New Recipe For Eggs and Bacon

Typical! Just as the eggs are becoming more scarce with the shorter days, I go and find a new recipe for cooking with them!

This is really simple to make and got a big thumbs up in our house last night.

You take a packet of bacon and part fry (or grill - or whatever) the rashers, dab them a little with kitchen roll then line a muffin tray with a rasher or so to make a 'well' which you simply crack an egg in to. I set the oven at around 190 and put them in for 10 minutes at first but decided the egg yolks were a little too runny for my liking and left them in for another few minutes. I prefer yolks to be 'cooked' and by default so do the rest of the family :D

I actually put a muffin case in first because the non-stick of the tray was starting to peel off. The case helped keep the mixture together when it was served up but Iain ended up eating some of the paper. Prat.

There is another variation of this where you whisk the egg before pouring it in giving a scrambled egg effect. I like this version though. It is so much less effort than frying, especially as I still can not fry a good egg. I can see this being a regular meal in our house from now on.

Kitten Update

Dude! Dude! We have a kitten update! I nearly forgot to tell you!

We put posters up in a couple of the shops, and yesterday I was going to walk round the closest developments putting mini posters through the letterboxes but the weather was so horrible it was as much as I could do to let the chickens out and feed them!

Last night Jessica and I were snuggling up for a cuddle when I received a phone call from a lady saying "I think I may have your kitten," would you believe it took a second or two for it to sink in what she was talking about!

The story goes like this. She was in the shop getting a few groceries, stood and looked at my poster for a minute and actually read all the way through it. She then went home, unpacked her groceries, turned round to let her LARGE GERMAN SHEPHERD out and in trots Flossie expecting her tea. The lady looked at her and recognised her immediately from my description. Flossie was put in a pet carrier and trundled round to the shop again to get my number.

We agreed to meet at the shop and Jessica re-dressed quick as you like and we must have been there in under 2 minutes. As soon as Jessica saw Flossie there were floods of tears and a vice like grip holding her to her chest. Then *I* started to have tears, then the woman found it hard to swallow, then Jessica totally broke down! We gave the woman a bottle of wine for being so clever as to actually read the poster and after more hugs we took Flossie home to her brothers who looked on totally disinterested and actually hissed at her later on.

Jessica demanded Flossie was to be allowed to sleep with her and after a good drink and bite to eat Flossie settled down on Jessica's bed and didn't stir all night.

The woman lives in a completely different development - not one I would have walked round, and although as the crow flies it is as close as the other developments, it isn't one we are ever near to. She must have walked quite far to get there.

Good job we had her seen to huh?

(Did you take in the part about her walking past the LARGE GERMAN SHEPHERD???? Good job he wasn't hungry! There would only have been a burp and a collar left after that meal!)

Geyser City

Iain and I had a battle for the loo first thing this morning in work. Him to use the sink to fill up the jug to make the coffee, me to use the loo.

I won.

I'm going to let you use your imagination here a little, but as I was sitting there I noticed that the hot water machine (you know - one of those electric thingumies) was dripping quite badly so I pushed the handle to shut it off.

Sitting on the toilet.

Handle comes off in my hand.

Water GUSHES across the bathroom.

Hits the toilet door.

Floods the floor within seconds.

Soaks my suit which hangs on the back of the door.

Soaks my legs and left arm as I start screaming.

Iain comes running to see what the catastrophe is. Opens toilet door and watches as the water comes rushing at his chest. Quite cleverly he slams the door shut again to save himself, meaning I am trapped in the room with my trousers round my ankles (soaking up the water on the floor) and the tide rising at Titanic speed.

I STILL HAVEN'T FINISHED AT THE LOO.

I had to go and sit sideways on the soaking wet seat, inching my legs away from the spray while Iain fought his way through the cupboard to get at the stop-cock. Thankfully the water stopped immediately and we spent the next 20 minutes mopping it up. Me with soaking wet legs and feet and now freezing because I had to take off my cardigan to get it dry.

The machine is broken. Of course Iain has fixed it with superglue but when we turned the water back on there was a leak. The part wont be in stock for 3 days and in the meantime we have no water. It isn't until this happens that you realise just how much you rely on utilities like water. And how cold you get with wet clothes on.

And how grumpy you get with no coffee.

-.-

Where is Flossie?

At the same time as we found some photos of the kittens when they were only 4 weeks old around the time we first got them, we are worrying about Flossie. We haven't seen her since yesterday morning. She didn't come home last night. We haven't had more than ghost sightings of her today. The local kids came to tell us when they saw *her* in the street but it turned out to be Jacob. David came rushing in tonight to say there was a cat down the street and Jessica, Iain, and he went out looking, only to find that it was a neighbour's cat.

I have to say I wasn't all that worried, I am well aware that cats go off for days at a time, but even Jessica is thinking that she is *gone*. She is tormenting herself thinking about what may have happened to Flossie and it is starting to rub off on me too. 

What if . . . . *cuddles up to Jacob and Jasper and squeezes a little too tight*

Chillier Mornings and Evenings

We have a very definite rule in this house. We do not turn the heating on until October. We then try to get as far into October as possible before hitting the button to try and eke out the oil a little longer.

I was so smug the longer we got into October with no sign of the boiler going on and also being able to continue to run around in tee shirts. I would roll my eyes when I was within ear shot in the garden as the next door neighbour's boiler kicked in.

Imagine my consternation when Iain confessed that the heating has been on for an hour in the morning before we get up, and for an hour in the evening, for almost 2 weeks. What a wuss! Hasn't he heard of coats and mittens??