Monday 14th August - blog admin, tunisian crochet, rice pudding, birdsong,

 The title lists the subjects for today in the wrong order.

Let's start with the birdsong.

I was feeling really bleah this morning - no particular reason, just bleah. As I opened the door and came down the steps I heard a brief moment of birdsong, so clear, so true, so beautiful, that I was lifted out of my grey inner world and transported to a full colour, joyous morning of sunshine. My surroundings were  drear (the hospital car park; I'd been for a routine blood test) but I hardly saw the tarmac for gazing up at the trees nearby.

Walking back to the car I spotted a corner of wilderness among the dilapidated sheds and stashed broken furniture in an unkempt corner;

Some of the blackberries are nearly ripe. I could have taken this photograph anywhere in the local nature reserve... indeed, it is a tiny, forgotten little nature reserve.

I have just about perfected my basic rice-pudding-in-the-slow-cooker recipe. Bear in mind that mine is a small slow cooker for two, or at a pinch, three people.

1 pint milk

2 heaped serving spoons rice (a generous 2 oz)

1 serving spoon sugar (about 1 oz)Cook on high for between 2 and 3 hours, stirring once or twice. At 2 hours it is still a bit thin. A 3 hours it is surprisingly thick - heading towards solid! 

This makes 3 portions. Of course, your serving spoons may be larger or smaller than mine... you might have to play around a bit. 

Flavourings; any of brown sugar, nutmeg, cardamom pods, bay leaf, lemon zest...

It is certainly the weather for a good rice pud.

Tunisian crochet - if you haven't come across it before it's a bit hard to describe. The proper crochet hook for this is as long as a knitting needle, and really needs to have a stopper of some kind at the non-hooky end. Also, the handle needs to be smooth all the way along. If you are making a dishcloth, or a strip, then normal hook is fine. Try going up one size - eg 5mm hook for DK. 

 

Having done the usual way of starting, ie a single chain, or maybe a row of single crochet which will stop it curling, you set off on the forward pass, doing a row of single crochet BUT KEEPING ALL THE LOOPS ON YOUR HOOK.

When you reach the end, do a turning chain, and then do a bind off until you are back where you started, with just one loop on your hook. You can see in this picture how I am binding off by holding the yarn round the hook and drawing it through two loops at a time.

You can see all the vertical lines created in the fabric, with chains running horizontally through them beneath the hook. When you get back to the beginning, with only one loop left on your hook, you are now ready to work the magic;

Do a turning chain, and go forwards again, doing the yarn over, and then INSERTING THE HOOK THROUGH THE VERTICAL LINE and drawing the yarn through, but keeping your new stitch on the hook. 

Then once you have created all the loops, do a turning chain and bind them all off again! Keeping going, backwards and forwards until you have finished.

I don't know how to do shapings and fancy stitches, and I don't have proper hooks but that's ok - this is fine for dishcloths and flannels. 

For properly detailed instructions I advise you to have a trawl round youtube, especially if you would rather look at right-handed photographs and videos!

Blog admin
   

I often whack out the blog on my tablet with Antiques Road Trip burbling on in the background, (unless I don't care for the presenters for some reason, or the commentary starts to drive my a bit crazy). But this means I have been very lazy with adding labels to the posts. Today I went through and labelled April, May and June, so hopefully July and August will get caught up soon.

Sue asked her readers a number of questions in recent blog post of hers  about what makes them choose to follow a blog, or leave a comment and so on. That set me thinking, and is one of the reasons I have gone back through and added labels.

Reading back through the posts was interesting - I found I had already consigned most of the events into dusty corners of my mind (oh, how quickly the dust, real and virtual, accumulates) so it was good to do a little remembering. 

I have to say that if you prefer a blog that doesn't skitter about from one subject to another then you are out of luck, because that's not how my mind works! It also set me thinking about 'who am I writing for?' I will come back to this when I have done some more thinking - that's if I don't forget in the meantime.

(One vicar at our church, long moved away, was convinced I had a 'gift' for organisation and admin... he was serious, but everyone in earshot who heard him say this were convulsed with laughter, including me...) 

Tuesday 7th March - Amateur Hairdressing and other activities

 Yesterday it happened, and today I still have no regrets. 

I think the last time a 'real' hairdresser trimmed my hair was either November 2019 or possibly January 2020. Either was it was (wait a mo while I count it up on my fingers) over three whole years ago. 

Yesterday I cracked, and while my hair was still wet I laid hold of the scissors and cut first one side then the other. Then I called for assistance,  and Himself trimmed it all level.

It looks ok when it is dry, and when I do finally manage a rendezvous with a visiting hairdresser she or he can sort it into a style.

Crockpottery 

The day before yesterday I loaded the crockpot with a half onion, finely chopped, some crushed garlic, a diced red pepper, dried herbs, a tin of tomatoes and the same tin filled with chicken stock. For slow hours later, we had a delicious tomato sauce for left over cold chicken.

Yesterday I re-loaded the crockpot with 'Bored of Lunch' creamy peppercorn chicken. It's all in the freezer now, but here's a thing; I've taken to keeping back any extra liquid from the slow cooking, and using it as the base for soup. So tonight we had creamy peppercorn soup with added sweet corn, and it was de-li-cious, which bodes well for future meals.

Cross Country Collaboration 

I have a small table top craft light and magnifier on order. After a recent stitching session, not long, maybe 40 minutes, my eyes were struggling to focus on anything for a few minutes. Then I had a thought - am I remembering to blink? Aha! I tried stitching again, deliberately blinking every stitches, and managed without problems.

It's still all very weird though; I've made my chart, and I keep counting stitches, and yet... the patches of colour don't seem to be where they were meant to be! Luckily there is scope for rearranging things as I go along. 

Sunday 5th March - rescued by cream cheese

 I had my suspicions that I had discovered the first 'Bored of lunch' recipe that was going to be a fail. It was the chilli con carne recipe, and I am fairly certain I followed the recipe more or less faithfully. However wheen I tasted it reminded me of my student days, when no chilli recipe was a ' real' chilli unless it left your eyes and nose streaming. We weren't planning to eat it for a day or so, so half sat in the fridge and half went into the freezer.

I was hoping that it would have mellowed over time, but no such luck. The recipe also called for 30g of dark chocolate. I do usually add a little cocoa powder, but 30g? My misgivings were correct; the chilli had a disconcertingly strong aroma of chocolate. This did not bode well for lunch.

I said nothing, but googled 'too much chilli in my stew'. The answer came back 'add dairy, eg cream or full fat milk, or cheese'. Really? I trialled a tiny bit of Boursin melted into a tablespoon of hot chilli, and magically it worked. So I added about half the packet and stirred it through. The chilli was still a bit fierce, but not too much so, and the chocolate aroma less pronounced. 

I have been annotating the recipes using post-it notes as I cook my way through the books; you can be sure I have noted my suggestions for next time around.

I slightly unravelled myself yesterday; woke up cheerful enough, and then a gloom settled over me and I wasted a good hour on youtube and other diversions. What is happening to me? Then I realised that a good deal of the gloom landed as I was reviewing what I needed to deal with, tasks that had been accumulating over several days. 

I set too and made significant in-roads on the list, and am feeling much more cheerful as a result. I have written a Joan Didion quotation in my diary where I can see it

Action is the antidote to apathy

Saturday 25th February - a day for looking at the weather from indoors

 There's a word for enjoying the weather from inside the house. 

Aha, I found it (thank you Internet) 

Gluggaveður - an Icelandic term anglicised as 'gluggavedur' - which means 'window-weather'. It's the kind of weather that is nice to look at through the window but not nice to be out in.

And exactly describes the weather today. It looked lovely and sunny, quite a lot of the time, but the wind was cruel, like icy knives. Yesterday I managed to get into the garden and do some tidying. Today I got no further than the front door step.

Ang's stitching arrived through the front door this morning. Would you just look at that!

From a photo that she took as well. Impressive. 

Now, what about March?

...

I've finished the first sock, apart from the heel. It weighs 29g, and I have 30g left... I should be able to do the same again, and, in theory have 1g left for the heels. Now, here's the thing; for this pattern, the heels are knit in exactly the same way as the toes. It makes them a bit pointy,  but Arne & Carlos (youtube knitting gurus) assure me that it will be fine when I wear the sock. So, in another 24 rows I will finish knitting this toe, and can find out how much it weighs, and also what the fit is like. Then I can decide whether to knit contrast heels, and if A & C are right in their opinion.

.....

Crockpottery 

I've decanted the lamb garam masala that was gently cooking all afternoon.  One double portion for tomorrow, and one for the freezer. It smells wonderful. So far, apart from the leek and potato soup, 'Bored of Lunch' has been quite a success. 

Thursday 23rd February- keeping on top of things...

Crockpottery

We've had  crockpot soup several times this week. 

Mixed soup; I saved extra liquid from a couple of casseroles and mixed them together, adding a handful of dried Chinese noodles and some extra water. That was pretty good!

Vegetable soup version 1; random vegetables cooked up together with stock, tomato puree etc

Vegetable soup version 2; as above, but made up to the required quantity with more random vegetables and some water

Mixed soup version 2 will be on the menu in due course as I have just decanted four portions of chicken curry from the crockpot, and the leftover juice will become the basis of another soup in a day or so!

Cross-Country-Collaboration

We have both posted February's stitchery to each other today. I think mine has missed the last collection of the day from our local postbox, but should be on its way early tomorrow morning.

Altered Book

The Lent Course, 'of Mice and Marshwiggles' started yesterday, (on account of Lent beginning yesterday, of course!)

Here are my pages in my altered book for Day 1 and Day 2

At the moment the topic is 'Turning' - in Prince Caspian, the children have to turn from the wrong path to the less promising, but right path. Lucy, the youngest, is the only one who can see Aslan at this stage, and has to persuade the others to turn back. This will require some apologies for not following the right path...  

I thought I might try some blackout poetry; this page is in the introduction to the play, and it was easy to find words about wrongdoing and guilt.  

The Four Quartets by T S Eliot

This is what I call a 'really slow read', but I am finding it engrossing. I have the commentary open at the same time. I read a stanza, read the commentary and then re read. It is completely engrossing.

Tuesday 21st February - an unbelievable day

Why am I describing today as unbelievable?

To start with I came downstairs very early for me - just past 8 am. I vowed to myself I would NOT HAVE ANOTHER COFFEE until after I had written up and sent off the emails from yesterday evening's lessons. It's the only way to persuade myself to get on with them - at the moment those lessons, especially the last one, feel like quite hard work; remember this?

We've moved her lesson to Monday evening now... she's nowhere near as flopped as this, and neither am I, thank heavens. It's the 'learning a new piece of music' phase - many people, including me, find this hard graft. Last time we started a new piece, 'yeah, it's okay, I suppose' became 'this is my new favourite piece' the following week, so fingers crossed this yesterday's piece...

I've also 'decluttered' four book of jazzy piece, posting them off to be used as more interesting sight-reading material than the 'Right at Sight', 'Improve your sight reading' type tutorials. Hands up is you LOVED sightreading new music when you were younger. What, hardly anyone? I am SO not surprised!

I've posted what I neded to post to another friend, and handed over two beginner crochet books for another friend's daughter - hooray! Stuff getting done!

Then, I cooked a lovely couple of pieces of salmon for lunch... in the CROCKPOT! wowsers! I thought fish could not be done in the crockpot, but this is what you do;

Line the base with greaseproof paper in order to be able to lift out the fish.

Put your flavourings in first - a slice or so of lemon, a little onion (I had some spring onions that I thought would do), herbs, sliced up garlic clove, that sort of thing. 

Then put in your fish, preferably in a single layer. Mine were fillets, so I cut then in half, arranged the thick pieces side by side, and then put in the thinner pieces slightly draped over each other.

Add your cooking liquid to nearly cover the fish - water, or water and white wine, or vegetable stock, or vegetable stock and dry cider in my case, with more lemon juice, and leave it alone for either one hour on high, or two hours on low. Check by flaking apart with two forks to make sure it is cooked through.

Oh yessss! That recipe is a keeper!

While it was doing its stuff, I opened my Hobbycraft delivery from yeterday, and made a Spring reath for outside.

 It is the vine wreath from before, and a 'spring flowers wreath' tied on with fine string. I'm going for the 'casual' look.

After lunch it was 'modge podge' time - a bottle of this was also in the parcel. It's a paper glue that lots of the junk journalers use, so I thought I would give it a go.

Here's my front cover; as I plan to use this throughout Lent I thought this was an appropriate picture. 

Here's an experiment with collage, using four different squares of origami paper, near the end of the book. My word, but it quickly becomes a messy process...

And finally, a hurried preparation of two pages at the front, because I will be needing one of them for tomorrow! 

I suspect some flowers may be added to those little Japanese vases on Thursday... 

And now it is time to heat some soup for our supper, before we watch Richard Osman's House of Games...

Why is it that sometimes I am a whirlwind of activity and energy, and on other days even watching tv seems like a Big Ask.... very weird.

   

Friday 17th February - altered recipe, altered book, altered space

 Spaces; 

since lockdown, nearly three years ago, we have no 'inside' visitors, so our living space has slowly become adapted to our personal, selfish needs. THE settee has become MY settee. (W always called it a settee when I was a child, I can't imagine myself calling it a sofa).

It was only a 2-seater, and now it is a single seater, for the other side looks like this;

Heaped at the back, half on the arm and half on the back of my settee is a crochet blanket for the evening. Underneath us a row books I dip into from tome to time. My sewing tin is on top, and a shoebox of notebooks,  pens and oddments to finish.

My knitting basket is close at hand with the blue sock-knitting bag and mitre squares blanket on top. If we were to have visitors they would have to find another place to sit!

Recipes

I have the crockpot full of the 'Bored of Lunch' recipe for sausages and potatoes. Except I have left out the potatoes as the crockpot was too full, even by my miscalculations. I also left out the red wine (we haven't got any) and most of the beef stock (the pot was still rather full).

I took the potatoes, tossed them in oil salt and pepper, and treated them to 20 minutes at 180 in the airfryer. They came out looking, and tasting, fried. No surprise there, thinking about it. I tasted one to be sure. I can reheat them when we have the sausage casserole tomorrow for lunch.

Books

It has been brought to my notice that there is a whole world of people making junk journals from old books. Having watched YouTubes on how to go about this, I had decided that this was 'nah, far too fussy  for me'.

I made a collage yesterday afternoon, as a sort of mockery of what I saw on youtube, and because I was too tired to do anything sensible;

And, oh my, it came out rather well. The mouse is in a pocket; pockets are a Big Feature of junk journals.

 Then I followed a link to 'altered books'. Similar concept, but you reuse the pages that are already in the book, instead of replacing them 

I can tell you that my copy of 'The Crucible' by Arthur Miller, from English lessons when I was in the Middle Fifth at school (year 10 these days) will never ever be the same again.

Thursday 16th February - a taste of childhood - crockpottery

 The 'Bored of Lunch' leek and potato soup took us both back to our childhoods,  but not in a wonderful way.

I may have left it too long, even for the forgiving timings of a crock pot. So, the resulting soup was very bland by modern tastes. For Himself, it was too much like the potato and onion soup he frequently had as a child. He grew up in a very rural farming community, in an area without electricity or mains water. They grew a lot of veg in the kitchen garden, especially potatoes. Potato soup was cheap, nourishing and filling.

For me, the memory was of a holiday in a lakeside hotel somewhere in France. My grandmother hosted us all; her three children, their spouses, the eight grandchildren and several au pairs for a fortnight. We children, aged from about 10 to babies, were given an early supper, and the first course was always potato soup.  My memory of that soup is that it was much better than this one!

Today we had chicken and coconut noodle soup for lunch. I halved the chicken and coconut milk, but forgot to halve the other ingredients; the Thai red chilli paste, sriracha, a while red chilli, the sweet chilli sauce, the peanut butter...

Illustration in the book

This was delicious, and Very Warming on such a dreich day. The chinese noodles were massively overcooked, though. The instructions were to add them 20 mins before the end of cooking (on high). Next time, for there will definitely be a next time, I will add them nearer 5-10 minutes before the end.

We were supposed to go to the hygienist today, but a few miles from home, a warning light came on in the car. We pulled over and checked the handbook; it meant anything from something trivial to something dangerous like 'airbags might deploy without cause'. We turned round; I called the dentist's to apologise and he checked carefully checked over the car. It turns out that an abbreviated explanation is displayed for just a very few seconds when the warning comes on. This time it was merely a failed numberplate light... £5 each to buy, and we'll worth paying the £15 for having them replaced.

That's enough excitement for today.

Tuesday 14th February - Happy Valentine's Day

I made a small heart shaped chocolate cake, and himself has eaten most of it with some vanilla ice cream this evening. We shall finish it tomorrow. 

 The maths was correct,  I just didn't put the correct figure on the board for the weight of unused wool. 37g, not 27g, so I will have plenty for the second sock.

My new slowcooker recipe book 'Bored of Lunch' arrived yesterday. 

(Is that title grammatically correct?). I chose 4 recipes, 2 soups, 2 mains, and just went down the ingredient lists, ordering everything from Ocado to be delivered tomorrow.  Then I shall make up the recipes, one every day. Chilli con carne, potato and leek soup, honey shredded chicken, chicken noodle soup. I know, who needs a recipe for potato and leek soup? But the other recipes are full of interesting flavours; sriracha, hoisin, peanut butter, curry leaves..., none of which we have in the cupboard. 

All the recipes make 4 large servings so if I portion things out carefully I may well get more than this. I will often hold back some of the extra liquid to make the beginnings of another soup.

We tend to have a main meal at lunchtime, and then soup, or something on toast or sandwiches at about 6 in the evening. It seems like we were doing a sort of 12 hour overnight fast long before Dr Michael Moseley made this the latest healthy eating thing.

Tonight was smoked mackerel, bread and butter and a small salad of tomatoes, peppers, sweetcorn and cooked green beans. For salad dressing I combined hot paprika tomato ketchup and mayonnaise. Excellent! 

Sunday 11th December - Icicles and Mincemeat

I have resorted to draping a knitted rug over my knees as I type this...

Snow is falling, softly, damply, almost apologetically, along with a steady drift of leaves from the oak tree at the bottom of the garden. Nearly all the leaves have gone from the apple tree, so the bunting is visible now, all faded and forlorn. I should venture down there to see if the snowdrops are coming through - the first few snowdrops usually appear at the base of the tree just before Christmas Day, so that we can have a couple in a little vase on the table. But it is TOOOOOOOOO cold today. The back door step is near to 'outdoors' a I have gone all weekend.

And look! Hanging from the shed roof! Can you see them?

I am making mincemeat in the crockpot. When I investigated the cupboards and shelves I couldn't find any, but luckily I had enough ingredients to make a half quantity of Delia Smith's Christmas Mincemeat. 

I only use two recipes, one dating bake to a cheap booklet I bought when we were first married, called 'Christmas in your Freezer', for mincemeat made with applesauce to be kept in the freezer, and Delia's recipe from her Christmas book - but you can find it online here. They really are the best recipes - if I can find the freezer one I'll post it in the next day or so.

The Delia recipe (which she says keeps for up to 3 years!) requires the mixture to be cooked in a low oven for three hours to melt the suet, coating everything in a layer of fat which is why it keeps so well.

Half quantities exactly fitted into my tiddly little crockpot, and an hour on high (it is cold in the kitchen) followed by a couple of hours on low seems to have worked. I'm at the stage of stirring it every so often as it cools down - if you don't, the liquid suet rises to the top of the dish and sets in a solid layer, not what you want at all. 

Quite frankly I haven't yet bought a shop mince pie that I really like - the Waitrose beurre noisette pies are the closest to date - nor yet a jar of shop made mincemeat that is worth consuming the calories therein. 

There is nothing to beat home-made mincemeat and home-made mince pies.