Domestic bliss!

Today has been a very relaxed day - just as Sunday should be!

Sophie helped me put a colour on my hair this morning as I was looking distinctly badgerish! Keith went to get the papers and popped in to see Mum and Dad with some dishwasher tablets as my Mum had forgotten them yesterday.

I checked my emails and learnt I'd been offered the Usher's job at the Court. Hmmm! That was a total shock as they'd previously turned me down, even though they said I was a "strong" candidate and would keep my details on file should another vacancy arise. Perhaps someone they'd picked hadn't worked out? I had to provide lots of pre-employment information so I grappled with that for a while!

Sophie and I started our preparations for making our Thai Yellow Curry and we roasted shallots, ginger and garlic in the oven for an hour until they were soft. We then added them to a whole host of other ingredients, such as coriander, cumin, lemongrass and dried chillis and ground everything up into a paste. We deviated from the recipe a bit by marinating the chicken with the curry paste as I thought it would give it more taste.

I did manage to get out into the garden and tidied up our gravelled bit next to the house. I hadn't been down there for a while and everything had sprung into life, which was lovely. The Clematis I cut down last year had grown again and looked really healthy and a beautiful blue flower had bloomed. I raked up all the dead leaves and branches that had come down over the winter and generally gave it a good tidy. It looked lovely when I finished and I'm determined we'll use it more this summer. Now we just need to give the conservatory a good clean!

After a game of cards and a couple of Margaritas Sophie and I started on dinner. We fried onions in coconut oil and added the marinated chicken. It smelt delicious! When that was cooked we added coconut milk, sugar and the fish sauce which was disgusting! The smell was very strong - like bad feet! I'd Googled fish sauce and everyone said that the smell was horrible but that it adds a depth of flavour to the dish! We also add lime juice and diced potatoes and let the whole pan simmer while we cooked some rice.

The meal was delicious and although we could still smell the fish sauce, we couldn't taste it. It was hot and spicy and Sophie and I were really pleased it had turned out so well. We have a lot of faith in the Hairy Bikers' recipes which always seem to work. We really enjoyed making the dish and using ingredients we never would have tried before!