Nut roast 'recipe' for Sue, and Betty's pic

 Sue of Eating and Living Well on a Small Budget asked for my nut roast recipe.  It's not actually a recipe - I just wing it really, it depends on what I've got in and what needs using up.  As a base line though, it always contains the same few things, with other additions:-

Nuts - obviously, I use whatever I've got, I chop them first, mostly small but some bigger chunks for texture.

Sage & onion stuffing - the ordinary supermarket packet stuff, I use it dry.

Carrots, grated, 1 large or a couple medium size.

Then some or all of the following:-

A grated parsnip, some dried cranberries or diced dried apricots for a bit of sweetness, a spoonful of Marmite melted in a little hot water, a couple of spoonfuls of peanut butter (especially if I haven't got many nuts).  Half a grated courgette - more than that will make the mixture too wet.  A large shallot, finely diced (or maybe half an onion or some stray spring onions).  A tsp garlic paste, and couple of squirts of tomato puree.  Maybe the last scraping out of the chutney jar - I've even used the last bit of marmalade out of the jar a couple of times.  Mix it all up well and pack into a greased and/or lined loaf tin - 1lb or 2lb depending on how much mixture you've got!  Oh, and if the mixture seems very dry, I might add a beaten egg.  Baking time depends on size of loaf tin - maybe 30 mins for a smaller size, 45 for bigger - I don't really take much notice of actual timing, to be honest - I test it by pressing on the top to see how firm it is, and by the look of it - it should look deeply golden brown with a few slightly charred bits.  When cool I slice it up into portions and wrap individually in cling film or foil then freeze.  Reheat it in the microwave, air fryer or oven if it's on for something else.  Timing - well, I just do it until it's heated through.

Sorry I can't be more precise - virtually all my cooking is like that, I'm not one for slavishly following recipes, I like experimenting and just use common sense.

Thank you for all your lovely comments on my new header pic - sorry it's so huge, I didn't know how to resize it!  As I said, the photo is actually from 4 or 5 years ago.  Betty always makes a beeline for the statue when we go to Watchet, and yes she does seem to think it's a real human....she likes the fact that she can jump up for a face lick and he doesn't push her off or look aghast!  I should mention that we don't allow her to do that to real humans though 😉😂

It's very cold again, the forecast is for cold weather every day for the next week.  I'll try not to get despondent though, but look on it as an opportunity to do some batch cooking and soup making, making more garden plans and doing lots of reading.

No cabbages thanks

 Very blustery here again today, a strong bitterly cold wind.  What is it with all this wind lately?  Seems never ending.  Not a day to be outside, weak sunshine at the moment but dark clouds and rain forecast very soon.  

I've just done another freezer inventory, adding in the things I bought yesterday, I'm determined to keep on top of it.  I'm going to sit and write up a menu plan, incorporating everything we've got in the freezer and the veg box....it'll just be a list of lunches and dinners, I won't do daily menus - plans change or we have to go out somewhere or something needs using up quickly, so the daily menu goes out the window.  It'll be easier just to write a list of lunches and dinners, then I can cross meals off when I've done them.

I made a list of what veggies we want to grow this year, there are one or two changes from what we grew last year.  E.g. I don't want to attempt any cauli or cabbage family things....I say that every year but husband still persists in trying to grow them, and they are just never successful.  The problem is that he doesn't cover them up very well, there are gaps or the fleece gets blown around (that wind problem again!) so the cabbage butterflies can get in.  Which means bugs and caterpillars and they get eaten to death way before we can eat them.  I'm the one who does all the food prep and I really don't want to be dealing with caterpillars etc., so I'm putting my foot down this year - no cabbage type things!!  I also don't want to grow runner beans - they actually did pretty well last year, bit too well in fact, we were inundated with them.  And the fact is that runners aren't one of my favourite veg....I don't mind young French beans, but even then only occasionally.  Besides, our neighbours, who have an allotment and are avid veg growers, kept giving us loads of fresh beans last year (to the extent that I had to say no thanks in the end), I expect they'll be growing loads again this year.  They grow much more of all sorts of veg than they need, but do like to give plenty away, which is very kind of them.

So, having done the list of what to grow, I've suggested that whilst it's raining later on, husband could draw up a plan for what veg to put where.  We've now got three raised beds for veg growing - well, four including the raised wall bed that was already here.  We've also got a few large pots that can be used - the new potatoes will be grown in bags again, same as last year.  I want to grow shallots this year instead of leeks, we've grown them before, although not in this garden.  I like shallots and use them more than leeks.

The sun has now gone, it's coming over very cloudy and the wind is getting up even more.  I do hope we're going to have a decent summer this year - not too hot though!

Thank you for all the comments.  Jane, our car is over 10 years old so we don't expect to get much for it when we do sell it - every little helps though, of course.  Cheryl, I empathise over your 'weed' (thyme) being thrown out by your husband.....mine's done the same on several occasions, pulling up emerging flower plants as he thought they were weeds....one year he snipped off the buds of my lovely purple agapanthus plants as he thought they were spent flowers that had gone to seed!  Grrrr.  If only they would ask us first before 'helping'!!

Jessica, it's interesting to know that the NHS are supplying different types of hearing aid now, thanks for that.

Step away from the tree!

 Bright sunshine today, it's lovely and warm at the front of the house, blimmin chilly in the back garden though as it's still in shade and there's a freezing cold wind blowing again.  Honestly, we seem to have had so much wind since we've moved here, and yet I would have said that our back garden was quite sheltered.  Putting washing out on the line this morning, my fingers froze again.....the sun has just reached the back fence and part of the rotary washing line now, so hopefully the washing will dry.

I did my shopping whilst husband was at the gym.....it was just a top up shop although I did get a few extras - some chicken and pork that were yellow-stickered for husband, dog treats that were on special offer, ditto the Branston baked beans we like.  Betty gets all excited when we get home carrying shopping bags - even if they're not food.  She wants to stick her nose in all of them....she's like a sniffer dog checking for drugs 😂.  I don't intend going shopping again until the end of next week, I'm sure we can hold out till then.

Going back to transport once husband has to give up driving.....I'd forgotten that obviously we would no longer have all the car costs - tax, insurance, MOT, breakdown cover, garage bills - so thank you to those who mentioned it.  We should have no trouble funding taxis or charity minibus charges then.

Speaking of husband, he's in the car port putting together the new flat pack raised bed which arrived on Saturday.  He's cursing because he accidentally affixed one of the panels upside down without noticing and has now had to unscrew it - it's apparently crucial for it to be the right way up else some of the screw holes for other bits won't be in the right places.  Oh dear.  Never mind, he's got it sorted now, I'll go and make him a cuppa to soothe his nerves in a minute.  I promise I didn't laugh - well, not in front of him anyway 😉😁

I noticed him eyeing up the apple tree that's in the middle of the front lawn earlier on.....I told him to "step away from the apple tree!".  He butchered it last Spring, really hacked it right back without telling me or even really knowing what he was doing....consequently, it had almost no blossom on it last year and therefore no fruit at all.  Our neighbours said it's normally loaded with fruit!  It would be nice to have a good quantity of apples.....it's a cooking apple, apparently.  It's growing well now and has loads of leaf buds on it, so hopefully it'll be alright.

Finding solutions to future problems

 Our good friends popped in yesterday, had I known they were coming I'd have done lunch.  Still, it was nice to see them.  I really need to go and have my hearing checked again, with several people talking I can barely hear any of them, makes it hard to follow (and join in) a conversation.  I suppose I've been putting it off because the NHS hearing aids (which I have got but never wear anymore) are useless - well, the ones I got given a few years ago were.....they were clearly extremely basic, no way of adjusting them at all, and the only thing they seemed to do was to make background noise louder.  This in turn made it more difficult, rather than easier, to hear what people were saying, as I was too distracted by all this background noise that previously I'd been unaware of.  The batteries didn't seem to last 5 minutes, I was constantly having to change them, and they're so small and fiddly.  I didn't find the aids comfortable to wear either, so just abandoned them after a few weeks, very unsatisfactory all round....well, that was my experience anyway.  Whether they've improved at all since I had them (I guess about 5 or 6 years ago) I don't know.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the future and how we'll manage....there will come a time, and sooner rather than later, when husband has to give up driving - he's even mentioned that himself recently.  Whilst we're much better off with regard to having services, health facilities and shops much more local here, none of them are within walking distance.  Well, not for us, for a younger, fitter person they would be.  The bus service here is pretty unreliable, we've discovered, especially during the winter months when there are less buses - people complain every day on FB about buses being very late or cut out altogether with no notice and having a wait of an hour or more for the next one, by which time you may have missed your connection or your appointment.  The bus company admit they're short of drivers so if one goes off sick, they often don't have a replacement.  I asked a question on the local FB page about buses to our GP surgery, which is a bit out of the way, although it's the nearest one to us.  I was given links to a website I'd not heard of, which gives details of several local minibus services, they pick people up from their homes or a nearby easily accessible point and take them to supermarkets, health services etc, for a small charge.  There's also a volunteer driver scheme whereby a volunteer uses their own car to transport people to where they need to go and will sit and wait if required.  Again, there's a small charge - the charges for both the minibus services and the volunteer car driver are even smaller if you have a concessionary bus pass....I haven't got one (not old enough yet!) but husband has.  So FB, which I'm not a great fan of for various reasons, has actually proved very useful for once.

Whilst we don't need transportation services right now, it's nice to know that they will be available when we do need them.  So that's one worry off my mind.  We've been so used to having a car for our entire lives together that I was panicking a bit about how we'd manage without one.  Obviously we can get most things - shopping and other stuff - delivered, but getting to GP or hospital appointments, which both of us have fairly often, does present a bit of a problem.  Visiting our friends and family, going to the library, browsing in the high street shops, going for walks along the seafront or up on the moors or out for a coffee and cake in one of the many cafes around, picking my sister up from her coach journey when she comes down to stay - all this we have so far taken for granted as it's easy to do with a car.  When we have to get rid of the car, I really don't want to end up marooned indoors - I think even husband might get fed up with that eventually, I know I certainly would.  Yes, with hindsight it's a pity I didn't learn to drive when I was a lot younger - I couldn't do it now, I'm far too lacking in confidence and full of anxiety in a car, there's just too much traffic about nowadays and it scares me to death.  It's not something I'm willing to try.

Husband is going to drop me off at the supermarket tomorrow morning on his way to the gym, so I can get a top up shop and have a leisurely browse, which will be nice.

This week's obsession

 As some of you lovely readers, those who have experience with their own relatives with similar problems to my husband, have said - dealing with your close relative's problems, physical and mental, and lack of motivation etc is hard, very hard.  Not only do we have our own stuff to deal with, coping with someone else's stuff means we're doing the work of two people.  And it is exhausting.  Husband has little obsessions which change from week to week, sometimes reappearing a couple of weeks later.  His current obsession is with our electricity usage - we don't have a smart meter so he is constantly checking the meter outside, at least every other day, writing down the reading and then calculating how much we've used since the last time he read the meter.  He then insists on telling me, not that I want or need to know - our electricity is quite cheap actually, we're on the lowest tariff with Octopus and it's very reasonable indeed.  He's now going on about the water charges (he heard they're going up in April) so is obsessing about saving water.  His brain never switches off - well, except when he's dozing, as he often is throughout the day.  And even then, he must be dreaming about this kind of thing as he immediately launches into a rant about his latest obsession as soon as he wakes up.  It's no wonder I relish my 15 minutes of total peace and quiet when husband is taking Betty out for a walk twice a day.

The gravel beds in the back garden constructed by the previous tenants to make the garden easier to manage, are bordered by a mixture of things - some have an assortment of bricks and rocks of varying sizes and shapes, some have planks of wood.  The gravel tends to fall out of the gaps between the rocks onto the paths, or Betty accidentally kicks it out when she's been running about on the gravel.  The wooden planks are clearly a few years old and are rotting and bowing, so need replacing.  I'm constantly picking up gravel off the paths and chucking it back on the beds, it's almost a daily occurrence.  I suggested to husband that we need to think about replacement this year.  Well, that's certainly motivated him, and fuelled a new obsession - he's been googling ever since to find out where he can buy the cheapest planks, or other edging, and constantly measuring and re-measuring.  At least it's given him an impetus and galvanised him into action!  Trouble is, he's constantly telling me all about it and keeps calling me over to look at the latest bit of wood or edging he's found on the computer.  A couple of times I've had to tell him I can't look at it now as I'm busy, if he bookmarks it I'll have a look later, I'll never get things done otherwise.  I don't know what's worse - him doing nothing all day, or driving me mad with his obsessions.

As it was sunny again, we had a nice walk with Betty at Dunster beach in the afternoon, although we didn't go on the beach but walked along the grass beside the chalets.  Nobody in the chalets, other than builders doing work in quite a few.  It was very peaceful there and quite warm, except for a bit of a cold breeze.

Lack of motivation

 I'm having trouble trying to motivate husband to do anything at all lately.  Despite his physical health problems, he is not incapable of doing things, so long as he does things at a slower pace rather than the 'bull in a china shop' approach he's always had throughout his life, and takes breaks every half hour or so.  He's very defeatist though, if he can't do something quickly and easily, he either gives up or, worse, refuses to even start it.  I don't think he's depressed - he suffered a period of depression many years ago and he doesn't have the signs he did then.  I think he's just got into a rut of not doing anything much during the awful weather we've had on and off for the past few weeks....he's got too settled into dozing off in front of the damn TV all day, with occasional half hours of playing games or watching car videos on his computer.  I do understand his lack of energy and enthusiasm during relentless bad weather, I feel the same.  But I know that in order to get out of that, it's necessary to get up and actually do something.  In any case, the housework, washing, prepping meals etc doesn't do itself!

Yesterday morning, as an example, I folded and put away the washing that had dried on the airer overnight, put more washing on and got it out on the line, prepped dinner (I like to get that done in the morning), did another freezer inventory (I'm trying to keep on top of it).  Got a pack of minced chicken out of the freezer to defrost and make meals for Betty and chopped some veggies to go in it.  Wiped all the kitchen worktops with antibacterial spray, then gave the bathroom a quick clean also.  Husband.....played on his computer.  Oh, he did 'hoover' - the large rug in the centre of the lounge - nothing else, not even the rest of the carpet, he only does the rug because it's red and shows up Betty's hairs, they can't be seen on the mushroom-coloured carpet!  Then he got straight back on his computer to watch some car thing.

I asked him if he'd given any thought to what veggies to grow this year - "Nope".  And rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath when I suggested that perhaps he should - after all, he lives here and eats them as much as I do!  I gave him the job of looking for another raised bed online, we want another one to grow more veggies, it'll be placed on one of the gravelled beds.  It'll be easier than scraping all the gravel off, removing the decayed weed suppressant matting underneath and digging the compacted soil - we did that last year on 2 of the smaller beds and it nearly killed us, so another raised bed simply placed on top of the gravel is the way to go.  He did eventually find one and order it, so that's something, although I did have to help him with it as he got confused over the sizing.  The first one he picked out was only £6.95, which pleased him no end (cheap is all that matters to husband)....when I checked before he ordered it as it was clearly far too cheap, it was made of flimsy green plastic which wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes, and was only the size of a square plant pot!  The one he's ordered now is of similar metal construction and size (and price) to the one we got last year, so I'm sure it'll be fine.

I didn't get out in the garden in the end....although the sun shone all day, in the back garden it was still far too cold for me to work, as it was in shade virtually all day.  It'll be a few weeks yet before the sun is high enough in the sky to cover the back garden.  By contrast, it was pleasantly warm at the front of the house, but no work needed doing there.

Sunshine at last, and my night heater

 Well, it stayed cloudy all day yesterday and my washing didn't dry on the outside line, so yet again it had to go on the airer in the hallway overnight.  During the winter any sunshine doesn't really reach much of the back garden, the sun is too low in the sky to get over the roof.  Sunshine forecast all day today, hopefully I'll get another wash load dried outside.  It's turned very cold again overnight, below freezing last night - fortunately I don't get cold in bed, having my own furry heater in the form of Betty.  She doesn't sleep inside the bed with me, she's on top of the duvet but presses herself right up against me so keeps me very warm - I expect she benefits too!

I might try and get the roses pruned today, provided it's not too cold, can't do much with frozen fingers.  A few more weeds need pulling up as well, before they get too established.  At least with sunshine all day, it should feel fairly pleasant, even if it doesn't quite cover the back garden.  

Betty certainly does have character, she's very much her mother's daughter (her mother being the Shar Pei, father the English Bulldog) - she looks like her mother, although is chunkier, and definitely has the notorious Shar Pei characteristic of stubbornness.  Her chunkiness comes from her Bulldog father, he was a very broad chested and thick set dog, with a lovely nature.  We've had quite a few dogs over the years, both husband and I had dogs when we were children too.  We've had cats in the past also, but we're both dog lovers at heart.  Betty is definitely the dog who has stolen my heart, out of all our pets to date - husband's too, although he would never admit it.