in the kitchen, that is. I posted a few weeks ago how I felt like I was in a cooking rut and had invited people over for lunch on Easter Monday to put that to bed. My MOJO is back—I hope. The lunch was fantastic. I made Salted tomatoes with tomato and white bean dip (from the Tenderheart cookbook, post to come), slow roasted lamb shoulder, Greek lemon roast potatoes, roasted carrots, Hellenic Republic’s Cypriot Grain Salad and Carrot-almond polenta cake with lemon drizzle (also from the Tenderheart cookbook). There were ten of us—G and I, the kids and four friends. One friend bought a grated salad and another Rocky Road. It was all washed down by a variety of drinks included sparkling white and a couple of bottles of red. Good times were had by all.
There’s still been a few days where I stand there wondering what to cook for dinner. I think most of my meh feelings were because of the constancy of the what’s for dinner question. Anyway I feel like I just need to make sure we have people over or other opportunities for me to take some time out to cook. I don’t need to cook something special everyday but I do need to occasionally cook something that inspires me, otherwise cooking becomes a drag.
In other news, there’s no turning back now …
I’ve almost managed two complete weeks of training after my second virus this year. I need to stop getting sick and avoid getting injured.
Since I netted all my tomatoes I’ve managed to get some ripe tomatoes but a few weeks ago G came in and told me something was now eating my almost ripe mandarins. I netted it but obviously not well enough because now all the mandarins with any kind of orange have been eaten out. I have netted the tree up more tightly to protect the few remaining ones that haven’t been eaten. I thought I had another piece of netting but I think G blew it around with the blower, left it in the garden and it has disappeared—probably picked up by the wind and carried off. Now the mandarins on my other tree that are just starting to show a bit of colour are left totally unprotected. Maybe I should count the mandarins on each tree and work out which one I should protect. I will have to do something on the weekend otherwise it will probably be too late.
For Lent I stopped doing puzzles and games (Spelling Bee etc) after we’d stopped watching TV in the evening. I’ve been using that time to read or do my daily examen. I’ve decided not to go back to the games, not that there is anything wrong with doing them, I’ve just decided I like this end to my day.
Favourite dinner I cooked this week: Broccolini with soy and tahini sauce and pork dumplings. H bought a big bag of the dumplings from a work colleagues mum and we pull some out every week or so for dinner. They are good!
An excerpt from my list of good things:
- Church family and the way they support and encourage
- Finishing leading my four week Reading Revelation series at church
- My snuggly cream cardigan that always gets commented on.
- Taking the long way when we walk Riley—he can’t do it too often now.
- Bones are good
- Being able to touch base with a music team member we haven’t seen for a while
- Picking up a coffee from Superrandom on our walks with Riley
- Naps
- My back and neck after the osteo
- Watching The Testaments
- Rain holding off so I could do my long run without getting wet
- A grocery store I can easily walk to to pick up things for dinner
And some online reading:
- This Generation Has It Easy; Their Emojis Are Just Handed to Them
- Anything Could Happen – Walter Burkeman The Imperfectionist. “But it also means remembering that “the way you want the world to be” is something you can live, here and now, not just something for which you advocate or argue. Your immediate world isn’t only somewhere you come to recharge, before heading back to the arena. It is the arena.” Bold added by me.
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