Pandemic diary 32: TGIF

Tonight's dinner: salmon, spinach, shallot and spud cakes, tabbouleh salad and green leaves.

My cooking has improved since the lockdown thanks to getting in store cupboard staples, like grains and potatoes, rather than the usual pizza and pasta on rotation. And because the freezer sections were cleared out so there has been more fresh food available. Food shortages in the supply chain have meant healthier dining choices, which is ironic.

We never had much food waste but now nothing goes to waste since the more we eke out, the less we have to go shopping. I've surprised myself this week by baking a cheese and onion tart, shortbread biscuits and cooking bulgur wheat (for tabbouleh – see above pic) for the first time ever. Last week it was Irish soda bread (edible if toasted). It's a shame the weighing scales, which are 40+ years old, aren't a bit more accurate but that tart really punched me in the tastebuds with it's added, wrongly weighed cheesiness.

I started this holiday mentally tired and finished it physically tired (gardening session today). I know which I prefer. I started today feeling quite low and down, and although nice things happened – video call with my big bro – ultimately it was the exercise that made me feel better. Must try to keep up the daily golden hour walks as much as possible. At least we don't have to drive back from 'Wales' tomorrow. We're already home.

The jigsaw is nearly done, even the boring, bastard, blue sky bits. There is a piece missing right in the middle – which is presumably somewhere in the room and which we are saving for when the rest is done and the big tidy up begins.

And today I got back to my travel micro memoirs book, which is currently on an extraction of an extraction of an extraction, hopefully for extra potency.

Today I am thankful for Pete building a 2sq m sunshade so I can work outdoors when the weather is nice.


Commission/hire me: fiona [at] fionacullinan.com