Pan-fried lamb chops with smoky roast carrots and potatoes

Sorry for the absence of post yesterday: there just wasn’t much to say.

Mum had a headache pretty much all day, but forced herself out for a walk with a friend in the hope it would ease the pain. It did, enough for mum to watch Strictly, anyway, although by the time it finished the headache was back.

The friend left us a bottle of their home-grown, home-pressed apple juice, which is a stunningly pretty pale pink. I’m really looking forward to trying it.

Dinner was a Simply Cook recipe of miso-glazed fish with yasai-seasoned vegetable stirfry and rice. I enjoyed it, but mum said it was too spicy (I couldn’t taste any spice at all) and scraped a good part of her portion into the food waste bin.

Today was mostly about watching the rain, which has been hammering down with little pause all day.

Mum was meant to be going to the post-church social, as usual, but the service overran as someone fell ill and had to be taken to hospital (hope you’re OK, whoever you are), so the visit got cancelled. The church minister, who mum particularly wanted to see, has offered to pop round one day this week instead.

The first, and so far only, time I have met him was shortly before I went into hospital, and almost all my attention was on staying upright, so it will be interesting to meet him now I can stay seated without being rude.

Later in the afternoon, one of the hospital drivers phoned to check the details of mum’s appointment on Wednesday. That, of course, sent mum into her usual panic, confusion, and repeated questions I can’t answer, because the hospital hasn’t sent us the promised letter with details of what they’re doing. The person I spoke to about the missing letter seemed bemused by my request for more information, so much of what I know I can thank Dr Google for. (Whatever would I do without the internet?)

Dinner was a change to my planned meal, as the late delivery of our groceries (just 10 minutes before the end of our four hour delivery slot) left me without the time to do what I’d planned.

Instead I painfully chopped one of the most enormous carrots I’ve ever seen (one between the two of us was more than enough) – reminding me that I must get some sort of vegetable chopper before I lose a finger to the carrot battle – parboiled it, then roasted it with the contents of a tin of potatoes, seasoned with a bit of smoked paprika.

When the veg was golden and slightly crispy round the edges, I panfried some seasoned lamb chops (my chef BIL taught me long ago that the secret to restaurant-level deliciousness in meat is simply to be generous with the salt). For the first time in a long time, I got the lamb cooked so it was still pink in the middle, making it even tastier. Mum, I’m very pleased to say, ate hers, then put down her knife and fork and said “well, that was good”.

Now I’m back to hiding in my room from the ubiquitous Strictly Come Dancing, wondering if I should eat something from my not-so-secret stash of chocolate now or leave it until later. Or both.

Yeah, both is the way to go, I think. 🍫