Friday was a beautiful sunny day so we decided to go for another family walk in the afternoon. Every day I am thankful that we live where we do and that we can walk freely without worrying about meeting too many people. Fresh air and inspiring views can lift the spirits hugely. I also have to be thankful that we are all fit and healthy and can walk without aches and pains. When I was a child we always used to go on long walks in the countryside; the joke was always that my father had a knack of finding the muddiest paths imaginable. Hence I have got into the habit of wearing wellies for walking. Jess has developed the family love of walking too and is in the habit of heading off on her own for quiet rambles. I think at the moment the three of us are happy to be together and share these moments of freedom. As usual I took my trusty camera for capturing the sunlight on the trees. I was very pleased with these photos, with light and shadows making them atmospheric and magical.
Friday night was also film night! I spent quite a bit of the day preparing our special TV dinner. I can quite happily spend hours in the kitchen preparing food. Sometimes the amount of preparation I do for one simple meal, and the number of times I run the dishwasher would truly astound people! On the menu was:
Nachos with bacon and cheese
Crispy Squid in batter
Squid cooked with chilli
Spicy dip
Crispy baked salmon slices
Potato skins stuffed with spicy chicken
Chocolate Pots topped with crushed mini eggs
I have a gift for making a simple recipe more complicated. So for instance the chocolate pots were meant to be made with a carton of fresh custard. No, no, no! Much more fun to make proper custard with cream, full cream milk and eggs. They did turn out very well. Recipe was courtesy of Tom Kerridge in the April edition of the BBC Good Food Magazine. It was meant to be a recipe for Easter, but well worth trying out early!
Here are some pictures of the food that I prepared. Although I have a chef daughter, she was not in the mood for helping on Friday, so all the food was made by yours truly:
We had a most enjoyable evening watching our chosen film ‘Five Feet Apart.’ I mentioned this in yesterday’s diary and the significance of the title and why I chose it. The film is very close to the book, with no major changes. In fact, the film and book were released at about the same time, so the book was in fact partly based on the film. It is definitely a box of tissues film, but highly recommended! Jess and Tigger enjoyed the evening very much!
