Monday

Non-pupil day today so I am nice and relaxed.  The weather seems to have calmed down too: the rain and the wind have gone, to be replaced by a good frost that has painted swirly-curly patterns all over my car.  I wonder how long before the wet and mild weather returns.

Yesterday was good.  Beth and Al came over and we two ladies have started shopping together after lunch on Sunday.  Part of this is to get a £25 voucher to go towards the Christmas food costs and to get that one had to spend £40 for six weeks.  That might be a bit much for me on my own but with Beth included it's a much easier target.  Half way there and I will get another voucher today as I still have a load of things to get, some Christmassy and some normal stuff.

As well as that, they have started system whereby you get the money back if something you buy would cost less elsewhere - including Lidl and Aldi.  It comes back as points as a card and I already have enough points for a £5 voucher so that can't be bad.  I prefer doing it this way to getting a bit of paper with money off for your next shop as Sainsbury's does it.

The way this is all going, I shouldn't have to pay anything more for the Christmas fruit and veg!

While we were in Morrison's, we saw that they had turkey legs again so Beth got one.  She wants the meat for her cats and kittens and I will use the stock.  I roasted it yesterday and it's just warming up in the oven to soften the stock before stripping off the meat and boiling up the bones in the pressure cooker.

How often have I shopped in Morrisons?  Countless times, yet I have only just realised that they do the cans of Seville marmalade stuff - Ma Made.  Well, I need never run out of marmalade again now and the process is so easy peasy it takes half an hour from start to finish.  £1.99 plus four pounds of sugar and you have 12 or 13 small pots of really delicious marmalade with that home made flavour.  I read somewhere that someone used grapefruit juice as the liquid and it was really gorgeous and someone else added a star anise for a spicy tang.  I might do that one myself as I love star anise.

The pots of lemon marmalade I made are going down rapidly, ably assisted by Beth and Alex, while marmalade on toast has become my top breakfast for a while.  Mind you, with it being so cold, I think it is a day for breakfast porridge (with marmalade on top!).

Well, I need to get going.  I have turkey to deal with and I want to make the bread sauce for Christmas and get it into the freezer.  It's quite good to do it like that - I make it almost to serving point, just don't add the final butter and cream which will get added just before serving.  It will definitely be nutmeg flavoured, not clove flavoured, as that seems to be more favoured in my family.

Have a great day and stay warm.