5 OS Pleasures in your Day Today part 2

marmiterulesok

Good morning,
I haven't had a chance to read through this thread for a few days,but will try and catch up later.

Here are my 5:

1 I'm on holiday from today,19 days off altogether.So relieved,it seems I've waited a long time for this holiday.My Mum is here and I'll see my sister soon.

2 We're planning a few days of baking-Victoria sponge in my new sponge tins (a present from my Mum),some cougette cake,courgette and chocolate cake and maybe some macaroons.Also maybe trying some pumpkin jam!And making the spiced apple butter in the slow cooker.

3 Not getting up to the alarm clock,though my little cat tends to wake me up early anyway unfortuanately.

4 We're planning on browsing through the charity shops,always more fun when you're with someone.

5 Did I mention that I'm on holiday?

Hope you all have a good weekend!

CCP

Evening all.

marmiterulesok - have a lovely holiday, and enjoy your baking session. Any spare macaroons can safely be sent in my direction, BTW.

Frith - hope you had a good day today after your horrible Wednesday.

Ladyhawk - I hope you're off doing something nice this weekend.

I'm going to try and find some pleasures for a day that has been considerably short of 'good', what with one thing and another :

1) It's Friday, so I don't have to deal with the email that made me so furious and upset until Monday at the earliest.

2) Took one of my HG purple tomatoes to work, where it intrigued everyone who saw it.

3) Got a letter to say I passed my OU course. I have to confess that I wasn't actually that bothered whether I passed or not, but it's still nice to know I did.

4) Found my favourite olive foccaccia reduced to clear in Waitrose, so I'll have a bit with my dinner. (And another bit. And probably another bit after that. )

5) The first of my autumn crocuses is very nearly out in flower. It's been so long since they had flowers on that I'd forgotten how pretty they are.

Have a lovely evening, all, and a very pleasant weekend.

parsonswife8

(quote CCP)
parsonswife - I love oxtail but I've never tried cooking it myself - is it difficult to cook, or is it just like doing a normal stew? If it's quite straightfoward I'll have to have a go at doing some over the winter - it's such nice cold weather food. :drool:


I brown a kg of oxtail in a bit of sunflower oil, then transfer it to a slow cooker containing 200 ml of hot beef or oxtail stock. Then I cook one diced onion, about 10 button mushrooms and a sliced clove of garlic in the pan, until the onion is translucent, then add it to the slowcooker. I add a tin of chopped tomatoes, mixed herbs, salt and pepper and cook on high in the slow cooker for two hours. I add a good splash of Worcester sauce, and turn it down to low and cook for a further 2 hours.

Then I add 2 sliced carrots or about 12 chanternay baby carrots and turn the slow cooker up to high again for an hour.

Turn it back down to low and add a tin of canellini beans or a tin of baked beans and cook on low until the meat starts to fall off the bones. You can add a splash of red wine if you like.

I serve this with mashed potatoes or you can top with dumplings and serve with peas.

You can cook everything on the hob first and then cook it in a casserole dish in the oven, until tender at about gas mark 5 or 6.

CCP

parsonswife - that sounds :drool::drool::drool::drool::drool::drool::drool::drool::drool::drool::drool::drool::drool::drool:



As soon as the weather gets cold enough I'm off to get some oxtail and try that out - it sounds so good (if you hadn't picked that up already! )

parsonswife8

CCP wrote: »

parsonswife - that sounds :drool::drool::drool::drool::drool::drool::drool::drool::drool::drool::drool::drool::drool::drool:



As soon as the weather gets cold enough I'm off to get some oxtail and try that out - it sounds so good (if you hadn't picked that up already! )

I often make double, CCP and send some down to my son and his wife, who live just down the road. She is not a big meat eater but she loves the gravy and veg and she says my son always eats too much and ends up feeling sick.:eek:

It is quite rich....:rotfl:

PetuliaGristle

Gingerjar and sparrer I hope you both feel better today
Frith hope today was better than yesterday

My five+ for today:
1) rest day from the Wii Active
2) breakfast in bed
3) cuddles from dd
4) puddy tats running around
5) achieving a lot at work today
6) currently watching CDWM cringing at Rob the retired banker's dinosaur views about women, and Tracy's collection of religious memorabilia (tat). Dave Lamb's comments hilarious as always, starting with introducing Rob as 'a retired banker (cough)'
7) taping the rest of CDWM whilst watching the first new QI episode

sparrer

A very late quickie as I fell asleep and have just woken up

1. did my monthly shop in Mr A and avoided the clothing/junk jewellery bit for a change, just bought food. The bill was about £25 less than I expected
2. a beautifully sunny day
3. trimmed my hair saving £7 college prices and probably 3 or 4 times that at a hairdresser. I may be wrong though, haven't been to one in years
4. A good evening out with old friends I haven't seen for a couple of years
5. Al Murray on television. Not to everyobe's taste I know but he always makes me laugh when he speaks to individuals in the audience
6. my penny phone call, brief but worth it

Night night, hope everyone is having a good rest before the weekend

Tealady_2

Hi

Pleasures for yesterday:
1. DD loving her first day at college and coming home very excited about it all. She will be doing one day a week at college and the rest of the week in school.
2. Cakes at work for someones in the offices birthday
3. Sorting out a problem on one of the directors laptops. It's quite frightening that these people run the company but can't follow a simple set of instructions:D
4. Helping out at the brownie sports evening. Seeing how they get so excited over getting a sticker for winning a race
5. Coming home to curry that just needed heating up which was just what we needed as got quite cold sitting outside

Hugs to all who need them

CCP

Tealady wrote: »

3. Sorting out a problem on one of the directors laptops. It's quite frightening that these people run the company but can't follow a simple set of instructions:D

Oh, don't I just know that feeling? :rotfl:

Anyway, my pleasures for today - a really nice day after yesterday, thank goodness.

1) Woke up to the sound of the Pompey Chimes (the bells in the tower of the Guildhall) - it just sounds like home. Then I went back to sleep.

2) Washed my car. It's my least favourite chore so that's not a pleasure, but at least now it's done and all signs of the herd of elephants that apparently flew over yesterday have been washed away.

3) Went for a walk in the sunshine and accidentally stumbled across the abandoned orchard that a friend has been trying to tell me how to find for the past couple of years. All the apples are long gone (all the ones you can reach without a long ladder, anyway) but there were still loads of blackberries - there's so many that all the pickers in Portsmouth haven't been able to collect more than a portion of them. I ate a large handful, and will go back tomorrow with a box to collect some (and probably eat a few more, too ).

4) Had a lovely chat with an older couple who were also out blackberrying.

5) Making a chicken, mushroom and cider casserole for dinner, in my new (freebie) casserole dish.

6) Picking yet more HG tomatoes. I love this time of year!

ETA - just remembered something else:

8) NSD. I don't have them often, so I should really record them when they do turn up.

Have a lovely evening, everyone.

BlimusOreilly

I'm always so impressed reading about everyone's talents. Sparrer - do you still write poetry? And funkymonkey - majorly impressed that you knit your own socks. And of course absolutely everyone on this thread who cooks and makes the most delicious sounding recipes!
Frith - sorry to hear you had a bad day on wednesday. Hopefully thinks have perked up by now?
Marmiterulesok - apple butter in the slow cooker - that sounds amazing. Do you have a recipe?
CCP - congrats on passing your OU course. But sorry to hear that you didn't have a great day.
Parsonswife - might just have to try that oxtail in the slow cooker. Sounds lovely.
Girlysquare - wasn't Rob from CDWM horrible!!

Here are mine from yesterday:
1) A lovely sunny day.
2) Met up with friends and their children at the local country park for a play and a nature ramble. It was one of those perfect days where all the adults had a great time chatting and the children played really well together despite differing ages ranging from 12 months to 12 years.
3) My lovely best friend bought me a tin of Roses for something that really didn't need any thanks.
4) Should've been a NSD but I spent £1 on car parking and then noticed that I could've used my permit - ah well, it was a low spend day instead.
5) I love my DH In the evening, I was just admiring a picture of Gael Garcia Bernal and just mentioning that his eyes were very nice when I heard a strange shuffling noise behind me. It was only my 44 yr old DH 'moon walking' to try and get my attention :rotfl: At least it's never dull!

And todays:
1) A lie-in.
2) A brilliant trip to the library. Sometimes our small local library can be a bit uninspiring but today there were a huge number of books that I wanted to get out. I came away with a huge armful of exciting books. DS2 was delighted as there was a story sack about Space, which is his latest craze.
3) DS1 has mentioned that he would like to visit Florence so I also got a guide book out about that. It looks amazing there. So I spent a couple of hours browsing the net and pretend 'shopping' for which hotel we would stay in if we were ever to visit:rotfl: It's a nice 'maybe one day' dream!
4) A NSD
5) The smell of our sweet chilli chicken tea that's ready any minute now...

Have a great weekend everyone.