This morning, after considering the bathroom scales, I donned leggings and exercise wear with the tentative thought that, if the weather was not sufficiently clement for gardening and Lachlan was hogging the dog, I might hit the exercise bike. Obviously not immediately, I put a jumper on too and determined to work up to it.
The weather and Lachlan behaved as expected. I decided to start out by making some healthy snacks for the evening, in the faint hope of interrupting my consumption of the last of the chocolate goodies. I found a recipe for Swedish crisp bread and set to work. This worked swimmingly and we are now possessed of a lifetime’s supply. (Recipe uploaded btw). Having tested the crackers with a bit of cheese and munched through an experimental tongue pastrami and Jerusalem artichoke pasty (rather nice actually, but next time I might put a bit more salt in) I got the new toy out (a vacuum sealer) and packed up some sliced pastrami and cured salmon for the freezer. This all went so well I had a few chocolates to celebrate. I concluded that as we are now in “Dry January” these would be offset against the absent wine and the imminent cycling.
At this point things started to slide. Lachlan was pacing up and down awaiting the post in the hope of a refill for his nicotine cigarette thingy and bemoaning “writer’s block”. A ramped up lockdown was announced. Raymond has reported that new cases have emerged locally. The plasterer emailed to say he can’t come and finish the library ceiling (fair enough) so progress on that front is suspended. I will have to confront the vast pile of ironing my very own self.
Dry January has therefore been suspended. We will have some home cured salmon with the crackers as a passing nod to health (nb have uploaded the recipe for this) but after that we are going to make pizza, drink beer and wine and watch a film. I may even snarf a couple more chocolates. Or more. And I am replacing the sports leggings with cozy cashmere ones and fluffy socks.
So there.
Live from Ruthven 