Keeping busy during Week 5 post op

 I've now finished a few jigsaws that Kerrie gave me to keep me busy. The first was the colourful parrot with tiny odd shaped wooden pieces.

I then started the second one on 11 February and finished it this morning.

Last Thursday Cathy and I harvested lots of finger limes. Then after some thinking and searching I worked out what to do with them to preserve them.

Elaine helped me scrape out all the 'caviar' and I put those aside in the fridge. I then cooked up the skins with some apple and nashi pulp from the freezer and strained the result. Using the liquid I then added sugar and the 'caviar' to make Finger Lime Jelly to use on fish, maybe with cheese and maybe as a zingy salad dressing. It worked quite well. Next batch I might just try freezing them whole to scrape out onto fish.

Another thing I did was cut into the two pumpkins Stephanie harvested when she brought me home from hospital. The skins were like rock but I roasted them anyway with oil, curry powder and paprika and they worked really well. The skins were still rock hard though.

Once I scraped the flesh out (it was quite soft) I cooked it up with coconut milk and vegetable stock some sauted onions and garlic then stab mixed it all to make a lovely rich pumpkin soup. I was able to have one meal that day and freeze 4 more for later.

I've also started sorting out things in my small freezer that thawed quite badly during the 3 day blackout while I was in hospital and am also making some jam from another freezer so that I have some marmalade in stock.

I guess it is a good sign that all this is happening. It means I am moving and healing.