Our net connection and this week seem to have inversely proportionate speeds right now. The week if flying by & the net connection is absolutely crawling! What crazy universal rule governs that?
My mother is here with us for the week. She had not met my partner before. In fact, since the wedding of my brother, which will be three years ago this year, I think I've only seen her once, for a couple of hours, as she passed through on her way back from an overseas trip.
It's really good having Mum here. I wasn't really looking forwards to it that much, one way and another. For a start, it's been a bit too long between visits, so I felt tense about - just things ... having the house clean enough, having a room set up for her to occupy, what to do with her while she is here .... all the things that when you are a bit all over the place, you can start to inadvertently fret about.
The funny thing is that, once she arrived, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world. My son & I did spend a fair bit of Sunday racing around madly cleaning and putting away, and a bit of re-arranging, but it was actually fun. There's nothing like a visitor to give you the impetus to spruce up the house and plan some decent meals!
And we have had some lovely meals. Sunday evening my partner, my daughter and myself ate out in the city, while we waited for Mum's late(ish) arriving flight. We went to a favourite Turkish haunt of my partner's and mine, where my daughter had not been before. It was fun. Monday we had pesto pasta and salad, accompanied by some kofta sticks that Mum found at one of the local butchers. Both of my kids who are currently in the country adore pesto. One of my other lasagne plans is to make fresh pesto, then mix with ricotta as one of the filling layers. I do cannelloni like that and it's delicious! I keep wanting to do a tricolour one, maybe basil pesto, sun dried tomato pesto, and .... it's the third layer colour that I'm not so sure about - pumpkin? Or maybe olive pesto. All the pestos need to be mixed with ricotta, and I'm sure it would need a layer (at least one) of tomato sauce, or it would be too dry. I would want it to look really good when cut.
I bought a second hand pasta machine yesterday too. I haven't read the instructions fully yet, except to notice that it shouldn't be cleaned with water at all. Lucky I saw that, I was just about to dump it in the sink with bleach and water, for a good soak. It's a bit grubby. I'll have to clean it up with oil. I'm sure lasagne made with home made pasta sheets would be amazing!
Last night I made spanakopita, which I hadn't done for a while. It was delicious. We had it with a tomato, onion, basil & boconcini salad, and some little Italian style sausages. A wonderful meal. Thanks to Mum, who put the spanakopita in the oven while I was at a chiropractic appointment. What a relief that is! My back had been in so much pain - both lower back and up in my neck. Mum had shouted me a neck and shoulder massage on Monday, which really helped my neck, but my lower back was exhausting me. It's bliss to not be in constant pain!
I'm going to keep on seeing the chiropractor for a while. I've got a sneaking suspicion, based on the discussion I had with my friend last week, that it might help with my feelings of depression. It's definitely the multi-pronged approach that is helping, at this stage. It was just so severe that no one simple solution was going to make much difference at all. But the combination of counselling, high dose vitamins and minerals, stopping work, focussing on a clean, tidy, welcoming and inviting home (in baby, baby steps), and now getting my back/neck/spine sorted .... together these things are making a tangible difference.
Tonight Mum is going to make some satay chicken sticks and fried rice. I said that I'd make a crunchy noodle cabbage salad. Tomorrow night I was thinking of doing something with red wine - maybe lamb shanks. That's mostly because I opened what was probably a forty or fifty dollar bottle of wine on Monday night, with dinner, and then on Tuesday morning I found it (way less than half consumed) in the pantry, with no cork or seal of any kind. The au pair had tucked it away & then I'd forgotten about it until the morning. I was so upset. It really was a lovely bottle of wine. I decanted it into a screw top bottle and put it back away while I tried to calm down. Mum quite rightly pointed out it is still good enough to cook with - so I guess we should use it up before it gets any worse, now that it's started to vinegar, sometimes I think it's hard to actually arrest the process.
So - no lasagne while Mum is here, it seems. That definitely makes us quite overdue for one. Maybe on the weekend ....
My mother is here with us for the week. She had not met my partner before. In fact, since the wedding of my brother, which will be three years ago this year, I think I've only seen her once, for a couple of hours, as she passed through on her way back from an overseas trip.
It's really good having Mum here. I wasn't really looking forwards to it that much, one way and another. For a start, it's been a bit too long between visits, so I felt tense about - just things ... having the house clean enough, having a room set up for her to occupy, what to do with her while she is here .... all the things that when you are a bit all over the place, you can start to inadvertently fret about.
The funny thing is that, once she arrived, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world. My son & I did spend a fair bit of Sunday racing around madly cleaning and putting away, and a bit of re-arranging, but it was actually fun. There's nothing like a visitor to give you the impetus to spruce up the house and plan some decent meals!
And we have had some lovely meals. Sunday evening my partner, my daughter and myself ate out in the city, while we waited for Mum's late(ish) arriving flight. We went to a favourite Turkish haunt of my partner's and mine, where my daughter had not been before. It was fun. Monday we had pesto pasta and salad, accompanied by some kofta sticks that Mum found at one of the local butchers. Both of my kids who are currently in the country adore pesto. One of my other lasagne plans is to make fresh pesto, then mix with ricotta as one of the filling layers. I do cannelloni like that and it's delicious! I keep wanting to do a tricolour one, maybe basil pesto, sun dried tomato pesto, and .... it's the third layer colour that I'm not so sure about - pumpkin? Or maybe olive pesto. All the pestos need to be mixed with ricotta, and I'm sure it would need a layer (at least one) of tomato sauce, or it would be too dry. I would want it to look really good when cut.
I bought a second hand pasta machine yesterday too. I haven't read the instructions fully yet, except to notice that it shouldn't be cleaned with water at all. Lucky I saw that, I was just about to dump it in the sink with bleach and water, for a good soak. It's a bit grubby. I'll have to clean it up with oil. I'm sure lasagne made with home made pasta sheets would be amazing!
Last night I made spanakopita, which I hadn't done for a while. It was delicious. We had it with a tomato, onion, basil & boconcini salad, and some little Italian style sausages. A wonderful meal. Thanks to Mum, who put the spanakopita in the oven while I was at a chiropractic appointment. What a relief that is! My back had been in so much pain - both lower back and up in my neck. Mum had shouted me a neck and shoulder massage on Monday, which really helped my neck, but my lower back was exhausting me. It's bliss to not be in constant pain!
I'm going to keep on seeing the chiropractor for a while. I've got a sneaking suspicion, based on the discussion I had with my friend last week, that it might help with my feelings of depression. It's definitely the multi-pronged approach that is helping, at this stage. It was just so severe that no one simple solution was going to make much difference at all. But the combination of counselling, high dose vitamins and minerals, stopping work, focussing on a clean, tidy, welcoming and inviting home (in baby, baby steps), and now getting my back/neck/spine sorted .... together these things are making a tangible difference.
Tonight Mum is going to make some satay chicken sticks and fried rice. I said that I'd make a crunchy noodle cabbage salad. Tomorrow night I was thinking of doing something with red wine - maybe lamb shanks. That's mostly because I opened what was probably a forty or fifty dollar bottle of wine on Monday night, with dinner, and then on Tuesday morning I found it (way less than half consumed) in the pantry, with no cork or seal of any kind. The au pair had tucked it away & then I'd forgotten about it until the morning. I was so upset. It really was a lovely bottle of wine. I decanted it into a screw top bottle and put it back away while I tried to calm down. Mum quite rightly pointed out it is still good enough to cook with - so I guess we should use it up before it gets any worse, now that it's started to vinegar, sometimes I think it's hard to actually arrest the process.
So - no lasagne while Mum is here, it seems. That definitely makes us quite overdue for one. Maybe on the weekend ....
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