Edible doormouses, in the house.

 Or is it edible doormice in the house?  Anyway.   We had some serious scratchings going on the past couple of weeks and it was becoming quite a distraction (to say the least). The majority of it seemed to be under the kitchen cupboards.  Behind the kickboards.  

The tipping point was last night.  Even with an unwell Nudge he still soldiered on and tried to get that beast (he got the tail and there was quite a bit of spattered blood).  I went down to check things out and it was the tail of an edible doormouse.  We know the look because we've had one before.  

I've gotta salute wee Nudge.  Even in his weakened state, he managed to say "fuck off edible doormouse".  

Poor Andy.  So I took myself off for a run this morning and Andy had to deal with the whole situation.  Which he did.  He found the hole, he plastered it up, he had to crawl around on his knees.   He had to take the fridge and dishwasher out and clean all the edible doormouse's pooh and he also at the same time used the opportunity to run a cable and put an extra 3 electrical sockets in.  I've been wanting an extra socket on the left-hand side of our bench top for ages.  He's so clever.    

Summery - doormouse is out of the house.  I have the extra socket I've been after.  Andy has a sore back.  Nudge is not well but tried to stand up to the doormouse despite his sickness.  We pulled through.  (well all I did was mop the floor and clean the kitchen.  The boys did the rest).  Whew!

Fresh pasta with pork vindaloo.

Despite Nudge’s illness we still had a delicious dinner.  We had left over pork vindaloo and made the pasta we made recently (which is the easiest fresh pasta style to handle).  It was absolutely delicious.  With salad and parmesan and charred flat breads.  It might be fusion but it’s the sort of ‘fusion’ that works.  It was unreal.     

 

Wee Nudge, he's got a touch of the flu...

Poor little kitty cat.  He came back yesterday really late for his lunch and seemed a bit off.  So we decided to keep him inside to monitor him.  He’s been sleeping mostly solid with just a couple of bounces of energy.  He’s eating, not hungry eating but at least he’s eating.  He has a wee temperature.  (His nose is dry and his ears are hot).

 

So, we will keep him safe inside for a couple of days and hope he just sleeps through it. He’s a sleeper is our Nudge.  When times are tough he just sleeps.  

 

Beef ragu with fresh pasta

We had leftover beef ragu which was beef cooked in Osso Bucco style (ie white wine, chicken stock, acidity, the beef was unreal).

 

So, with our leftovers, we roasted down tomato with olive oil, herbs and garlic and added it to the beef.

 

We made fresh pasta.  We watched a Jamie Oliver recipe on the tele.  He really has some good ideas does Jamie.  Lasagne style sheets then cut randomly so when they cook (within in 2 minutes) they were beautiful.  The little cuts meant the pasta became a sort of parpadelle without the fuss. 

 

It is difficult to explain but the result was so gorgeous.  

We made a simple salad. Et voila.     

 

 

We have a lunch this weekend.  We have invited Fanny from down the road and Ziggy from the Chateau Orquevaux.  Fanny is an artist, we've had them before so it’s a nice mix. 

 

I have made Joey’s crumble recipe to go with my melted sweet apple lasagne (think sweet apple dauphinoise) which I’ll serve with a crème anglaise. 

 

We are doing a simple potato tortilla Spanish style for lunch with salad and roasted tomatoes and bread.  

 

Fingers crossed, but I think it’ll be good. 

Check out Joey's crumble recipe!  It's unreal.  Like wee morsels of shortbread.

 

The disinfectant advert....

There was an advertisement when I was a kid.  On TV and I guess I was 7-8 yrs old. It was a Dettol (or similar) add where the whole house was plopped into disinfectant. I loved that advertisement. I just wanted everything to be plopped into disinfectant. It was my dream.  I have issues hence that add being such a focus.  Our house was always super clean.  It wasn't our house that wanted me to plop it into the dettol it was just the idea of every single thing being disinfected at once.  I was a little nuts and still am with that sort of thing.  Hence my personal extreme COVID measures. 😓 It takes time.  But it's for our safety. We are on our own here.  If we both get sick we are quite stuffed.   

I'm still the little girl in the sandpit running in to wash her hands every time they get "dirty mummy".  Then running out to play again...........

Baking for the neighbours and dinner tonight.....

I bake for our gorgeous neighbours regularly.  But lately, I’ve been very slack.  The reason is, instead of berry porridge for brekkie we’ve been eating cake or (the bestest of late) burnt butter folded bread (croissants on steroids). Therefore, I've been baking for us.

 

So today, being Sunday .. we made our neighbours some cinnamon rolls. 

 

They were bloody amazing.  We were so proud of those cinnamon rolls (but we wish we did an extra tester (for scientific reasons:)

 

We had an awesome day,  making dauphinoise, beef stew and cinnamon rolls together.

 

No COVID.  No leaving our property.  Just flour, sugar, cinnamon and loads of butter with potato cheese butter beef and yummy stuff.

We finished off our perfect day with dinner in the cave.  A proper dinner.  I didn't take down the camera (bummer because it was amazing) but the potato dauphinoise with beef stew (osso buco style with white wine but with beef, not veal.) We still added the gremolata.  It was a gorgeous meal and an example of how beef can be cooked fresh like veal, with white wine and acidity.

Yum.  We had the best day.  I should have worn my jammies it was that good.