They arrived mid-afternoon, not too long before the focaccia came out of the oven. On FB the other day I'd seen a ‘reel’ of a recipe for fig & caramelised onion dip - it looked delicious so I added the ingredients to the shopping list. First step was slicing the dried figs and simmering them in marsala with a bit of water. Then I started caramelising the onions, which never seems to take less than 45 minutes. The figs were strained and added to the onions along with a bit of rosemary (I think thyme would be nice too). I crumbled a log of goat cheese into an oven proof dish and spread the onion/fig mixture on top. This popped into the oven for 20 minutes to get things bubbling. It was worth the effort and raised the focaccia to a new level!
And then there was supper: a giant striploin roast with all the normal beef dinner accompaniments… all good right… easy peasy… well, there was some sort of malfunction on my meat thermometer and the meat way way overcooked. I was so disappointed but to this day don't know what happened. Then the yorkshire puddings overbrowned! This has never happened to me before - my yorkshires always turn out almost perfectly. Bah humbug!
Food disasters aside, we had a lovely evening :-)
Boxing day morning arrived way too early but we had a busy day planned - we'd be 14 people for lunch here! Olaf & Steph pitched in and we were ready exactly on time. Soon the house was filled with happy voices as almost the whole family gathered for another Christmas. There was lots of food and everyone seemed to have a good time.
In the morning, Olaf harvested a bunch of hot peppers, then got to work making some hot sauce - a bit of this and some of that and wow, very nice sauce with exactly the right amount of heat. It was amazing with a bit of lingonberry jam on the turkey sliders! I think we have a new tradition!
Today we are both chilling… although Carm tried to fix the display led on the stove, but the replacement was a dud so he had to put the original back. It's got a few bars burnt out so the display is wonky.
It's crazy, but I haven't written here since December 17th… that's 10 days… what did I do during all those days? Well, not a heck of a lot. I had an echocardiogram. We had Tina & Bruce here for an overnight visit last week - that was fun and I really needed the social break.
But aside from that I've been a log on the sofa. I spent a few days in my pjs in bed for no reason other than I couldn't be bothered to get up. I forced myself to do some cooking and baking in prep for Christmas & Boxing Day. I haven't been on the treadmill for 2 weeks - I'm trying to psych myself up about getting back into the groove Jan 2nd. My diet has totally gone backwards and I'm gaining weight by the day… but I can't even really care, although I do care very much! It's not a don't really care cause I can't be bothered, rather than a self love.
I'm trying to keep notes about how I'm feeling for my appointment with the medical oncologist in February as there are times that I'm not even sure if the side-effects from tamoxifen are worth it. I wouldn't say I'm depressed, but I don't have energy or motivation for anything and it's just getting worse. This is a well-documented side-effect of tamoxifen so not totally unexpected, but I have to decide if it's worth it or if the cancer fighting benefit of continuing the drug isn't enough to spend the next 4.5 years dragging myself around. I'm hoping that some of it is just my normal mood variances - hopefully I'll have that figured out by my appointment.
Awesome!
“family together”
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