A-Z of Homemaking

I found this meme on Codlins and Cream, where it had arrived from allybea's blog. I always enjoy these little insights into other people's lives (I find it very hard not to look through windows as I'm passing houses – at the very least I content myself with a good stare at someone's garden), so I thought it would fit here, though I don't think I would ever have described myself as "homemaker". "Slut" would be more to the point!

If you decide to have a go, do please leave a comment and a link here.

A ~Aprons--y/n If y, what does your favourite look like? If I can find it, red and white stripes; more often these days it's a teatowel tucked into my waistband.

B ~ Baking--Favourite thing to bake? Puddings, although we don't eat them very often, maybe once a month. The thing I make most often is apple crumble, both at home and at my parents' house – my stepfather loves puddings, but the range is limited because he is diabetic. Oh, and I love making soufflé, it's just so satisfying to take it out of the oven all golden and risen.

C ~ Clothes line? No, it's usually too windy. I hang things over the fence on good days.

D ~ Donuts--Have you ever made them? Once, and they weren't bad, but I resent using all that fat once only, so I haven't made them again.

E ~ Everyday--One homemaking thing you do everyday? Bleah, washing up. My husband cooks, so I have to do the clearing up after a meal, it's only fair. Oddly, if I cook, I still get to wash up.

F ~ Freezer--Do you have a separate deep freeze? Just a fridge-freezer, and it's always so full I can't get anywhere near it, which is a pity, because I make passable ice-cream.

G ~ Garbage Disposer? Yes, 5 chickens, 2 dogs and a compost heap. Oh, and a bin full of reluctant worms.

H ~ Handbook--What is your favourite homemaking resource? That depends. I have various favourites among my cookery books – Mary Berry's Fast Cakes is one of the most frequently used, and there are several books of farmhouse cooking I like very much. Best of all, I think, is a gardening book: Creative Vegetable Gardening by Joy Larkcom. It has beautiful pictures and she's an inspiration.

I ~ Ironing--Love it or Hate it? Or hate it but love the results? Hate it, don't do it, except for absolute necessity, i.e. for work.

J ~ Junk Drawer--y/n? Where is it? Junk everywhere. I'm quite tidy, my husband categorically not

K ~ Kitchen--colour and decorating scheme. Our kitchen is tiny, and open-plan with the living-room, so it's cream walls to match. Which reminds me that I never finished painting the cupboards. I'll get round to it one day.

L ~ Love--what is your favourite part of homemaking? Cleaning out the chickens! Obviously, I prefer it in good weather, but they are so appreciative, and sing delightful little crooning songs to me while I do it. I used to like making butter, but I don't do that any more because we can't get farm milk.

M ~ Mop--y/n? No, dog towel.

N ~ Nylons, machine or hand wash? Only wear them when I'm in the office, so they mostly get handwashed in hotel rooms.

O ~ Oven--do you use the window or open the oven to check? Using the window would mean cleaning it first.

P ~ Pizza--What do you put on yours? Tomato, basil and mozzarella.

Q ~ Quiet--What do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment? Usually, read, or if it's warm I take the dogs to the other end of the paddock and just sit quietly.

R ~ Recipe Card Box--y/n? What does it look like? Yes, my card index box has been on the go for over 30 years, though these days it is supplemented by a file on the computer. My sons and I share recipes with each other, so if one of us can't find something it just takes an email.

S ~Style of house--What style is your house? It's a farm cottage and much too small for 3 adults, but I would rather put up with lack of space than move because I love where it is. We did some refurbishing a couple of years ago, and there is still work to do, but it causes so much upheaval (my husband has chronic fatigue and finds the process very stressful and tiring) that we can't face finishing it, so we live in a degree of chaos that I can't quite cope with. Ho hum.

T ~ Tablecloths or Placemats? Tablecloth.

U ~ Under the kitchen sink--organized or toxic wasteland? Tottering piles of baking tins and trays, but sort of organised.

V ~ Vacuum--How many times per week? Not often enough. Senior Dog sheds constantly and I sometimes wonder if the dust clumps won't spontaneously transmute into a third dog.

W ~ Wash--How many loads of laundry do you do per week? At least one a day.
X's--Do you keep a daily list of things to do that you cross off? No, but if there is anything urgent I have to leave myself a reminder. List-making is reserved for work.

Y ~ Yard--y/n? Who does what? Husband does the grass-cutting and hedge-trimming and has sole access to the garden shed, so obviously he's "in charge". This extends to the pruning because he thinks I don't cut things back hard enough, so he always does it when I'm not here and can't protest (come to think of it, that's true of anything he thinks I won't like). I do the vegetable garden, with help from both sons, and all the fiddly stuff – sowing seeds, potting on, planting out and so on.

ZZZ's--what is your last homemaking task for the day before going to bed? In summer, letting the dogs out and shutting up the chickens. In winter the chickens can be shut up much earlier, so it's just the dogs.

Booking through Thursday - Hero

You should have seen this one coming … Who is your favorite Male lead character? And why?

It's a good thing I've had all week to anticipate this question – heroines were so much easier! I suspect that I'm much less loyal to my heroes, a serial monogamist perhaps.

The first, and much the most enduring, is Winnie-the-Pooh. It's funny that a poor memory, a sweet tooth and an inclination to stoutness is so much more endearing in a Bear than a husband, but Pooh still makes me smile. My loyalty is strictly to the A.A. Milne and E.H. Shephard characters, though –later incarnations have never really appealed to me.

Now we get to the serious stuff. Hamlet is next, and the first of a list of Byronically mad-bad-and-dangerous-to-know types. He's followed by J.P. Donleavy's Balthasar B, he of the Beastly Beatitudes, and a young man of very loose morals. Next is Francis Crawford of Lymond, from Dorothy Dunnett's 6-novel series, The Lymond Chronicles. A sixteenth-century Scots noble, Lymond is very much in the Hamlet vein, exiled and hunted down by his family, living by his wits and sword, and rampaging across Europe and the Ottoman Empire to the detriment of friends and enemies alike. Lymond was to some extent followed in my affections by another of Dunnett's heroes, Niccolò, his great-grandfather, who has a similar capacity for both humour and destruction. Swashbuckling at its most entertaining. In this category I must also include Albert Campion, who just beats Lord Peter Wimsey for me, although I know many won't agree. You'll have noticed that I like my men to be funny, erudite and not entirely responsible. And they need to be better than average dancers (I'll exempt Pooh on grounds on girth). Loyalty demands that I include Titus Groan, although he's singularly lacking in a sense of humour, and it's a bit strange being in love with a man you've known as a baby!

Happily, a more mature taste brings me to Mr Knightley, my favourite of the Austen men, despite his infuriating tendency to be right. Nonetheless, he's the one I'm spending most of my time with these days, a serious, well-read man, and above all, restful, a quality under-rated in one's youth, but which I've come to appreciate.

Incidentally...

I saw this meme at Stuck in a Book (where you can find its pedigree) and liked it so much I was halfway through my answers before I'd actually decided to do it. I was sorry to find that Simon doesn't like the word "Onyx" since it's rather in the same field as my favourite. But then my father was a lapidary, which is also a good word, and I spent much of my childhood sorting gemstones. The relevance of the photo, which is an old one, is simply that it's two contented dogs.

What is your favourite word? Chalcedony.

What is your least favourite word? "Incidentally"...it always bodes ill when my husband starts a sentence with it.

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? Ah, baroque church music.

What turns you off? Reality television. And breakfast television.

What is your favourite curse word? Hell's bells and buckets of blood. I'm old-fashioned.

What sound or noise do you love? The unique silence that happens when you wake up in the morning and it's snowed heavily overnight. The contented noises my dogs make.

What sound or noise do you hate? Loud noises, especially when made by a high wind. It makes me nervous.

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? I could be an anchoress on a suitable country estate, perhaps, as long as the library van visited regularly. With a chicken or two for eggs and a vegetable garden I could be quite self-supporting. And a dog to guard the vegetables. Oh dear, perhaps I'm missing the point. Actually, I'd rather like to be a textile conservator.

What profession would you not like to do? Dentistry.

If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? "The library is that way...".

Food and drink meme - comfort food

This came from Ted at bookeywookey, and seemed appropriate as the next review here will be another cookery book. I'm a great believer in comfort food as will probably be obvious from my answers below, so I'd just like to mention that I love vegetables and really have quite a healthy diet!

What did you eat/drink today?

Leftover chicken with green pepper and noodles, with a Chinese omelette on top made with a home-laid egg. The omelette was a rich gold and tasted unbelievably good. Thanks, girls!

What do you never eat/drink?

Most seafood, to my eternal frustration, because it makes me ill. There are so many delicious-looking recipes which use mussels, scallops, oysters and so on, all of which I would love to eat, and can't. And I prefer not to eat rocket, which I hate, but it's always turning up in salads and catching me out, even at home.

Favourite failsafe thing to cook (if you cook) or defrost if you don't

Spaghetti with chillies and chorizo for an almost instant everyday meal, or macaroni (or cauliflower) cheese; if there's more time Indian butter chicken with naan. My younger son always used to request that for his birthday.

Complete this sentence: In my refrigerator, you can always find

Cheese – we never run out of cheese – bacon, milk and yoghurt. Salad ingredients going limp. Something left over from dinner the previous evening, which will form the basis of lunch.

What is your favourite kitchen item?

I like my hand-held blender, great for whizzing soups (I like making soup, it's very satisfying, instant warmth and comfort). I also like the breadmaker, which turns out delicious naan bread with almost no effort. We always have home-made now. My son uses it to make wonderful pizza dough too.

Where would you recommend eating out - either on home turf or elsewhere?

Roti, on Rose Street in Edinburgh – Indian food made with Scottish produce. I would like to eat at St John's in London, because I love their cookery book, The Whole Beast. One of the books I plan to review here. It has to be in the right company though.

World ends tomorrow. What would you like for your last meal?

That's difficult, there's so many things I like. It would be quite unpretentious though. Braised lamb shank with mashed potato would come high on the list, maybe followed by a really perfect creme brulée. But Piperfield pork sausages could be a strong contender too, or roast beef from the herd raised in the fields around my parents' home in Devon.

I think I'll go and read a cookery book now...