Monday's Blog: Lazy day

My first one since arriving here around 9 days ago. It was lovely to have a sleep in and to not be expected to do anything. Because everybody was going to be out and I would have the house to myself, I decided to cook dinner so they don't have to worry about it. But as I had been mentioning, it's hard to cook for fussy people, so the key is to just

a) keep it simple. Take out all the fancy herbs and spices that I now call my 'everyday essential seasonings' and stick to the bare basics and
b) if that doesn't work, don't tell them what's in it!

I was looking through a little cookbook that my Mum gave me before I left (it's from Super Food Ideas, which is a monthly magazine that is really the best because it caters for budget conscious simplists who sometimes want to eat something aside from bread and water every night) and the simplest thing I could find that I knew they would like was a ham and macaroni bake (everyone here called it macaroni and cheese - and I guess they were right - but I put mine in the oven instead! The other night when 3 of us had tacos, 1 had mac cheese but froom the packet, so I'm trying to instill home made cooking here, moreso as a practice for me!) I took out the parsley :( and there was no ham so instead I put turkey rashes (they looked like bacon anyway. 1 person doesn't like turkey, but I can fudge my way through that!)

It was all very easy, just had to pop into the shop to get some cheddar cheese, and that was a task in itself. Not because there wasn't any, just because there were too many cheddar cheese varieties to choose from (old style, medium, white, marble. Just give me anything man!) I ended up deciding on the marble thinking it would be lighter. I told Judy to prepare for the worst and have a back-up dinner option in case this failed. I made my salad to go with it, we had it and it was delicious! We all went for 3rd helpings and as a result, there was only a tiny plate left for Dawn (She was at work at the time!), but she doesn't eat much anyway. And when Dawn finally had hers she really liked it. Mission accomplished: I can cook for fussy people. It will come in handy again pretty soon!

Spent the day cooking and spent the night drinking tea and watching murder shows on the crime channel. Believe it or not, I had never seen an episode of the CSI Franchise until last night. It's a bit hit and miss - I'll stick to Criminal Intent and NCIS - but I'd watch the other one if there was nothing else on.

I've only just got up, so today's bloggy will come later tonight. I'm off to walk somewhere! Maybe to the gym. We'll see.

Bye!