Jobs, blinds, cooking

 It rained pretty much all day yesterday, which meant husband sat and watched TV virtually all day.  Whereas I can always find things to do, and get up each morning thinking 'Now what jobs need doing today?' - husband clearly doesn't have the same mindset.  So I gave him a couple of small jobs, to much sighing and muttering under his breath, which I just ignore nowadays.

I did the freezer and larder inventory, I can make meals from what we have in the freezer for the next 3 weeks, by which time it'll be nearly empty.  So in 3 weeks' time I'll shop for enough fresh or frozen food to last the remaining 3 weeks, so we can then switch the freezer off.  I had a look through the kitchen equipment cupboards and identified what I can pack away into plastic boxes in the next couple of weeks.  Tinned and packet food will be packed away in the final week before the kitchen fitters come.

I tried a recipe I'd seen online (can't remember where) recently, for dinner yesterday.  Basically, you use either chipolata sausages or halloumi cheese cut into fingers, then wrap them individually into sheets of filo pastry, which you've oiled and scrunched up first, to give a ruffled rather than smooth wrapping.  Bake until cooked.  Serve with a dip and salad.  I made a spicy tomato dip - tinned chopped tomatoes with smoked paprika, sage, garlic puree, a tsp honey and a splash of Worcester sauce, all bubbled away until thick (husband interfered as usual, assuming he was 'helping' - switching the saucepan off when I'd gone out of the kitchen for a minute 😠 It was bubbling away for a reason!  He never asks first).  The dip was lovely, we had the filo wrapped fingers with a side salad.  I tried one of the chipolata ones, not keen - we both really liked the halloumi ones.

Today I'm making a courgette, mushroom and mozzarella tart to have with a side salad and new potatoes - 2 or 3 courgettes on a daily basis now, and the spuds will be our first homegrown ones this year.

First thing this morning we popped to town - I went into the home furnishings shop to discuss the vertical blinds for the kitchen, husband to the computer shop to get a cable for the caravan TV.  I looked at some samples and arranged for someone to come out next Wednesday to measure up, the blinds will take 7-10 days to be made to measure.  Husband didn't buy a cable - he thought the price was too high! (£16).  He wants to order one off the internet - which really means I'll be doing it, as he already ordered one a couple of weeks ago which was the wrong one.  

I've put washing out, it's a lovely drying day - sunny and breezy.  We're going to the caravan for the day tomorrow, I want to take a couple of days' worth of clothes (so we don't have as much to take when we stay for 7-10 days), and need to make a list of what tins/packet foods/dog food/toiletries we have there, so I know what else I need to take.

I've just made a pasta salad for lunch today and for the caravan lunch tomorrow - feta cheese, chickpeas, tinned mandarins, cucumber and finely chopped chives and mint from the garden.  I'll have balsamic vinaigrette dressing on mine, husband doesn't like it so he'll have mayo.

We had a minor power cut at 6 this morning, it was only off for a minute or 2.  We suddenly realised it's the very first power outage we've had since we moved in - at the old place power cuts were a regular thing.....ironically, since we lived just a mile or 2 from the nuclear power station!  Although, oddly enough, our power supply wasn't from there, but from Avonmouth, 40-odd miles away (I know not why!).