Sunday 17th December - Advent 3 Bake - Puff Pastry

 Oh, these are golden oldies....

Using ready rolled puff pastry, you can make sausage rolls with almost no fuss, and delicious palmier biscuits, sweet or savoury.

Just a few Sausage and Chutney Rolls

I used 4 chipolata sausages and a tablespoon of apple chutney made by a friend last August!

Cut the puff pastry sheet in half, and put half away. Now cut the remaining pastry into 4 pieces each big enough for a chipolata. Put a thin line of chutney along the pastry, lay a chipolata on top, and roll up with the seam underneath. Carry on to make 4 sausage rolls. 

Of course, you can go ahead and use the whole piece of pastry and all the chipolatas and make 8 sausage rolls...

Place on a lined baking sheet, brush with beaten egg and cook in a preheated oven at 200 for 25 -30 minutes or in a preheated air fryer for12-15 mi nutes;

There were eight... we had them for supper with some bits of salad. 

What I HAD been intending to make was this; Pigs-in-blankets with Cranberry Sauce Turnovers from the website www.lavenderandlovage.com.

Ah well. Too late I discovered we had no bacon and no cranberry sauce, so the sausage rolls above were an improvisation, and one I will repeat often.

So these turnovers;

you need 8-12 pigs in blankets, bought or home-made, and 8-12 teaspooons of decent cranberry sauce. A beaten egg for egg-wash and grated parmesan cheese.

Cut the pastry in squares, put a teaspoon of cranberry sauce in the middle, and put a pig-in-blanket diagonally on top. Take one corner of the square and lift it over the 'pig', brush some egg onto the point. Lift the opposite corner up and glue it on top. Brush all the exposed pastry with egg and sprinkle a little parmesan on top.   

Bake in a preheated oven at 200 on a line baking sheet for 20-25 minutes, or in a preheated air fryer for 10-12 minutes.
      

Palmiers

The are golden, sweet, puff pastry biscuit., and probably the simplest ever!

Unroll your pastry (I used the other half from the sausage rolls) and sprinkle quite thoroughly with caster sugar. I keep a couple of vanilla pods in the jar with my caster sugar, which adds a touch of vanilla flavour. I might be tempted to add some cinnamon another time.

There are two approaches to the next step;

1) fold the side closest to you to the middle, and then the other side to meet it. Press down firmly with your hands. Do this again, and again if you can, and then fold it in half.

or

2) roll up one side firmly to the middle, and then the other side to the middle. That's what I did; see photograph below.

Wrap and chill for 30 mins.

Slice off biscuits, and you will see that they are all folded inside.

Bake in  on a lined baking tray in a preheated oven at 200 for 18 - 20 minutes until golden brown, in a preheated air fryer for 10-12 minutes.

     Thicker palmiers take longer...

You can use demerara sugar for a bigger crunch.

Savoury palmiers are made the same way - spread with pesto or tapenade, or just parmesan cheese. 

Sunday 10th December - Makes and bakes for the second week in Advent!

 Here we go;

The knitted teddy bear glove/finger puppets might take a bit of 'trial and error' depending on the yarn you are using, and the size of hand/finger your are making them for. 

A complete teddy finger puppet took me a day, the glove puppet two days. So if you are looking to use up some scrap yarn and make a small present, this might work for you.   

The papercraft  has to be  the simplest booklet ever - at least, I hope you find it so! A single sheet of A4 paper and a pair of scissors should see you through. Then, the contents are up to you. A little story for a child, pictures, drawings...

And two recipes for cheese biscuits. I've just listened to an audio book by Miss Read, 'Winter at Thrush Green' (I find her books perfect night-time reading and listening - I used to read them when life was threatening to become 'all a bit much' and needed to totally switch off and wind down). They continually have little sherry parties in each other's houses, and I think these little biscuits might have been the sort of thing they served beside the sherry (and whisky for the men, of course!). 

One, the cheesy feet is suitable for Everyone, the other, with mustard, pepper and cayenne, has a bit more of a 'kick'.  

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

Monday 27th February - Amaryllis catastrophe

The second stalk my amaryllis bulb collapsed last night, so I am exploring how well they work as a cut flower

It is beautiful - or rather, they are beautiful. Three flowers are fully open and there is another bud behind, out of sight.

'Bored of Lunch' came up trumps again for lunch; garam masala lamb. I cooked a primitive pilau rice, courtesy of Delia Smith's book 'Frugal Food'.  It's the same as this recipe, but you soften some chopped onion and chopped garlic in the oil, and I also added a chopped carrot.  For the pilau flavour I also used a small teaspoon  of  turmeric, a pinch of cinnamon and two cardomom pods. 

I've had fun placing an order for new embroidery threads ready for my next Cross Country Collaboration with Ang. I used a free program that Ang put me on to which will turn a photograph into a cross stitch chart - magic! I've massively simplified the chart it came up with, but it was a huge help in getting me started.

Meanwhile I continue with the sock knitting,  round and round and round I go...

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.

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! 

Monday 30th January - Busy busy busy...

 I've done this before - I start the week all full of vim and vigour and do masses of stuff on the Monday, and then - that's it for the week. We shall see...

Today -  

I refilled the bird feeders. The poor birds have been checking out the sad remnants in the seed holders and flying away disappointed for several days now. They are staying away at the moment; it always takes them a day or so to return.

Still on the garden theme, I had a go at using my Christmas present to make paper seedling pots;

 You wrap  strip of paper around the form, leaving the lower edge overhanging so it can be folded in to make the base. Then you push the former into the base so compress all the folds to stop it form coming apart. Finally you check the base to make sure you haven't torn the paper round the edge, discover that you have done exactly that, remove it and scrumple it up. If at first you don't succeed... As you can see I am winning - 9 completed pots and only 6 scrumpled sheets. I think I've got the knack now.  

I have started a tray of microgreens; a shallow dish of earth, thickly sown with seeds and kept on the windowsill. According to Huw Edwards (Veg in one bed) I should have delicious shoots to harvest and add to a salad in 1-3 weeks. 'The perfect way to use up last year's seeds,' he says, so I have used all the leftover kale seeds. Kale was a complete disappointment last year - unattractive in appearance and unexciting to eat. No more kale in the garden, and hopefully microgreen kale might be more delicious.

I made soup - investigating the fridge I found a selection of elderly vegetables. Some dodgy carrots, floppy celery and leeks well past their best. I put some butter and oil in the slow cooker on HIGH to melt while I chopped up the vegetables. Then I stirred them into the pot, added bouillion, salt and pepper and left it alone for several hours. I had some at supper time with croutons made in the Air Fryer and the rest is in the fridge for another day. This was inspired by an entry for January in 'The Kitchen Diaries' by Nigel Slater; he did something similar with some 'woody old carrots'.

I am enjoying dipping into the book. I bought it cheaply, second hand. It is interesting to see that it opens freely in January and February, and several pages show signs of have been cooked from, if you see what I mean, but its previous owner seems to have lost interest, or maybe lot the book, after about March. I haven't started 'Vaxxers' yet - that was another Christmas Present from my wishlist. 

I spent a long time on the 'Print and Post' February newsletter. It is one thing to think about what I might write, but another thing to get it all written down and the accompanying photographs added. I still have to add the 'BOOKS' section, and then it should be done. Just as well, as February is only a day or so away.

Finally, just before I started teaching, I finished marking out the fabric for the next stitching project. I'm in the process of transferring the pattern to tracing paper, which I will post to Ang tomorrow so she can get it onto her piece. Then we will be ready for the Off!

 

 

Saturday 14th January - The rain it raineth every day

There has been so much rain that I was regretting that we hadn't installed a water butt. Though that's probably just as well as it would have been filled ten times over this past week. We have a problem in that the only down pipe for our house is at the side, in the extremely narrow driveway. Now that we have given up all idea of parking a car alongside the house, on account of the difficulty of exiting the vehicle through the doors, we might look into getting a 'space saving'  water button. I'm sure I've seen a thinner alternative to the traditional barrel shaped ones.

Ang mentioned how much she enjoys Nigel Slater's cook books, so I have sent off for a second hand copy of one;

I like the way I can look inside a book on Amazon, or even download a sample before I decide to buy. I've chosen this more or less at random but January's recipes looked very promising.

Postcard Project; I've finished my embroidered picture but we've agreed to add some words - start and finish dates, and sign our names. Barring spelling mistakes (only one so far) and sewing mistakes (needed to pause for deep breaths before reaching for the scissors when I discovered I had sewn a corner of the fabric into the embroidery) I feel as though the end is within reach.

After spending a Whole Year knitting a pair of socks, I have bought a set of teeny 2.5mm flexible double pointed needles and cast on for the next pair. This time I am starting at the toe!

The needles are not quite what I was expecting; they have longer straight pieces - but then it clearly says LONG on the packet - and a curiously flattened knobbly texture - ah yes, now I look at the packet the picture is clear as well... my fault for not looking properly!

Monday 9th January - Purple Day

 My garden clogs have arrived. I wanted something easy to put on my feet for going out into the garden for just a few minutes at a time. Like 'outdoor slippers'.

When I saw them I immediately thought of Violet Beauregarde from Charlie and the Chocolate factory (the first one with Gene Wilder)  

The other day I had a mad moment in the kitchen with the food processor and sliced a whole white cabbage and a whole white cabbage. Madness indeed. I made slow cooker white cabbage, and I reckon bubble and squeak will be appearing on the menu soon. Today I filled the crock pot brim full with red cabbage, onion, and apple, added vegetable stock from the white cabbage crock pottering, with vinegar, cloves, butter, salt and pepper, brown sugar and red currant jelly. It is coming along nicely.

After an hour and a half on high it tastes almost right, but still a bit crunchy. I love red cabbage cooked this way, both hot or cold.

Thursday 18th August - It rained! it rained!

 It rained enough that the grass is now green and brown, instead of yellow and grey, and no longer crunches underfoot! We have had a couple of days of relief from watering - very welcome, although we have continued to fill rows of buckets and garden tubs with 'grey water'.

Drawings;

There's quite a lot of catching up... 

Wednesday last week was when I did a sudden backwards roll when trying to crouch down to write 'MILK' on the up turned bucket, ready for the new milkman.

Tuesday's milk delivery, the first in the new schedule, was safely deposited under the bucket. Today's was just left on the door step. On Friday night we shall try and remember to leave the bucket on the doorstep where he will be able to find it. Although at 8am rather than 4 am when used to be delivered it should have been light enough to see it beside the door. 

I've started doing bits of water colouring again, just 'pits and pieces' as my godmother used to say. She was Finnish, and came over in the 1950s so her English was very good, but she still counted her stitches in Finnish, and remembered the Lord's Prayer from Sunday School in Finnish.

I started on my French 2021 planner, originally with pencil, but found it easier with a fine brush and watercolour. The paper is too absorbent for water colour really, but manageable. It's really for getting practice.

    

The spaghetti squash seedlings I gave to our neighbours produced two squashes. Their little boy, about 2, was convinced it was some kind of unsatisfactory ball. Too heavy to kick, and it didn't bounce at all well. They gave me the one that he hadn't been playing with.

My vines have also produced two squashes; the LH plant has leaned oved and laid its squash in the right hand tub, so the RH plant has dangled the squash over the side.

Tuesday it rained a little, like a sort of 'trial run'. We collected about an inch in each bucket - enough for just one half bucket in total!

Our cats have never seemed to mind being caught in the rain; they come in absolutely dripping and then demand to be dried off. Preferably while sitting on a lap.

I've never cooked a spaghetti marrow before, and went for the easiest recipe as it was hot and I was feeling bothered. I found a website with several different methods for cooking them, and chose the slow cooker one. The instructions were simple enough; pierce through the skin in a few places, put it in the slow cooker and leave it. 

• SLOW COOKER SPAGHETTI SQUASH

For this method, do not cut the squash in half and instead leave it whole.

With a small, sharp knife, poke several holes into the outside of the squash. These will allow steam to escape. Set the whole squash into a slow cooker. Add the lid and cook on HIGH for 3 to 4 hours or on LOW for 5 to 6 hours. Depending on the size of the squash, you may need more cooking time.

When the squash is done, allow to cool for about 5 minutes, and then cut in half. Run a fork through the flesh to separate the “spaghettilike” strands/noodles.

Yup - it worked, just as they said! I seasoned the 'spaghetti' with butter, salt and pepper and it was delicious. 

I came over all dizzy and faint at the beginning of the week, felt very unsteady and very unhappy about it. Then I had a brainwave; when living in Indonesia and Singapore in the 1970s I experienced the same thing several times, and the cure was to eat or drink something salty.

I'm a great fan of  this brand of vegetable stock, and quite often drink a teaspoon of the stock powder in a mug of hot water as a quick and easy alternative to tea or coffee if I want a hot drink. I therefore had a cup of bouillon in the morning several days running (I did feel as though I should be lying on a deck chair on a transatlantic liner, being served by a superior white-coated steward, but that part of the dream remained a dream).  

It seemed to do the trick, and I've been fine since, especially now it is cooler. 

I've finished last week's 'toadstools on a stump' picture, using watercolour pencils for the background.  I'm part way through this week's now; a wreath of flowers and leaves. 

  

Saturday 2nd July 2022 - New month - new start

 I've decided to leave June behind me and start afresh.

Today I started sewing my picture for the June episode of 'the postcard project'. I have already received Ang's embroidery, here below; 

So neat! She's used the vanishing cross-stitch magic paper to sew perfect vegetables! 

Ang has been following the month-by-month plan for growing vegetables in a raised bed, set out by Huw Richards in the book 'Veg in One Bed'. I thought I meant to follow the plan too, but things very soon went 'off-piste' for me. As usual, I am missing several prime ingredients for success;

• I don't have a raised bed, but a random collection of large and medium patio pots
• I keep forgetting to water things
• I sow seeds and plant things out BEFORE I look at what I am supposed to be doing according to the plan
• I plant the wrong different vegetables in the wrong different places  
• I have been invaded by slugs and snail. (I'm hoping the evil vine weevils have all met their doom thanks to an application of nematodes.) 
• Lots of other reasons

I have had some success; broad beans, lettuces and potatoes. It wasn't blight that was afflicting my potatoes, but slugs and snails. Battle has commenced; my remaining sunflowers are all protected by copper tape or 'slug-wool', and I have pulled up the first of my garlic plants, a little early, to boil up into GARLIC WATER - apparently a sure-fire creepy-crawly deterrent.

You boil up a whole bulb of garlic - I've cut mine up a bit to increase the surface area of garlic - in a litre of water until very soft and squishy.

Then you strain the water, and squish as much garlic through as you can, pour the resultant liquid into a sprayer and set to work, spraying leaves. stalks, everything. The garlic-water was still too warm to use yesterday evening, so I went out slugging with a torch, but couldn't find any! Have I caught them all over the last two nights? Unlikely. Maybe it was too cold for them - certainly was for me.

I shall spray everything today, and see how the garlic scented sunflowers, and ready seasoned lettuces will fair in the coming week.

Recipes; my turn to cook lunch yesterday and today. Yesterday was a version of 'sausage supper' which came out very well - even if I say so myself. But it is a sure-fire success. (My word, I first posted that recipe in February 2012!)

Today I used most of a Wagama kit to make chicken katsu. But (there's always a but when I 'follow' a recipe) I used udon noodles instead of rice, and cooked the chicken in the air-fryer.

Now, if you have an air-fryer, breaded chicken becomes simplicity itself! I've always had a bit of a disaster with home-made breaded goujons of this that and the other, but listen, or rather, read, 

you have one plate with a beaten egg, one plate of breadcrumbs (a couple of tablespoons per person), and a clean plate to put the finished chicken on. Then - magically - you stir a bit of vegetable oil and seasoning into the crumbs, so that they are still crumbs, but slightly coated.

Do the chicken-into-the-egg-into-the-oily-crumbs bit, and dump each one onto the plate as go.

Arrange in one layer in the basket of the air-fryer, zap at around 190 for around 12-14 mins. That was easy!

Also crispy kale - dribble a bit of oil and salt on your kale, stir it in with your fingers so everything (including your fingers!) is coated, and zap at 180 for 4-5 mins. That worked too!

The kit was a bit of a swiz - aren't they always? - but was helpful to give me an idea of taste and consistency. You supply your own veg, chicken, coconut milk.... the kit had a sachet of katsu paste, a sachet of salad dressing and a sachet of breadcrumbs. (Per favore, No comments required about plastic waste, grazie. I've recycled most of it.) 

Dulingo Italian continues well. Mangio pollo su un piatto.So far, so good ...

Ciao

  

Saturday 29th January - This and that...

 Yesterday, a woodpecker came to the bird feeder. My, what a handsome bird! So slim and upright, such bright colours, so easy to spot!

I'm a novice at this birdwatching game. At the beginning of the month I bought some entry-level binoculars from the RSPB, and also a birdfeeder to replace and old one that had broken, and a 'selection pack' of bird food. Suet and meals worms - yum - at least, yum if you are a starling or a woodpecker.

This is the weekend of the RSPB 'Big Bird Watch' or something. I though I might join in - but we don't get many birds (next-door's-cat, maybe?) and I'm not that quick with the binoculars to get them lined up with where the bird is before it is gone. So perhaps I'll leave it until next year. We get sparrows, and starlings, sometimes robins and blackbirds, and, for a couple of days, a thrush was working across the grass. Oh, yes, and magpies. And squirrels (I know they aren't birds, but they still use the bird feeder.) 

I think I shall send off for more suet balls, or logs, or sticks, or whatever. Shopping for bird food is as complex as choosing which tomatoes, brand of cheese, kind of yogurt. Or cat food.

Our cats are really showing their age. I have to cut clumps of fur off McCavity, the fluffy cat, because she is too stiff to reach everywhere. Leo has shorter fur, which ought to be easier to deal with, but she has a fine undercoat which quickly matts up into a felted layer that has to be teased apart, as much as you can at a sitting until she gives a warning meow and swipes at you. They move creakily about the house, favouring an arthritic hip or shoulder.

I was beginning to creak a bit too, so I have started a 'ten day basics' online ballet course. It costs £15 for unlimited access to a set of ten videos. I first came across this delightful website back in 2019. 

It is run by a mother-and-daughter team. The daughter, Susan, started teaching her mother, Elizabeth, ballet because Elizabeth needed to do something to strengthen her ankles and improve her balance, and things grew from there. 

When we were on our unforgettable one week river cruise along the Seine back in 2019 

Happy memories... I kept my first ever illustrated travel journal...

I used to do one of the free online exercise classes they offer every morning on the tiny balcony outside our cabin, propping my phone up carefully so that it wouldn't fall in. I've done the free classes off and on ever since, more 'off' than 'on' but having the basics explained is very helpful. I'm taking about two or three days to complete each level, but that's fine. I've also discovered I can convert time spent doing ballet into miles (or fractions of miles!) to add to my current 'Conqueror' challenge. Unfortunately ballet adds very little to my step count as pointing a toe (tendue) and returning to first position doesn't count as a step, even though it feels like exercise!

It solves the problem of really not wanting to go out for a walk when the weather is so cold, but feeling that 'one ought to do something rather than sitting about all day.

I've made almond macaroons this week. I could show you a picture, but I've just finished the last one. Not macarons - just reading the recipe was exhausting. I realise now why I disliked them so much when I was little - I have a feeling they were usually made with desiccated coconut, or, if made with ground almonds, almond essence was added. I didn't have any ground almonds, so put a packet of flaked almonds into the word food processor. This meant that they were more coarsely ground, and I think that is an improvement. Now, about those left over yolks and half an egg white... two yolks went into the scrambled eggs last night, and I shall make scones this afternoon with what's left.

My brother said he used to use cornflour when he made them (he used to make macaroons? well I never did!) so next time I will use this recipe and make them much smaller. I used a glace cherry to decorate - I'm sure that's how I remember them. They peeled off the baking paper fairly easily, but I think I might get some rice paper just to recreate my memories.    

The baking was to provide a gluten-free accompaniment for when family came to visit on about the only sunny afternoon last week. My brother and sister-in-law came up, collecting my uncle and father enroute and went for a meal locally. Just as they finished the meal - (they asked for affrogatos for dessert, not on the menu, but the waitress, who was Italian, produced them with great pleasure) - the rain stopped and we were able to meet in the garden and enjoy tea/coffee, and tome together. It was blooming cold sitting out in the garden in the pale afternoon sunshine, but we wore coats and hats and had blankets. Just a simply lovely and rare hour with family.   

Affrogato

Put a scoop of good vanilla ice cream into a suitable glass or bowl for each person.

Pour over a shot of hot espresso coffee.

Serve at once.

Thursday 11th November - Two posts in one

 I was just settling down to go to sleep when I remembered - I forgot to write a post!

No way was I going to un-settle myself! 

It was a bit annoying though - I had got some thoughts and photographs ready. Such as catching up on a few days of the Johanna Basford 30 days of creativity. The art materials were fun to draw; I drew a pencil circle around a glass, and then fitted all the items inside. Similarly, I drew a circle around a glass for the wreath, and this time pencilled in all the flowers and leaves in first. (I was bored by balloons, does it show? Thought as much!

And here are a couple of recipes copied from the www.susanbranch.com website. She is an American blogger, author, country style sort of  writer. Her blog is long, arty, full of photographs, recipes, inspirational quotes and cutesy pictures just comes out once a month and there's usually a couple of ideas that catch my attention.

I've made the mistakes in writing out the cranberry marmalade recipe because I was thinking about whether it would be good with turkey and remembering that I have promised myself that I will never cook a turkey for Christmas again - well maybe never, and also wondering if you couldn't cheat by just combining cranberry sauce out of a jar with marmalade out of another jar! I have not tried making or sampling it yet.

From the same blog, a 'coffee cake', made without coffee!

This is also on my 'hmm, this might be good' list - I love cinnamon and sugar.

More Johanna Basford; yesterday was 'cakes' -  

and today was drawing patterns in a page of hearts. I fitted my hearts inside a pencil square.

I admire Johanna Basford for the variety of patterns and shapes she manages to think of; I ran out of ideas and so left some of the hearts blank.

Right - off to another blog; Catherine Fox, a favourite author of mine, has been blogging her latest novel about Lindchester, written in real time - well, a month behind - at https://companyofheaven.blogspot.com  and the latest instalment was posted last week. I've been saving it as a treat! Last years, and other year's novels have all been published as books now. 

Monday 8th November - Round the weeks we go again

I managed to go for a very short walk - up the road and back again - before lunch. Not much to say. Peering into the gardens, looking at the last of the summer flowers, and a few autumn flowers. It was fresh air. That's all I can find to say about it.

That sounds a bit grey - and that's what the day is. I call them 'eating days', when no biscuits, cakes, crisps or anything are safe from consumption. The only thing to do is NOT TO TAKE THE FIRST BITE but it is tool late for that advice now.

The  chilli sour dough croutons were delicious - the end of a load, cubed, tossed in chilli oil and zapped in the air-fryer for maybe 5 minutes at about 170. The load was pretty old and dry so they didn't take long to go crisp and golden.

However, it was a few days ago that I made them. (Oh, chilli oil? That is simplicity itself. Shove a couple of whole dried chillis into a small bottle of olive oil and let it fester, sorry, infuse for some weeks. How many? I dunno - it gets stronger as the weeks go by and the oil is used. Just tip more oil in as necessary).

Last night - Ooo-er - the air-fryer suddenly switched itself on, no, off, no, onoffonoffonoffon. With loud and anxious beeps. We fixed the firstpart ofthe problem by pulling out the plug from the wall. A bit of research informs us that they last around 4-5 years, depending on useage, and that this was a fault in the earlier digitally controlled versions of this brand. Phillips, if you need to know.

We bought ours in 2017 and use it most days... so, we now had a different problem. Himself has spent the morning researching, and come to the conclusion that the problem in the early models appears to have gone away, and a new near-identical one will be arriving on Thursday because we are very much in favour of Air-Fryers. Might might not leave it permanently switched on...

I've been knitting; the green snakey scarf continues to grow. Every so often I do a stitch count and find there are no longer 40 stitches on the needles. It doesn't matter - I just create one in an inconspicuous place and carry on. The edges are a bit uneven in places but who is going to see?

(The pattern - cast on however many stitches - do some counting and measuring to find out what you would like. I'm using double knitting yarn on 5mm needles, I think. I read somewhere you go up a needles size if you are knitting something in garter stitch if you want a looser fabric. Then, for odd numbered rows, Knit 2 together, knit to last stitch, knit through back and front of stitch to make one so you keep the same number of stitches. For even umber rows, knit all the stitches. It is useful to put a marker on the side where you do the twiddly stuff. It must be that I keep forgetting the 'make an extra stitch' at the end of the odd rows when the action on television gets too intense. If you need to 'fix' by adding an extra stitch, just add a loop with a twist to stop it being an ordinary yarn over part way along a row.)

The blue tea cosy has been a bit backwards and forwards, but having unpicked a whole round, stitch by stitch, I have it bristling with stitch markers signalling the pattern repeats and it is back on track.

Those vertical lines between the tea pots mark where I shall CUT through the knitting to make the place where the handle, or the spout, goes through - there is another set of lines on the other side! 

Talking of tea...

        

Friday October 1st - A week is a long time

 I've been on the new tablets for about three weeks now, and the difference is staggering. It's not just that I can walk further when I do the 6 minute walk test, but it's the whole experience of steeping out along the pavement. At the end of 6 minutes I have walked nearly half as far again, and although I am breathing hard - too hard to talk - I'm not gasping like a fish out of water, struggling to get the air into my lungs.

I can now walk fast enough to keep warm! There's a novelty! I used to make sure I was wearing enough layers in order not to get cold.

The new blood pressure tablets are also doing their job - too efficiently, it seems. Gone are the puffy ankles that I was getting in the afternoon - hurrah! - but I am constantly feeling just a little bit woozy - as though I was in a boat, gently rocking on a calm pond. Luckily I take another blood pressure medicine as well, so, following a quick telephone consultation with the clinic I am experimenting with reducing it over the next couple of days. 

It is an extraordinary feeling, this sudden return to walking freely, no longer preparing for changes in gradients along the almost flat roads around where we live. Going for 'a walk around the block' takes thirty minutes instead of nearer fifty minutes. If I sound excited, it's because I am!

Anyway, enough on that topic - what else?

I have hopefully averted a minor domestic crisis - running out of yoghurt - by making a batch of home-made. Reading the Tracing Rainbows blog today reminded me (that apple loaf recipe looks good too!).

Here's the recipe I use followed by a couple of recipes.

 I now have a food vacuum flask full of the cooled milk and yogurt mixture hopefully doing what it is supposed to do; I shall look inside tomorrow morning. Another excellent topping for yoghurt is brown sugar, the darker the better in my view.

These pages come from a book called 'The Crafty Cook', written by Michael Barry. I have just googled his name, and discovered that he died in 2011; reading his obituary  I find that also had a career as one of the founding members of Classic FM - well I never did. We always watched 'The Crafty Cook' on television. It is where we first encountered Jilly Goolden and her enthusiasm for wine.

The state of the dining room table has been a recurrent theme in this blog; on Monday it became truly spectacular when we woke up to discover the boiler in the kitchen had been leaking overnight, and the work surfaces and floor and under the washing machine were all properly wet. Everything was decanted to the dining room all in a hurry and the engineer called out. Meanwhile the carbon monoxide detector started its plaintive beep - I'm sure that was just a coincidence.

He appeared later that day, took one look, stuck a 'danger, do not turn on appliance' notice on the boiler and started ordering parts. He came back the next day and spent the morning dismantling the boiler, fitting great complicated contraptions and then testing everything. Success - all done and he left by lunchtime taking his notice with him. We couldn't persuade the detector to stop beeping so banished it to the shed, pending the arrival of the replacement.

While the engineer was roaming around between the loft and the kitchen and everywhere in between, I stayed out of the way in the dining room, turned my back on the chaos and did some messing about with the paints. 

If all works out these will be greetings cards, once I have sorted out the splodges of colours using pen and ink. I'm hoping I will have a seascape, flowers, and autumn leaves, but I won't know until I have finished whether I like them. That's kind of annoying, freeing, and interesting, all in one go. 

I'm still doing the 100 day dress challenge... today is day 28. I've put on an extra layer because it's Autumn - just enough to not need a fleecy jacket. 

It certainly makes getting up in the morning simple; fresh underwear, current 'legs' and the dress. I have ordered some tights from Snag tights to make a change. I can't tell when they will arrive because I suspect I mistyped my email address on the order form. I very nearly succumbed to the idea of  the 'care bear collection' and also to the 'duo collection' where the legs are wildly different colours... 

 

 

  

Monday 15th February - Nearly Lent

 Tomorrow I shall make pancakes, or rather drop scones, also known as Scotch pancakes, which I much prefer to the Crepe style ones. We shall consume a quantity of real maple syrup from the carefully hoarded supplies brought over from Canada several years ago.

Most of the recipes I see use eggs (I don't) and skip the butter (I don't).

I usually use the standard scone recipe - 2 oz butter rubbed into half a pound of SR flour along with a tablespoon of sugar, and enough milk to make the right consistency - about half a pint, but don't put it all in at once in case you wish you had used less. (Scones only need a quarter of a pint of milk). Hey, ounces, pounds, and pints! I've had this recipe a long time, so it's a good job my electronic scales are bilingual.

I'm wondering whether to try the American 2-ingredient biscuit recipe (1 pot yogurt, 1 pot SR flour) and just add enough milk to turn it into a drop scone consistency. Or the 3-ingredient scone recipe (1 pot fizzy lemonade, 1 pot cream, 3 pots SR flour). But I don't think we have any cream, so standard scone or 2-ingredient biscuit it will be. Experimentation might be the order of the day.

.........

I've been working on a sort of year-book - what else could one call it? I enjoy reading books that go through the year, so that one reads a chapter every month, taking one's time. I am currently reading 'One Woman's Year' by Stella Martin Currey (Persephone Books) which I like better than the '2020 Almanac; 'A Seasonal Guide to 2020' by Lia Leendertz which I read last year. I started  'The Cloister Walk' by Kathleen Norris in September 2019, which is more of a journal of Christian spirituality through a year. And then there is Miss Read's 'Village Diary' which is a novel telling the events in a small village back in the 1950s from the point of view of the Village School Teacher. 

It was 'The Cloister Walk' which alerted me to the pleasures of following a year through a book; the writing was 'as full of meat as a pudding' and I didn't want to read it too quickly. I found the Almanac to full of information that didn't interest me; tide tables and sunrise and set tables and nature notes of the hedgerows, and only a few of the recipes leapt off the page and say 'cook me, cook me'.

'One Woman's Year', published in 1953, is nearly perfect; six topics a month consisting of a diary-style essay, a recipe (excuse me if I agree so entirely with her description of the 'Pancake Pagoda Recipe' as a 'recipe of despair' that I have decided to read it as a work of fiction and not attempt!), a description of an excursion, the most loved, and most hated jobs for the month, and a very short anthology. And woodcuts. I love woodcut and lino print pictures.

                                            

I have refrained from reading ahead, and instead am putting together my own Year-Book-Companion. Following the example above, at the moment I plan to include any, or some, or all, of 

1. a diary entry, 
2. a poem,
3. a recipe, 
4. a cake, 
5. something to make, 
6. an excursion (not that I am going anywhere at the moment), 
7. something about nature/flowers/trees/gardening (of which I am mostly ignorant but since when has ignorance ever stopped anyone?) 
8. a Task for The Month, 
9. things taken from my commonplace notebooks,
10. A non-fiction item,
11. an evening prayer.   

I had hoped to make the list up to 12 items - then there would be a gross (that's 144 in old money), as my only disappointment so far with 'One Woman's year is that I would like there to be more in each chapter. And possibly the Pagoda Pancake recipe.

However my progress through January's chapter has slowed because I discovered this morning that I appear not to have saved yesterday's work. They say that re-writing is a major part of writing, so that's what I did.

 .........

A 'nature' comment for this month could be my pleasure at discovering that the clematis is not just a tangle of dead brown vines, but has green shoots. 

The layer of soil that James-the-garden-expert put on the flowerbeds seems to have encouraged the two clematis plants. One of my specifications for the garden when James sorted it out was that I wanted to have something new to discover every month; if nothing else happens in the garden in February the clematis shoots will have been enough.