Saturday 18 October 2014

Back from shopping


We've not long got back from grocery shopping in Carmarthen.  There is supposedly the tail-end of a hurricane coming in so we thought we would do what needs to be done before the weather closes in.  I was awake at 1.30 a.m. this morning.  At 3 a.m. I was still awake, so got up, got dressed and came downstairs to make myself a cup of Earl Grey.  I sat and drank it, doing some more work on my mini hexi's patchwork runner (photo later) and watching the Discovery channel.  I know lots of people are anti tv these days, but our Sky subscription is one of our indulgences, and it more than earns its cost in the long dreary wet days of winter, when we can't be doing things outside as normal.  There is so little on ordinary terrestial tv that we want to watch, but my OH enjoys the racing (me too, truth be told), and we enjoy documentaries.  I watched some really interesting programmes in the wee small hours this morning and got a lot of sewing done.  I did actually go back to bed, as it came on to rain heavily just when we were getting ready to go to the car boot sale, so we abandoned that plan.  I had Alfie-cat by my feet, and Lucy-cat crept between the patchwork quilt and the duvet top and was purring away like a grampus.  I didn't wake until Danny phoned from Oz, now that our line is fidxed.  It was so good to chat with him again.  He is off with his mate from school-days, Joe, and they are travelling u;p the East Coast to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef.  First stop is going to be Byron Bay. . .

Anyway, after Morrisons, I got dropped off in town so I could visit  both TK-Maxx and Aardvark (Health Foods) shop.  In the former, I came away with a new Swiss roll tin (old one is warped), a new ladle for jams and chutneys, and some C. Cards.  They were such a lovely nature design and worked out at about 25p each (20 were £4.99).  I have to buy them SOME time, as I finally ran low on cards last year after using up all the extras I had in drawers around the house.  In the Health Food shop it was just Pumpkin Seeds and Sunflower Seeds I bought, for breadmaking and home-made Muesli.

Tonight's meal is going to be a Chicken Pie, made from scratch (apart from the puff pastry, which I always cheat on).  The sauce for it is a tin of Campbell's Condensed Soup, so it doesn't take too long to make - I will just gently fry the chicken bits first and then cook gently.  Oooh, I can taste it already!




Finally, a poor-quality picture of the progress on my hexi table runner.  This doesn't do the colours justice as there was no light on at this end of the corridor (bulb's gone) and so it's all leached out.  I'll try and get one in daylight tomorrow.  Anyway, I've made good progress with it this past week, including the middle of last night!

6 comments:

  1. Your chicken pie sounds just the meal for a rainy fall day. Cooler weather always calls for 'real food.'
    Re TV: I don't much care for it, but J. has been watching public television since he can't figure how to connect the Roku/Netflix to our new provider [evidently one must spend nearly an hour on the phone conversing with someone in India] as they require a password reset. He does find some interesting documentaries which I can tolerate. As to being awake in the wee hours--I'm amazed that you are able to get up and do something as sensible as sewing--I can only sit and read until drowsiness overtakes me.
    Nothing like purring cats on the bed--as long as they aren't of the mindset that pounces on a wiggling toe!

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  2. Must say that I like the idea of condensed soup as a sauce for chicken - would never have thought of it.

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  3. Keep warm and snug in all that weather, won't you? A Chix pie sounds like the perfect supper for while the winds and rain are raging outside :o)

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  4. Sharon - good to hear from you. It is definitely the weather for a chicken pie, wet and blowy. Amazingly, the wind is still a warm one mostly from the South, so we can still have the front door wide open. I always dread the day we have to shut it for the winter. When I am in a sewing mood, I just HAVE to sew. I didn't really want to come up to bed when I did, as I wasn't tired, but it was raining so heavily the Sky signal was interrupted. (Keith had gone up an hour earlier). A shame, since I was trying to watch an interesting programme about the Bermuda Triangle. The hexi runner is coming together rather well, though I say so myself!

    Pat - it's a Cheat's Chicken Pie all round really, but at least the meat is fresh and not out of a tin! The condensed soup (let down as usual with another tinful of water) makes a good sauce for it. Or you could use condensed mushroom soup, for a chicken and mushroom pie.

    CT - it hasn't arrived yet. Mind you, the weather forecasts are always it seems, totally to pot these days, and got it so wrong for today. They showed a little cloud this morning, and what we have had is total 10/10 cloud cover all day!

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  5. It sounds like winter is coming to where you live. The chicken pie sounds great must try !
    When the children were little some chicken and veggies and a sauce of cream of mushroom soup was perfect
    Or I put rice in a dish chicken and onions on top then soup and water cover and cook in the oven.
    Quick and easy.

    Stay warm,
    cheers, parsnip

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  6. Winter meals...yummy, they are always so hearty. Strange weather here with strong winds, lashing rain and then beautiful sunshine. We don't use Sky, but stick with Freeview, only problem is here the signal is bad and the tv aerial is rubbish so we get about 9 channels and depending on the weather we sometimes get the BBC channels!

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