OK – I know – yet another crappy one and I am the first to confess to having a lean patch both creatively and energetically.
The photo is of our new shepherd’s pie topping. OK – well, there are no shepherds or sheep in this version of the shepherd’s pie and the topping isn’t mashed spuds so I suppose it’s taking a giant liberty calling it shepherd’s pie – in fact, I’m sure trading standards would have my guts for garters for calling it such. The reason why the recently grilled mash is such a lurid colour is simple. A chance accident followed by a think about what’s what and I came up with this new version.
The pie has spicy lentils instead of mince – cheap as chips, very nourishing (protein, almost no fat, counts towards your five a day, what’s not to like?) and delicious. The topping changed because a few months ago, I was half way through making one when I opened the fridge and found no potatoes – not one. OK then, plan B – what have we got? Carrots – they mash nicely. Sweet potatoes, swede, celeriac – ditto. The great thing is that with the exception of the sweet potato, they all count towards the five-a-day and mean that the balance of what’s on the plate is basically about 90% five-a-day worthy. Bloody marvellous.
Crappy photo and comfort food are the outcome of a day spent battening out, insulating and dry-lining two walls of a room. I know that a proper builder would have done what I did in 4-5 hours BUT I am not a proper builder, I am just someone who can’t believe I can’t do it, take no for an answer and can’t afford to pay anyone else to do the work for me. So, both of these walls had windows all across the top meaning I have spent a great deal of time on my hands and knees, an equally large amount of time wielding an SDS drill and a range of other power tools. (Yes, further to my comments of yesterday, I did manage to break one – I broke the handle that releases the blade guard off my chop saw so now it is really difficult to operate. I had three power drills on the go – the SDS loaded with a masonry bit because the walls were so hard that my old hammer drill’s bit was melting, the hammer drill (hammer action switched off) with a wood bit in it to put the screw holes in the wooden battens and the rechargeable drill with a screwdriver bit to screw the battens to the wall and the plasterboard to the battens. That’s not to mention the Stanley knife, the hack saw, the bradawl, several claw hammers and a gazillion screws of different types and sizes. I know any builder or even reasonably competent DIYer will go “yeah, so” BUT I am a girl (sort of at least) and I did the whole job alone, unaided and without the aid of a parachute. I must have been doing something right because I encouraged the lovely Erica to get going on her house too so the two of us worked alongside one another in largely companionable silence with the occasional tickle of her dog, Ruby, thrown in.
I now have knees that are red raw and very much of the opinion that at my age I shouldn’t be crawling around on them for long periods. They have decided to go on strike and spend the rest of the day behaving as though someone has beaten them with a sledgehammer. Add to that the aching arms, the (no really) hammered fingers and the backache from crouching and hauling around plasterboard all day and you have one frazzled linda in need of comfort food and an easy life, hence the first sentence of this!
