Very icy here in West Wales, the car door was frozen shut this morning and once I finally got it open it froze in that position so it took several minutes to close it again. Then on the way to work I hit a sheet of ice and spun out into a ditch. Luckily a passing Land Rover was able to pull me out after also rescuing the car behind me who had a similar problem. Even the Land Rover was having difficulty in keeping traction. I guess I'll be going the long way round to work for a while.
A frost this morning (I think), but a very bleak, cold, windy day to follow. Not quite hibernation weather, as I did go out briefly for the Shop Ing, but it's been best to stay indoors in the warmth of the Palace Stove.
Speaking of which, the Cook Ing has all been achieved today on the said Stove - BACON sandwich for brunch, roast potatoes and gravy (on cold beef) for tea, and SOUP for supper (still to come - what shall I have? Pea and Ham? Cream of Chicken? Tomato and Basil?).
O, and much has been done in the way of the Sort Ing/Clear Ing of various cluttered drawers and boxes. A trip to the Rubbish Bins is programmed for tomorrow!
@Gath fach what a bad start to your day - I hope it got better. Sounds like you should join me in ChocLit cake, if there’s some left.
I’m not used to seeing frost as I don’t usually emerge until later in the morning, but this week I’ve been invigilating so leaving home rather earlier than usual, and of course scraping the windscreen and pulling open the iced-shut doors.
But tomorrow (oh bliss!) I am at home all day so can snuggle up to a warm cat while plodding through my to-do list (including a decision on Greenbelt-or-not).
I’ve been locked up marking all day so haven’t seen much weather but I don’t think we’ve had much frost.
I’ve just finished marking and am relaxing with a beer (Adnams Ghost Ship). I’m also having a piece of cheese, Greens of Glastonbury Double Gloucester, as that is my idea of comfort eating.
For tea we have pork fillet with a side of roasted aubergine and chick peas in a mint, lemon and garlic dressing.
It's been snowing here since about lunchtime - quite soft, wet snow - but almost enough to obliterate the paths we dug out on Monday. It's supposed to turn to freezing rain tonight (ugh!) and then quite a lot of proper rain tomorrow (hurrah!), which might clear some of it away.
We decided to celebrate the (hopefully not too temporary) departure of the Finance Monster (the money from Dad's estate apart from the house, which has still to be sold, came through yesterday) with brunch* in a nice wee caff followed by a spot of Retail Therapy.
There will doubtless be other culinary celebrations - Dine around Freddy starts tomorrow, and very conveniently finishes on my birthday ...
* ham & eggs for D., smoked salmon eggs Benedict for me
I have been ignoring the few bulb fennel plants that I sowed in the summer (after the longest day), as I thought the heat and drought had caused them all to bolt, but have discovered that hidden amongst the long stems and fronds are two largish bulbs.
I cut the first a couple of days ago, and it was just big enough for the two of us to have roasted fennel, red onion and tomato with feta for dinner tonight. Very yummy.
I'm not sure how well fennel bulbs stand up to frost, but we have quite a hard one this evening so I am hoping the second bulb is not damaged.
I've tried it a few times, and it's been a bit hit and miss. The first couple of years it was almost total failure, the seeds germinated OK, but the bulbs didn't become bulbs.
Then I heard (on GQT?) that the seed shouldn't be sown until after the longest day - some considerable time after the sowing time recommended on the packet.
Results have been better since I started doing that, but still only about 50% have produced a useable bulb, and I've never had decent sized bulbs until this year.
It may be that I have not given them long enough. If they had not been sharing a bed with leeks, which I usually don't pull until about now, I would probably have cleared them out about 6 weeks ago.
I will definitely be trying again this year, sowing more and not cramming them in with another crop.
They are a bit expensive in the supermarket, so I think they are worth persevering with - maybe cutting back on the courgettes which I always have too many of, and watering a bit more if we have another summer like last year.
Re fennel, I don't know if I've ever eaten it (what does it go with, in the way of meat?), but it grows wild in France in the arid, dry, foothills of the Pyrenees, where my sister used to live. We were scrambling up some rocks to reach a ruined castle, when I noticed these huge, dry, dead stalks of Something, and was told that they were the remnants of fenouil.
Good grief! The stalks, at 2 metres high, or more, were taller than me!
Shortly after this, I fell over, and landed close to a rock on which was reposing a large yellow Insect. It was a Praying Mantis, at which point I realised that I was quite a long way from home in Ukland....
ION, we had a sprinkling of sn*w this morning (though nothing of Piglettian proportions, TBTG). On visiting the shop later, I found that (as usual) the entire town had decided it could only subsist, in this dire calamity, on Bread and Milk.
The anticipated incontinence resulting from this diet led, of course, to a town-wide shortage of toilet rolls......
Maybe I'll give fennel a go this year. We have a small (but very sunny) back yard so everything is in boxes. It would look pretty too.
I had a mixed day yesterday. I went on a University of the Third Age trip but bailed out a third of the way through when I realised that the speaker we were waiting to hear give us a talk on the building we were in had a very quiet voice that I wouldn't have been able to hear. Went home feeling slightly cross with myself for not persevering. In the evening we were off to the theatre. Was again a bit wary given my hearing but I had a great time. Helped by it being a small theatre (The Orange Tree in Richmond), the theatre having electronic captions of the text and the play The Double Dealer being very funny if a tad confusing.
A U3A group met in our church hall for a few sessions, but gave up due to lack of support. A shame, I thought, as I attended one or two of the sessions (and contributed thereto - which, on reflection, maybe led to their early demise..... :fearful).
Oddly enough, one of the problems with our hall is (or are) the poor acoustics. I think the only practicable solution is a lower ceiling, but that is beyond our means £££-wise at present.
My hearing is OK-ish, AFAIK, but perhaps being slightly higher than others on the autistic spectrum/scale, or whatever (this, I am told, is True), I do have problems trying to hear people speaking to me against background noise, and our hall is a place to be avoided for this reason.
It's not that I don't want to talk with you over post-Mass coffee on Sundays, it's just that I can't make out what you're saying!
A full day today. My yoga teacher is unwell so this morning we had a substitute who is very good but somewhat unforgiving in her approach; she is young and seemed to lack the empathy needed in a group of middle aged plus women, most of whom have ailments. We ladies then went for coffee together and I’ve since spent the afternoon writing a tutorial on youth work. This evening I have a work regional meeting online at 7pm. I was going to go to a union training session on disability at 6 but need a break and hadn’t had dinner yet.
Well, Mr S drove me to the hospital, not in our nearest Big City (45 minutes away) but the next one along (allow 2 hours to get there and get parked - a nightmare in and of itself). Appointment for cataract and glaucoma surgery, 12.30. There were three of us on the afternoon list - an elderly lady for a 5-minute laser procedure, me for a 2 for the price of 1, and one man there for just (just!) the glaucoma surgery.
In the normal course of events, I think they'd have 'done' me first as the more complex procedure, but because the chap was sooooo nervous, and generally not in a good place, they took him down first (at 2.30).
At almost 4 o'clock, I am conducted down the corridor - eye full of dilating drops - to discover that the microscope in that theatre has developed a nasty habit of dropping
So, everyone is very apologetic, but it's 'same time next week'. I would have burst into tears, but blocked tear ducts precluded this.
I started out by thinking that had I been less stoical, gibbered a bit, my op. might have been over - but then I thought 'imagine if the microscope had given up half-way through?' Doesn't bear thinking about, right?
Mrs. S, resigned to another week of not driving (or wearing contact lenses *boohoo*)
Mrs S that is a pain. I know nothing about what glaucoma surgery entails but I've had cataracts in both eyes sorted and it was all pretty straightforward. The drops were probably the worse bit so a pain you got those but not the benefit of the surgery.
Oh, Mrs. S, what a pain in the posterior (or in your case, the ocular). Hope next week's appointment is more successful.
It's absolutely tipping down with rain here - we've been through the sn*w and freezing rain stages, which have left an accumulation of snirt* which weighs about a ton per shovelful (well, maybe not quite, but it feels like it).
When D. tried to get the Pigletmobile out of the drive, it was completely stuck, and wouldn't shift until I came and sat in the passenger seat to add a bit of weight ...
I tried to clear a bit of the accumulation, but it really was heavy-going, so we've decided we'll pay the estate manager whatever it takes to have them come and plough the drive. At least then all we'll have to do is the path and the deck.
The sudden rise in temperature (it's currently +9°) is having an effect though - the sn*w's completely gone from the wooden railing round the deck, and there are great mucky puddles at the end of the drive.
* snirtn, a particularly unpleasant mixture of snow and dirt
* * * * *
It was definitely the sort of day when SOUP was the right thing to have for lunch, so we did. Firenze's chicken and grapefruit sounds lovely though - I'd definitely give that a try sometime - with appropriate vinous accompaniment, obviously.
Sorry to hear that, Mrs S. I used to teach ophthalmic nursing years ago and run nurse led cataract and glaucoma clinics. The surgery itself should be straightforward when you finally get it.
I need to pop to the shops this morning, then it’s another day of marking and writing tutorials.
Haggis, needs and tatties tonight though. I might make some cranachan.
It wasn't the drops, @Sarasa -they weren't painful and I'm used to drops. It was that a)I can't wear my lenses for a week before the op, which means I can't drive as my glasses - albeit to the same prescription- just don't have the same effect. And b) that Mr S had given up a whole day, effectively, and struggled to get a parking space, and so on and so on, all to no avail. And finally, c) that next Thursday, when we try again, he was supposed to go for a full day's training, and I feel bad that that has had to be cancelled and the nervous colleague he was due to travel with will now have to go alone.
BUT, but but... I may be sad and disappointed,but I am in so much better a place than the man who did get his op done. His glaucoma must have been so far gone before it was detected that he has lost his driving licence, hence his job, which was what he loved (it was a skilled artisan trade, involving heavy lifting, which can't have helped). He can't now get his sight back, but at least with luck these ops will stop it getting any worse.
So sorry for him - so, everybody, do go to the optician and get your sight checked!
Agree about getting your eyesight sorted. I wished I'd picked up on my mum's complaints about her sight (she used to mention it in a long list of other stuff so I never paid much attention as the other stuff wasn't important) as she might have had her macular degeneration caught before it caused the damage it did. Hope the male patient finds some other work he likes. Hope it all goes well next week.
A certain amount of hilarity in the MMM household.
Because of a sort of Secret Santa thing from a meat supplier we use, we have had a haggis in the freezer for a while. Tonight seemed to be the appropriate time to have it for dinner.
We have just realised that apparently it feeds 32. There are 2 of us. Of course, it’s defrosted now.
The best we can come up with is to re-freeze bags of it once it’s cooked. It should last us for 15 years....
Commiserations on the eye appointment debacle Mrs S. I’m terrified of anything touching my eyes. Hope it goes smoothly next week.
It’s been so mild here, up to 13C, that I hung the washing out for the first time this year and did a little light gardening.
Re fennel, I don't know if I've ever eaten it (what does it go with, in the way of meat?), but it grows wild in France in the arid, dry, foothills of the Pyrenees,...
Good grief! The stalks, at 2 metres high, or more, were taller than me!
We may be confusing two types of fennel.
My fault for calling the one I am trying to grow in the veg plot 'bulb' fennel. It is properly called Florence Fennel. This is a vegetable, the base of which swells and forms a slightly aniseed flavoured 'bulb'. The other fennel is a perennial herb, which forms clumps of very tall stalks with feathery fronds/leaves.
Both plants have the same kind of leaves, yellow umbelliferous flowers and are aniseed flavoured.
The herb is grown for its leaves and seeds. The leaves are good with fish (use like dill), and the seeds have many uses - with fish, in middle eastern dishes, as a spice for (Italian style) sausages , for fennel tea, and can be chewed as a breath freshener.
The swollen base of the vegetable can be thinly sliced and used in a number of salads, as part of a fish dish, and in my favourite recipe, the roasted onion. fennel. feta dish I mentioned a couple of days ago. Probably other dishes that I have yet to discover, not having grown many of them yet.
Wanders in to consider the Ings... had a pleasant walk into nearby town with baby ferijen in the prom, it’s about three miles of a walk, and I walked back, through a nature reserve, so the first long bit of exercising I’ve done for a while. Snowdrops and the early daffodils were out and I think I saw an owl too..
Soup of the moment is a slightly curried butternut squash/sweet potato affair. Help yourselves.
My grandad joined the U3A after my grandma died six years ago. It has been brilliant for him, introducing him to all sorts of people and as a consequence he has a lunch out fairly often. He set up and runs (group email addresses and all.. not bad for a 92 year old who has only had a computer 7 years) a bus group. Every month they have a jaunt with their bus passes, seeing how far they can get in a day.
I want to be like my grandad at 92 (my grandmother was never like this at all and had dementia for her last 10 years),
... We have just realised that apparently [the haggis] feeds 32 ...
What on earth size is it???
No haggis-eating here - I suppose I could have made some, but the recipe I have feeds more than I'd need as well, and I wouldn't really want to be left with a whole lot of it cluttering up the freezer, which isn't all that big - just the standard North American top third of the fridge (although the fridge is a good bit bigger than a normal British one would be).
When we were in St. John's, we bought a Dyson vacuum cleaner, which D. managed to forget to pack when he was clearing the house (in fairness, he was very pushed for time). We have now purchased a replacement, without giving any money to the treacherous Mr. Dyson, but by giving about half as much to somebody else.
Best Ever Thing to do to fennel, courtesy of Jane Grigson:
Slice the bulb fairly thinly and either microwave or parboil until it is cooked but not soft. Put in an ovenproof dish with butter, black pepper and grated parmesan and bake until golden.
I do something similar and enjoy it. I also slice it very thinly and serve in a salad with thin slices of orange. I used to but it often when living by myself but chose only small bulbs as a larger one was too big for just me.
The feathery variety grows wild alongside many country roads out west here. Hot dry climate suits it.
I avoided fennel for many years as I do not blike aniseed flavour. I do like fennel and think the difference may be that bulls eyes and other similiar lollies are made with artificial aniseed flavour. I enjoy the actual vegetable
Piglet, I didn’t think it looked big enough, to be honest, but looking at the amount we still have left, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was enough for 16 or so.
It just didn’t click when we took it out of the freezer.
Not having anything Scottish about me, I’ve only ever had haggis before as a starter or with breakfast when I’ve been staying in Scotland, not in huge quantities.
If it was to feed 32, and after two of you had had a go there was enough left for 16, I would say that you must have had what you call "huge quantities!"
Fennel again... I sometimes use it along with onions and garlic as a curry base. The anise flavour seems to disappear into the spice mix, and to my taste, is exceeding satisfactory.
Groan! Cathscats, we’re greedy but not that greedy! I don’t think it would have fed that many in reality but the instructions said half a kilo was enough for 8 people & this was 2 kilos, we discovered.
We only had it as part of our meal, not as the main event (we did have the tatties but not, I admit, neeps*).
MMM
*autocorrect changed this to ‘beeps’. Makes a change from clicking!
I need to start practicing my cake making skills! I’ve joined a charity called Contact the Elderly.
I will be hosting a tea party in April and one in October. They do the admin, driving etc etc.
Exciting!
Good for you.
But why do people assume that because people are old they want tea? The oldest of my cousins - 85, lives alone, regularly goes to theatre, cinema, etc - was contacted by someone from a charity for the elderly and asked what social/ contact events appealed: looked at the options and all were based around tea, singing or ballroom dancing. As she said, her idea of heaven (fulfilled on a pretty regular basis by her grandsons) is to go out to dinner or the theatre with a good meal and a few drinks. Volunteer from charity looked bewildered apparently - couldn't get it that she wasn't gagging to be taken out for tea.
Just wondering what kind of response they'd get from this lady
(saw her on TV this last week, in one of Ben Fogle's "New Lives in The Wild" programmes).
@TheOrganist - I reckon I'd be with your cousin! Not that there's anything wrong with tea, but given the choice between tea and cakes or dinner with wine, the dinner would win hands-down every time. Admittedly I'm only 56, but I hope my appreciation of good food and wine won't diminish too much if I live to a "good innings"!
There was a cartoon on Facebook the other day of a white-haired old lady riffling through her record collection with the caption "Who's taken my Led Zeppelin records?", which set me thinking - at what point will people stop assuming that the elderly want to listen to Vera Lynn or Val Doonican?
When people of my generation are in an old people's home, will kindly forty-somethings come round to give us 1980s nostalgia evenings where we sing along to Queen, Duran Duran, Ultravox and Culture Club?
I expect the tea thing happens because some older people struggle to get up in the morning, or have to wait for carers, leaving insufficient time for a morning activity before quite a number of them need to go for lunch. Lunch itself is too big a catering/logistical challenge for the volunteer groups. Then evenings are also difficult if dark, when many older people prefer not to go out. So tea looks like the best option. Catering is reasonably limited, and it is no-one’s main meal so it’s not too much of a disaster if someone can’t eat any of what’s provided, and there’s, say, a four to five hour time slot to get people out, provide a reasonable event and get them home before dark.
Dinner might also interfere with the provision of social care in the evening.
They’re probably reluctant to provide alcohol (though I’m sure some would love a cocktail!) because of health risks, either through interactions with medications, disease contraindications or the risk of falls. There’s also the safety of volunteers to consider.
Groan! Cathscats, we’re greedy but not that greedy! I don’t think it would have fed that many in reality but the instructions said half a kilo was enough for 8 people & this was 2 kilos, we discovered.
That's ridiculous. The MacSween's haggis we had (which feeds 2-3) was 500g. So a 2kg one should feed about 10 people - not 16!
Re. the old folk: my mother got very cross when "they" suggested she might like to attend the "senior citizens'" bingo sessions. "I've never wanted to play bingo", she said, "so why should I want to now? What I really want is someone to take me to the opera".
Comments
Speaking of which, the Cook Ing has all been achieved today on the said Stove - BACON sandwich for brunch, roast potatoes and gravy (on cold beef) for tea, and SOUP for supper (still to come - what shall I have? Pea and Ham? Cream of Chicken? Tomato and Basil?).
O, and much has been done in the way of the Sort Ing/Clear Ing of various cluttered drawers and boxes. A trip to the Rubbish Bins is programmed for tomorrow!
What useful Imps these Ings are!
I’m not used to seeing frost as I don’t usually emerge until later in the morning, but this week I’ve been invigilating so leaving home rather earlier than usual, and of course scraping the windscreen and pulling open the iced-shut doors.
But tomorrow (oh bliss!) I am at home all day so can snuggle up to a warm cat while plodding through my to-do list (including a decision on Greenbelt-or-not).
Made an interesting dinner of chicken and grapefruit.
I’ve just finished marking and am relaxing with a beer (Adnams Ghost Ship). I’m also having a piece of cheese, Greens of Glastonbury Double Gloucester, as that is my idea of comfort eating.
For tea we have pork fillet with a side of roasted aubergine and chick peas in a mint, lemon and garlic dressing.
We decided to celebrate the (hopefully not too temporary) departure of the Finance Monster (the money from Dad's estate apart from the house, which has still to be sold, came through yesterday) with brunch* in a nice wee caff followed by a spot of Retail Therapy.
There will doubtless be other culinary celebrations - Dine around Freddy starts tomorrow, and very conveniently finishes on my birthday ...
* ham & eggs for D., smoked salmon eggs Benedict for me
I cut the first a couple of days ago, and it was just big enough for the two of us to have roasted fennel, red onion and tomato with feta for dinner tonight. Very yummy.
I'm not sure how well fennel bulbs stand up to frost, but we have quite a hard one this evening so I am hoping the second bulb is not damaged.
Then I heard (on GQT?) that the seed shouldn't be sown until after the longest day - some considerable time after the sowing time recommended on the packet.
Results have been better since I started doing that, but still only about 50% have produced a useable bulb, and I've never had decent sized bulbs until this year.
It may be that I have not given them long enough. If they had not been sharing a bed with leeks, which I usually don't pull until about now, I would probably have cleared them out about 6 weeks ago.
I will definitely be trying again this year, sowing more and not cramming them in with another crop.
They are a bit expensive in the supermarket, so I think they are worth persevering with - maybe cutting back on the courgettes which I always have too many of, and watering a bit more if we have another summer like last year.
Roast the chicken with a glaze made from juice of ruby grapefruit + redcurrant jelly. Serve with sauce of same and grapefruit segments.
A Chilean sauvignon blanc goes well.
Re fennel, I don't know if I've ever eaten it (what does it go with, in the way of meat?), but it grows wild in France in the arid, dry, foothills of the Pyrenees, where my sister used to live. We were scrambling up some rocks to reach a ruined castle, when I noticed these huge, dry, dead stalks of Something, and was told that they were the remnants of fenouil.
Good grief! The stalks, at 2 metres high, or more, were taller than me!
Shortly after this, I fell over, and landed close to a rock on which was reposing a large yellow Insect. It was a Praying Mantis, at which point I realised that I was quite a long way from home in Ukland....
ION, we had a sprinkling of sn*w this morning (though nothing of Piglettian proportions, TBTG). On visiting the shop later, I found that (as usual) the entire town had decided it could only subsist, in this dire calamity, on Bread and Milk.
The anticipated incontinence resulting from this diet led, of course, to a town-wide shortage of toilet rolls......
I had a mixed day yesterday. I went on a University of the Third Age trip but bailed out a third of the way through when I realised that the speaker we were waiting to hear give us a talk on the building we were in had a very quiet voice that I wouldn't have been able to hear. Went home feeling slightly cross with myself for not persevering. In the evening we were off to the theatre. Was again a bit wary given my hearing but I had a great time. Helped by it being a small theatre (The Orange Tree in Richmond), the theatre having electronic captions of the text and the play The Double Dealer being very funny if a tad confusing.
Oddly enough, one of the problems with our hall is (or are) the poor acoustics. I think the only practicable solution is a lower ceiling, but that is beyond our means £££-wise at present.
My hearing is OK-ish, AFAIK, but perhaps being slightly higher than others on the autistic spectrum/scale, or whatever (this, I am told, is True), I do have problems trying to hear people speaking to me against background noise, and our hall is a place to be avoided for this reason.
It's not that I don't want to talk with you over post-Mass coffee on Sundays, it's just that I can't make out what you're saying!
In the normal course of events, I think they'd have 'done' me first as the more complex procedure, but because the chap was sooooo nervous, and generally not in a good place, they took him down first (at 2.30).
At almost 4 o'clock, I am conducted down the corridor - eye full of dilating drops - to discover that the microscope in that theatre has developed a nasty habit of dropping
So, everyone is very apologetic, but it's 'same time next week'. I would have burst into tears, but blocked tear ducts precluded this.
I started out by thinking that had I been less stoical, gibbered a bit, my op. might have been over - but then I thought 'imagine if the microscope had given up half-way through?' Doesn't bear thinking about, right?
Mrs. S, resigned to another week of not driving (or wearing contact lenses *boohoo*)
It's absolutely tipping down with rain here - we've been through the sn*w and freezing rain stages, which have left an accumulation of snirt* which weighs about a ton per shovelful (well, maybe not quite, but it feels like it).
When D. tried to get the Pigletmobile out of the drive, it was completely stuck, and wouldn't shift until I came and sat in the passenger seat to add a bit of weight ...
I tried to clear a bit of the accumulation, but it really was heavy-going, so we've decided we'll pay the estate manager whatever it takes to have them come and plough the drive. At least then all we'll have to do is the path and the deck.
The sudden rise in temperature (it's currently +9°) is having an effect though - the sn*w's completely gone from the wooden railing round the deck, and there are great mucky puddles at the end of the drive.
* snirt n, a particularly unpleasant mixture of snow and dirt
* * * * *
It was definitely the sort of day when SOUP was the right thing to have for lunch, so we did. Firenze's chicken and grapefruit sounds lovely though - I'd definitely give that a try sometime - with appropriate vinous accompaniment, obviously.
I need to pop to the shops this morning, then it’s another day of marking and writing tutorials.
Haggis, needs and tatties tonight though. I might make some cranachan.
BUT, but but... I may be sad and disappointed,but I am in so much better a place than the man who did get his op done. His glaucoma must have been so far gone before it was detected that he has lost his driving licence, hence his job, which was what he loved (it was a skilled artisan trade, involving heavy lifting, which can't have helped). He can't now get his sight back, but at least with luck these ops will stop it getting any worse.
So sorry for him - so, everybody, do go to the optician and get your sight checked!
Mrs. S, looking on the positive side
Because of a sort of Secret Santa thing from a meat supplier we use, we have had a haggis in the freezer for a while. Tonight seemed to be the appropriate time to have it for dinner.
We have just realised that apparently it feeds 32. There are 2 of us. Of course, it’s defrosted now.
The best we can come up with is to re-freeze bags of it once it’s cooked. It should last us for 15 years....
MMM
It’s been so mild here, up to 13C, that I hung the washing out for the first time this year and did a little light gardening.
We may be confusing two types of fennel.
My fault for calling the one I am trying to grow in the veg plot 'bulb' fennel. It is properly called Florence Fennel. This is a vegetable, the base of which swells and forms a slightly aniseed flavoured 'bulb'. The other fennel is a perennial herb, which forms clumps of very tall stalks with feathery fronds/leaves.
Both plants have the same kind of leaves, yellow umbelliferous flowers and are aniseed flavoured.
The herb is grown for its leaves and seeds. The leaves are good with fish (use like dill), and the seeds have many uses - with fish, in middle eastern dishes, as a spice for (Italian style) sausages , for fennel tea, and can be chewed as a breath freshener.
The swollen base of the vegetable can be thinly sliced and used in a number of salads, as part of a fish dish, and in my favourite recipe, the roasted onion. fennel. feta dish I mentioned a couple of days ago. Probably other dishes that I have yet to discover, not having grown many of them yet.
Soup of the moment is a slightly curried butternut squash/sweet potato affair. Help yourselves.
My grandad joined the U3A after my grandma died six years ago. It has been brilliant for him, introducing him to all sorts of people and as a consequence he has a lunch out fairly often. He set up and runs (group email addresses and all.. not bad for a 92 year old who has only had a computer 7 years) a bus group. Every month they have a jaunt with their bus passes, seeing how far they can get in a day.
I want to be like my grandad at 92 (my grandmother was never like this at all and had dementia for her last 10 years),
No haggis-eating here - I suppose I could have made some, but the recipe I have feeds more than I'd need as well, and I wouldn't really want to be left with a whole lot of it cluttering up the freezer, which isn't all that big - just the standard North American top third of the fridge (although the fridge is a good bit bigger than a normal British one would be).
When we were in St. John's, we bought a Dyson vacuum cleaner, which D. managed to forget to pack when he was clearing the house (in fairness, he was very pushed for time). We have now purchased a replacement, without giving any money to the treacherous Mr. Dyson, but by giving about half as much to somebody else.
Slice the bulb fairly thinly and either microwave or parboil until it is cooked but not soft. Put in an ovenproof dish with butter, black pepper and grated parmesan and bake until golden.
Best. Ever.
The feathery variety grows wild alongside many country roads out west here. Hot dry climate suits it.
I avoided fennel for many years as I do not blike aniseed flavour. I do like fennel and think the difference may be that bulls eyes and other similiar lollies are made with artificial aniseed flavour. I enjoy the actual vegetable
It just didn’t click when we took it out of the freezer.
Not having anything Scottish about me, I’ve only ever had haggis before as a starter or with breakfast when I’ve been staying in Scotland, not in huge quantities.
MMM
I will be hosting a tea party in April and one in October. They do the admin, driving etc etc.
Exciting!
I've never met a haggis -- do they usually click when taken from the freezer?
(I'll get my kilt...)
We only had it as part of our meal, not as the main event (we did have the tatties but not, I admit, neeps*).
MMM
*autocorrect changed this to ‘beeps’. Makes a change from clicking!
Good for you.
But why do people assume that because people are old they want tea? The oldest of my cousins - 85, lives alone, regularly goes to theatre, cinema, etc - was contacted by someone from a charity for the elderly and asked what social/ contact events appealed: looked at the options and all were based around tea, singing or ballroom dancing. As she said, her idea of heaven (fulfilled on a pretty regular basis by her grandsons) is to go out to dinner or the theatre with a good meal and a few drinks. Volunteer from charity looked bewildered apparently - couldn't get it that she wasn't gagging to be taken out for tea.
(saw her on TV this last week, in one of Ben Fogle's "New Lives in The Wild" programmes).
There was a cartoon on Facebook the other day of a white-haired old lady riffling through her record collection with the caption "Who's taken my Led Zeppelin records?", which set me thinking - at what point will people stop assuming that the elderly want to listen to Vera Lynn or Val Doonican?
When people of my generation are in an old people's home, will kindly forty-somethings come round to give us 1980s nostalgia evenings where we sing along to Queen, Duran Duran, Ultravox and Culture Club?
They’re probably reluctant to provide alcohol (though I’m sure some would love a cocktail!) because of health risks, either through interactions with medications, disease contraindications or the risk of falls. There’s also the safety of volunteers to consider.