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!

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'...

Saturday 23rd April - the best laid plans....

 gang aft agley....

We'd planned to meet up with son and daughter this morning, at the usual outdoor cafe midway between their town and hours.

But - a not entirely negative LFT result for one of them has meant that we've postponed it. Sensible, but still disappointing. Ah well. It would have been chilly this morning - this afternoon was much warmer although the wind was, shall we say, bracing? And Fresh?

I spent this afternoon, with quite a lot of assistance from Himself finishing off the next bit of mulching that has been ongoing for a couple of weeks. Vicky, a friend who is now our gardener, has been working her way along the borders in the back garden weeding, watering and then mulching with spent mushroom compost, and yesterday made a start on the front garden. She'd done the weeding and sorting out, and we watered it ready for her to finish off today. However, she wasn't well, and we were at home, so we got stuck in. With the pair of us it didn't take too long, and it was very pleasant being in the sun and out of the wind. It is the time of year when I wage my annual war on goose grass, and I was trying to explain to Himself  exactly which plant needed dragging out of the borders 'oh, you mean robin-run-the-hedge?' and the confusion was cleared up. I've also heard it called 'cleavers'. Anyway, we've removed nearly all of it. There's always a bit left, somewhere.

I've also earthed up the potatoes that are growing in containers. All four pots had shoots about 2 inches tall showing through the top of the earth, so, as instructed by The Book (Huw Richards, Veg in One Bed) I covered them up with another two inches of earth. There's just about enough room left in the pot to repeat this process one more time, before leaving them in peace.

I've been baking;

Hebridean Baker Custard Creams

I made 12 with this recipe, which means 24 little biscuits sandwiched in pairs.

Biscuits;

• 170g butter
• 55g icing sugar
• 170g SR flour
• 55g custard powder

Filling

• 50g butter
• 20g custard powder
• 80g icing sugar

I reduced the icing sugar in both recipes as my friend suggested - they are still very (deliciously!) sweet.

Preheat oven to 180C and lightly grease a baking tray

In a large bowl, cream softened butter and sugar, add flour and custard powder to form a dough.

Roll tablespoons of this into balls, place on the tray allowing room for them to spread a little, and press each one lightly with a fork.

Bake for 12-14 minutes and allow to cool.

Mix together the filling ingredients to make a buttercream and spread thickly on half the biscuits (which are very fragile at this stage) and sandwich with remaining biscuits.

I found that these are incredibly crumbly the first day, and much better the second day which the cream and the biscuits had firmed up. Next time around I shall make them a little smaller... they are very rich. 

These will ruin you for bought custard creams. You have been warned!

I've kept the drawings going - here is a selection; (I don't know if I have posted any before)   

I'm enjoying doing them, barely more than a doodle, but just enough for me to think 'Oh Yes, I remember that!'. 

What is really weird is that they remind me of the scribbly illustrations my grandmother used to add to her letters - in a very similar style. The one of her black poodle puppy when he managed to tie himself to the pedals of the piano with a ball of red wool that she was knitting with has stuck in my memory aftr over fifty years!

Tuesday 12th October - I'll leave the title...

 I'll leave the title because I don't know what this is about, except this and that and the other...

Knitting;

I would have shown you a photograph of the mindless shawl I was knitting, but I overdid the mindless-ness and even I couldn't put up with that many mistakes. So I spent an evening ripping it out and re-winding the yarn (not wool, acrylic) and started again with a different mindless pattern - a diagonal scarf. Part of the problem with the original effort was that the yarn would not move easily along the bamboo knitting needles. I'm now using resin needles and that makes everything more enjoyable. 

I'm putting a marker in the knitting at the end of each day - it pleases me to see the progress... it also helps me know which side is which.

(5.5mm needles, double knitting yarn. Cast on 40 stitches or however many you want. Knit the first and odd numbered rows; for the even rows, K2 tog, knit until one stitch remaining, increase by knitting through front and back of the stitch. Stop when long enough) 

I have also cast on another teapot cosy for a friend. To be truthful, this is the third time I cast on. Somehow I couldn't get past the first couple of rows of ribbing without making an unrecoverable mistake. The first time I thought maybe using a dark colour was the problem, so I tried again with the light blue. Finally I gave in and used the dark colour to make a garter stitch border.

We went round to a friend for coffee in the garden. She always brings at least two kinds of cake and biscuits when she comes round to us, but I didn't have anything respectable to take with us. So I took my kitchen windowsill lettuce leaves.

Taking biscuits would have been coals to Newcastle - she had already made a marshmallow chocolate biscuit fridge cake and opened a packet of shortbread biscuits!

I sowed another trayful when I got home - here they are after five days;         

Today I have planted garlic bulbs, and harvested all the cucamelons. I realise now that they were still unripe when I tried them some time ago. Now, they are slightly crunchy to bite into, with a mild juicy slightly citrus flavour. (The strawberries just happen to be in the picture - they are not from the garden, but waiting to be a part of supper).

The strange black object sticking out of the sugar in the jar is one of several sticks of vanilla that live in the caster sugar. This was something my mother taught me - she always stored the vanilla sticks in the sugar. The perfume when you open the jar is amazing! 

I was baking Nigella Lawson's 'Mine-All-Mine salty chocolate chip cookies' this afternoon and took the opportunity to refill the sugar jars - light brown, dark brown, caster and granulated.

You are supposed to used all the dough to make one giant cookie, or two smaller ones. I made four; leaving out the salt flakes, and replacing the chocolate chips with walnut pieces, because why put salt on your chocolate cookies, and also because of  what was, and what was not there in the store cupboard.  

The consequences of clearing the loft continue. I was very glad to discover not only an apparently unused Parker pen, but also a box of cartridges. It is a slimline pen, so perfect for pocket in the diary/notebook I carry round with me.

McCavity was trying to make the best of the boxes still waiting for attention. That's the box with my 'dolls in national costume' and three sweet little blankets from my doll's cot on top. I think they were hand made for me, but I don't know who made them. Anyway, McCavity wasn't impressed and gave up quite quickly. 

And I leave you with this, from twitter - 

Actually, that verse has been one of the 'hooks' that I have held on to ever since I found out about having systemic sclerosis twenty years ago now, and has helped me stay positive - but every so often someone comes up with an 'inspiration' poster which is more than faintly ridiculous - unless you love dachshunds? 

21st May - Definitely Friday

 I've managed to get Monday and Friday straight in my mind this week - not sure what happened to the days in between. I've falling steadily further behind in writing up and sending out the notes from the piano lessons, which is why I am writing a blog post instead of Wednesday's lessons, or Thursday's, if the truth were to be admitted to.

So, since I finally levered myself off the settee and away from knitting and television and surfing the net I have been procrastinating

Firstly, by making another bread pudding. I made one earlier this week, on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday - does it matter? Well, yes, slightly, because we have finished it, and if I made it yesterday that would have been serious gluttony. I think it may have been Monday. Last time, I could only find a handful of very dry bits of dried  fruit in the back of the cupboard, so added a couple of spoonfuls of home-made marmalade (not made by me!) dated 2019. This gave it a very agreeable lemony orange flavour, mild, but good.

Turns out there is/was another bag in the overflow food storage in the hall (memories of stocking up for Brexit and lockdowns, and yes, we are keeping ahead of the loo-roll situation 'just in case'). So today's bread pudding has plenty of fruit, and I have substituted maple syrup for sugar. I used about three tablespoons but this is meaningless if you don't know how much bread I used. Neither do I as it was all cut it up and put it in the bowl before it occurred to me to weigh it. I heated the maple syrup and milk and butter together and stirred it all up into a thick - slurry is a good descriptive word, if rather unappetizing. Then a couple of handfuls of fairly fresh-looking dried fruit and a beaten egg which still sinks when you drop it into a jug of cold water. (Do the dropping thing before you crack it open, I beg you).

It is in the air-fryer as I type;

      If it is done before I finish this post then I will be able to add an 'after' picture. Don't hold your breath - it takes 45 mins to cook.

Why the bread pudding phase? It is a sad fact that I have had to become accustomed to, but Himself can lose weight as easily as I can gain it. I am keeping my weight 'level' at several pound heavier than my summer trousers can comfortably encompass. But He is losing weight. I have dealt with this in the past by making vast quantities of bread pudding - He was working in a warehouse at the time and the weight was visibly dropping off him. Large slabs of bread pudding in his packer lunches provided easily consumed mega-helpings of calories, so that His weight stabilized at 'thin' rather than skeletal. He has been 'not putting on weight' over lockdown, unlike so many of our friends, so bread pudding is happening. I allow myself a cube slightly larger than a matchbox and he munches on a proper slab.  

Before I started on the bread pudding I made myself a pot of tea from the selection I ordered in our grocery shop;

I opted for 'feel new' as I am feeling rather ancient. All this cold grey rainy windy weather.  I have the tray beside me

   as you can see I haven't made a summer teacosy (yes, I know that is symptomatic of some very confused thinking) but bearing in mind the weather and the way the heating has just decided to click to 'on' I think the teapot is probably grateful for its winter coat. What am I thinking? As if a teapot has any idea or views on teacosies? 

The tea is still warm, however, even though I had to delay starting on it until I had made space on my side of the dining room table for the laptop.

His side is completely clear apart from his own laptop, and the part of my tray which is encroaching over the divide. I was thinking of trying to develop a 'clear desk' policy, but soon abandoned the idea. I find that by the time I have finished teaching in the evening both the table/desk and the piano and the extra stools either side of the piano are completely littered with papers, books, whatever.

All I want to do is walk away. So that's what I do. 

Once I have finished rattling out these words I will tidy the piano area, pupil by pupil; three on Wednesday, two yesterday - find their books, decipher and type up the notes, end out the emails and file everything away. 

I'm 'getting things done' at the moment by convincing myself how happy I will feel when I have done them. Plus the reward of bread pudding to come... 

   

Sunday 14th March - Tea cosy day and Polish Cake

 Some people might have thought this was Mothering Sunday - which it was. Or someone in particular's birthday. Which it was.

Both of these occasions were celebrated in the morning with breakfast in bed - I brought it up as a birthday treat, we both enjoyed it as our respective treats.

Both occasions were celebrated with presents and card, and later in the evening by a zoom call with the offsprings. Excellent!

But, in the afternoon, I darned in the half dozen remaining tails of yarn still straggling out of the back of the tea cosy, made two lines of stitching either side of the 'cut here line', and then did the actual for real first time ever 'cut along the line'.

I folded back the flaps and stitched them down (not my best stitching, sadly) and - hey presto - a tea cosy.

There are no pictures of the process because I was so involved in what I was doing that I forgot to take any. It was less of a 'hey presto'  and more of a 'hey adagio' thing - it took most of an episode of 'Morse'.

The final instructions are to 'block' the tea cosy, which means wash it and set it to dry over a domed bowl. The colours have significantly improved with washing - the sort of dusty pink, dusty fawn and dusty blue shades of the ancient yarn (unravelled from an old sweater by my godmother in an mistaken act of thriftiness) were those muted colours because they were - dusty. Or, to be truthful, a bit dirty.

You might be able to make out my six-cup brown teapot, (perched on top of another bowl to get the required height) acting as the 'domed bowl'. The cosy is far too big for it - I might give it to the church kitchen for one of their 'institutional' size teapots.

This teapot, my two-cup size, is the one that needs a tea cosy.

I have cast on the 144 stitches of finer, real Shetland yarn from the Shetland Isles (2 ply instead of 4 ply) on smaller needles (3mm instead of 4mm) and am hoping for the best.

No other news, apart from this;

Polish Cake also called Biscuit Cake or Fridge Cake

(I don't know if this is Polish as 'from Poland' or polish as in 'gets polished off very quickly')

Melt together 4 oz butter, 1 1/2 oz cocoa powder, 2 oz caster sugar, 1 heaped tablespoon golden syrup.

Crush 8 oz rich tea biscuits into smallish pieces but not into powder. 

Stir the biscuits into the gloop and mix well so that all of every biscuit is covered.

Press firmly into an 8 inch round tin or equivalent 

Melt 4 oz plain chocolate (100 grams is fine, I found) and cover the top of the biscuit mix

Chill in the fridge, serve in small squares, no more than an inch across.

My mother used to make this on special occasions - I can't think why it was thought to be so extravagant and special because the ingredients are not all that expensive, and it is one of the easiest things to make. I used left over speculaas biscuits which gave this a wonderful flavour, a little like the lebbuchen we didn't manage to buy at Christmas time.

The batch I made last week was gone before the weekend, so we had to make do with Birthday Chocolates (don't be sad for us, they were very, very good). Once I have finished typing this post I'm going to use up some more of the speculaas biscuits - it was a very big packet!  

Saturday 5th December

 Missed a post yesterday... both of us are feeling a bit 'slow' after the past few days. We keep yawning, massive, face-stretching yawns - he does one, and then me, and then him, and then me...

There was a time when my jaw was prone to get stuck wide open - it happened in Great Yarmouth when I was about eleven, and I had to walk around the town for the rest of the afternoon feeling like a complete idiot until it clicked and I was able to close it. And in a 6th form maths lesson. Vectors, as I remember. How I hated applied maths.

Teas; yesterday was 'calm', which in the circumstances was entirely appropriate. I have no idea if it worked.

I found the tea in my advent calendar after a particularly tricky phone call; someone called me in considerable distress after being cut-off phoning my father - the telephones at the hospital tend to do that. I remember that one person used to phone every evening for news when my mother was nearing the end of her life, and after I had put the phone down I would go to the kitchen and eat pickled gherkins, as a way of dealing with the pent-up impatience I felt. (We solved that one by me never answering the phone in the evenings... he would get a brief message from Best Beloved instead)

Anyway, there is continuing good news re my father as far as returning to his flat is concerned, and being back in is own home will make all the difference. He is saying 'Monday' in tones of great decisiveness, we are saying 'well, looks like it will be sometime next week...' in more neutral tones.

Today's tea; Jasmine Tea   

I made a pot, and then decided to have coffee instead, to go with my Advent chocolate.

I've been indulging in procrastination big time - having taught three piano lesson this morning I couldn't bring myself to write up and send the notes, so made Air Fryer chocolate chip cookies (YES!!!). I cooked three and have frozen the the other twelve for laters. Glad I did, because if I had cooked them I would have eaten them.

I also made another faux Christmas Cake - I think I am nearly there with the recipe. I just need to adjust temperature and timing. BB said he thought it might be slightly dry - I think I may just solve that problem by pouring some of his whisky inot it.

The poems for yesterday and today were Suddenly - same title as the last one, but written later. This photograph (snitched from twtr) misses out all the line spacings.

Very different to the other poem with the same title.

Today's poem is Sea-Watching; someone has put it on their blog here  If you happen to go and have a look you will see what I mean about line spacings. Sea-watching took me straight back to staying in Falmouth, sitting upstairs looking out over the Fal estuary towards St Mawes and beyond, not thinking of anything, just looking at the sea and the sky...

Aplogoes for typos. It's bedtime.
   

Monday 2nd November - who has got the biscuits?

 We have, due to a last minute misunderstanding the biscuits came home with us instead of wending their way westwards with the offsprings.

This is a double catastrophe, because that means they don't have them, and we do, and we will eat them, and I'm working hard not to get any more substantial than I already am. I've managed to stay at the same weight since March. Himself is able to eat as much as he likes without getting any heavier, and the offsprings have taken after, luckily for them.

We met up at the seaside, seeing each other for the first time since March! Oh frabjous day, calloo callay!

The wind was enough to take my breath away, walking into it, and I was glad to turn into an avenue of ilex trees leading away from the roar of waves churning at the shingle beach.  We were so lucky with the weather - having rained all morning the sun came out, fabulous. We even briefly zoomed my father so he could see us all...

Look at that sky! Look at those waves! I don't suppose you can make out 20-30 assorted wind-surfers and kite-surfers hurtling hither and thither in the distance.

I made Original Be-Ro Melting Moments

Heat oven to 180 and prepare two baking trays

Cream together 5 ounces soft butter (or marg - I used unsalted butter) and 3 ounces caster sugar (I keep a vanilla pod in my sugar jar so I did not add 1 tsp vanilla extract)

Stir in 5 oz flour and mix well

(This can all be done in a food processor)

Form mixture into about 24-30 little balls the size of walnuts - easier if your hands are damp

Roll in your preferred coating - I used crushed cornflakes, but you can use dessicated coconut if you like that stuff, or porage oats. You can top with a quarter of a glace cherry too.

Arrange on the sheets with room to spread, flatten slightly, and bake until pale golden brown - 10-15 minutes

and Chocolate Krispies

Melt together 100g chocolate (I used Cadbury's dark milk chocolate) and 50g butter and 3 tbsp golden syrup. Cool slightly before pouring over 100g cornflakes. Split between 12 bun cases and leave to set in the fridge.

Sorry kiddos, I meant for you to have them. That would have been several 1000s of calories, and two plastic tubs cleared out of the house.

Oh well, at least you can make your own now. 

Saturday 22nd August - probably

 I spent most of yesterday confused as to which day it was - Friday or Saturday? and the date - 20th, 21st, or 22nd?

I managed to get everything right until Thursday, which was lucky as I had a piano lesson to teach in the morning, and then I lost count.

It's ok today - definitely Saturday. I'm sorted out. Although it was a bit tricky this morning. I'm following a prayer book in the morning, with a psalm and another reading and a couple of prayers etc for each day and discovered that yesterday I had done half of today's pages and half of yesterday's pages. Easily rectified once I understood why some of the words looked familiar. This morning I just did the other half of yesterday and the other half of today - I guess, like eating your meal in the wrong order, ice-cream and then main course, it all comes to the same in the end.

I took my regular exercise today, starting with stretching, to read the coffee-pod-recycling-gizmo which for some time had been stored on top the the fridge (fairly easily within my reach) to on top of the cupboards (full stretch up on tiptoe and just catch it with my fingertips)

Then I moved on to working whichever muscles live in my upper arms and shoulders as I put the tub of used coffee pods through the gizmo - 

it really is the most satisfying of all the household chores at the moment;

look here is how it works;

You see that bright green thingy, you just place a used coffee pod over the hole 

like this;

put the cover on and push down. There's a sticky-outy bit inside the lid which inside-outs the coffee pod, emptying most of the grounds onto the base. You can see the startled remains of the first couple of pods alongside their fellows in the red bowl.

    

Then I add water to the bowl of disembowelled pods and give them a quick swirl. The cleaned pods are fished out and put into the recycling, the coffee-ground-water goes into the tub of flowers by the front door (I wonder if visitors will eventually find themselves greeted by a strong smell of coffee as they wait for the door to be opened?) and I finish my morning workout with a brisk walk to the compost bin with the contents of the base unit.

Excellent. 

Back in the dim and distant past (a few months ago) we took them back to the Nespresso booth at the supermarket and then dealt with it all. But neither of us have been near a supermarket since all the coronavirus stuff got started.

How times have changed this year...

And yet, apart from me having a desperate wish to go and have coffee and a cake (preferably a miniature Koign-Amann from Waterstones) I have been reasonably happy and content. 

Oh yeah. A Koign-Amann please, soon. (they are far too fiddly to make, and anyway, I wouldn't dare have a whole batch of them in the house to eat because I would so entirely eat them all)

So, instead, I made a batch of 3-ingredient scones. These are amazing - you can find the recipe here   and I strongly recommend that you acquire lemonade, double cream and self-raising flour immediately. Also clotted cream and strawberry jam.

I cooked them in our air-fryer, 185c for 15 mins seemed to do the trick. I can show you how they came out, no, wait, there were seven but unaccountably there are only two left.

They were indeed that good. Next time I will make half the amount (just use a smaller cup; a yoghurt pot sized cup made 7 scones) so that I can cook them in just one batch, and also restrict how many I consume in one go.

There is also a recipe for a savoury version. 

I wonder how they would come out if I used ginger ale? 

Sunday 22nd December - Advent 4 - mainly about food

To my surprise, I managed to get to church this morning. At ten to nine I changed my mind from 'sit and knit' to 'get up and go' and arrived in verse three of the first hymn (and I was not the last!)

That made an excellent start to the day. Himself stayed at home. going through the last eighteen months of my Godmother's bank statements to identify all the payments. Intense work, prbably made a lot easier by me being out of the house.

We had an early lunch of dill herrings ( we had two jars at the back of our fridge, bought for my godmother, who at one stage appeared to be living on rice-krispies, swedish dill herrings, gluten-free crispbreads, potatatos, apple puree and rice pudding - but not all at the same time). She'd gone off the herrings, so I kept them for ourselves and we ate one jar of them today, with non-gluten-free crispbreads, home-made coleslaw and salad. And very good too.

How early? Half past eleven, because of trekking to the next town to collect this turkey that I ordered a couple of weeks ago, not knowing that Waitrose and M and S would have their shelves SOLID with turkeys yesterday. As it happened, this was one of the slickest 'collect-the-turkey' exercises ever, and we were home again within a remarkably short time.

I spent the afternoon stocktaking in the kitchen. All the housekeeping has ground to a halt since Easter, when life became so complicated and full of alarms. The cupboards and freezer drawers no longer had any semblance of order and method and had just succumbed to madness.

Suffice it to say that the worms in the compost bin have never had it so good, assuming they enjoy a bountiful feast of out-of date cans and jars, well-past-their-best-before baking good and vegetables, and stuff out of the freezer. I have a list of jars and cans and packets approaching their end of life to use up, all stacked in order on the shelves, and a shopping list of replacement goods. Yes, I KNOW custard powder lasts for ever, but even 'for ever' comes to an end sometime.

Well, it is half past seven, and we have done what we wanted to for today. I've cooked a batch of sausage supper

and will put the spare portions in the freezer, and also a tray of  mincemeat surprise from my friend Laurie's blog.  The scone mixture is flavoured with mixed spice and orange zest, which is why there is a bald orange sitting beside the remaining 'surprises'.

They should have been allowed to cool, and then iced and garnished with dried cranberries, but I'm not sure they are going to last that long.

   

Saturday 9th March - Pause until tomorrow afternoon

It's all been a bit 'full-on', this past week or so, and I'm very glad to have reached Saturday afternoon. I did have a 'time-out' morning yesterday, which will have benefitted the recorder pupils, drumming workshop people and piano pupils I encountered yesterday afternoon, evening and this morning!

I suppose it would be a good idea to go out for a walk - the sun is out - but it is cold out there and warm in here and already gone three in the afternoon. Tomorrow is another day...

Lent started without me, that is, in terms of pancakes. I usually make drop scones, rather than crepes, and pretend they count as they are almost Scotch Pancakes. And I usually don't get round to it until several days after Pancake Day, which is rather missing the point. So yesterday I entirely missed the point by making 'Eliza Acton's Rich Rice Pudding'  It's a cross between a delicious rice pudding and a delicious egg custard. The link I have used is a gluten-free recipe site - I'm not a gluten-free person, and the recipe looks exactly like the 'Delia Smith' I followed from my cookery book.

This is her picture (the gluten-free blogger) as we've more or less finished ours. But it looked pretty much the same. I'll make another ordinary rice pudding tomorrow as we seem to be over-blessed with milk at the moment.

I brought the iris bulbs out of the cupboard a few days ago.

They had to be kept in the dark for ten weeks according to the packet. I hate being kept in the dark, can't abide not knowing what is happening around me. They have already lost their pallid look; the leaves are greening to a healthier shade. I hope they manage to express their gratitude at being released from the cupboard by producing flowers in due course.

There. As you can see, a rather ordinary post today. Unless you want to know about a couple of leaves falling from a pot plant into my bath, and looking so exactly like a Praying Mantis (I wasn't wearing my glasses) that I nearly leapt out of my skin and out of the bath, before common sense took over and I was able to scoop the leaves out and dump them into the bin. Praying Mantis indeed.

Monday 12th November - flash bang wallop, what a downpour!

It was very odd, very sudden; this evening a student and I were in the middle of harmonising 'Away in a Manger' when there was a flash outside, as though someone had crept up to the patio doors (we hadn't closed the curtains) and taken a picture.

What was that? I was about to instigate intruder alert procedures (ie send Himself out to see off the burglars, guarded by the cats) when there was a roll of thunder and Rain Came Out Of The Sky. As in very wetly. Followed by hail? I don't know - I didn't go out.

I felt slightly sorry for the student when it was time to go home, but if he chooses to come to his lessons in shorts and a T-shirt and wearing flip flops, in November, then so be it. He only lives a score of houses away down the road. And his books at least were rainproof in the plastic wallet.

This afternoon I was teaching piano in a local school. I had to revise my timetable slightly, as one child was having extra 'memory and focus' practice.

   'How did it go?' I asked.
   'I dunno. Didn't understand any of it.'
   ' What did you have to do?
   'Can't remember. And I wrote on the wrong side of the paper.'

I guess she will be needing a few more sessions?

They had created a poppy field in an area of rough grass between the classrooms; the poppies were made from the bottom ends of fizzy drink bottles painted red and stuck to short green canes. They all have labels - but I don't know if the label refers to a relative who dies, or the child who made the poppy...

 

This morning seems a long time ago. I did teaching, and dusted the mantelpiece, and then hoovered downstairs. I put up with the dust and fluff-bunnies for just so long and then the mental energy that gets used up in irritation at everything that need doing becomes greater than the physical energy of getting out the vacuum cleaner and doing something about it.

Two thoughts

dusting ornaments is much easier using a clean, unused paint brush (the sort used for walls, not for watercolours)

leaving the hoovering until there is a substantial amount of crud to dump into the bin afterwards is very satisfying.   


Yesterday I was so desperate for biscuits that I made some. It had to be a recipe that didn't need skill or eggs.

here they are waiting to go into the oven

and fifteen minutes later, waiting to be eaten.

They are made with custard power as well as flour, and I pushed in some very dark chocolate buttons as well. HE doesn't like them, which is a pity as it means I may well end up eating all of them instead of only half.

I put 150g soft butter and 1/4 (English) cup of sugar and 7/8 cup of plain flour and 1/4 cup custard powder into the food processor and zapped it until combined. Then I tipped it into a bowl, mixed in the remains of a packet of dark chocolate drops and dolloped 24 heaps onto two lined baking trays. To flatten them, I protected my fingers with a scrap of baking paper - (I am a genius)

Twelve minutes in an oven pre-heated to 180C, and two minutes to firm up on the baking tray before lifting them off.  

I am listening today's music; Shostakovitch Prelude for two violins and piano - bet you wouldn't have expected it to sound like this; so sweet, so melancholy.

Thursday 10th May - More... random bits and pieces

I followed a red alfa romeo 147 down the bypass the other day. I had finished the "morning" school, and was proceeding to the "afternoon" school. "Proceeding" sounds like a good word - brisk, efficient, but not speeding (unlike a  close relative of mature years, not a member of this household, who has picked up two speeding tickets in one month and claims to have beaten his car with a stick, like John Cleese). I have to admit to some pangs - but in the end it was easier than I thought. It was travelling too slowly so I overtook it, and put it behind me. Literally and figuratively.

So far I have managed to remember all that needed to be remembered this week - music festival, changed teaching schedules, getting photocopies and so on ready in advance for lessons.... The most important thing now is to remember to do the entries for the music exams for a couple of pupils - the closing date is Friday, and I still have a question mark over two of them which is preventing me from getting on with the task.

I've been having a go at making kimchi - Korean fermented vegetables. Ever since I read

a couple of months (or was it weeks?) ago, I've become more interested in "fermented" foods. It appears that the midwife who insisted I eat plenty of live yoghurt shortly after I gave birth to the firstborn, and I was taking antibiotics for an infection (and that's enough information) was on to a Good Thing. Antibiotics kill off the Good Bacteria in your gut as well as the Bad Bacteria causing the infection. Well, I take antibiotics all the time, as one of the other potions I have been prescribed is to damp down my immune system. Apparently the stronger antibiotic I reach for if I suspect a chest infection is imminent is also known as "Domestos" becuase it "kills all known germs". In other words

The book is a good read, and debunks most of the foodie fads. But femented food (not booze, before you ask!) is a Thing to keep your gut healthy and encourage Good Bacteria (what about the Bad Bacteria? what happens to them?)

I tasted the kimchi - it is a quick version from the Good Food Guide, ready after a day and better after two weeks.

It looks Very Ominous, and smells - shall I say "potent"? Still, I didn't fall down in a faint after the little mouthful, which tasted "interesting" and even "not unpleasant" as well as "powerful". Possibly the substitution  of chipotle paste for the chilli paste, which I couldn't buy easily at the time, and cider vinegar for rice vinegar, will have made it less authentic and much hotter than it is meant to be. I'll just have to go to Wagamama and have kimchi there so see what theirs tastes like.

The little blue-lidded pot contains yesterday's home-made keffir cheese. This is a fermented milk, similar to yoghurt, but using a different sort of bacteria. I bought the starter from a health shop, followed the instructions and, hey presto - keffir. The stuff you can buy, ready-to-drink in bottles in the super market is expensive and tastes like a cross between yoghurt and buttermilk. My home-made brew hasn't pleased me as much.. However, the home-made keffir just keeps on going; just add a dollop of today's to more milk and leave it to its own business overnight. Then, filter it;

and all the sour whey drains away (couldn't resist, sorry, no, not sorry at all,) and delicious cream cheese can be scraped off the paper. Yesterday I had it mixed with salt and pepper and herbs, today with maple syrup. Tomorrow - who knows? I've still got some chipotle paste...

Finally, this is The Best Time of year to be visiting one of my schools. It is a Victorian school, cheek-by-jowl with the village church. The grass between the gravestones is left alone in Summer, because of these orchids. One of the teachers said "I've been told that they are very rare, but I never knew what they looked like." Sigh. I took this blurry picture of one right by the wall which separates the school path from the graveyard. Perhaps she never has time to look.

   
As the months go on, there will be hundreds of these flower spikes, mixed in with all different wild flowers. Mostly primroses at the moment, but some vetch and herb robert and ones I don't know the names of .

Sunday 4th February - Cold and Grey

It was cold and sunny this morning, but that has all changed as the afternoon has continued.

Now it is half past two, and the cats have made their feelings abundantly clear. I would have been sitting in comfort at the PC, but one cat, after prowling and meowling for ages, has decided to settle down at last on the computer chair;

somewhere in the folds of the quilt you might just make out her ear.

The other is asleep on a cushion balanced on the radiator.

enough  about cats.

I am going to have to set a limit on my book and Kindle purchases. So I have. But I'm not saying what it is in case I need to make adjustments. I suppose I could try and give up buying books for Lent? That means I would still have just over a week before Ash Wednesday on 14th February. I've got a fair few stacked up in the 'New Books to Read' pile, and it is not as though we don't have hundreds in the house and access to thousands in the library... and Easter is only a couple of months away.

Chocolate, cakes and biscuits don't usually figure in my 'Giving up for Lent' choices. I did give up biscuits once, and nearly managed it. I ate one biscuit by accident. I was chatting with a friend, and discovered the taste of biscuit in my mouth with no memory of having lifted it from the plate, conveyed it to my mouth, or crunched it up. The other I ate on purpose; 5-year-old daughter appeared with bag of biscuits she had made at school, so of course I ate one. What mother wouldn't have?

I shall be baking biscuits for the upcoming Womens' World Day of Prayer coffee morning which will happen at church on Saturday week. I say 'happen', because I am supposed to be 'organising' it, much against my will (and better judgement). One of the most unlikely things any 'spiritual' person discerned about me was that I my 'gift' was for organisation. Maybe he meant the person next to me?

We will serving traditional biscuits and cakes from Suriname; not as easy as I had hoped. The most popular cake is Bojo Cake, made with coconut and cassava. First catch your cassava - sounds like a long-legged antelope to me. So I found a recipe for...

Traditional Surinamese Custard Biscuits

heat oven to 180C, line two baking trays with baking paper

Melt 100g butter

add 120g castor sugar (I use sugar which is stored in a jar with vanilla pods for baking, so no need for

vanilla extract

add an egg, mix well,

add 200g of custard power, or half and half custard powder and cornflour

mix well, and use spoons to dollop onto the baking trays. I made 16 biscuits the first time, but will make smaller ones the second time. Leave a gap, they spread a little.

decorate with "disco sprinkles" (this recipe came from a Dutch blog, translated by google). They look like hundreds and thousands in the picture on the blog. I've bought gluten-free ones for the next time I make them.

B ake for 25 mins according to the website; I'd check after 15. They are done when they are just beginning to brown round the edges.

They are very sweet, quite moreish, with a strange texture. They taste quite custardy...

So that's my contribution sorted.