The Oxtail smells delicious and looks delicious too EMW. I will be serving it with a mountain of buttery mash. The recipe is a bit of a hybrid as I found the recipe after I started cooking. So it started off with some 'holy trinity' being celery, onion and carrot cubed and sauteed with garlic. Then the oxtail was browned and added along with some beef stock. Then I found a recipe that included prunes (I had some left over) and juniper berries (200g prunes, heaped teaspn juniper berries), red wine, the juice of an orange and four slices of orange peel. No red wine in the house so I gave that a miss, and no oranges either so I squeezed a rather sorry looking lemon into it and cooked for several hours before refrigerating overnight. Today I went into Oatlands and bought some oranges, so those ingredients were added and it has had a few more hours simmering away, with the fat removed. The accidental addition of the three base ingredients (not required in the actual recipe) means that it has cooked down to something fairly solid looking, with a rich gravy Mmmmmmmmm.

Since I now own a bag of oranges (and am not too good at eating my five a day of fruit), I sliced several thinly and dried them in the oven. The results are now suspended on a bit of string, to dry out more comprehensively and be jarred for use next time I am cooking a recipe that requires oranges that I don't have. Now all I have to do is work out what to do with the remaining oranges. Am thinking of juicing some and freezing the juice (for similar reasons as drying the slices), and please don't suggest marmalade as I hate the stuff!! I expect I will find a suitable solution with a bit more thought.

Today has had some seriously strong gusts of wind, one of which wiped out the neighbour's greenhouse come whatever that she had constructed over the pond she dug out. Now normally I would have been over like a shot to help sort it out, but since she did not appear, I concluded discretion was the better part of valour as if she found me in her yard she would probably blame me for the damage. Since she has not been to inspect it so far, I assume she is out.

Esther has not returned to the warmth of the hearth today, so I am rather hoping she turns up before dark as I don't like them being out after dark. She has not responded to my calls, so hopefully she is just engrossed in hunting somewhere.

I also cut more wood as yesterday's effort was not all that impressive between the rain showers, and I now have enough indoors for four days. Given that the weather bureau has revised tomorrow's forecast from snow to galeforce winds and rain, and Monday is due to be 7 to minus one, I imagine I will be grateful for the effort.

So I'm off to cook up some mash and start eating stew. Hope your dinner is as nice as mine will be!