Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Regular readers and anyone who knows me (or indeed us) knows we both love cooking. Tonight is a salutary tale to remind you all that disasters happen to all of us. My plan (and it was a good one) was to cook some pork chops and serve them on a bed of basmati rice, with a sauce of tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic and a few spices. I made up the sauce around the chops which were browning merrily in the pan. I added onion and garlic, chopped in my new little mini-chopper (what a genius invention, and a brilliant Christmas present), chopped mushrooms and simmered. All good so far. Then I added some Worcestershire sauce, some tomato puree, a tin of chopped tomatoes and the seasoning. This included a teaspoon of dark brown sugar, white pepper, paprika and cayenne pepper. It smelled good after simmering for a while so I served it up and we sat down to eat. Well - we tried. Andrew gave up before me but I didn't last very long. I had added far too much cayenne paper, confusing it with paprika which is quite mild and sweet. Accordingly, my eyes have watered all evening, I've blown my nose about eight times, my tongue is still tingling and my stomach feels as though a chemical experiment is taking place in there. Needless to say, leftovers were not fed to the woofs. The bin is now glowing gently in the darkened utility room. Tomorrow I am going to make something reassuringly bland. I am dithering between macaroni cheese and home made pizza.

Over the weekend, things have been quite quiet as Andrew has had a cold. Thankfully, he seems to have escaped the terrible viruses that are circulating at the moment, but he needed his rest. On Sunday afternoon, I went down to see the newly 18 year old daughter of my friend Liz. It seems like only yesterday that Liz was pregnant with her. For her birthday, I made her a special scrapbook of photos of her going back to when she was a baby, plus a photo collage. She loved it, and I was thrilled to bits. Her grandparents, Liz's parents were there, which was a nice bonus - I've known them all my life, and of course they were very interested in the photos especially as they were in several. All in all, a very happy afternoon.

Today has been quiet with snow this afternoon, cold temperatures and lots of mud. Housework seems to be a losing battle at the moment. No sooner have I cleaned the floor then muddy little footprints seem to appear. Ho hum.