Saturday things

I ENJOY Saturdays. It's the one day of the week when we rarely have any commitments, when we can do just what we please, in our own time, at our leisure.

In summer, it's a time for pottering around in the garden, or in my case, perhaps, giving the old car a wash and polish.

This time of year, though, it's a matter of battening down the hatches against the weather and looking forward to better days ahead. It's a time for planning holidays or home improvements, of searching the internet for ideas and good deals.

The highlight of Saturdays, though, is usually our big cooking session. We have the time to do a long, slow roast, or as in today's case, a North African style stew, a tagine.

This is a recipe that My Good Lady picked up on our last visit to France and she's trying it out for the first time with the aid of French/English dictionary.

Like many an Algerian or Moroccan dish, it mixes fruit with meat and veg to produce a sweet, spicy concoction, rather dry perhaps, but very strongly flavoured.

Not a dish we'd want to have regularly, but certainly something a bit different.

Evening. We watch a recorded episode of Numb3rs, before cracking open a bottle of champagne - it is Valentine's Day, after all.

A relaxing day, then, before the onset of Sunday and all that that involves: bed making, house cleaning, washing... etc, etc.