Sunday

Good morning, everyone.  It's back to the usual time this morning as light is dawning.  It feels quite chilly so it is a slippers and dressing gown start to the day with a comforting coffee beside me.
I have this early morning routine at Dad's.  I wake up, go downstairs, turn on the kettle and, while it's heating, I empty the dishwasher from the overnight wash and set the table for breakfast, then make my coffee and come back up to the office to use the PC.
Dad usually wakes around nine so we have breakfast when he's up, washed, dressed, shaved and has watched the news highlights from the early morning which he records.

As I said yesterday, yesterday morning involved a trip first to Bob the Butcher - Bob Chapman's in Baldock, arguably the best butcher in the area - to stock up on a bit of meat for Dad's freezer and then on down the road to Tesco.  I like to take a look around now and again as Tesco has things that Morrison's doesn't.  Yesterday I came back with a few items for Dad plus magazine, sparkly pens (sparkly on the outside, not the ink), one of the most sensibly designed spiralisers I have seen (easy to clean) and some food items to take home.  Well worth going.

The rest of the day was very peaceful and homey.  While Dad do his Saturday clothes washing, I sorted out the meat and got the individual portions into the freezer before going down the garden to get some veg.  There were loads of tomatoes as Dad finds it tiring to get down to the end (it's a big garden) so doesn't pick every day, a good number of runner beans some of which were too old so they fed the compost heap and there was what turned out to be a cucumber, not a courgette, and a couple of leeks which were just about big enough to pull up.  A very nice haul.

In the afternoon, I prepped for dinner and then read my magazine and kindle.

Chris asked what I do with all the tomatoes. 
I use them in various ways - they are an all time favourite veg (fruit?) and I eat them like sweets, especially the sungolds which are so delicious.  I also use them in these ways:
Fried on toast or as a side for breakfast, lunch or dinner
Softened in a pan and then pushed through a sieve to make passata for use straight away or for the freezer.  This goes in all sorts of dishes.  It also makes the base for a sauce for things like pizza and hunter's chicken.
As a sub for a can of chopped tomatoes - better with skin removed, see below.
In salads, sliced and mixed in various ways
Finely chopped as an element of a salsa
They're really nice roasted with other Med veg and some garlic and herbs or in ratatouille
I peel them and freeze them whole for winter use.  Twenty seconds in a bowl with boiling water and the skins just slip off.  Much longer and the flesh starts coming off too so I do just a few at a time - it doesn't take long at all.
You can stuff the bigger ones - bit of cooked mince with some grated cheese on top - lovely!
Sliced, they make a nice layer in a lasagne-style main.  Layer of mince, layer of tomatoes, layer of courgette, layer of cheese, repeat . . .
I give some away to friends although more are now growing their own.  I took a bag of the Slimming World raffle tomatoes (I won the seeds in the raffle just before lockdown) to Jennifer, the group leader, last Thursday.
They make a wonderfully fresh tomato soup!
I'm sure there's other things too but the above is what comes straight to mind.

Today will be much the same as yesterday.  Gentle and restful.
I hope you have a good one too.  xx