pint of Tennents had no bearing on the matter at all. Anyway, today I had one of their pizzas. I think they made a mistake with the pizza. I think they baked the cardboard box and threw away the pizza. It was totally tasteless and running with oil from the pepperoni. Never again.

After we walked back Scamp wanted to cut the grass front and back. I moved all the pots from the front of the front garden to allow her to run the mower down the edge of the tarmac path, then I replaced them. Once she’d finished mowing the front and was emptying the mower, I strimmed around the other three sided of the front grass. Then I strimmed round the pots in the back garden. I don’t mind the strimming, it is hard on my back, but I hate cleaning the mower afterwards.. The actual cutting of the grass takes about 10 – 15 minutes. Cleaning the mower afterwards can take half an hour. There must be a better way to do this.

By then I was thinking I might take the new camera over and introduce it to St Mo’s. It performed quite well, although the battery power diminished very quickly. Admittedly I’d been adjusting settings quite a lot that mean the rear screen is on a lot and that uses a fair bit of power. It’s something I’ll check in the coming week. PoD was a cluster of caterpillars high up in a tree. I think they are the caterpillars of the Buff Tip Moth, but I’m not sure.

The weather predictions for the weekend don’t look great. Lots of rain for most of the UK. I think our first lot is due tonight, so it might be a wet drive to dance class tomorrow. Other than that, no real plans.

Gardening, shopping and organising – 18 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Not necessarily in that order, so it’s probably best to get things sorted by date and time.

The shopping came first. I wanted a bag of rolls to enclose the sausages I was intending to cook for my lunch. That meant a trip to Tesco, because The Shops only sell soft bap rolls, not the crispy Scottish rolls we like. So I drove up to Tesco to get the rolls, milk and also some raspberries for Scamp. While I was there I had a look at their selection of hardback books. I’m not entirely sold on my most recent Kindle book, so I might go for something mainstream for a change. Must ask John who the author he told me about is (and write it down this time). So no books for now, but I did get the milk, rolls and rasps. One roll with ordinary sausage and one with red onion sausage. I think the red onion sausage was the better of the two. Scamp had her usual one roll ’n’ egg.

With the afternoon came a shower of rain that looked as if it was going to be heavy and prolonged, so we took the nearly dry washing in. Of course that was what it was waiting for and the rain promptly stopped. Meanwhile I was making tomato soup. Scamp bought two packs of tomatoes that had been reduced in Tesco on Sunday and yesterday I roasted them with an onion and some oil for an hour to concentrate the taste. Today all I had to do was add a litre of water, two stock pots, a tin of tomatoes and a cup water, bring to the boil and simmer for an hour. That left time for mixing up some seaweed fertiliser (disgusting stuff) and giving all the plants front and back a bit of a feed. Meanwhile Scamp was pruning the climbing rose in the back garden. I used the loppers to chop down the higher branches she couldn’t reach, accidentally slicing off two branches with buds still unopened. One of them Scamp managed to retrieve and put in a glass with water on the window ledge. It will open. She has a knack for these things.

We walked down to the shops to get the makings of a stir fry for dinner. Back home the soup had been cooling, and I blitzed it so we could have it as a starter for dinner.

I’ve been meaning to phone Val and take him for coffee. This week I went one further I got Val to set a date and then told Fred who said he was free that day too. So we three are going out for coffee together next week, for the first time in ages – fingers crossed.

I went for a walk around St Mo’s while Scamp interrogated June over the phone about her weekend with Shona. I’m glad to say the bus trip went well. My photography gave me a few insect photos, one of which got PoD. Must get out and do more landscape photos. Insects are ok, but this time of year is great for landscapes too.

The soup was the best I’ve made for a while, but the stir fry didn’t turn out all that well. The pork which was the protein in my share was a bit tough and Scamp’s veggy version was just a bit too spicy hot for comfort and also she thought the veg needed more cooking. I had to agree about the veg, but the sauce was just spicy enough for me. Foodies! Never happy.

So, you see, Gardening, Shopping and Organising, but not necessarily in that order!

Tomorrow if the weather is favourable we may go out somewhere.  Otherwise we’ve got some more shopping to do.

More rain again – 16 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

It seems we are in a cyclic weather pattern. Wet in the early morning which continues to mid afternoon when the sky brightens a bit and the rain gradually fades out. By evening, around 7pm the sky clears and there is colourful sunset. By late evening and into the night the clouds reappear and the cycle continues.

This pattern has continued for more than a week now with little change and we’re really becoming quite fed up with it. I think it’s time the powers that be had a word with the weather fairies and told them to get the finger out and give us July sunshine in July. That’s what we pay our taxes for and we’re just not getting value for money! Get It Sorted.

Today followed that pattern, albeit with the addition of some wind, surplus from that presently being handed out to those in the south west of the UK. We had two plans for today. One for a damp day and one for a dry one. We implemented the Damp Day Plan and drove up to Tesco to “Get the Messages”. Came home with a boot fairly full of essential foods, beverages plus assorted household stuff.

After lunch I took my recently waxed boots for a walk in St Mo’s along with the A7 and the big, heavy macro lens. I was looking for ‘beasties’. I got one long shot of a Common Darter dragonfly and just over 30 shots of a Wolf Spider. That’s what happens when you forget that you’ve set the High Speed Motorwind. Even worse, I had switched the camera to ‘silent shooting’, so I didn’t even have the machine gun noise to warn me that I was filling up the SD card at a frightening rate with shots I’d just had to ditch in the bin later. No wonder the camera felt heavier when I was going home. I’d dressed for the rain we’d been promised, but the weather fairies got it wrong again and I was sweltering in a, supposedly, breathable rain jacket. Still, I did get the shot of Wolfie, the female wolf spider with her egg sac dragging behind her.

Dinner was Fennel with Cod and Prawns. It’s a long time since I’ve made it and, even if I say so myself, it tasted great. Even better was the fact that there were individual pots of ice cream for dessert! Scamp had Salted Caramel and I had Chocolate.

Spoke to Jamie after dinner and heard that we may indeed be getting a visit from Simonne this coming week as she’s on a whirlwind tour of labs in Central Scotland. Also heard that the plans for the new roof of their house may not be ready in time to get it replaced until spring. The wheels of English Heritage do turn slowly.

Watched Sewing Bee later and commiserated with the contestant who didn’t quite make it to the semi-final. Good to hear in the news that Djokovic was beaten by Alcaraz in the mens final at Wimbledon.

Hopefully we’ll get some good weather tomorrow and we’ll be using the Dry Day plan!