As you’ve met two more of the CIHK I thought I’d catch you up on the food we’ve been eating this week.

So last week’s plan was

W	Aubergine, halloumi, harissa skillet bake (adapted) + cous cous  We had this, but I bought a reduced foccacia to have with it rather than cous cous. Unfortunately, there were anchovies on the bread which I felt didn’t enhance the flavour of anything (I don’t like anchovies!!) The bake itself was OK but was a bit watery from the tomatoes.
Th	Pulled pork sloppy joes, HM coleslaw, sweet potato wedges  Friend Alison came for aperos, and we had fairly substantial snacks with our drinks, so Mr FD made himself an omelette and I had toast and peanut butter for our dinner.
F	HM pizza (mostly veggie)  We went to friends for a substantial lunch, so the pizza dough went into the freezer, and we had bread-and-scrape for tea.
S	Chicken, chickpea, spinach curry – Naan We had the pulled pork instead of curry. The burger buns I’d bought were going out of date.
S	Pork casserole with pork steaks Apple, cider, cream, mushrooms – mash, veggies We had this. It was very nice, & there’s some to go into the freezer. The pork steaks were very thin so it will need more meat adding next time as I think we ate more than 2 of the 4 steaks.
M	Veggie enchiladas / tortillas  This was a pleasantly fine dish.
T	Salmon, leeks, coconut rice, mushrooms  Not had yet, at the time of writing, but it should be fine!!

So, this week, the plan is as follows:

W	Mary Berry lasagne  – this will use the pork mince that I put in the freezer when I didn’t make this last time!! As I split the mince I don’t know if this will make enough lasagne to put some in the freezer or not.
Th	Glamorgan sausages, coleslaw, sweet potato wedges Never made these before. I’ll be interested to see how they turn out.
F	Chicken & veg curry, naan  This is the curry I didn’t make last week, using chicken & sauce in the freezer.
S	Slow cooker veg stew with cheddar dumplings / cobbler I’m going to make cheesy scone topping rather than dumplings.
S	Cassoulet, braised chicory, green beans  This is from a tin.
M	Baked tomato, mozzarella, basil risotto  Another vegetarian meal from BBC Good Food. I know Mr FD isn’t a huge fan of risotto, as he doesn’t like it if the rice isn’t cooked through, but tant pis for him.
T	Fish fingers, peasncrots, chips, tartare sauce. Peasncrots is what we call tinned peas & carrots. The fish fingers are probably more like small fillets of fish than fingers.

I’ll let you know how we get on next week.

Manda

When we were first married, we lived in a flat in Kingsbury, North London. It was above a row of shops, with a balcony walkway running along the row of flats. We lived next door to “Jack” and older man who lived alone, save for his huge tabby cat, who was called Bruiser. Jack rarely seemed to stroke Bruiser, but would poke him with his foot, which seemed to be well received.

Further along the balcony was an Italian couple, who had a delicate little tortoiseshell/calico cat, named Amanda. I didn’t see Amanda very often, as I think she was kept indoors most of the time.

We didn’t have a cat, being out at work all day, and living on Kingsbury High Road, we didn’t feel it was safe to do so. One day, I entered a competition in a magazine, that was sponsored by Kit-E-Kat. I only entered because Mr FD wanted to try ski-ing, and the first prize was an all-expenses-paid ski-ing holiday in Austria. To my utmost surprise, I won the competition!! The full prize was the holiday, a fitness outfit (this was the 80s. Think Jane Fonda ) and a Years supply of Kit-E-Kat – which comes out at 384 tins, if you’re interested.

The holiday was amazing (except for the fact Mr FD found he loved it, & I found I didn’t. ) and the fitness outfit slightly hysterical, as they sent me a size 12 and I was size 16 at the least. There were leg warmers, wrist warmers, headband, over-leotard, under leotard – the works!! With no regret whatsoever, it was hastily passed on to our fit and lithe friend Nikki who looked much better in it than I would have done!

But 384 tins of Kit-E-Kat – and no cat? What was to be done? (This was rather a lot of cat food that had all been delivered at once. I really can’t imagine where we kept 32 trays of 12 tins in our small one bedroomed flat!) Well, by this time, Manda’s owners had gone back to Italy, leaving Amanda in the company of Jack and Bruiser; I don’t think either of them knew how to behave towards this elegant, dainty little cat. So we offered to take ownership of her, and to feed her Kit-E -Kat on a regular basis. Which is what we did.

After less than a year, we moved out of London to Milton Keynes, where we had a garden, so Manda (we couldn’t bear the name Amanda, so shortened it by a syllable) could go exploring. She never went very far, preferring to be an indoors cat. The cat food lasted quite a while, and she never got bored of Kit-E-Kat, only refusing to eat the chicken flavoured one. I gave those to a colleague who fed some stray cats on her property.

She developed diabetes later in life, but because we had an excellent Pet Insurance policy we were able to have her on twice-daily insulin injections at a very reasonable cost. There was never any problem giving her her medication, and I seem to remember that if we were late giving it to her, she would come and find us, almost to remind us. She lived to the age of 19 1/2, finally needing to be put to sleep a few months before we moved to France. She’d become unable to move, and to control her bladder, so it was definitely time to say Goodbye. We toasted her life by raising a glass to her and having a meal in The Barge pub in Woolstone, Milton Keynes !

Somewhere in the attic we have more photos of Manda, but this one is out on display, so I took a photo of the photo.

SOPHIE

1983: I had my new job in London, I had somewhere to live – sharing a house with three other people – I now needed a cat. The house was away from main roads, had a big garden and was near a park too, so there was lots of room for a cat.

So Mr FD (who wasn’t Mr FD at the time) and I went to an animal shelter to see if I could adopt one. I adopted a young grey and white cat, not a kitten, but about a year old. She was very pretty.

I named her Sophie, after reading a book about St Sophia cathedral in Kiev. She wasn’t a very interesting cat, unfortunately, and showed no predilection for cuddling, or even being near me. She spent a lot of her time outside and rarely came for anything other than food.

When I was evicted from the house, as the landlords decided they wanted to sell it, the alternative accommodation that I found wasn’t suitable for Sophie, being on an intersection of three main roads, and being a flat above a shop. So Mr FD (who was now Mr FD-to-be)’s parents said they would look after her.

It was here that she showed her evil side. The in-laws-to-be had a lovely old cat called Pookah. Pookah had had an altercation with a motor scooter and had had one of his rear legs amputated, but he still got around quite well, despite his age and his handicap. Sophie, however, took against Pookah and would ambush him, by sitting quietly on the arm of a chair, waiting for him to pass by. Then, at exactly the right moment, she would drop onto his hindquarters: being unbalanced, Pookah would then collapse under her weight, and she would run off, shrieking with laughter. This became quite a regular occurrence, until poor Pookah gave up the ghost.

The in-laws, as they then were, moved to the country in 1985, and Sophie, who had navigated the roads of North London, and Maidstone in Kent, didn’t know what to make of it all. Apparently, it appears that she had no idea what tractors were, and she met her demise, sitting in the middle of the road watching one, until it ran her over!

Unfortunately Sophie was not grieved for very much. She hadn’t really endeared herself to anyone, and she has been mostly forgotten. I hope she enjoyed her independent life, and that when she met Pookah at St Roch’s feet, he forgave her all her nasty tricks…

As I’m writing about various Cats I Have Known, I thought it might be a good idea to try to sort my photos into folders on my computer. They have just been downloaded with no organisation, so I thought it was about time I sorted them. I’ve been at it for 4 hours and still have a way to go!

Well, I’ve discovered Lucky Jim has more photos than any cat deserves to have, and that I only have a couple of dear departed Pumpkin. During Pumpkin’s time, I didn’t have a smart phone, so taking a photo wasn’t so easy, as I didn’t have my camera with me all the time.

I still ought to sort them into folders that are more descriptive than “Walking 2021” – which has hundreds of photos in – but at least I might have a shot at finding something more easily.

I also deleted many photos – quite a lot of them were of food. I suspect I took them to write about in this blog…and I may well have done…but there were myriad photos of various plates of food.

This led me on to realising that I was running out of media space on the blog. I therefore had to go back and delete many photos from the earlier blog posts. So there will be early posts with blank spaces now. I think I also need to delete videos from earlier posts as I imagine these are taking up quite a lot of space too. I am not going to start paying 4.99 a month for my blog, so I will have to find a way of reducing the space used.

JET & TILLY

So mum had decreed No More Cats – and she stuck to it. But when she & dad moved to the house where mum still lives today, there was a small change in policy.

The next door neighbours, with whom mum & dad were friendly loved animals, and had cats and (rather badly behaved) dogs. So the two cats, Jet & Tilly, (brother and sister) used to come into mum’s garden for relief from the barky dogs. They were two beautifully sleek, all-black cats, and gradually, they wormed their way into mum’s heart, and she would let them into the house to sleep comfortably in the dog-less warmth.

However, they were inveterate stealers of food, so when she was preparing a meal they would be chased out of the house. They would be prowling around outside trying to slip their way back in, but usually were fended off. But one time (and, again, I have related this in the past) (In fact, I’m starting to wonder if I’ve done a Cats I Have Known series before!!) they managed to slide in without anyone noticing…

It was when my mum and dad, and my future in-laws were meeting for the first time. Mum had prepared a smoked salmon and prawn starter, which was resting in the kitchen, before serving. Of course, there were no cats in the house, so it was safe…

Mum & I went into the kitchen to fetch the starter and there were Jet & Tilly (or maybe just one of them) enjoying a luxurious supper of smoked salmon and prawns. A stifled shriek from mother (and possibly a thrown slipper) and the cat vanished downstairs.

After a brief moment of panic, the smoked salmon and prawns that remained were given a hasty wash, and were redistributed on the plates. And no-one was any the wiser!

I think Jet died before Tilly, but she still came into mum’s house for quiet. And scraps!

TUPPENCE

I know some of my readers are cat people; some of you aren’t. If you’re not, you may want to skip this post (and some of the others) but I thought it would be interesting to share some memories of cats I have known.

As a child I had various hamsters as pets – none of them survived very long. Fudge, the only one whose name I remember, died of pneumonia (or whatever pneumonia-related illness hamsters get), going blind before s/he died. Another one escaped under the floorboards, never to be seen again. We also had goldfish: I don’t remember them alive, but only dead, when we would put the fishy corpse in a Swan Vesta matchbox and bury them in the garden. The Corgi toy lorry did service as a hearse.

So, imagine the excitement when we heard we were getting a cat. Our cleaner was an animal lover, and had rescued some kittens, and my mum was persuaded to take one. Tuppence was a beautiful grey tabby cat. She was supposed to be a mouser, as we had mice in the house, but I suspect she was too well fed for the job. She showed no interest whatsoever in chasing mice. I remember the time she was eating her evening meal and a mouse walked right in front of her. Decision time: do I chase the mouse, or carry on eating? Carry on eating was the decision.

The only time we saw her with a mouse was when the mouse trap (“Little Nipper”) did its work, and Tuppence paraded around the house, carrying the dead creature as proudly as if she had caught it, mouse dangling from one side of her mouth, Little Nipper from the other. “Look mum!I got it!”

She was a bird catcher however, and many was the time Mum would come downstairs to a cloud of feathers, or even worse, to tread in a still warm bird corpse. That was less appealing.

And the most memorable Tuppence related incident, which I think I’ve related before on the blog, was when Mum prepared Chinese Spare Ribs for a special meal. We had the tablecloth on the table, finger bowls were out, and we sat down for our feast. All the time the meal was being prepared Tuppy had been weaving around excitedly, and patrolling the dining room window ledge. The scent was obviously titillating her nose, and sending her wild. Suddenly, from the window sill behind me came a tabby blur as she launched herself onto the table, intent on grabbing a spare rib and making a run for it. Unfortunately, she had not learned about the physics of tablecloths at kitten school, and as she landed, the tablecloth slid under her feet, off the table, taking finger bowls, plates, spare ribs, everything with it! I can’t remember what happened in the aftermath, but that disastrous jump is ingrained in my memory!

Unfortunately, Tuppy didn’t live to a ripe old age: she had to be put to sleep after another leaping/falling incident ruptured her diaphragm. I only remember ever seeing one photo of her, black and white, standing in the rowan tree in the front garden, like a jaguar or cheetah looking out for its prey.

After that, mum declared we would have no more cats. I don’t know if that was because we were so upset when she died, or because it had been a bit inconvenient having the cat (although Betty, the cleaner, was always happy to look after her) but whatever the reason, Mum has stuck to her word.

After the Big Freezer Inventory at the weekend, I planned this week’s meals around using up some of the things that have been in there a bit too long… I think I’ll be more successful keeping to this plan than last week’s.

W	Aubergine, halloumi, harissa skillet bake (adapted) + cous cous
Th	Pulled pork sloppy joes, HM coleslaw, sweet potato wedges
F	HM pizza (mostly veggie)
S	Chicken, chickpea, spinach curry – – Naan
S	Pork casserole with pork steaks in freezer mash, veggies
M	Veggie enchiladas / tortillas
T	Salmon, leeks, coconut rice, mushrooms

The curry will use up some rather weird deboned chicken thighs that I bought from Thiriet, the frozen food retailer. They had a very strange texture, almost, as Mr FD said, like reconstituted chicken. Not nice. I also have 1 lonesome chicken breast, so we’ll have a chicken-full curry, which will please Mr FD as he often says I don’t put enough meat in my (vegetarian) curries!

I will go back to buying my frozen goods from Picard – more expensive but MUCH better quality. Not that I buy much frozen food, but sometimes it’s useful to have some quick-fixes in the freezer.

Which meal takes your fancy from our planned menus?

Autumn seems to have finally arrived, after a long October that was unseasonably warm. We had a weekend of dreich, grey rain, which saw Mr FD and I being VERY lazy and lolling in front of the TV all afternoon. I was reading a bit, but mostly just lolling. The cats were happy as it gave a choice of laps – and, for the first time EVER Jasper sat on my lap, and actually settled down for about half an hour. He has never been a lapcat, but he was there, not letting me stroke him, but definitely settled.

We don’t have central heating, and being an old house, despite the insulation, it can get cold. We have electric heaters on a timer in the bedrooms & kitchen, and a granule burner in the sitting room. Our studies are heated by paraffin heaters, which are remarkably efficient. Mr FD will often remark on my study being “like a sauna”!

But not this year. For some reason I have, as yet, resisted putting on the heater in my study. I wear a scarf/shawl, and have my trusty electric hot water bottle, and sometimes a blanket on my knee, but I’m managing to feel warm enough so I don’t put the heater on.

I don’t know what the temperature is, but the weather app says it’s 8°C outside (just under 50°F) so it’s not exactly toasty!

I was a bit chilly in bed last night, so I think it might be time to start having a HWB at night too. I have a medium weight duvet and a blanket, (and sometimes a cat!) but the HWB will add a tad more comfort.

Have you put your heating on yet? Or (if you’re in the southern hemisphere) have you turned it off?

I decided it was time to do an inventory of what was in the freezer, as I’d been cramming odd bits and pieces in there without keeping any record of what went in. I then thought I could use some of the things that were in there to help with the planning, so I wasn’t buying ingredients I didn’t need, or cooking when I didn’t need to. This is the result:

PREPARED FOOD	INGREDIENTS
Pulled pork Pulled pork 2 chicken burgers Beef casserole Salmon Fishcake mix Fish “fingers” Chicken breasts Veggie Shep pie mix Veggie Shep pie mix Veggie Shep pie mix Veggie pasta sauce Meatballs (4?)	Tagliatelle (for 1) Tortellini (for 1) 2 x sausages 2 x gammon steak 4 x pork steak (stuck) Salmon fillet Chicken breast x1 Pork mince 2 x 150g
FRUIT & VEG	MISC
Courgette – lots Chips Rhubarb Edamame beans Wok veg (2 servings) Tomato paste	Ice cream bars (2) Ice cream Bit of pastry Milk 1 Mince pies (2 boxes) Naan breads 2 Peshwari naan 2 Small plain 6 Pita 3 1 mozzarella ball

The “4 pork steaks – stuck” is a reminder that they have stuck together, so I will need to defrost as a job lot, make a casserole, and then refreeze 2 portions of COOKED pork steak.

We have also had some changes to the menu planning (in fact every day except Wednesday!

W	Veggie cottage pie with sweet potato topping Green beans	We had this.
Th	Punjabi Partha (aubergine curry) WITH green beans!!!	Didn’t fancy this in the end, so we got a (very disappointing) pizza from next door.
F	Smokey sausage & squash traybake	I didn’t feel great – my vertigo has returned, to a certain degree – so Mr FD cooked fish, chips & beans.
S	Creamy baked gnocchi with squash & spinach	We had this, but I added 2 chopped sausages, and some mushrooms & onions to the sauce. It was nice.
S	Mary Berry lasagne	I can’t be arsed cooking this tonight, so I’m going to divide the pork mince into two lots & freeze it. We’ll have chicken thighs, potato noisettes, green beans (still eating them!) roast parsnip, and gravy.
M	Pulled pork sloppy Joes, sweet potato wedges, onions – HM coleslaw	The tagliatelle & tortellini have been in the freezer for a while, as have the pasta sauce & meatballs, so we’re going to have a gloriously mixed up pasta dish to use up the bits.
T	Salmon, garlic chickpeas, spinach	Instead of this, I’ll use the salmon fish cake mix, and have it with HM coleslaw, and fried potatoes.

The pizza was a real disappointment on Thursday.

They have a new pizza menu

We both really fancied the Mont et Merveille, but when we got it home, I think Jean Yves had forgotten which pizza he was making…It had potatoes (from the Savoyade), but jambon cru (correctly)…there were no olives, the mozzarella was missing…As it was raining hard by this point I really didn’t want to go back and complain, so we ate it…but it was dry, and fairly tasteless. I haven’t told them – maybe I should – but we are thinking of going to the other pizzeria next time. Their dough is infinitely better, although I find their toppings a bit rich, and actually less appealing…(I think you can click on the photo to enlarge it) I also find their menu harder to read!!

Which would you choose from the two menus?

No, this is not a post about mice, from Robert Burns’ poem

…but rather about some more of my Celtic beasts that I’ve been drawing recently. I’ve given myself a couple of days off card making, and have done some more work from my “Draw Your Own Celtic Designs” book. My last showing off post was here with the boar. Since then, I’ve completed three more. I don’t really know what sort of animals they are supposed to be, but I’m imagining some kind of hounds.

The first one seems to be very keen to get wherever he’s going, but I fear he might be going to trip over his legs which seem rather entangled!

I’m not sure about the colour scheme I used. It was supposed to be more red than pink, but the crayon I used wasn’t as red as I thought!

I think the next is more of a greyhound. It got smudged unfortunately, partly by Jim, partly by me. Jim often comes to “help” me when I’m working: it can be rather annoying at times!

Apart from the smudging I’m quite happy with this, although I still need to be more careful when drawing the ribbons – their width is very variable at times!

The last is also a greyhound (?) but it definitely appears to have forgotten which way is up – and only has two legs.

This is my favourite, even though I made several mistakes. I tried to scratch out the lines that I’d drawn, but as you can see on the rear leg, that wasn’t successful. I should have just left it as a mistake, as very few people would have noticed it was an error. I imagine the Book of Kells is full of over lines which should have been under lines. The ribbons are much more uniform in this one, as I really focused on that.

Which one do you like best?