Salmon parcels with soy and garlic veg; raspberry sponge pudding with vanilla ice cream

Mum went to church this morning, leaving me with an entirely empty house in which I could do just about anything I wanted. What I did was make some toast, then lie on my bed playing my current favourite mobile phone game, occasionally glancing up at the birds in the garden¹ and relishing not having to repeat their names every few minutes.

Mum came home from church with a family friend who is determined to enforce company and trips out of the house on our introverted selves. She’s almost certainly right that these are needed, but I have been having a wobbly day, nearly falling several times and having several instances of vaguely (or more than vaguely) comedic accidents caused by shaky hands, so the thought of venturing out in public is a little intimidating. I need to get through it without landing myself back in hospital, though, as mum is now firmly in the “we’re getting another cat, or maybe two” camp, so I have something to look forward to, just as soon as I stop looking at every door and window for the little tabby cat who isn’t there.

Tear wiped away, on to food reviewing. Tonight’s dinner was salmon parcels with cheese and dill sauce, from Tesco’s freezer section. I’m not a huge fan of salmon, unless it’s smoked, so this was definitely a dinner I picked for mum rather than for me, and I approached my pastry parcel with mild trepidation. The scent drifting up from my plate was strongly fishy, with overtones of pastry and the slightest hint of dill. That was pretty much how it tasted, too: although the salmon certainly wasn’t unpleasantly strongly flavoured, there was no mistaking its presence. There was no discernible cheese flavour in the sauce, for me at least, despite what the box said. Mum and I agreed² they were OK, with mum unsurprisingly liking them slightly more than I did, but not enough that we’re in a hurry to have them again.

To accompany it I stirfried some frozen stirfry veg, also from Tesco, which had the same problem as their frozen Mediterranean veg in that some pieces were tiny and cooked almost instantly, while the broccoli florets were huge and still rattling icily around the pan. A shake of soy sauce and a teaspoon of ready-chopped garlic (a fridge staple I swore by even before events conspired to remove my ability to chop something as small as a garlic clove) made it tasty, while heat made it reduce down in volume so that our carefully measured portions of veg were reduced to a few mouthfuls each. Tasty mouthfuls, though.

Then we had homemade jam sponge, the making of which resulted several times in mum coming to my rescue when my grip or dexterity proved unequal to the task of manipulating kitchen equipment. The end result was a decent-ish cake which probably would have done better in a smaller pan, and rather too much scalding hot, bubbling liquid jam which, being a cheap-ish brand, was sickly sweet and not very raspberry flavoured.

Mum and I still devoured it, so it can’t have been too bad, but I feel more experimentation is needed. Or maybe I’m just enjoying being back in the kitchen after months of lying in bed. Either way we get regular doses of mouth-burningly hot, sweet goodness, so there’s no real downside, is there?

1. Jackdaws, wood pigeons, a pair of wrens, a pair of blackbirds, a few house sparrows, a blue tit, and a robin our next door neighbour has named Bob. Also some long-tailed tits which I could hear but not see. Just in case you’re interested. ↩︎
2. I suddenly thought I hadn’t actually asked mum her opinion and was assuming based on her reaction while eating. So I asked, and her exact response was “it was OK”. ↩︎