Highlandhearts

Ups and downs is how I would describe my week but my mood started to lift yesterday and I had a little trip out with my Sis-in-law to get a few bits for Christmas which was nice after hibernating most of the week. Do you like my new Christmas plate?  I found it in a charity shop yesterday and paid a pound for it.  Merry Christmas 1979.  I was also lucky enough to find this .. I needed a few ideas of what to cook as I'm still a slow cooker novice. I will let you all know what I decide to make out of it as I haven't had time to look at it properly yet. We had a terrible windy storm in the week, gusts recorded over 100 miles p/hr and trees blown over and bridges closed. Most of the village lost electricity for a couple of days.  I laid in bed unable to sleep because of the noise of the wind but I kept my eyes tightly shut because of the lightning.  I've always been frightened by the power of lightning and i was worried that one of the large scots pine trees to the ...

Its time to change the tea cosy from this one to..... My Christmas pudding one!  I made these tea cosies a while ago, note the tea stains on it! I also spent time this week making a few Christmas cards by recycling bits from last years cards and I spent 70p on two sheets of tartan paper.  Well I am in Scotland and I always think tartan looks very Christmasy. It's nice to make homemade cards and every so often a group of us girls get together for an evening to make some.  Sometimes we end up chatting so much we don't actually make any but other evenings we end up very productive, honest!! I also wrote out my food shopping list but because its only the two of us plus the cats, it's not a very big list.  We have been buying a few bits over the last month or so to spread the cost.  We have decided to have paella on Christmas Eve which I make with chicken breast, prawns and chorizo, a traditional turkey dinner on the big day with a choice of homemade puddings, a ...

It was a harsh frost last night and I struggled to get out of my cosy bed into the cold although I've got my fleecy pj's on. No work for me today but OH was up early getting his tools loaded up and cleaning out and preparing the stove for me to light later on ( must be love!) before getting ready to go off to work himself. Hurray! a pyjama day at home to myself!   I decided to potter in the kitchen, breakfast tv on whilst i make a sausage casserole for dinner.  I grilled the sausages and then cut them in half as 12 bits of meat looked better than 6.  I chopped onion, carrots, new potatoes and added frozen peppers and peas.  I threw in a tin of butter beans and then added a sachet of Tesco's casserole mix 30p and cooked it in the oven for an hour.  As I didn't know what time OH would be home I thought I could warm it up in the microwave whilst cooking a bit of rice to go with it. (This made three good sized portions so I took a pic of the leftovers as forgot the ...

These boots are 25 years old and are worn frequently.  I brought them originally to wear on building sites where I worked for 15 years and since then they are worn on any bad weather day throughout the year.  I have certainly had my money's worth from them. This morning they were my walking boots.  I've also got my pink bed socks on!  I'm not a great walker, my knees hurt     but since losing 3 stone I feel able to give it a go. My OH planned a walk for us up a hill but with a promise that there was a seat at the top where we could have coffee and a rest for me! This was at the start and you could see the loch through the trees. OH carried the supplies.  He's an experienced walker and goes prepared for all eventualities, wonder if he's got a stretcher in there for me! The weather was a bit damp and dark but we walked higher and past this old ruin of a barn There was sunshine higher up and I really wanted to reach it Not far to the light now Made it to ...

the snow arrived overnight just as the forecast had predicted. it was -3 degrees when I took these pics but it felt bitter and my hands were freezing so I had to go indoors.  Five minutes later we had a complete whiteout. My son and OH accompanied me walking down the hill to work but only so they could throw snowballs at me! Terri X

I made a mince pie for my OH this morning, this is the before cooking pic.  I sprinkled a little brown sugar on top before putting it in the oven and this is the after pic My sis in law popped in for tea just as it was cooling so they both had a piece.  I prepared a chicken and vegetable curry and put it into my new slow cooker for dinner.  I had previously given a large slow cooker to a friend as it was just too big for us and she agreed to get me a smaller 3 litre one and this one was on sale from Tesco for £12.00.  Bargain!  I am so pleased with it and I plan to use it a lot over the winter.  This curry is enough for 2 dinners each so it is plenty big enough for us. I also defrosted two potions of leftover soups and put them together for lunch as one was tomato and lentil, the other was a veg soup This was all before 9am! After getting dressed I ventured out in the wind to pop down to the village.  The temperature was pretty mild at 12 degrees outsi...

I woke with a start at 5am this morning because my OH mumbled my name in his sleep.  I don't know what he was dreaming about but you know what it's like when you're woken, my brain started whirring and you start thinking about all sorts of things and you have no chance of getting back to sleep. I was thinking about what I intended to cook today and I know I took two chicken breasts out of the freezer to defrost overnight.  I put them covered in a dish and put them under the grill so the cats couldn't get to them but at the time although it was 9.30pm I  remember feeling a bit peckish so I made myself a ham sandwich.  Did I put the ham away? This may sound pretty unimportant but yesterday I treated us to a pound of really nice ham from the village.  At £4.89 a pack its not cheap but I intended to make a few meals out of it and OH was looking forward to having some.  I really couldn't remember putting it away but I didn't want to get out of bed at that time t...