Monday

. . . and what a damp, drizzly, misty morning it is too.  More like November than October although, to be fair, we're not so far off the eleventh month, are we?  I don't think it's all that cold but, when I opened the window to check, it felt raw.  The weather forecast is none too promising either.  Wet and gloomy until Friday and then turning considerably colder.  Well, that's no good.  If we're to have a snowy day, it needs to be in term time, not when half term starts!  I blame the weather men myself, they're just not what they used to be, are they?

Cobweb in the rain last night

After that bit of nonsense, on to a few recipes.

The lentil 'sausages' (which ended up as patties) were really most tasty, easy to make and frugal.  I finely chopped some red onion and put it in a pan with some lentils, some smoked paprika, marigold, pepper and enough water to cover and then simmered it until it was a thick puree.  It needed stirring regularly.  When it was done, I mixed it with some thick mashed potato and added a knob of butter.  It then went in the fridge, covered, to chill.  I turned the oven on to about 200C.  I formed the potato and lentil mash into patties, floured, milked and breadcrumbed each patty and placed it on an oiled baking sheet (I use that teflon lining stuff).  They cooked in the hot oven for about half an hour, turned once after about 20 mins.  They flattened, of course, which was a shame, but the edges went all crunchy and they were really tasty.  I made nine, had two myself and Beth and Alex accounted for the other seven.  I made a nice tomato sauce to go with them, enriched at the end with a dollop of philly light.  Mmmmmmmmm

The chocolate oat biscuits consisted of 1 ounce (an old recipe) of butter rubbed into 4 oz SR flour, mixed with 1 oz of sugar (or a little more), 45g oats, a pinch of salt and 3/4 oz cocoa powder.  As an extra, I added some orange oil but some grated orange and/or lemon zest would be nice.  Add enough milk to moisten and bring the mixture together - going in with your hands (as Delia so often said) works best here.  Break off walnut sized bits, roll and flatten on a non stick or oiled baking sheet.  Bake for about 15 mins at 190C.  When cooked, sprinkle over some castor sugar and cool on a wire rack.

I shall make both of these again.  There was nothing left which is always a good sign and both were very simple to make.  The first, failed lot of biscuits is now all crumbed and in the freezer and I found a nice looking recipe for toffee apple (not toffee apples on sticks) which will, I think, go nicely with the crumbs as a crumble topping.  The 'toffee' bit is sugar, golden syrup and butter so rather naughty, but OK for a treat.  I might make it next weekend to celebrate a birthday!

I need to work up some energy.  The children should all be bringing their teddy bears into school for the week for Bear Week, together with their entry for the Bear Catalogue.  I'm looking forward to it, but must get to school early and clear some space for our visitors.  All twenty nine of them . . .

Sunday

Good morning everyone.  I've taken a quick peek out of the front door and brrrrrrrrr, it doesn't half feel chilly.  I'm glad and thankful, as always, for my lovely little house with its efficient double glazing and central heating.  It may not be all that cold in real terms, but even so . . . brrrrrrrr.

I had a lovely meal out yesterday at our local Cafe Rouge.  For once, low(er) calorie and inclination combined and I had a tagine de poulet.  I was impressed to see that Cafe Rouge now flags up the dishes that are under 600 calories and this was one of them.  I'd have had it anyway and it was gorgeous.  I fear the healthy eating didn't survive the appearance of the dessert menu where I had a trio of little deliciousnesses.  The food was great and the atmosphere was good but, oh, my, they are slow with the service.  For a cafe that advertises quick meals on their menu, they take for ever and a day!  Not that it mattered for us, we  had all afternoon, but I did have to go and move the car and get another ticket (fortunately there were plenty of slots by then), as did Anna.  We'll know better next time.  And there will be a next time because the final bill (which I didn't pick up) was very reasonable, given what we all had.  Alex, in particular, had a whale of a time with his choices!  Thank you very much, Dave, for a lovely lunch with all my favourite people.

So - back to 'healthy' eating again.  This last week has been a disaster really but one week does not signal the loss of the whole war, thank goodness.  I'm back on track, having planned the menu for the week with plenty of ready meals (home cooked) from the freezer, so there's no excuses.

Today, because Beth and Alex are over and because they are on the last lap of their month on wartime rations, I am making 'lentil sausages', a recipe which I found on a wartime recipe blog, with a tomato sauce or maybe some cranberry sauce I have left over from a few weeks ago (or probably both!) and a selection of veg, probably some red cabbage from the freezer, some broad beans and some carrots.  No potato as there's potato in the sausages.  I might shape them into patties rather than sausages as they might hold their shape better that way, fingers crossed.   And then I'm making some chocolate oat cakes which is supposed to be American wartime rations - I'm not so sure about British, but I can claim that I've saved my fat rations (which is absolutely true, I've been eating very little butter recently) and the chocolate is cocoa.  Hopefully Alex will appreciate them - I think he has suffered greatly over the past three weeks, poor, hollow legged, sweet-toothed teenager that he is!

I'm wondering if I ought to follow Beth's example and have a go at wartime frugality.  It would have to be in holiday time because it takes a good deal of thought and preparation, but maybe for a week over the spring (so called) half term and then over Easter.  I will discuss it with her.

Well, I was up stupidly early this morning and am now flaking out, so I'm going up to see if I can snatch some more sleep.  Have a good Sunday!

Meet a friend - handsome chap, isn't he?  No, not mine - I'm not a pet-person!