Voila!

I hate the snow! I hate Winter! I remember many years ago, at the bus top in winter, in my court shoes, while we were waiting for the bus to arrive, in the freezing bus shelter, I was almost in tears, for my feet were SO cold in my shoes. My friends thought it was funny! Now I am in my 60’s court shoes are a thing of the distant past, and pure comfort is the order of the day, with woolly socks and thick thermal tights, with my waterproof boots. I am now older and wiser. There is no need to impress anyone, and looking cool while still keeping very warm, is now perfect, when layers of various clothes, shades and lengths can be worn.

From I was very young we have always used flasks whenever we went out for the day. They were used for hot or cold drinks, they were handy.

I love flasks, and made it my quest to find the smallest one that was leakproof, that was for hot drinks. My aim was to find one that was two inches high and one inch across! Others at work, also looked out for me, when they were out and about.

When I was young, if a flask was dropped it would be all smashed up inside. Years later, that was resolved, with flasks that didn’t break if dropped, giving them a longer shelf life.

I have many flasks, most I keep on my shelf in the living room, so that I can see them and pick which one I want to use. The smallest one, is about three and a half inches high and an inch and a half wide. That is the one I use when I go to Church, as the short sermon, starts, I drink straight from the cute little flask, that had a tea bag in, a slice of fresh ginger and milk, no sugar. There is no cup with this flask and I love it, I usually finish my tea, before the fifteen minutes sermon ends. Others around me have their water drinks bottles.

That little flask, also comes to work with me, where I have another slightly bigger flask. I make my tea in the bigger flask, and that stays on my desk, and I drink it throughout the day. At home, I always leave the tea bag in the cup when I make myself a drink. As with all hot drinks I make, tea, coffee, or hot chocolate I always add a slice of fresh ginger that stays in the cup or flask. If I have bottled water, I cut a slice of fresh ginger and put it in there too. It is my way of been healthy, without trying.

When I saw the snow, I got two jacket potatoes and put it in the oven on very low, this served for a dual purpose, to gently warm the home and cook me a healthy or not so healthy meal. As with pasta, you can make it as healthy or unhealthy as you like. No salt is ever added, that way it is ok for me to add a few spots of my goat’s butter.

With the jacket potatoes, the sky is the limit. They are SO versatile, they can be had with baked beans or spaghetti, all different types of cheese, horrible cottage cheese, tuna, or anything else you fancy.

With Christmas out the way, this is when there are lots of posh expensive pate, this is good news for me and our six cats! They are all reduced, in all the supermarkets, they can’t get rid of them quick enough! So, my personal favourite at the moment is hot jacket potatoes, goats butter, and a whole jar of pate to myself, there are plenty other jars for the cats too to enjoy with their cat food, this is their daily treat.

I don’t usually like what is on the top of the pate, in the jars, so the dogs have that, with whatever is left, from our meals the evening before, nothing goes to waste in our home.

Another thing that is good about a jacket potato, is that it can be reheated later on, or the next day and you will have an instant cooked meal, just add what you want with it.

So, the cold jacket potato, with the cold baked beans on top, pop both in the microwave then, voila! Just add grated cheese on the top and pepper to taste, and enjoy. xXx