Waiting - not my best attribute

    Still without a stove - they have promised to come on Monday (the part has arrived) but were supposed to send me a "robo-call" with the time but no message so far. I will just have to wait and see, I guess.

    I am managing without the stove quite well although yesterday I just had a cheese toastie for dinner. I have made soup and stew in the rice cooker so far and made my breakfast omelet in it today. I also made a batch of green tomato chutney which turned out well. Tonight I am going to try to cook chicken thighs in it, in a salsa sauce with mushrooms. The main inconvenience is that there are only two settings - cook and keep warm, so there is no way to control the heat. So far I haven't burned anything!

   I will have the fire on tonight as it has turned quite cold. It will be chilly on the tennis courts tomorrow!

What I Am Reading

    Great day on the tennis courts this morning! I was actually feeling too hot by the time we finished just shy of 11:00 a.m. Kathy was the big winner today after two sets but I was lucky enough to be her partner for the second set so basked in her glory!

   On to my current reading material:

Set in Glasgow, Scotland ( and in my home town of Bearsden) it's a rather dark but intriguing crime novel with a very twisted ending. Recommended.

Every book list is agog with reviews of Sally Rooney's latest novel but I thought I would start with an earlier one. Set in Ireland, the characters in this one are far from "normal" in my opinion and I recommend it with some reservations. 

Set in France this one is highly recommended by a friend but I am rather sated with WWII stories.  The characters are mostly stereotypical  (cruel Nazis, beleaguered Jews, downtrodden but brave French).

   I would say the Sally Rooney book is the most well written with The Nightingale a close second.

Thanksgiving Monday

     Just a regular Monday for me as we had our big feast at daughter's house yesterday. That way she has a rest day before returning to work. There were seven of us and, as is our custom, we went around the table before we ate telling what we are thankful for - and there was a lot!

   It has been very summery this weekend and I finally pulled up the last of the kale plants. Now my vegetable garden is empty as that is the area the guys will have to dig up to fix my leaky basement. No word yet as to when that will happen but at least I am prepared. 

I got quite a good picking from the last kale plants and will use it tomorrow.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

    The stove is still not fixed but a part has been ordered - to come in `two to five business days`! With this being the Thanksgiving long weekend that means it will be at least the middle of next week until I can cook again.

   What to do in the meantime? First I figured I could get by with my toaster oven and microwave. That was OK for a couple of days but limited my choices of meals. However, today I got out my crock pot and simmered a big batch of stew all day. It is almost ready and smells delicious! 

   Also I realized my rice cooker can be used to boil or reheat loads of things. Today it was soup from the freezer and tomorrow I will use it to prepare the roast potatoes for the Thanksgiving lunch. Luckily daughter is hosting the meal at her house but my roast potatoes are on the menu by special request. I like to parboil them first and will take them to her house to roast. I`m sure I will think of lots of other tasty meals using these appliances. 

   I am trying to be philosophical about the whole experience (leaky tap, wet basement, falling down fence etc.) but have come to realize I have plenty to be thankful for, especially to be able to celebrate the holiday with family.