After spending nearly 2 hours yesterday doing veg prep, my back and shoulder were killing me - the pain from my shoulder was shooting down my arm to my elbow and up into my neck and the arm was so weak I could barely lift it. A couple of cocodamol and a cold compress on my shoulder for half an hour made the pain ease off though. Still 6 weeks to go before I get my cortisone injection. This morning my cleaner Hayley was here so I kept occupied and out of her way by staying in the kitchen doing yet more veg prep - blanching French beans (another 3 bags full frozen) and making pasta sauce for tonight's dinner. I've used home grown tomatoes, courgettes and shallots, flavoured with a fresh chilli (husband's sister brought us 2 chilli plants) and some balsamic vinegar. Sam, thank you for reminding me I can freeze tomatoes raw for making sauces and soups, I'd forgotten about that.....even though I did it last year. I've told husband not to bring in any more veg for a couple of days, I'm sick of the sight of it at the moment! 😂 I gave some French beans to a neighbour this morning, and some more courgettes to my cleaner, who insists she loves them.
I see the birder and comedian Bill Oddie has died, sadly - famous people seem to be dropping like flies this year. I suppose lots of the famous people who we grew up watching on the TV are now - well - old, so they're bound to be coming to the end of their lives.
Husband is being very crotchety, argumentative, confrontational and downright horrible lately....maybe he's been affected by his sister's visit and seeing her very obviously going downhill, I don't know. Or it's just how he is now! I keep biting my tongue and walking away, but must admit it's taking the shine off our holiday coming in September, I do hope he's not going to be a pain in the backside the whole week we're away. My sister reckons I should be extra-nice to him - "Kill him with kindness" in her words - she means smothering him with love and nice gestures of course, not overfeeding him with cake 😜😁. I don't know whether I could sustain that though, that's more her style than mine, she's a much nicer person than me! Incidentally, she calls him Mr Grumpypants!
I must get on with my crocheting tomorrow, I've sort of let it fall by the wayside recently.....it's a cardigan to take away with me on holiday. I've done the back, one front and am more than halfway through the other front, so the sleeves, cuffs and edging to do....and sewing it up of course.
Well, you may not be enjoying the veg at the moment, but come winter when you can just grab some out of the freezer, you'll appreciate all the hard work. I don't envy you the prep though!
ReplyDeleteYes, too many deaths lately. One of my ex-colleagues died recently, a few weeks before she was due to retire, and we attended the funeral of a friend last week.
I think I side with you on the killing with kindness stance. I'd last a few hours at the most, before I was itching to clock him with the frying pan! 🤣
We may love 'em, but that doesn't mean we roll over and let them get away with nastiness and confrontation.
It's much easier to get back into crochet and knitting now it's a little cooler. I was knitting a jumper until my trigger finger started up again. I've managed to pick it up again, but am being very careful and taking lots of breaks! xx
Re the veg, I don't grow anymore as too much work, but when I did, I experimented on blanching v non blanching. Only difference I noticed was a slight loss of colour which, as I was freezing for cooking later, made no difference to me. Courgettes, I sliced, open tray froze and then bagged. Beans, snapped and ditto. Shallots, spring onions, I'd slice but that was about it. Maybe try with a few and see what you think. There's also Olio too. You can register on there and give away the excess.
ReplyDeleteI used to get sick of processing stuff when we grew a lot at the allotment. I always had to stop J harvesting too much at once as he came home and had finished for the day and I came home and had to deal with all of it! My allotment neighbour told me she'd given herself permission to compost stuff if she was sick of dealing with it!
ReplyDelete