Day 23 - Lockdown

Day 23 of Lockdown.

This is a photo from our newly painted upstairs room.  The sun was too bright and went blurry when I tried to capture it, so had to take it from the side.  Its still a little chilly outside but extremely sunny.

As our bedroom is out of order at the moment we slept in the spare room.  We really didn't get a good nights sleep and are spending another night in there tonight.  Hopefully tonight will be better.  I can report that Sir Fix-it has now finished the decorating, but we need to leave it to dry and the smell to go before moving back in and checking if the bed is completely fixed.  I am not sure what has got into him, but tonight he got his drill out and repaired the butchers block for me.  Please note I was trying to cook our dinner at the same time.

So tonights ingredient is.....Dried Spaghetti.  Yes we do have some still as I have been rationing us.  I have a really nice recipe for you - Fay Ripley's Baked Spaghetti Carbonara. Its one that I have been making for quite some time, but as you can imagine in these circumstances I have had to make a few adjustments to work with what we have in our cupboards.   I have added the recipe at the bottom as I am unable to find it online for you.  I used bacon and didn't have any Asparagus, so we just had it plain.  We like this as when its in the oven it coats all the spaghetti with the sauce.

I have had a busy day working, with Zoom meetings and general admin work, which has been a real boost for me.  I love feeling useful, I really do.

We have been for one bit of daily exercise by taking Teddy for his usual walk.  There are a few ways we can go so we left it up to him to choose the route tonight and he chose his favourite one.  He has a thing about eating wheat still and it is getting taller each day - it won't be long before we lose him in the field.  He also has a thing about walking on my laptop if I leave it on the sofa to go and get something - you could have seen all the rude words Teddy had typed had I no proof read this!

We had another delivery today so that is still sitting on the doorstep.  We have been leaving any deliveries out for a day if possible in order not to touch the packaging, just to be on the safe side.

So I think thats about it for today, until tomorrow....keep your distance!

Fay's Baked Spaghetti Carbonara
Ingredients for 4 people:

1 small onion, finely chopped
200g pancetta, bite size
2 garlic cloves, crushed
250g dried spaghetti
2 large eggs yolks
150g asparagus spears
150ml carton single cream
4 tablespoons vegetable stock
4 tablespoons fresh breadcrumbs
6 tablespoons grated Parmesan
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped ((I left this out as I didn't have some)
1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat the oven to 180C (fan), 200C, gas mark 6. 

Fry the onion and pancetta until cooked, and then add the garlic briefly.

Meanwhile cook the spaghetti, drain and immediately mix the egg yolks with the hot pasta. At the same time, make up the stock and either steam, blanch or microwave the asparagus ( or steam them over the pasta). Set to one side.

Gently mix together the eggy pasta, the onion and pancetta mixture, asparagus, cream, stock and half the Parmesan. Pile into an ovenproof dish. Mix together the remaining Parmesan, breadcrumbs, parsley and olive oil and scatter over the top. Bake for 15 minutes.