Pigs in blankets pasta

I must admit that I haven’t achieved a great deal today.

Mum has been having problems with urinary frequency again today: she told me that it was because she was anxious then, just a few minutes later, strongly denied feeling anxious about anything. A few minutes after that, our cleaner Lil arrived and, when asked how she was feeling, mum told her that her anxiety was causing problems.

I just… I give up. 🤷

As often happens when Lil is here, I end up doing far more than I would ideally like to do when employing a cleaner: hanging out the freshly washed towels to dry, finding clean bedding for her to put on our beds, talking her through cleaning out the fridge – none of which sound strenuous, but make me tired and frustrated. Well, more tired and frustrated, anyway.

(Talking of fresh bedding, how fun is my new duvet cover?

It’s made of fleece material so is super-soft and snuggly, although maybe a bit warm for me as I tend to run hot anyway. Mum has a dark blue one with a snowflake pattern, which she loved on sight on the website, and again when it arrived, and again when Lil put it on her bed today. One of the very few pleasures of mum’s condition is that it allows me to surprise her with the same treat multiple times.)

For dinner this evening I intended to make a curry, but I just didn’t have the energy so decided it would be pasta instead. When I told mum this, she responded “well, as long as it has some flavour”, which came across as far more insulting than I think she intended. I replied “nope, it’s just plain boiled pasta”, and was told off (playfully) for being cheeky. 🤷 again.

It’s a simple pasta sauce: roast your pigs in blankets until golden and crisp, then remove from the oven and allow to cool a little. Meanwhile, sauté some sliced onions in a splash of oil. When they’re soft, add a tsp of sugar, stir into the onions, and cook for another minute or so until the sugar starts to caramelise on the edges of the onions. Add some passata and whatever seasoning you fancy (mixed herbs, or a spice mix (I used some more of the roasted garlic and rosemary one from my Advent calendar), or a bit of chilli sauce – whatever you fancy, really) and simmer for a few minutes until slightly thickened.

Chop your pigs in blankets into bitesize pieces (if they’re not bitesized already) and stir gently into the sauce. Add the cooked pasta and a splash of the pasta cooking water and fold it all together. Serve with cheese on top if you so wish. (I, personally, always wish for cheese.)

Mum said she liked it, and her portion disappeared fast enough that I believe her. Then I continued my mince pie taste testing, with ice cream, and it was delicious.

Now it’s quiz shows and trying to resist the urge to play games on my phone and making my painful left arm worse. Then it’s sleep and dreams of gingerbread, so that when I finalise our Christmas grocery order tomorrow I can add gingerbread men to said order.