Turkey all done, and itchy

 Tests negative still.  Neither of us feels unwell, but we've both been sneezing a bit, so we'll continue testing regularly just to be sure.  Had my feet done at the chiropodist yesterday, Grace my chiropodist tests daily too, as she's seeing clients every day.  And obviously she wears full PPE and cleans her room (in the local hairdressers) after every client.  Only 2 clients are allowed in the hair salon at a time, it's all very professional and safe - well, as safe as it can be.  It's a case of learning to live with the situation, I think - the other alternative is locking yourself indoors, and I'm not doing that, not good for mental health.

The dining room is all sorted, ready for the sofa arriving today.  They initially said between 7 am and 7 pm, but said they'd text this morning to give a shorter time slot.  That's good, as we (well, husband) have to take Betty to the groomers this morning, and then obviously collect her again a couple of hours later.

I took all the rest of the turkey meat off the bones yesterday, then simmered the bones and skin for stock, which has now been frozen.  As my guts were still feeling delicate, I didn't want to make a turkey curry as I mentioned yesterday.  Annabeth said she was going to make a turkey cottage pie - great idea, that's what I did, so thank you.  Base layer of diced turkey, onion and courgette mixed with a white sauce flavoured with sage and thyme, topped with mashed swede with black pepper and a sprinkling of grated cheese.  It was yummy, had it with long stem broccoli.  So with the cottage pie, that makes 14 portions of turkey, and there's enough remaining (frozen now) for another 2 portions of turkey something-or-other.  So 16 portions altogether from that 'serves 8-10' turkey crown, plus stock for soup, and Betty's had 4 or 5 meals out of it too.  Well worth the money.....whatever I paid for it, I can't remember, I know it was on special offer at the time.

Yesterday I had no breakfast (not a big breakfast eater anyway), homemade parsnip soup out of the freezer for lunch - no bread, I'm avoiding that during the week - and the cottage pie/broccoli for dinner, so a very healthy eating and relatively low carb day.  My guts are thanking me for it, settling down a lot.  Cottage cheese and tuna salad for lunch today, liver & onions with veg for dinner.

I was a bit stressed yesterday, so did succumb to a bit of comfort food (chocolate), then went to bed early so I couldn't eat any more.  Worst time to eat chocolate, as I was itching like mad in bed (it's a diabetic thing, sugary stuff makes my skin very itchy....drinking plenty of water eases the itchiness, but then of course I had to get up to go to the loo!).

Healthy eating resumes

 Last night I felt really unwell - back and both hips very painful and back to finding no comfortable position in bed.  Gut trouble too, I think my guts were finally protesting at all the Christmas/NY foods - not that I've eaten loads of chocolate or crisps, only a few here and there, but certainly more of the bread, pastry things and loads more carbs than I usually do.  And my guts and joints really don't like it.  My guts are the first thing to be affected when I'm stressed or anxious, too.  So from today onwards, it's back to healthy, low carb stuff only.

Re the turkey challenge......so with yesterday's turkey & cranberry sandwich for lunch, and turkey salad for dinner, that brings the total to 12 portions out of the turkey crown serving 8-10, according to the pack.  Today I'm taking the rest of the meat off the bones, some will be used for dinner today and the rest chopped and frozen.  I was going to make a turkey curry, but as my stomach is still unsettled, I'd better keep off spicy stuff for a few more days.  No inspiration as yet for today's evening meal, but I'll think of something soon.  It'll need to be low carb, and not salad - I want something hot.

We were going to put the new sofa upstairs in my craft room for the time being (the component parts would have to go on top of the single bed in there), but I've now decided that us two old cripples will find it very hard to get it upstairs.  Therefore, it'll have to go in the dining room.  Which means sorting it out, moving some furniture around and folding down the drop leaf table.  More often than not we eat off lap trays in the lounge anyway, so it won't be much of a problem not being able to use the dining table for the next couple of months.....except we won't be able to have anyone round for a meal.  Not that there's much of that happening right now anyway.  It'll be a good opportunity to sort out the dining room anyway, it's become a bit cluttered with 'stuff'.  

This afternoon I'm going to the chiropodist - assuming my lateral flow test this morning is still negative, yesterday's was.  We know someone who had a positive result a few days ago, so at the moment we're testing every day, as we've got things on nearly every day this week and obviously would have to cancel them if we test positive too.  I hope we don't.  So hopefully I can still go this afternoon, so will have lovely soft feet and feel like I'm walking on air later.

Some weak sunshine and bits of blue sky this morning, which is always cheerful.  It is very cold though, the temperature has dropped a lot.

The Ikea experience

 We arrived there around 10 am, it wasn't crowded at all.  It was chucking it down with rain and blowing a freezing gale though and husband parked outside rather than under cover, as he said it was probably busy under there (he didn't look and it turned out to be nearly empty).

Husband hates shopping (don't we all?!) and moaned the entire time - he was like a moody teen, slouching around with his hands in his pockets, saying "Haven't you finished yet?" and "where's the exit?" every few minutes.  He moaned about not being able to find out where we were or the quickest way to the checkouts, and exclaimed at the prices ("I thought Ikea was supposed to be cheap!!".  He thinks anything over a fiver is extortionate 😒😠).  I don't particularly like shopping either, but my view is that it's a necessary evil and we just need to get the job done.  As for finding the checkouts.....it's not rocket science, there are big arrows on the floor and big signs hanging from the ceilings, it's just a case of following the directions!  Yes it's a bit annoying that the route takes you through EVERY department and there doesn't appear to be a direct A to B route (well, I dare say there is if you're in the know), but you get there in the end.

I got everything I wanted - the big chopping board, some kitchen utensils (I think they're brilliant for utensils) and some bedding half price in the sale.  We found the particular sofa we wanted very quickly, tried it out - very comfortable - and chose the colourway, it comes in about 6 different colours.  One fly in the ointment - husband had measured the inside of the car with the seats down, and it turned out that the sofa in the box and packaging wouldn't fit.  It would have if we'd taken it out of the box, but didn't fancy doing that in the car park.  We do have roof bars, but the car is so high that we can't put anything on the roof without a stepladder!  And then there's the problem of heaving the sofa up onto the roof, and down again at home.  So we opted to have it delivered - fine, not a problem.  Except that we then had to go to FOUR different checkouts/desks to arrange delivery (and payment of the delivery charge), each checkout operator/desk person directing us somewhere else for whatever reason.  Husband was clueless as to what was going on, he didn't understand what we were being told.  As I have a hearing impediment and the background noise (music, various announcements, people talking and pushing trolleys) was quite loud, I had difficulty hearing a couple of the staff and had to ask them to repeat things a few times.  And one of the staff admitted it was her first day there and she didn't really know anything - poor girl, we all have to start somewhere!  Anyway, finally, after what seemed like hours (but in reality was probably only 20-25 minutes or so), we got delivery arranged (Thursday) and got out.

I did feel quite frazzled by then, it's not a place I'd want to go back to anytime soon.  And if we do have to go again, I think husband can stay in the car and have a nap whilst I go in on my own 😒, it'll be far less aggravating.  Still, I'm happy with our purchases and it's all done now.

Turkey dinner pie and Ikea

 My back and left hip (odd, it's normally my right hip that's the problem) and left knee got progressively more painful throughout the day yesterday....fortunately, I was busy all day so able to ignore the pain.  My knee though, kept feeling as if it was about to give way, so made coming downstairs a bit precarious.  By the evening I was in proper agony though, so took some tablets and went to bed early.  Didn't sleep at all well, I had to get up in the night to take more tablets and sit in the recliner chair for a while with my electric heat pad.  Still in pain this morning, but more achey and stiff than pain - we're busy again today, going to Ikea, so that'll take my mind off it.

Here's the turkey dinner pie I made yesterday, which was delicious:-

Base layer of turkey, sliced pigs in blankets and cranberry sauce

Next layer of sliced roast potatoes, carrots and stuffing.  I moistened it with the remainder of Sunday's gravy.

Pastry top on and ready to  bake.  I used bought pastry in the end to cut down on standing in the kitchen time because of my back, I had a couple of packets in the freezer.

Just out of the oven.  Cut into 6, we had 2 portions for dinner, with more leftover veg, the other 4 portions frozen.  So that's 8 portions of turkey so far......2 for the roast dinner, 2 slices of pie last night, and 4 slices frozen, there's still loads left.  Oh, and Betty has had some for 2 meals.  We're having cold turkey, the remaining pigs in blankets and salad tonight, taking the total to 10 portions.

I'm quite looking forward to Ikea, not been for a few years (and never to the Exeter one), although we do find it a bit of a confusing shop......we seem to have to walk through every department to get to the ones we're interested in, which is obviously the way the layout has been designed.  I just hope it's not too busy.  We know what we want, so hopefully won't be spending ages in there, I don't like to leave Betty home alone for longer than 5 hours maximum.

Bad back and 2nd day of the turkey challenge

 My back and hips have steadily been getting more and more stiff these past couple of weeks, had a few twinges of pain, and this morning it's well and truly painful again, although not quite the severity it was before.  My last osteo was 4 weeks ago today - prior to that, I was having sessions every fortnight, my next one is Tuesday of next week.  It's going to be a long week.  I haven't slept very well at all the past few nights, due to stiffness and being uncomfortable, so am really tired too.

I'm guessing the fact that we've not been out much recently, combined with a lot of standing in the kitchen busy with food prep, and much more sitting down than usual over the Christmas/NY period, has contributed to the back and hip problems returning.  We sat round the dining table at our friends' house for a few hours on NYE and by the time we got up to go outside to see the fireworks at midnight, my back and hips were really protesting.  I'll try and be more active this week.....we've got a busy week ahead anyway, we'll be out nearly every day, so not much time for sitting around.

I'm making a Christmas dinner pie this morning - basically all the leftovers from yesterday's turkey dinner put into a double crust pie.  I'm planning for it to be 6 servings, so 4 portions will be frozen.  I'll take all of the remaining turkey off the bones, some will be sliced for tomorrow's cold (salad) dinner, the rest diced, then I'll boil up the bones and skin.  This afternoon we need to go to town, husband has an appointment at the opticians.....oddly, as it's a bank holiday today, but they made the appointment for him over the phone last week, so we assume they're open today!  I need a few things in Wilko, they're definitely open.  Washing was done overnight, so I need to get that out, hopefully I can get it dried outside on the line today, it's dry and breezy at the moment.

Thank you for all the comments yesterday, and I seem to have some new readers, or people who have been lurking but only recently started commenting - Sam and Poppy51, e.g. - welcome and thank you for reading and commenting.

Clotted cream and the turkey challenge

 I'd got 2 pots of cream, 1 single, 1 double, left in the fridge since before Christmas, they had both just gone beyond the use by date - we just hadn't eaten much in the way of puddings.  The last time I had a surplus of cream, I used it to make butter.....this time, as the creams were beyond their use by date, I decided to 'cook' them and make clotted cream.  I did check the creams first, by smell and taste, they were both fine.  Upon googling, I discovered clotted cream could be made in a slow cooker on the low heat for a few hours, so that's what I did.  After leaving it to cool in the fridge overnight, this morning I spooned it into a lidded bowl - oh wow, it's thick and rich and gorgeous.  It did leave a little very thin watery cream, whey I suppose, behind in the slow cooker.....apparently this can be used for baking, putting in quiches, etc, but I didn't (stupid of me, I wasn't really thinking straight this morning, I could have used it for scones!).  So I will make some scones today or tomorrow to use a bit of the cream, and freeze the rest.  So it looks like our back to low carbing will have to wait a few more days.  We still have some crisps and chocolates left - the crisps will get eaten but neither of us fancy eating any more chocolate, so that will just stay in a cupboard in the utility room.  

It's so mild again here today, with a lovely blue sky.  Still quite breezy though.  Loads of bulbs coming up, and when we were out in the car the other day, we even saw a couple of trees with blossom on.  It's so odd, isn't it - winter has really only just started, but there are early signs of Spring all around.  It's supposed to get colder this week though, I think.

We're having roast turkey today, the large crown I bought weeks ago when the media was first panicking everyone by saying there'd be a shortage of turkeys at Christmas....that turned out to be rubbish didn't it, just like most of what they say.  They'll come out with anything to sell papers.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm going to challenge myself to see how many meals I can make out of this turkey - the wrapping says it serves 8-10.  Today will be a more or less traditional Christmas dinner, with homemade sausagemeat stuffing, pigs in blankets, homemade cranberry sauce, roast spuds, parsnips and carrots, sprouts with chestnuts, red cabbage braised with apple.  As well as the turkey, there'll be loads of leftovers of everything else, I'm deliberately cooking loads.  I intend to make a turkey dinner pie tomorrow, I'll make hot water crust pastry to hold up better, as it'll be a deep filled pie.  I'm intending for the pie to serve 6, so four portions will be frozen.  The obligatory turkey curry will be another meal, that'll probably serve 4 so another 2 portions to be frozen.  We'll have some of the turkey cold, with leftover pigs in blankets, salad and pickles, that'll be for Tuesday I think, as we'll be out most of that day (going to Ikea then).  I could make a cottage pie or pasta bake or risotto with chopped turkey.  I'll also boil up the carcass and skin (there's a bag of chicken bones in the freezer to add to it) for stock, that'll make a soup or stew with any remaining bits of turkey off the bones.  I could make it a 'cream of' soup with some of my clotted cream added, that'll be yum.

Right, off to get started on the veg.  

Planning our caravan summer

 Happy New Year to all my lovely readers, I hope you all have a very good year ahead.

We were invited to see in the New Year with best friend and family again, they cooked a lovely roast lamb dinner.  I'm very fortunate to not have had to cook for either Christmas Day or NYE, my bestie is a great cook.  Had a lovely time, got home just after midnight (they only live 5 mins drive away).  I didn't drink very much, so haven't got a sore head!  Nor did husband obviously, as he was driving - like me, he hardly drinks now anyway.  We left Betty at home for the first part of the evening, but husband came to collect her and took her back to friends' house an hour before midnight, just in case any neighbours had fireworks - they don't usually, but we thought it best to have her with us at midnight.  Somebody reasonably nearby had let fireworks off earlier, which Betty heard and wasn't too keen on.

Our best bit of last year was, without a doubt, having husband's windfall pension and buying the caravan, it's given us a whole new lease of life.  I'm not going to dwell on the bad bits of the year - we've all had them, we just have to put them behind us and move on.

I LOVE new year, it's always full of hope that it's going to be a better year than the previous one.  We're particularly looking forward to spending a lot of time at the caravan this year - last year we missed the first 3 months of the van season as we didn't actually buy the van until the start of June.  And then of course we spent so much time working on doing the van and garden up - whilst we enjoyed doing it all (for the most part, although there were times when husband was cursing me under his breath 😂 and even I wondered once or twice if we'd done the right thing!), it didn't leave us much time to actually relax and enjoy it before the end of the season.  Whereas this year, once we've got the old fixed sofa out, strengthened and made good the wall and floor behind, and put the new furniture in, we'll be able to just relax, have fun with our lovely van neighbours, and go on trips out round the local area.  We're aiming to have the work finished by the end of March.  Jean, our lovely van neighbour, texted me to say she'll be taking a photo if she sees us relaxing, as she doesn't believe it'll actually happen! 😂😂

We're off to Ikea one day next week.  There's one at Bristol and another the other way at Exeter, we're located more or less in the middle of both.  According to Google maps though, the Exeter one is an easier and slightly quicker journey, so that's where we'll go.  We'll have a look at the 2-seater sofa that loads of people on the static caravan forum say they've bought - if we like it we'll buy it and bring it home, it comes flat packed (seems odd to think of a sofa coming flat packed!).  It has removable washable covers, so that's another plus point.  I also want to buy a large wooden chopping board, they do a big square one in there (it's actually made of bamboo), it's to go on the top of the caravan cooker when not in use, to give me another work surface - to put our sandwich/panini press on when I'm using that, rather than on the worktop, for a start.  I must just remember not to put the board on top of the cooker when I've had the hob rings on though....!!

I want to have a good look at the van kitchen and have a think about making better use of the space, too - there's an open shelf area that could be made better, and possibly another area where we could fit another shelf.  It would be nice to have a covered area outside the van door too, where we could keep the bin and our garden shoes.  I'm sure husband can do something about that.  We need another couple of plastic lidded boxes as well, to go under the bed to store spare bedlinen, towels and shoes....got 2 already, but space for 2 more.