Good Morning All! What's everyone up to today?

[lucysmam]

I'm just brewing my first cuppa of the day to drink in my kitchen spot. It's silent down here apart from thr fridge and boiler humming away <bliss> 😊

My plans for the day were to wrap the majority of the girls' Christmas presents and send some Vinted parcels but I don't think the girls are heading out to buy me something now 🤷‍♀️

Instead I'll drag them to Lidl, since dd1 didn't go yesterday, and then spend the day crafting and buying the last couple of online bits for them for Christmas.

They both have homework to do so will make sure that's in the process of being done too.

We're having roast chicken for tea, with roast spuds and veg. Maybe cheese sauce - or maybe Lidls frozen cauli cheese 😋

Tonight will be an early shower for me, a bit more crafting, and then an early night all round.

What about all of you? 🙂

Good morning @lucysmam and all!

A very quiet lazy day of doing mostly sweet fuck all and I am going to thoroughly enjoy it. Family Christmas Day out yesterday and we are all knackered.

We are currently watching klaus under the blankets and I'm not planning on moving any time soon

Have lovely Sundays all.

Morning @lucysmam and all! @OldTinHat a turtle tank sounds interesting!

Nice day planned here we are just about to leave to go to a small Christmas fair / fundraiser thing at a local charity. Home for lunch then this afternoon are decorating the tree! Also got to squeeze in homework, last of the uniform wash, and packing bags for the week!

Sausage, mash and cauliflower cheese for tea. Proper cosy Sunday food!

Self care Sunday bath, gin, book and early night tonight.

Morning All!

I'm preparing food for 40 elderly people tomorrow. Roast turkey and all the trimmings plus Christmas puds, cheese & biscuits and goody bags for everyone. Got some Christmas music playing to help me along. It's all good.

Morning all

Slow day here today. We've only just properly got up, we had planned for a long walk but it's raining a bit too much so we've decided to stay in instead.

Going to finish a movie I started last weekend, hopefully read a few chapters of a Christmas book I picked up yesterday, and I'll start preparing a lasagne for tea. I have a couple of Christmas gifts to wrap so I'll do that too!

Reading, films and writing out the last few Christmas cards.

@see @ssd (sorry @see) was a typo and can't remove!) it's easy peasy, but takes a LOOONG time to caramelise the onions. This amount will do 8 delicate portions or 4 man sized meal portions.
Peel and slice around 2kg of onions (I know!!!! It's a huge amount!) as finely chop a couple of garlic cloves.
Melt around 125g butter, or the equivalent amount of oil (or you can use both together, and you can use more if wished) into a VERY large pan and add the onions and garlic.
On a high heat, fry the onions, stirring constantly, until you notice the first start of browning.
Then turn the heat right down, stir well again, and leave the onions to do their thing for a couple of hours probably, stirring at frequent intervals. You will see that a lot of liquid comes out at the beginning, and the quantity of onions shrinks right down to about 1/6th of the original volume.
After quite some time you will see that the onions are starting to go quite beige and the visible liquid is all gone, the remaining onions start to look quite gloopy.
At that stage turn the heat up again, add a teaspoon of brown sugar (you can use white) and continue to fry, stirring continuously, until the onions have gone to a rich brown colour (not black!!!). You will need to be scraping the delicious brown caramelisation off the bottom of the pan as you go.
Once the onions are brown rather than beige, add a small glass of white wine and let it bubble away, deglazing the pan, while you boil a kettle of water.
Add boiling water to about the level that the onions were in the pan originally and stir.
Add 4 jellified beef stock pots. Stir and taste. Add more water if required. Add seasoning if required. I quite often add in a teaspoon of bovril.
Leave to keep warm while you prepare the cheesy croutons. I lightly toast pieces of French bread, then top with my cheese of choice (gruyere or emmental if I have it) and pop under a grill until the cheese is bubbly.
Serve the soup into bowls and add as many cheesy croutons as will fit.

Obviously I'm being fairly cavalier with quantities and timescales here.
There are lots of recipes out there, many contain thyme, which I don't like, and many add brandy, which I don't like. You could add in or leave out as much alcohol as you like, and whatever herbs you like. The traditional method for serving is to put the soup into deep ovenproof dishes and add the croutons BEFORE putting into a hot oven to melt the cheese, but I don't have that kind of ovenproof dish so I do it the other way.

Forgot to give an ingredients list...
2kg white onions
2 cloves garlic
125g butter
125ml white wine
4 beef stock pots
Teaspoon bovril if required
Herbs/seasoning to taste
Boiling water

Enjoy!

We are away this weekend, so have wandered around a wet Chichester (and bought a lemon tree), and now having tea and cake in a cosy cafe before leaving for home. It's been a lovely break

Nothing. Raining here (just for a change 🙄). Going to watch Miracle on 34th Street with red wine accompaniment. I should be doing all sorts of things admin wise but sod it. It's a day of rest.

Some of your days sound lovely.

Good afternoon Lucysmam and others. Contrary to the time, I've been up since before seven with dgs1 who was at my house for a sleepover. He was playing quietly in his bedroom and is a wee sweetheart. Coffee and tea gave been drunk, he's away home with his mum and I'm going to walk to Aldi for washing powder to finish the laundry. Dgs1 and I did most of the decorations yesterday and finished them this morning. This afternoon, after rolls on sausage, I'll write Christmas cards and visit mum in hospital. Then make a steak and mushroom casserole. I have lentil soup bubbling away in the slow cooker. All in all, a lovely weekend.

Morning....well afternoon even lol

I've just been to the gym. It was so quiet, love it on a Sunday morning 🙂
Back home, showered and put a wash on. Got my new curtains ironed and hung up yesterday, but didn't manage any assignment, so the plan this afternoon is to get my assignment started as its due in next Sunday and we have Xmas parties next week 🤦‍♀️

Hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday 😊

I’m now making French onion soup and a cottage pie for dinner and I’m well excited about both! Thanks all!

Good morning-ish, lucysmam and all.

I am going off with a friend to fetch a big chair in my van from another friend's.
There will be tea and mince pies involved, I'm told.
On the way back we will go into the huge Lidl and see what they've got. If I run true to form, I will forget the one thing I'm supposed to be getting - milk. Milk, milk, milk.
This evening we are going to a candle lit carol service at the tiny picturesque church in a hamlet a few miles away. It isn't open very often and I don't think has any electricity. This is what signals the start of Christmas every year, for me. There will also be sherry and more mince pies.
(I love mince pies)
DH is making a slow cooker beef stew but I will probably be full up..

Feel rubbish ,sore throat and lost my voice I have though wrapped up xmas presents although looks like a 4 year has done it !
Not cooking going to have takeaway delivery later, then have a relaxing bath and bed.

Thanks @DilemmaDelilah

I live in a remote village in France where they don't give a shit about ferals and the shelters are overrun at the moment.

We started feeding 3 kittens last year whose mum got run over and they came to find me and meeow at me loudly for food. What they don't eat, the others mop up. Once you start, and they find you, you have a gang outside the door every morning.

We have one as well that adopted us, he is neutered already and was just lost and abandoned so he comes inside for snoozes, cuddles and his own food area. He sleeps in the polytunnel on my kneeler when he isn't on the sofa at night.

Two barn cats from a farmer down the road who have evidently been badly treated found the bowls last winter, and so they moved in on our terrace. One is very old and can't eat much so he gets wet food and milk and biscuits so that the milk softens the biscuits so he can suck them. It's all a bit tedious but I can't let them go back, poor bastards.

And we have a mother with 6 kittens at the moment, from 2 litters. It is kitten heaven here.

I am in the process of working out how we get the kittens socialised and adopted and the mother caught and neutered. It's a long process though.

Started with a bit of a lie in while DH ran in the rain. Then, had pancakes together with DC once he got home.

Sun is now blazing and we went to falmouth for a few things. and to see the sea.

It's gorgeous but am so tired. 3 weeks into a viral chest thing and have had a headache since Friday afternoon.

currently under a blanket and thinking about sticking a film on.

I'm feeling a bit low today. not sure why but perhaps the pressure of Christmas. Work tomorrow also brings flutters and a bit of anxiety

For up as thought I gelt a bit better and today is my birthday! Left dh still poorly in bed, got dressed and drove the dogs to our local national trust place worn the aim of walking around the park. The tried to charge me £10.60 on account of the lights trail (which wasn't on at 10 am and which I wasn't going around anyway) and it began to chuck it down so I didn't bother, came
Home, started to feel a bit rough again and got back into bed with dh (still asleep) and there I have stayed!
Might get up later and do some Christmas wrapping but feeling uncharacteristically sorry for self about ruined birthday and bah humbug about everything.

Just spent all morning putting up the Christmas tree and the decorations, with DH and DD. Sat here admiring all the lights now and listening to Christmas songs. Yesterday was so awful with the crowds and the weather that we were determined to do something Christmasy today.