Blowing a hooley so indoor work it is

We were subjected to more gale force winds and driving rain overnight last night, which have continued into the evening today. There was a fair amount of tree debris on the road but fortunately no actual fallen trees when I made a quick visit down to Massat earlier. The dog has been edgey all day, not liking one little bit the groans of the wind as it rattles around the house and through the trees - the great wus! He really should toughen up a bit. Minus temps forecast overnight tonight and more rain tomorrow which will hopefully fall as snow higher up.... pleeeeezzzze???!

So anyway, we did more work on the attic and the stairwell today and it is starting to look good. Quite a contrast to the same space in early September We are now about ready to start working on a racking/storage system for all of our outdoor gear which will be installed below the window which will make skis/climbing and mountaineering equipment much more accessible. The newly created doorway and separating wall are pretty much finished, with just some scrimming and plastering to do. Again, quite a transformation to the scenario in early September.

For tea tonight, we continued our knack of eeking out the cheapest but tastiest cuts of meat by creating a tomato-based 'daube de boeuf' using a 3rd of a chunk of 'paleron de boeuf' (upper shoulder/top blade steak) which cost me €11 (the other 2 chunks have been frozen to await a future creation!). Using one of Andy's cast iron casserole pots, we cooked it with a load if chunky veggies in the oven on a very low temperature (120 degrees) for 4 hrs before transferring to the top of the woodburner where it had another 45 minutes on a higher heat to evaporate off some liquid. The result was scrummylicious and we had enough for 3 meals! So we have fridged one meal for the day after tomorrow and frozen the other portion. You can't beat the long, slow cook for getting the best out of what would normally be 'tough as old boots' cuts. Shame Andy hasn't been updating his blog recently, but time has been spent elsewhere.