Sunday 10th December - Advent 2 Bake - Cheesy biscuits

 Since these recipes took no experimentation on my part (unlike speculaas last week!) I've just set them out here.

The first one from what I laughingly refer to as my 'recipe file' - more a jumble of paper in along with all the other bits of useful information - comes from the the Guardian Newspaper in 2007

Guardian Newspaper,Cheese Biscuits

and as usual I recommend following the link, although the recipe summary is

for about 24 biscuits

100g very cold butter

100g plain flour

pinch of salt, pinch of cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon mustard powder

50g finely grated mature cheddar

50g finely grated Parmesan, 

more finely grated Parmesan for sprinkling and a beaten egg for sprinkling - I didn't do this.

Put everything except the extra Parmesan and the beaten egg into a food processor, whizz until it becomes pastry.

Tip it out and knead into a dough, form into a sausage shape about 4-5 cm thick, wrap in cling film and chill for 30 mins.

Slice into thin rounds with sharp knife dipped in hot water, place on a greased baking tray about 2 cm apart. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with Parmesan.

Bake 10 mins in oven pre-heated to 180, gas 4. Cool on a rack. You will probably need 2 trays.

I confess; I sliced four rounds off the unchilled biscuit log and put them in the air fryer with no sprinkling. Here they are after 10 mins at 180; and after 15 mins there were none left. Sprinkling stuff on biscuits etc is a non-starter in our air fryer and it all flies about and gets stuck to the element.

  

The other biscuits are Nigella's Cheesy Feet Once again, I suggest you visit the site!

100g grated cheddar

25g soft butter

50g plain flower

1/4 teas baking powder.

Whizz everything in a food processor until it comes together. Wrap in cling film and chill 15 mins.

She rolls it thinly to roughly 3mm thickness, and cuts out feet shape with cookie cutters. I, guess what, make a sausage shape and cut off slices!

Bake in preheated oven on a lined baking sheet for 10-12 mins at 200/gas 6, depending on the size of your feet. The biscuits continue to crisp as they cool, so lift them off the bakig sheet while they are still  little soft in the middle.(10-12 mins in the air fryer at 190 would probably be just as good!)

I have made these before and they were equally delicious. 

They are also made in a food processor; I wonder if these recipes would work if you don't have a food processor, if you froze the butter, and grated it into the other ingredients, like Delia Smith's Quick Flaky Pastry I have made this pastry, from her 'Christmas Book' which went with the TV series Oh so long ago, and it is very good.

Wednesday 13th September - Morning All

Where have I been? Nowhere.

What have I been doing? Bits and pieces, this and that, something and nothing.

At least, that's how it seems.

In the garden;

I had enough confidence in the results of our intensive slug control programme to transplant the lettuces I had been nurturing in the greenhouse. They have survived the night. It's all looking hopeful at the moment; cauliflower seedlings, swiss chard, pak choi and kohl rabi, all growing on well. I have sown spinach and more pak choi. It give me so much pleasure to see the little plants in the pots. I'm rather sorry to pick and eat them, but that is the point, I suppose. There's a lot of butterfly damage going on with the pak choi leaves, so I might try cloches on the lettuce since I don't have any suitable netting. I noticed a snail or slug trail on one of the kohl rabi leaves; I shall inspect it closely by torchlight tonight! 

Planting out my cauliflower seedlings ha taught me a valuable lesson in the use of paper pots for module sowing. I didn't use them this time, and maybe I was impatient and transplanted them too soon, but they were a nightmare to handle without damaging the fragile stems, whereas popping a whole paper pot into the earth would have been simple. Luckily they seem to have survived and are managing to stand upright. The pale bobbly stuff on top of the earth is pelleted wool to dissuade slugs and snails.   

In the kitchen;

I've made a caraway seed cake - one of my favourites. I just do a 2-egg mix it all in one bowl victoria sponge and add a good shake of caraway seeds. How much? Well, how seedy do you like your cake? I was amused to read in 'Kitchen Conversations' by Agnes Jekyll (sister of gardener Gertrude) that seed cake was usually served at 'nursery tea'. I wouldn't have thought it would appeal to nursery children. The book is a collection of articles written for The Times, I think, back in the 1920s. Most of the recipes sound pretty unpalatable to today's taste and also unbelievably fussy. It also assumes kitchens with a cook and a kitchen maid, and servants to hand round dishes (previously kept warm on a hotplate behind a screen in the corner of the dining room). Evening meals seem generally to have soup, fish, meat, dessert, sweet and savoury courses, with of course, the obligatory provision of wines, cigarettes and cigars (pipe smokers apparently bring their own tobacco and need not be catered for).

I've also failed to make a slow cooker risotto. It would probably have been fine if I had switched off the cooker after 2-3 hours on high. But I didn't.

It's slowly unsticking from the pot with a good soak. 

Reading;

I was recommended the D M Greenwood 'cosy mystery' series. They are set in a fictional cathedral city which I strongly suspect is Norwich, and feature the inimitable Theodore Braithwaite, a deaconess as the sleuth. As the whole 9-book series is currently on offer for 99p on Kindle I thought I may as well...

I devoured book 1 (this could be part of the reason why I forgot to blog?) and am now deep into book 2. The context is very much within the machinations of the Anglican Church, at a time (written in the 1990s) when women could not be ordained to the priesthood. There is a fair amount of spiritual thinking going on in athoughtful and compassionate way, and I think there will be quite a lot to do with horse riding along the way - not too much, but I am enjoying the setting, the horses, the machinations and the spirituality.    

Lark Rise to Candleford (Flora Thompson) is my 'lat thing at night settle down to sleep' reading at the moment.

  

 

Thursday 17th August - Air fryer cake

The big problem I have with making cakes in the air fryer is getting the time and temperature right.  Today I might have cracked it...

Our Philips Air Fryer has a little metal on that fits inside the basket for cooking things that would otherwise run through the holes in the basket.

These pans are ridiculously expensive, but entirely worth the money in my opinion. (There are quite a few pans in different shapes and sizes out there now).

Our pan exactly holds a 2-egg sponge cake; the all-in-one recipe I usually use has 2 eggs, and 4oz each of softened butter, SR flour and sugar. I tip this all into the mixing bowl, adding extra ingredients according to flavour, and a little dollop of milk to loosen the mix if necessary.

For cakes I line the pan with foil or paper.

I made a coffee cake this time, and actually remembered to make a note of the temperature; 155°C, and the timing; 40 minutes. (I cooked it for 35 mins, then added 5 more as it wasn't completely done)

It looked remarkably like the picture above, which I snipped from an advert for the tins. I suspect that the one in the picture might really by a macaroni cheese, though.

I can almost hear half of you saying "why bother with an air fryer?"

We use ours nearly every day, for heating and cooking and reheating and roasting and baking. It is so quick and convenient for the pair of us, does the job with minimum of fuss and no preheating, and best of all, switches itself off when the time is up!

I know they're not for everyone, but suits the pair of us perfectly!

Tuesday 15th August - on dressmaker's chalk, coleslaw, and associated things

 This morning I finally unearthed the failed dress I made a few years ago, and first thought I would turn it into a skirt, and then changed my mind and decided to use it for this that and the other. The first being another tray cloth. Do you use them? I thought not. But my mother couldn't bear to take a tray of cups or plates or glasses anywhere unless it had a tray cloth on it. 

'Why,' I asked.

'Because my mother insisted that whatever the circumstances we should always use a tray cloth.' Bearing in mid that she lives through the war in the Netherlands, where life was unbelievably tough, I guess the persistence of tray cloths was a stand against all the other erosions of decency.

So now in my turn, I can't help but use a tray cloth. Some things are hereditary.

So I took my tray and laid it on the fabric. 'I know what I'll use!' I thought. 'That lovely tailor's chalk Ang sent me as a flat present.' (Ah yes, that was quite some holiday, Ang! You'll have to go back a month or so on her blog to get the reference to the pavement.)

    

It was very reluctant to leave a mark on the fabric... after several goes I realised it is a pencil eraser, and a very good one too! So I dug out the real dressmaker's chalk which worked perfectly first time.

 It is not often we have coleslaw, because I so dislike shop-bought. I find it too gloopy and wet, and usually has too much onion for my taste. A day or so ago I made some using about 50/50 finely shredded kohlrabi and white cabbage, a couple of spring onions chopped small,and a handful of peanuts. This last is a throwback to school days; they used to serve us a salad of finely grated carrots, mixed with peanut and raisins and I loved it. Couldn't do it now, with so many peanut allergies on the go (how did all those allergies happen?) 

For a dressing I mixed French Dressing from a bottle (Newman's Own) and Shop bought mayonnaise, again 50/50. Excellent.

I took some out of what was left for the next day, which was still good, and sprinkled it with a little Hot Smoked Paprika. That worked! And I perked up the remains at the bottom of the bowl with a small amount of creamed horseradish sauce.  Kohlrabi Coleslaw three ways!

Lunch today was a bit odd. The baked potato didn't cook in time, and we were in a hurry, as Tuesday is the day we take my father to his Bridge Club. So we just had meat and veg.

Later I cut the offending potato into wedges, sprinkled them with salt and gave them 15 mins at 180 in the air fryer. So tea/supper tonight was a bit odd too; cold sliced beef, bits of salad and hot potato wedges. 

Both meals tasted fine. 

Now we shall watch those poor teams pastry cooks being driven to their wits end and sobbing into their mousses, by a combination of Benoit and Cherish's impossible challenges and demands, and the two co-presenters just getting in the way with endless witticisms. I mean ' Bake-off, the professionals' of course.   

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...) 

Friday 28th April - strange dreams

I found I was dreaming cross stitches last night, rather in the way I used to dream minesweeper and tetris grids in years gone by. Disconcerting,  and not restful.  After yesterday's lack of cross progress I set to big time today, so I suspect I'll be dreaming of stitches again tonight. But, I am within shouting distance of completing it and posting it tomorrow or Sunday. The bank holiday means that it's going to take an extra day to reach Ang. She's already posted hers to me!

When I can't sleep and my thoughts keep going round on a loop I distract myself with selected audiobooks. They have to be just interesting enough to distract me, but not too exciting or terrifying!

I'm currently most of the way through the second of the Green Knowe children's books by Lucy M Boston. It is nearly too interesting, almost too exciting to be properly sleep-inducing. I set the timer for 30mins, after which the voice fades away, but last night I gave myself an extra 30mins as the story had come to an exciting bit.

We've sent off for a light-weight compact folding rollator, not for me, I hasten to add, but because my father’s super deluxe rollator is an absolute nightmare to fit in the rather small boot of our car. We have to put half the back seat down, empty the boot and and wrangle with the folded rollator while trying not to injure ourselves.

Now that he's accepting lifts from us instead of driving, we need to solve the rollator issue as he prefers it to his walking pole. He's due a visit from an occupational therapist who will hopefully find a better walking stich than this pole he's been using for a couple of years. 

And I've made spring rolls in the air fryer! I made up a mixture of  cooked chicken, spring onion, sriracha sauce, a couple of pieces of jalapeño pepper from a jar, red peppers, fresh coriander and lime juice all chopped small and stirred together. Because I was using cooked chicken I could taste it as I went along.

Then I took two sheets of filo pastry, cut each in half, and made 4 spring rolls. I sprayed them with oil and cooked them for 8 minutes at 190°C, turning and spraying the other side half way through.  For a first attempt I was very pleased; we had them for supper with a little soy sauce for dipping them. It sounds a huge amount of effort, but was actually not that bad. I'll make them again to use up the rest of the filo pastry.

Wednesday 28th June - a 94th birthday lunch

and the easiest desert I've ever made!

The birthday lunch went well - my brother drove over from his house (3 hours away - good job he likes driving), collected my dather and we had lunch, the four of us, in the garden. 

They arrived very late, with unfortunate consequences for the beef and the brocoli, but completely understandable.  Although my brother was with my father in plenty of time, one of the things he brought was a memory stick with about 50 pictures from the 1970s, when he was living in the Far East, and of course they had to be watched before the came over. We've been given a copy for ourselves and I am looking forward to seeing them.

Particularly poignant, because of course my mother was alive then, and my aunt, and they were both so pretty and glamorous.  

Menu; beef Wellingtons from Marks and Spencers - won't buy again, they were ok, and very 'special occasion' but... Beef gravy from M and S was very good.

Broccoli, roasted aspagus, boiled Jersey Royal potatoes.

Wine - a very pleasant Fleurie, one of my father’s favourites

Desert; home-made panna cotta, strawberries (with or without cream and sugar), cheese; a chunk of cheddar and a triangle of brie oozing off the board 

Coffee

After which we chatted for a while, and the sun came out, and the heat and the second glass of wine meant that it was time for my father to be taken back to his flat and have 'a little sleep', and my brother to set off back home.

I was always a little nervous of making panna cotta, but I trued it 2 weeks ago for the first time and so far it's been the simplest thing;

4 leaves of Dr Oetker gelatine will set a pint of liquid, according to the packet. I have tended to make half a pint using 2 leaves. Both time this has given me a rather solid set; so more liquid would have better.  

The first time I used 50/50 double cream and milk, sweetening with vanilla sugar. The second time I used 50/50 Greek yoghurt and a mixture of one shot of strong espresso coffee and milk. (I don’t think I'll repeat this experiment, or at least, not coffee flavour)

Today's was perfect; I used 50/50 cream and a Polish panna cotta cream liqueur given to us a thank you for looking after next door's cat. I made this up to about 6 fl oz and used 1 sheet of gelatine. The liqueur is very sweet (think baileys) so I didn't add any more sugar. 

Method; soak gelatine exactly directed on the packet.

Gently warm the liquid you plan to use; a Pyrex jug in the microwave worked for me. You want it hotter than warm but no where near simmering or boiling. 

Retrieve the now soggy gelatine from the cold water and dissolve it into the hot milk/cream mixture. Make sure it us completely dissolved with no bloody bits.

I pour it into small coffee cups; a generous half pint will fill 4-5. The 6 fl oz quantity filled 3 little cups.

Cover with cling film and allow about 3 hrs to chioland set. I serve them in the cups rather than attempting to turn them out.

It does mean I can make a delicious dessert for the two of us whenever we like.

No pictures of them; they've all gone!

Friday 23rd June - but will they grow?

I have sown more french beans, peas, spinach and spinach beet this afternoon.

The broad beans have got some promising pods growing,, and there are a few on my one remaining pea plant, so I am hopeful for a slight harvest this year. I suspect the potatoes rotted in their pots, and will tip all the contents into the compost heap, or use it for mulch. Thank heavens for shops!

I've also done some more cross stitching after taking a break - I did try earlier in the week, but had to unpick what I'd done s soon as I finished - too many stitches crossed the wrong way round. I'm stitching on what will be my piece of cloth, as was tempted to just let it go - maybe if there had been just one stitch the wrong way round...

Air Fryer Experiments;

Christine's Oatie Biscuits - 

You know how sometimes you meet someone, and you hit it off, and you know that you could be good friends, but somehow time slips past and you don't use your time wisely, and then... you realise you've missed an opportunity and 

oh well. She died (breast cancer) several years ago, and I remember her real Goodness, her remarkable gentleness and honesty. every time I make these biscuits.       

It's a pretty basic recipe - I've photographed the page from my tatty recipe book

If you make half quantities, you can cook just four in the air fryer at 150C for 15 mins. Roll the rest of the dough (assuming half quantities) into balls and put in a lidded container in the fridge.

This way you will only eat four biscuits at a sitting, (or two each shared between us) instead of pigging the lot in one go. The next time, take out four little balls, leave them to soften for about 10 mins at room temperature before cooking them.

I'm very keen on using these reusable non-stick silicone air fryer liners;

 for all sorts of air fryer cooking - they come in different sizes.

But as you will see, the recipe predates all the air fryer excitement. 

Saturday 17th June - better than Friday

That's not to say there was much wrong with Friday, but today was better.

How?

I just had more energy, completed a couple of tasks, and feel the lighter for it.

Cross-stitch8ng, and un-cross-stitching, and un-re-cross-stitching and re-re-cross-stitching happened after lunch. Probably not the best time of day as it was getting hotter by then, but overall it was progress. I sit here to sew;

but with the curtain open. In the afternoon the sun works round to shine in through the patio doors, so I close the curtains to make it a bit cooler. Everything is cleared away, ready to begin again tomorrow morning.  I shall probably stitch while the church service is livestreaming. Either that or knit more sock...

Lunch was spaghetti with sausage meatballs. Himself is usually in charge of the victuals, but today he was feel uninspired by the sausages listed for today, whereas I was feel8ng in the mood to cook.

A rummage in the cupboard produced a jar of red pesto which had been lurking for a while. 'Stir 1-2 tablespoons per person through cooked pasta and serve hot' was the serving suggestion on the label. 

Here's what I did;

I divided each of the 6 sausages into four pieces. They have changed the skins, these new ones are so thin that next time I will just cut them, rather than skinning them and rolling them into little balls. Then I cooked the little meat balls in the air fryer for 5 mins at 180. While that was going on I sliced a red pepper into thinnish strips. After the five minutes were up, I lobbed the bits of pepper on top of the meatballs and gave them another 10 mins. If you don't have an air fryer, a frying pan would do.

The 150g (enough for 2) spaghetti took 10 minutes so this was going on as well. Just before the pasta was done I added a handful of frozen peas. 

Although I made 24 meatballs the plan was to eat 12 and save 12 for another meal.

So, I drained the pasta and peas, returned it to the pan,stirred in 4 tablespoons pesto, 12 meatballs and all the red peppers. 

Served it with parmesan and and black pepper and some basil.

Now we have 12 meatballs in the freezer, and half a jar of pesto in the fridge ready for another time.

My haul of tsundoku continues to grow.... kindle keeps offering me books for 99p... yesterday I stumbled across an episode of Hamish MacBeth on television and guess what, one of the books is.... 99p! 'Death of a Snob' by M C Beaton of Agatha Raisin fame. Now I don’t care for much Agatha, but Hamish...

Monday 12th June - Reboot!

 After nearly three weeks feeling stuck in the doldrums I am now ready to launch back into action.

Today I have Done Stuff;

Changed the pillowcases, and hopefully the sheet ntonihht. I have ripped it (not literally!) off the mattress,  as a statement of intent, so tonight we will have to finish the task.

I have just about untangled the unholy mess that is my record keeping of who paid me how much for what and when; when piano students pay half-termly or in blocks of eight lessons (eight? Why eight? That's neither a half term nor a whole term? Madness) or a sort of guesstimate of how many lessons they think they can fit in, or after each single lesson, it doesn't take long to lose track. Especially if they then miss a lesson, when I credit or reschedule. 

Chest infection induced brain fog just made everything- well, foggier. 

I have planted two erigerons into bigger pots, added strings and supports to sweet peas, sown six lettuce seeds into individual pots to go in the window box of shed, and also a tray of radishes. Why are they called French Breakfast radishes, and do the French really eat radishes with their coffee and croissants for breakfast? 

I have charted the current cross stitch 3 times, and, once I have erased the current version,  will chart it again tomorrow. 

And I have taught a piano lesson to a teenager. One of those lessons where I explain how to play it smoothly, they pay no attention and carry on regardless for a while, all the time ignoring my cries to desist, before stopping and in an aggrieved tone of voice demanding to know how to make it sound smooth. 

The lesson was over zoom, and I am not, and never have been a 'knuckle-rapper' teacher so all ended well. Eventually. 

Summer Supper; (we had this on Saturday)

 Fresh capelleti or ravioli or similar, the sort that comes packed in clear pl*st*c with a nice long date (sorry, ecofolks)

Sauce (more of a dressing, really); walnut sized piece of butter, lemon zest and juice to taste, finely chopped spring onions and parsley, suitable greenery like fresh spinach or pea shoots or whatever, roughly chopped if necessary.

Grated parmesan and black pepper

Gather up and prep the sauce ingredients first. Cook the pasta according to the packet. Ordinary pasta is OK but I like capelleti.

Drain the pasta, return to the pan and stir in the sauce. Serve with parmesan and pepper. Pine nuts might be good too, or perhaps chopped walnuts. 

Tuesday 6th June

 Two friends came round for morning coffee today.

I had a go at making biscuits in the air fryer but the first batch were less beautiful;

That's because I dropped the grey silicone air fryer basket liner. The biscuits were still soft and fell out all crumpled and folded over. Luckily there was a second batch which came out perfectly.

And even more luckily, one of the visitors brought freshly made scones clotted cream and a jar of strawberry jam!

We sat in the garden waiting for the sun to reach the patio table, listening to the birds, watching the Robin's struggles with the suet cage on the bird feeder, the blackbirds scuffling along the flower beds...

Just gently chatting about gardens and flowers and a holiday in Scotland...

An hour of pure perfection. 

Thursday 11th May - new skills, full to-do-list, chocolate o'clock,

The new skill I acquired today was how to unpick a whole line of my current cross stitching with scissors!!! I have avoided using scissors until now, but this time it was unavoidable. I did try to see if I could redo the chart for the remaining half - let me tell you it would have been far quicker to just accept the inevitable...

However, the various charts I tried did give me some more ideas so I am hoping that the result of exercising patience and self-control will result in a better finished piece. So far, so good, especially now I have removed the offending area!

Various things added themselves to the to-do list as the day went along; for example giving the back door mat a good clean. Why would one do that? Ah, therein lies a tale.

Personally, I always carry the entire compost caddy out to 'the worms' as we affectionately call the compost bin. We have switched to using brown paper bags for the kitchen waste as it decomposes better, and I don't trust them in the situation where the scraps and peelings are a bit soggy, just in case this

happens... which, as you can see, it DID happen. Those caddies hold a surprising amount of... gunk.

Another item added was the making of a cake; on Thursdays we now go to Waitrose armed with a shopping list provided by my father, and then take it round to his flat and sort through the fridge. This week there were two eggs left from the half dozen, but someone had put a plastic milk bottle on its side above the egg box which had almost disintegrated. We dealt the the puddle, and swapped the eggs over and took the two old ones home. Rather than have eggs which had been soaked in milk hanging around, we made a cake...

Air fryer sponge cake

Make an ordinary 2-egg victoria sponge type recipe (2 eggs, 4oz each sugar, butter, SR flour - maybe a little more flour, in which case add a little milk or coffee essence). Combine - I do 'all-in-one' method, and bake in a suitable container for 23mins at 160C - at least that's what our air fryer needs. Coffee cake for elevenses tomorrow.

Chocolate o'clock has got out of hand. It seems to be happening twice a day! But I have reduced the size of my potion from 4 squares back down to one. Mostly. Quite often. 

 

    

Friday 21st April - I have had some sherry. Expect typos

 The last three days have been heavy on admin, and heavy on zooms; only two extra zooms on top the of scheduled 6 piano zooms and one church house group zoom, but it seems that the effect of increasing numbers of zoom sessions is more than one might think. Still, it's the end of the week, and no more zooms until Sunday (church livestream, not really a zoom, followed by two 'chatty' zooms)

I've written up all the piano lessons apart from the two today. I like to leave a day before I write up the lesson - is that laziness at the end of the day? Or a chance to reflect on the lesson? Or maybe both?

I've written up and emailed the notes from the house group zoom, and printed a set to post/deliver to our non-internet member.

And - this is the biggie - I have started gathering together the facts and figures to construct a tax return... the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth as far as I can manage.

 It's not been all playing the piano keyboard and tapping the computer keyboard. 

I've been watching youtubes on drawing trees;

I finished my sketch-a-day journal on 1st April, and rather than buy yet another notebook, I decided to use my Commonplace Book for the daily sketches. I've had a series of Commonplace Books on the go for a number of years, to note down poems, quotations, etc etc and this particular book has pages which are able to cope with pen and ink, and watercolour (as long as it isn't too wet). 

Just before Easter I bought the companion book to 'Bored Of Lunch - Slow Cooker recipe book', which is 'Bored of Lunch - Air Fryer recipe book'

I had a go at the low-calorie sausage rolls, made with tortilla wraps instead of pastry. They were pretty good - we shared half for supper, and will have the other half for supper tomorrow. The picture shows half the batch. 

I didn't quite understand the instructions so this is what I did; I used half a dozen decent quality sausages (not the low-calorie ones specified), one egg, three large tortilla wraps.

Skin the sausages, and mix the meat with extra herbs if you like. Divide into three lumps.

Beat the egg to use partly as glue, and partly as egg wash (I wonder if milk would be as good?)

Take a tortilla, lay flat and trim off a little of four edges to square it up a bit. Squidge the meat into a long thin sausage and lay near one edge, roll up the wrap and sausage using a generous application of egg-wash to make sure the thing sticks and stays rolled up. Repeat for other two tortillas. 

Cut each roll into bite sizes - I got about 16-18 pieces - glaze with egg wash and cook for 11 mins at 200C. Not bad. I cooked them on silicone air-fryer liner which you can see in the picture - it sits in the basket and saves on washing up.

Some kitting today - the mitre-square blanket. I am slowly re-doing the cuffs of the socks in order to do a stretchier cast off, and that needs brain. 

No cross stitch - I am short on brain power today, and now that I've drunk that glass of sherry the brain power is going fast.

Tuesday 18th April - Yogurt, Seeds, Quantum Physics

 So here I am, tapping out notes for yesterday's piano student; she's spent the whole Easter break having a wonderful time with Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, and Einaudi and other things, and consequently forgotten how to play the various pieces we were working on for her Grade 7. Ah well. She's playing, and loving what she's playing which is the main thing. They often drop out when they are teenagers because there are so many other things filling their time, and bringing more instant rewards than unwillingly slogging through a Haydn sonata.

Really, I am watching the weather. It is a sunny, balmy morning, with a bit of a breeze. Yesterday I plotted the veg patch and went through my seeds;

These are the ones I want to plant today and I have promised myself that as soon as I finish typing I will be out there, even though the sun has disappeared and the wind is getting stronger. 

Tomatoes and flower seeds need to be started on the windowsills freed up by moving the salvia cuttings.

I've also been making yogurt; Heat milk until boiling, allow to cool to blood heat (just nice and warm when you stick  finger in to test). Put half a small tub of live yogurt into a wide-mouthed food flask and keep stirring as you slowly add the milk. Seal, and leave alone for 24 hours.

The resulting yogurt is rather thinner than I like (do you remember 'drinking yogurt' - not quite as thin as that) so I strain it.

Here's how much I ended up with - about two carton's worth. This batch is the texture of cream cheese, with a pleasantly milk taste.

As for quantum physics - I really don't have a clue. We (Himself and I) as sitting opposite each other at the table, working away on our respective laptops. I thought he was deep into the online grocery order, as he looked up with that glazed expression one gets after scrolling through myriads of little pictures to select the right kind of whatever. But no, his head was full of some recent development in quantum physics to do with solving a problem to do with predicting tunneling events... I was thinking of tunnels under the ground, but this is to do particle physics. We do have some hobbies in common. I can confidently say that this is not one of them.

Still, if this new development renders Feinman diagrams obsolete, does that release me from any obligation to try and learn about them?

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.

   

Monday 20th January - Cake!

 Yesterday was an unsettling sort of day, but was happily improved by CAKE.

Biscoff cake, which I found on the Sainsburys website. And I quote;

Biscoff three-ingredient cake

This is one of those weird tricks of science that it's best not to think too hard about! If you're in need of a low-maintenance, minimal ingredient bake for a quick elevenses treat, look no further than this science-defying Biscoff bake, made from 1 x 400g of Biscoff spread, 2 large eggs and one and a half teaspoons of baking powder. 

Preheat your oven to 180C, 160C fan, gas mark 4 and line a 20cm cake tin. 

Put the spread in a bowl and heat in the microwave until just liquid. Whisk in the baking powder and then the eggs. Pour the batter into the baking tin and bake for 30 minutes, or until a skewer comesout clean. We're not telling you to melt even more Biscoff spread and pour ir over the top to decorate...but you won't be sorry.  

 So that's their version. I used half a jar, one egg and three-quarters of a teaspoon of baking powder. Whisking didn't really seem possible - it all became the most unlikely sort of mixture, reminiscent of very soft unbaked ginger biscuits. 

I combined it all as best as I could, dumped it into a 15cm tin and baked it in the air fryer at 160 for 20 mins, I think; I tested it with a skewer. 

It was delicious, but very rich and sweet and I am delighted that I DIDN'T melt more Biscoff spread and pour it on the top!

I served it in little squares, and then we went back for more, and then more more, and now there isn't any more.

The book club is shying away from reading T S Eiot's 'The Wasteland' and looks to be heading for the Stella Gibbons book, 'Nightingale Wood'. I hope they are not expecting something like 'Cold Comfort Farm'...

Thursday 26th January - 5-a-day

 And another day missed! I'll tell you what happened; when I had finished teaching the last lesson of the day I zombied out in front of Antiques Road Trip (yes, really) and played Freecell all evening.

I know that fruit and vegetables is really be what 5-a-day is all about; and my Christmas Smoothie-maker is helping along that road. Along with an attempt to have some fruit and a bit of salad stuff every day.  

I don't suppose you need a designated smoothie maker, but this one is very convenient. I had loaded the goblet with approx 80g frozen 'smoothie fruit mix' from a the freezer, half a small tub of plain yogurt, a small teaspoon of honey and some hot water from the kettle, to take the chill off the frozen fruit. Whizz! and pour! and there's one of my five-a-day!

This isn't the five-a-day I meant in the title though. On Wednesdays I have 5 zoom meeting; 11 am, 3 pm, 4 pm, 5pm, a break for Richard Osman's House of Games and a light tea or supper, and then the final zoom at 6.30 pm. Four piano lessons and one family zoom with my father and my brother.

After that I feel whizzed up and poured out. Back in the old days I used to sit and play 'Angry Birds' for at least half an hour after I finished teaching, to unwind and 'get it all out of my system'.

Now that I am an ex-school class music teacher I can confess to such shocking behaviour. 

I had thought I might try being Freecell, Sudoku, and twitter-free through January... the answer is that this is fine when things go well and I finish the day still unruffled and in control.

However there are some days when it is .... bring on the Angry Birds! (Sadly deleted from my tech now as the ad's became toooo irritating)  

  

Wednesday 28th December - Smoothies and Salads

 I'm  making good use of two of the Christmas Presents.

Today I made my first ever smoothie in my new smoothie maker. Ta-da!

Following the instructions I used 80g of frozen mixed berry smoothie mix, whizzed up with 150ml water instead of the recommended apple juice. It came out very thick and very cold. This was easily fixed by adding hot water from the kettle. I think I will also add a teaspoon of honey next time just to sweeten it a little. 

The other present was a wicker basket of salads from my brother. 

'What do you want for Christmas?' he asked at the beginning of Christmas week. I remembered that we had forgotten to add salads to the supermarket order, so that's what I asked for.  I knew he would look out some interesting items, and sure enough there were a couple of heads of radicchio, some heritage tomatoes, ENORMOUS scallions, a selection of bright shiny peppers, lettuces, limes and a bottle of wine. Hooray!

So we have been having salads with our meal. Yesterday it was radicchio, tangerine segments and walnuts, today mixed green leaves. 

Seems a good way to improve my consumption of fresh fruit and salad.

Monday 21st November - Positive Procrastination

 

I'm hoping writing today's blog post can be considered as 'positive procrastination'. I have just invented this term (but maybe someone has got there first without telling me) to cover those situations when you have made your list, and then you go and make a cup of tea and rattle in a quick blog post before bringing yourself to the point of actually starting it. 

The first section on the 'plan of attack' is labelled 'Most Critical', and writing a blog post isn't written there. Everything else MUST be done today, especially as it wasn't done yesterday, or the day before, or the day before....

The second section is 'would be nice'. I have written 'Emma Bridgewater Christmas Decoration'. This refers to the wee little jug on my tea tray - it holds exactly enough milk for one mug/cup of tea plus a top-up, or the amount of water Himself likes to put in his single malt Scotch when he has one.

The matching mug is upstairs in the bathroom with Himself's electric toothbrush head inside. We have a Phillips electric toothbrush and they have stopped putting a colour coded ring on them, so we can't tell which is which any more. I'm using my favourite tiny coffee mug at the moment, but I would rather have it for coffee. So I'm considering getting another one 'Emma Bridgewater Christmas Decoration Tiny Mug' - now which pattern to choose, and personalised or not? 

I'm please to have found a use for the tiny mug - it was too small to hold an espresso coffee. or to be an egg cup.    

(His is on the left, because he is right handed, mine is on the right, because I am left handed. This may not make sense, until you realize that we pick u the toothbrush handle part with our dominant hand, so when the mugs were the other way round we kept choosing the wrong one.)

So far today positive procrastination has included 

Knitting some more Advent cowl and weighing how much yarn is left, so that I can check if I need one or two 50g balls of main (one will be exactly enough, and I have thought of a work around in case some unforseen happening happens) 

Making another rice pudding to check quantities and timings (500ml milk, 32.5 g rice comes to just over the 1oz measure and 25g sugar to just over the 1/2 oz measure on my dinky mini-measure. I have used white sugar this time, and added 2 cardomum pods (I've had three goes at spelling cardoman and none of them look right) and one fresh bay leaf)
 
Ordering 2 balls of Adriafil Knitcol double knitting wool (it is glorious stuff!) to experiment with a Lent cowl project. Which is why I probably won't order the tiny mug as well.  

It is 11 am and shall race myself to complete the following by Lunchtime (about 12 noon) 

Piano email to S

Piano email to R

Text J

Work on the December 'Print and Post' Newsletter 

On my marks, get set, go!

 

Tuesday 30th August 2022 - too much for one post?

There's been a bit of a gap - and I find once a gap in something has happened it gets increasingly hard to restart.

What have I been doing for a week and a half?

The simplest way to try and recall everything is maybe to post all the pictures I have taken since the last post on 18th August;

Which I have just done, and then deleted anything which was in the nature of a reminder to myself about something or other, or relating to a piano lesson...

Ah, here we go, this was the Johanna Basford picture for week ending Sunday 21st August. I'm pleased with how it came out, but I still hadn't decided what to put in the diary spaces on the facing page. I have a diary on my computer, linked to the phone, and a paper journal-cum-diary, and also a page-a-day diary I write up in the evening.

Scibbly sketches; - one of the folksongs set by Benjamin Britten is 'Oliver Cromwell is buried and dead - hee, haw, buried and dead'. I've always loved this song, and the setting.

How Peter Pears can get the words out so quickly and clearly is a marvel.

We have developed a terrible mini-magnum habit. "Just the one," as Mrs Wembley always said in the sit com "On the up". I can barely remember anything about it except Joan Sims as the cook, Mrs Wembley.

There have been quite a few takers for the apples I have left out at the gate.

and there is a slight possibility of someone wanting djembe lessons, or wanting to be in a djembe group. There are significant problems in running a drumming group over zoom, namely the time lag between the different people on the zoom! I suspect that drumming in the garden would have to be severely limited too, for the sake of the neighbours.

Wednesday morning is always and event - our on-line grocery order arrives - what shall we actually get this week? We usually accept the substitutions unless they are truly bizarre. This tie a pizza was squashed, and we got to keep the pizza AND received a refund. There was always the memorable time our curry meal with rice for 2 turned out to be two packets of rice and no meat... 

I packaged up a couple of water brushes (where you fill the handle of the brush with water) for a friend to try, but she had gone ahead and bought them. Just as well, with the postal disruptions. They are so convenient.

My side of the dining room table;

His side of the same table. We are still managing to clear half of it in order to eat. It has saved considerably on the laundry, and one is far less likely to get spaghetti sauce all down one's shirt.

I should say I am far less likely to get spaghetti sauce all down my shirt.

This is something called Plum Shrub. The jar is two-thirds filled with halved and stoned plums (you add the stones as well), then one third filled with sugar, the zest of a lemon also goes in (I now have an odd-looking bald lemon in the fridge...) and then you fill to the brim with rum. Seal tightly - I've added tape as the lids leaked - and keep in a cool dark place until Christmas if you started it in August. Then you can strain and use the liquid as a mixer or a liqueur to drink, and eat the plums. 

I have never made this before, so you can follow this recipe at your own risk. It comes from 'It's Raining Plums' - a collection of recipes from the Daily Telegraph, edited by Xanthe Clay. One of the cookery books I saved from my mother's hoard.

Perennial Kale. I might give this a go. The suppliers look most interesting and I shall have a browse around their website.

I've posted these pictures of seed packets here as I got sick of having them hanging over my guilty conscience. So the other day I emptied the contents over a couple of bare patches in various flower beds and will just see what happens next year. I put the picture here as I didn't know where else to put them, and the last thing I wanted was to have Empty seed packets cluttering up my life!

I reckon that's more than enough for now - we are up to Saturday 27th August. I must reassure Ang that I have started on the stitching for August (better late than never?) and will hurry it along...