Yesterday we started the day late, with an almost Full English Breakfast for brunch. It was, to be fair, Full enough, and lasted us until the evening, when Julia cooked Iranian Vegetable Stew, which we ate with fresh bread from the bread maker. It’s a stew made with squash, spinach, potatoes, onions, tomatoes and (in our case) cranberries, flavoured with ras el hanout. Julia’s version is similar to the recipe in the link, though there are various versions of the recipe, and after reading the link I see there are various versions of ras el hanout.
There is, I feel, little point to retirement if you have to get up early and stick to a routine, or even a recipe.
We had black-headed gulls in the garden yesterday. They didn’t stay, just dropped in, grabbed some bread and flew off. We have frequently seen them overhead but this is the first time they have come to feed. We also had white doves. There is a small flock that flies round. I presume somebody local has a dovecote. There is no way to record them on the garden birdwatch site, but at least the gulls were a new species, as was the rabbit.
Then, between darkness falling last night and Julia looking out of the kitchen window this morning, something managed to open the bottom of the peanut feeder and drop the nuts to the floor. It was almost empty so it isn’t a disaster, but at the moment we can’t find the base. We suspect the squirrel is heavily involved. That’s the trouble with squirrels, they just have to escalate things.
Thought this might be Cauliflower Fungus. As I don’t intend eating it, it doesn’t really matter.
The stew and bread sound delicious.
They were. 🙂
I think that you should try the spanakopita. I am sure that you can get good ready-made pastry for a first attempt.
It will be for any attempt, not just a first attempt. Life is to short to make my own pastry.
My view too.
🙂
Now that is an eating habit of which I approve
🙂
Thanks for the Iranian stew recipe. I will add it to my list.
It adds a nice variety to the menu, and it’s a good way of eating spinach – not generally a vegetable I have much time for.
Get out your recipe book and make Greek Spanakopita,
To be honest, I’ve always avoided it because of the pastry. Maybe I wshould become more adventurous . . .
I also suspect the squirrel of opening the peanut door. You might have to put some kind of lock mechanism on the bottom of the peanut feeder, assuming you can find it again. Was it metal or plastic?
Plastic. It will somewhere amongst the plants. I imagine a bit of bent coathanger wire will defeat the squirrel – by which time it will have moved on to another way of tormenting me.
Plastic will have probably been chewed beyond recognition. Good luck, Simon! 🙂
We are gathering ourselves for the next phase of Operation Squirrel Bane . . .