In The Pink

I sit here bloated but content having consumed home made apple and rhubarb crumble and custard for pudding today. I have even been and done an hour and a half of house chores and I still feel full! Stodgy pudding! I am going to have to look out for some different recipes for my rhubarb! Wine maybe?

I harvested the stems from my Rhubarb plant this weekend and got enough to make three huge crumbles. I left this central stem and what looks like a flower head (close up below) although I have never seen anything like this on my Rhubarb plant to date. If it carries on growing like this I am going to make some jam, or Rhubarb pickle maybe? I bought some pickle at a May Fayre at the weekend and it has inspired me!

I am working at home today while my truck has a new cam belt fitted and have promised to take time out every once in a while to send pictures of Edward Cullen to my friend who is stuck in the office! We had a lovely evening out last night perusing the new shops in town and ending up dining at Wagamamas indulging ourselves with their renowned Yasai Katsu Curry: (Sweet potato, aubergine and butternut squash deep-fried in panko breadcrumbs, served with a curry sauce and sticky white rice, garnished with mixed leaves and red pickles.) Food doesn't get much better than that, but my family has come up with a recipe or two that compare! Anyway our conversation also strayed to Daniel Craig who recently took a lead role in a very nice dream I had and I thought I would send her a nice picture of him too! Although Sean Connery has always been my favourite Bond I have to say Daniel is the best and just perfect for the new and more true to the original character of Bond. Anyway these two shot...

For me Sunday is the best day of the weekend. I am used to a more relaxed routine, the chores for the weekend have been taken care of on Saturday and there is little left to do other than the things I want to do. We have leisurely walks with the dogs, walks around the garden with sporadic bouts of weeding, I get to visit blogs I treasure and post some things myself, and in the afternoon I cook. I really like the kitchen in my house. It is reasonably big and the afternoon sun streams in through the window. I like to cook something special for a Sunday lunch and am usually joined by the dogs. By the afternoon they have had enough exercise to warrant an afternoon kip but they like to be around the nice smells and close enough to see if it is going to be roast chicken, a meal from which they always benefit! I think that it is also reminiscent for me of childhood weekends, the smells and routine reminding me of my family. My Mum is a wonderful cook and the house at the weekend in particular...

Ok, just in case you are now on the edge of your seat expecting me to reveal the answer to all of your problems, there is no such thing as a get rich quick scheme, at least not without some loss of dignity! Neither is there a get thin quick scheme, not without a risk to health! I set myself a task last year to get really fit. It was going pretty well for a while too and I managed to loose 2 stone, mostly through an increase in exercise following the arrival of the pups and an abstention from alcohol for several months. My body loves the sugar in alcohol and hogs it all. Usually if I stop drinking for a couple of days I immediately loose a couple of pounds! Anyway, I am aware I am a weight yo yoer and have little interest in obsessing about weight or dieting but as I have put most of that 2 stone back on and I would like to get back so the size I was before giving up smoking, I have decided to put myself back into a regime. I don't know if stopping smoking makes you put on weight bu...

Last Sunday my fella and I went over to my sisters for dinner. It was a lovely trip out as we have not seen each other for a while and I miss her company and playing with my wonderful nephew. However, I wanted to post about the fabulous meal she cooked for us. My sister is a wonderful and imaginative cook, and always makes a huge effort to cater for the vegetarian diet. Last week I think she surpassed herself! The menu consisted of home made soup, a variation on leak and potato but that description alone does not do it justice. The soup was garnished with 3 slices of salami for the meat eaters and three slices of cucumber for me! It was very delicate and worked so well, I would not have expected it but cucumber goes very well with hot food. (My fella likes cucumber with his chips and swears it is an excellent combination.) The main course was.......blimey I think everyone had lamb but I am afraid I was a little pre-occupied with this! This sadly is not a photograph of the actual dish w...