Seeing red

I’m trying to avoid seeing red. A dispute seems to have arisen between our gardener & a friend of ours, M, who we recommended our gardener to & who took her on as a result. We’re getting the story from both angles. I feel a bit like piggy in the middle. It’s not helped by another friend of both us & M is gleefully taking M’s side while only knowing half the story.

Yesterday I’d just settled down to write my blog when our gardener turned up. She was in tears. As a result of the dispute she’d lost the custom of M & 3 of her neighbours. She’d feared we would side with M.

I reassured her, as far as we were concerned, as long as she worked as diligently as she always had, she’s welcome here. We judge people by how we find them &, as far as we are concerned, she’s hard-working & reasonably priced.

I don’t want to lose a good gardener or a friend over what I suspect is a case of a misunderstanding or personal differences. I think our gardener left reassured on that score at least. Now I feel I shall have to reassure M before she feels she’s lost a friend.

Above all I object to being treated as piggy in the middle & somehow responsible. That’s what’s making me angry.

 Our gardener had been working for M & her neighbours for over a year now without any signs of problems. The dispute is between them & our gardener, not us.

Salad days

It’s yet another bright & sunny day. It’s rare we have such a long run of such days. What is more, for once it hasn’t ended up getting too muggy in the process. We enjoyed sitting outside last night eating our pie.

Today, I’m somewhat surprised to say we’re having a salad. For years the Fox avoided salads like the plague, but in more recent years he’s discovered they can be a joy, particularly in hot weather. In France he’s enjoyed many a salad with differing dressings to vary the flavour. The real joy though has been salad items with flavour.

Today he’s even volunteered to make the salad, a potato & bacon one. I’ve boiled the eggs - with an extra one for my breakfast - & the potatoes. The rest is for him to do. We’re anticipating having it in the garden followed by some ice cream.

I’ve just had a phone call from my carer. She’s running late. She’s been told to come at 11am, not the 10am I expected her. At least now I know I can relax & get on with something. I can’t help thinking it’s just as well we finished that computer course. Clearly the company reckon I will always be in so they can just change times no problem. They don’t seem to realise we do have other things to do e.g. see the doctor, go to hospital or dentist, which just can’t be left. I also find being left waiting a long time very stressful. I would certainly have been on the phone long before 11.30 if she hadn’t rung. But at least she had the initiative to ring & let me know what was happening, unlike the office.

When is a pie not a pie?

The meat is plopping away. We’re having a Beef in Red Wine Pie. I’ve not made one in ages. Needless to say the first stage is too cook the stewing beef in a mix of stock & red wine, along with some onions & mushrooms. This is a long process to get the meat tender. It will then have to cool down before I encase it in shortcrust pastry.

I always think a pie is somehow quintessentially British. You don’t seem to come across them in other parts of the world, regardless of whether you use pastry or top them with potato. In France you get a quiche. In Italy & Spain you get equivalents to pasties. For that matter samosas are the spicy Indian equivalent to a pasty. But always they seem to be equivalents to pasties rather than pies.

One of our friends insists that a pie to call itself a pie has to have pastry top and bottom. I wouldn’t go as far as that but I do insist the pastry should be cooked with the filling, not separately & just plonked on top to serve. To me that is a casserole or stew with pastry, not a pie. Yet these days that is what so often passes as a pie in pubs. I understand it does make it easier to make a vast pot of stew, serve some up & put a bit of cooked pastry on top.

I also accept potato can go on top. We love our shepherd’s pies, Hampton pies (corned beef underneath) & fish pies. All are easy to prepare earlier, then popped in the oven later to warm through. All delicious.