Whose job?

I thought of posting a picture of our new wood burner but it isn’t quite what I was expecting and has yet to produce the promised performance, largely due to our lack of suitably dry logs and middle-sized kindling. It turns out it is also a gadget and thus a Man’s Job to deal with. This is a Good Thing: I am no longer responsible for clearing out the old fire each morning and fetching in the wherewithal to relay the fire for the next night – I am restraining myself from sweeping the flags in front of the wood burner, mostly!


It is good to share, but sometimes it is useful to have clearly defined roles. Now that Husband is around all the time I am doing my best to not do jobs that need doing because, now he’s here, he can help. I am very capable of making work for myself by criticising the way other people do them; hence, for example, it is my job to fill the dishwasher as I can make the most efficient use of the space inside, sadly this means that it is therefore usually my job to empty it and put everything away! The good news is that I have started simply queuing items for the dustbins/recycling by the back door rather than delivering them to the appropriate container in the garage, and generally this works as the garage/greenhouse combination are this families equivalent of a shed, clearly a male domain. With most household tasks I blink first, no one else minds about the cleanliness/ tidiness/urgency of a chore as soon as I do – and my tolerance levels are fairly high (i.e. it has to be dirty, not just a while since it was cleaned).

We have friends coming to share a take-away curry supper with us this evening. Their house is always noticeably cleaner and tidier than ours. They both work and, I’m told, both do the housework – though she does all the cooking. When I suggested to Husband that we’d better run the vacuum round he said it would be good for Gunnerfriend to see how real people live… I may have to take Eldest shopping to avoid acting having noticed that the house needs work.

Chocolate Chip Shortbread

This is the shortbread dough, rolled out and ready to go. A view of the finished result later in this post, but first, the recipe! Thank-you to the lovely njhausfrau for putting it on her site for us to use, but for other uk types I've moderated for our different measurement system (and yes I know I should be metric, but they're not automatic for me at my age):


8 ounces softened butter
7 fluid ounces caster sugar
20 fluid ounces plain flour
4 ounces chocolate chips

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, beat in the flour and then the chocolate. Then (and here's the clever bit) put into a plastic bag and roll out to about 1/4 an inch thick and then chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours. When you're ready, heat the oven to 180c and break open the bag. Cut the dough into 1 1/2 inch squares and bake for 15- 20 minutes until pale but not golden. I've made 15 using half the dough and put the rest back in the fridge for another day. Very pleased with the result though I might try adding a little vanilla or even branch out and purchase some espresso powder since that was what was originally called for and I didn't reckon freeze dried granules would do.

Husband has been away for a bonding weekend with his father and brothers, Youngest on a guiding trip. Eldest and I enjoyed the company of Schoolsoulmate and an evening of take away curry and Strictly. A rare treat in that combination!