This week has really been dominated by food and also lots of lovely people all wanting to eat out.
Monday our friendsN&T came over and we went out to lunch. We went to ASK the Italian restaurant and I had my 'taste card' and a meal deal voucher and a special 25% off voucher, so we all had a lovely meal and when we asked for the bill the waitress took the lot and worked out the best price she could....so that deserved a good tip hahaha
Tuesday lunchtime I went out to lunch with my old work team. So lovely to see them as we hadn't managed to meet up since our Christmas dinner. I had to ask for a lift as Daughter still had my car while her's is being repaired. I felt like I hadn't been home long before getting ready to go out to eat again with our Son and fiancé, they were treating us for a belated birthday for Hubby and Mother's day for me. In return I helped Son with a 2for1 voucher :-)
Wednesday was our usual group in our usual pub, all except friendDJ who sadly now has lung cancer and had to be home for someone to come and fit an emergency alert button at home as he's not too steady on his feet just now :-(
I had decided to make another batch of chutney and there were enough damsons left in the freezer for two and a half batches and for some reason I decided to do them all as I had enough of the other ingredients. It took me nearly all day Thursday to de-stone all that purple squishy fruit as it gave me backache. I had to leave it with all prepped and all the other ingredients in the saucepan but not cooked. Feeling a bit worried about the final taste as I'd realised a bit late that I'd used a half tablespoon measure when the recipe meant teaspoon! So there was a lot more cayenne pepper than I'd needed and thankfully I'd run out of paprika before I'd finished counting and then just as I started counting out the garlic granules I realised!!!
I was eating out again on Thursday evening with bfriendM and friendH as we haven't had a girly catchup for ages. Mexican this time and friendH had both a 25% off voucher and her student card that gets discount......love a bargain!
All Friday morning I cooked down the chutney, took ages as far too much for one pan! Made about 15 jars of various sizes, it tasted good but with a lot more kick than I'd previously made. Daughter and O came for lunch and Daughter had the chutney (still warm) in her sandwich and declared it good (but not as good as the original plum recipe). O's lunch choice was getting me to make him peanut butter pancakes.
That afternoon I collected friendDJ and we went to meet a new baby of friends (DJ can't drive now so was thrilled to go). Our visit included cake!
Oh I love all baby cuddles. They also have a 2 year old who is adorable and we played together too.
We had arranged for O to have a sleepover here. He is so funny, when I said that his usual bed was full of stuff on top and would he mind sleeping in one of the girls' beds he said "what about the bed you'll say no to?" as if I ever say no to this boy lol, he meant the sofa bed and that was fine of course. He'd also put in a menu request by Skype video message of Yorkshire puddings and sage and onion stuffing for his dinner thankfully he allowed me to add chicken and vegetables.
It's now early morning Saturday and I'm rather tired. O went up to bed at 8pm but took ages to get to sleep so I didn't creep out of the room till nearly 9pm. Then a little naked boy crawled into my bed at 3:50am saying he hasn't slept at all (he was asleep when Hubby went up at 10:30pm and still asleep when I checked on him two hours later on my way to bed) anyway he snuggled and tried to relax but we eventually came down at 4:30am! So our first breakfast of porridge at 5am and he's now waiting for a second breakfast of pancakes but he'll have to wait for Hubby to get up before I'll do that. Daughter and R are coming for lunch and to collect O and Hubby has an old school friend coming for the day and I've been requested to make lasagne for dinner so my 5:2 diet hasn't stood a chance this week!
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