Things that make me happy Archives

When spring comes early.

It’s January in the Midwest, which means subzero temps and snowflakes for days. Not today! What a perfect day! 60F in January – I’ll take it!

The heating went off, doors and windows open, outside barefoot on the grass doing gardening. I stopped at Home Depot to get some bags and secateurs and decided to use the break in the weather to tackle an overgrown bush outside the kitchen. Not something that’s usually done in January.

I’d forgotten how much gardening relaxes me. The only difference today was the garden is MINE. I own that little patch of land and it’s all mine! For the first time in my life, I’m gardening for me and not someone else. Gardening is the only thing I’ve found that totally empties my mind. The constant chatter in my head goes away and all that matters is the task for the task’s own sake. It’s like nature’s therapist.

It’s been years since I’ve had a garden to potter in. To be barefoot in wet mud and soft grass, with a bit of sunshine was just what I needed but didn’t know.

2 full bags and about half a bush gone. I will need to wait for the summer to tackle the root system on that thing, but most of the branches are gone. The previous owners seemed to use that bush as their dumping ground because the sheer volume of crap that came out from under it was impressive. From a garden hose to a pair of scissors, 3 balls, a plastic doll, 2 plastic cups and a pile of kiddies coloured chalks. Granted, I had to hack my way through the branches to get to them but still. Geez Louise….

There were no other doors and windows open around the neighbourhood; a tragic waste of an unexpectedly warm day in the middle of a brutal winter. For the first time in a long time I can honestly say I’m truly content. That little bit of sunshine and relaxation has done more for me in a few hours than a week at the spa could have done. When life gives you gifts, grab them with both hands. Put your phone down and savour the bliss of simple things.

Simplicity restores balance so give it a go. If you’re fortunate to live in a temperate climate, make use of it. Walk barefoot on the grass, get your hands dirty. The rest of the world can wait a while.

Black, white & all the shades of grey

2,000 miles and I’m back in one piece after spending a week with the folks in South Carolina. It was SO good seeing them again, catching up and just making time to relax.

40 is here and my DNA hasn’t unraveled. UK has voted out of the EU so who knows what that will bring as far as relocating goes. While the dust settles around that debacle, there’s the business of having fun.

On the way to SC my satnav took me on a wee detour down Old Tennessee 63 to avoid a traffic jam. It turns out all the best stuff is on the road less traveled.

Narrow wee bridge on Old Tennessee 63. Thankfully living in UK taught me to drive scary narrow roads on twisty bends.

Single lane bridge on a twisty road on Old Tennessee 63

These were not small butterflies. Just WOW!

These 2 butterflies were just sitting next to the tracks and were very obliging of me taking a pile of photos

Tracks to who knows where on Old Tennessee 63

Walkway over the stream along Old Tennessee 63

Blue hydrangea picked just for me because I love blue

DSCN7398

I think monochrome is my new favourite way to photograph the world. Maybe my passion is hidden in every shade of grey. It’s time to go and find out, shall we?

Dinner for 3

You don’t always have to be in the same place to have dinner with some mates. Today was a Skype dinner with the 2 friends in the UK. They had their dinner while I scoffed lunch 6 time zones in their past.

On the menu for me was toad-in-the-hole, mashed potato with mixed veg and gravy and a glass or 3 of Merlot.

In hindsight it’s hilarious that I actually spent money on Yorkshire pudding mix in a box when I lived in England considering there’s really nothing complicated about making it from scratch.

For those who aren’t familiar with English food, toad-in-the-hole is simply sausages cooked in puffy batter. You can make one big one or individual ones in a muffin pan, which is the option I went with today.

To make 12 individual toads, you’ll need:

24 cocktail sausages, browned off in a bit of oil

150 ml plain flour

1/2 teaspoon of mustard powder *optional

150 ml milk

3 beaten eggs

Salt & pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 450F (220C).

Brown off the cocktail sausages by putting 2 sausages into each muffin cup and drizzling with a bit of oil. Put them into the oven for about 15 mins, turning the sausages over about halfway.

While they are browning off, put all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, making a well in the middle for the eggs.

Mix the eggs in well, then slowly start adding in the milk, mixing well between additions. The batter is a bit runny so don’t panic.

Take the sausages out of the oven once they are browned and turn the oven down to 400F (200C). Pour the batter into the hot muffin pans *for the love of God, don’t burn yourself!* to about 2/3 full, covering the sausages – see below:

In the oven they go for 15 minutes. The muffin pan needs to be hot when you pour the batter in or they won’t rise properly and will end up a tad doughy. Cold batter, hot pan – those are the rules.

While they’re busy doing their thing, whip up some mashed potato and steam up some mixed veg. I mixed a teaspoon of mustard powder into the mashed potato and it was delicious!

Once the toadies come out of the oven, plate them up immediately, slather on some gravy and grub’s up!

It’s a pity people don’t cook much anymore. Life got too convenient I suppose. There’s surprising pleasure sitting down to a meal with people you care about, even if they are a million miles away, noshing on some good simple food. This really needs to happen more often.

We’re oxtailing it today

Today’s menu is a spin on a traditional British oxtail soup. My spin is I’m turning into a stew instead.

Oxtail is one of those things that pops up in my grocery store every now and then. It’s sort of a ‘your luck on the day’ situation and when it’s there, I buy a pile of it!

The idea of oxtail soup appealed so it was off to Google to find a recipe and I came across one I fancied. The only problem is halfway through the recipe it calls for discarding the veg. That doesn’t appeal. I quite enjoy smooth soups but much prefer chunky bits so with a bit of rejigging, I’m hoping this will be a stew instead.

First off put a knob of butter into a biggish saucepan and brown off roughly 1 kg (2 lbs.) oxtail in the melted butter.

Remove from the pot and put aside. To the same saucepan, add:

2 large carrots, chopped

1 large onion, halved with 4 cloves pressed into it.

1 small turnip, roughly chopped

1 large leek, chopped

1 bay leaf (I used 2 small ones)

Salt & pepper to taste and for good measure, I tossed in a few whole peppercorns.

Sweat off the veg in the saucepan then put into a slow cooker. Top the veg with the browned oxtail pieces, add a cup of beef stock and a cup of red wine. I used a Pinot Noir but I’ll leave the choice up to you.

Toss in a few sprigs of fresh thyme for some extra flavour.

If you’re doing this on the stove top, you might need to add a bit more stock. Slow cookers tend to make more liquid as the food cooks so take care not to overdo it on the initial liquid amount.

Cook on low for 7-8 hours until the oxtail is fall-off-the-bone tender.

For the last 30 mins, remove a cup or so of the liquid from the slow cooker and mix in a tablespoon of gravy granules. Return this to the slow cooker and switch to high. This will thicken up the liquid to make gravy.

South Africans love rice so serving a stew on rice is not unusual. It turns out it’s unusual for everyone else so I sometimes opt to serve it on mashed potato because let’s be honest, thick stewy gravy on mashed potato is heaven on a plate. Tonight rice won the toss and it was GOOD!

That meat was so tender - worth waiting 8 hours for it! — That meat was so tender – worth waiting 8 hours for it!

Or you could just serve it with green veg, whatever floats your boat.

The plan tomorrow is a traditional Shepherd’s Pie with a salad. I have a friend coming over for lunch so a bit of home cooked comfort food should take the edge off the fact the weather is headed back into the freezer after 2 days of bliss.

The art of doing nothing

I reckon a happy life is built up of a pile of little things that make you happy, rather than a series of huge things. That’s going to be my experiment for this week. Little snippets of happiness wherever I can find them.

Today was a mostly lazy day. I woke up earlier than I’d planned on which was initially annoying but then I figured it gives me more time to do things I want to do.

There’s definite pleasure in easing into your day with a good cup of coffee on the sofa sitting under the skylights on a sunny morning. Granted it was 0°C outside but it was a bright blue sunny day.

I skyped with my ‘husband’ for 2 hours while he was cooking up a storm for dinner guests 6 time zones away, with him imparting culinary knowledge along the way. He’s the only person I know who gets home from work at 8pm then ‘quickly roasts a chicken’ for dinner on a week night as a regular thing. #lunatic. Today he was making curry with all the accompaniments. It looked GOOD!

He’s going to teach me how to spatchcock a chicken over Skype one weekend. If someone can quickly roast a chicken for dinner, then I need to know how to do that! He definitely doesn’t save fancy meals for weekends only. He’s a regular Jamie Oliver, only better looking and infinitely more interesting.

He gave me his mom’s recipe for pea and ham soup so I made that for lunch. OMG delish! I’ve never made it from scratch before and I bought the goodies to make it so it was good having adult supervision. Score 1 for cooking something new and trying a new recipe (even if it wasn’t from my crazy collection of recipe books!)

The end result - get in muh belly! — The end result – get in muh belly!

The afternoon was spent under my blankie reading my Kindle, incense burning on the table and a glass of good Scotch. I also wiped down all of my orchid leaves with a damp cloth which I haven’t done, ever. They’re all sparkly and fresh now.

Today’s gratitude is for skylights on a sunny day, comfort food from my childhood, a great Scotch, a crazy friend to laugh with and having absolutely nothing urgent that needed taking care of. I walked a whole 0.56 miles today according to my Fitbit and I’m ok with that.

I’m planning to get outside tomorrow for my first decent walk since the surgery to see how far I can go without needing a nap. It’s probably only going to be laps around my apartment complex but it’s a start for now. Baby steps.

Somehow things got done without any conscious plan to do so and no list of things to tick off. Life had its own effortless rhythm. Here’s to many more days just like today.

Start as you mean to continue

It’s the end of the first day of a new vintage. If ever there’s a day when motivation levels are sky high and things are going to get done, it’s today.

As I’ve already posted something for today I’ll keep this brief. One of my goals towards finding balance was to restart my gratitude journal with 5 things I can be grateful for each day. No time like the present to get a wiggle on with that, so here goes:

Today I’m grateful for a truly spectacular snowy sunset. It was totally worth freezing my butt off to get a picture of it.

Sunset 2

I’m grateful for spending a great evening with my family last night over a delicious dinner, even though we all fell asleep before the New Year 🙂 It’s what makes us special!

The Christmas tree came down and there was not a single decoration fatality this year so YAY! I also managed to Tetris it all back into the storage boxes exactly right so WIN!

I did a short drive today and feel pretty good so that’s huge progress for me. I’ve missed being able to drive myself around.

Tubby-time Skype with my crazy friend. We both lay in our respective tubs 6 time zones apart having a chat and a chortle. I can officially say our friendship has moved to a new level of nuts. While taking a swig out of my water bottle I got asked if I was sipping shampoo. This is probably how warning labels come into being… Mykal, never change dude. EVER! You rock!

Now I’m all good and clean and fresh tra la la under my blankie savouring a good Scotch. May every day end this perfectly.