A rather flat week

So this week Jel has been away and I have really not done much cooking. I made the butternut soup the other night and I had that for dinner again yesterday, which I really did not mind as it is yummy! But all my plans for chicken enchiladas, lamb and chickpea pilaff and lamb curry have really gone out of the window. Tonight I will probably be on the last of the butternut soup with bread and goat's cheese and then my favourite Anton Berg liqueur chocolates for dessert; a simple dinner for 1. I have needed the time this week though as I am working on a Valentines present for a friend to give to his wife. It was a bit of a last minute request so I have been working frantically to get it done in time, but without my resident handyman to make the box dividers I have my doubts that it will be there before Sunday. I do Pewter craftwork and use it to decorate various items as a hobby and now I have a website and hopefully in the future will make items to sell - a bit of extra 'pocket money' can only be a good thing. While showing the website to our friend Edwin who we were visiting on the weekend, he decided that one of my tea boxes would make a nice Valentines present for his wife Janita. I am very happy that he likes my work but it is a tight deadline that I fear I may miss, but I'm trying my best. (to get an idea of what I am talking about check out my website: http://www.patinacreations.com/)

After watching The Princess and The Frog on the weekend, I have this strange desire to make a Shrimp Gumbo. The movie was set in New Orleans and the leading lady was a talented cook who specialised in her daddy's recipe for Shrimp Gumbo. It has never even occured to me to attmept to make anything like a Gumbo, but I am quite tickled by the idea now and itching to give it a go. I have trawled through oodles of recipes online and I really don't have a clue which one to try, but I have selected one that sounds nice and had a couple of good reviews and maybe if I can make it to the Fishmonger I have yet to try, this weekend may be the time to take the plunge. It is hard to find nice, fresh prawns so I think that the fate of the dish depends on whether nice prawns are anywhere to be found locally. I do find it funny that nice seafood is harder to find here in Manchester where we are only and hour from the sea than it was in Johannesburg where we were at least 6 hours from the nearest coastline. One of the many things I miss about home...