Yes, it's true, I was feeling twitchy because there was no cake in the house so I've been baking again and I have a number of important thoughts to share with you all.
Following up a couple of comments that came from the jammy dodger/custard cream epsiode, I have been wondering whether I could use the custard cream recipe as a basis to make bourbon biscuits. The short answer is no, for a number of reasons.
The custard cream recipe is in Feast by Nigella. I replaced 2 of the tablespoons of custard powder in the biscuit mix with cocoa, and used cocoa instead of custard powder in the filling. The biscuits baked fine and tasted good and the filling similarly, but the real problem is that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get over the fact that they were ROUND, not rectangular, and they don't have BOURBON CREAM stamped in the top. So I have some pretty decent chocolate sandwich biscuits, but bourbons they ain't. So now you know.
I'm a bit confused at the moment with my days - I keep thinking it's a day later than it actually is this week, so in my mind, I'm on Thursday. I don't know why I'm wishing the week away like this as the kids start half term a day early with an INSET day on Friday, so some how I have to fit in work and dog walking with entertaining them. In truth, Mr Disney will probably do most of the entertaining while I crack on, and we will do stuff in the afternoon.We are heading to the husband's brother & sister in laws on Friday and I am planning to make some sourdough bread and a cake to take with me, but I don't need to do that till tomorrow (because tomorrow is actually Thursday, although my head won't let me believe that). Still, the oven was on any way for supper (Nigella's African Chicken out of Kitchen which I thoroughly recommend. It's a good one to make up in bulk and then freeze uncooked in convenient portions), and I had a plan to bake those biscuits so I thought I would make another cake to use up some of the lemons that are lurking in the bottom of the fridge.
Nigella's got a lemon syrup loaf cake (a bit like lemon drizzle) which is really yummy and dead easy so I thought I'd do that. Unfortunately, after I'd decided to make up ground rice for the kids pudding and used up the last of the milk, I remembered that the cake needed 4 tablespoons of milk. By this time, I'd already got to the milk part of the recipe - which is the last bit, so it wasn't like I could just forget about the cake. I considered the fridge and decided that the natural yoghurt was probably my best bet so I used 3 tablespoons of that and do you know, the cake isn't bad for it. I think it's probably a bit wetter than if you use milk, but it's very edible.
The best thing about this is that my lovely cake tin that I got from my Granny after she died has something lovely inside it. If I had one thing to save if the house was burning down aside from the husband the kids and the dog, I think it might be this cake tin.
You can tell how old it is because the design on the outside, which is like a sampler alphabet, includes "G is for Golliwog who has a black face"... I just love this tin.
I love the sampler alphabet, I love the pretty yellow flowers on the oil cloth that's been used to line it, and most of all, I love it when it's full of cake...
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Friday, 14 October 2011
A good day
After the diabolical day I had last Friday, it's good to be able to say that today has been LOVELY.
The children seem to have picked up from the deathly tiredness that was afflicting them last week (perhaps they're getting into the rhythm of school now, just in time for half term at the end of next week) and Blue in particular seems less exhausted. But maybe that's just because we've enforced a no lights on before our alarm goes off rule for the morning. We had been allowing him to read from 6 as he seems incapable of sleeping beyond then, but he has been pushing this, and the camel's back broke on Wednesday morning at 5.30.
However, I digress. Spurred on by the sourdough success earlier in the week, I made a double batch of sponge last night and found the time to get the dough kneaded (in the Kenwood, it must be said) AND the breakfast things washed up before leaving for school. Truly a momentous occasion.
It's been a glorious autumnal day here, and I had a lovely walk with the dog after dropping the kids at school, during which he mostly stayed within my line of vision and didn't kill anything (he had a grouse on Monday), get himself stuck on the wrong side of a barbed wire topped fence (yesterday morning's little excitement) or launch himself into a 'pond' only to find himself up to his armpits in sticky, foul smelling mud (yesterday afternoon's pleasure). Got home by 9.30, and while the kettle was boiling for my coffee, I managed to get the potatoes peeled for this evening's fish pie. Work was good - all going smoothly, no grumpy/misogynistic/pedantic editor quirks to deal with today, and had enough time once I'd finished to make the fish pie. I used up the second pack of disappointing salmon that I was complaining about a few days ago. I really couldn't think of anything else to do with it, and, having poached it in milk with the haddock (undyed, smoked and unsmoked), I think it was probably the best thing I could have done with it. I did a quick trim of the spinach and chard in the garden, steamed and chopped up really, really small to mix in with the fish too. And the biggest bonus was that there's enough for 2 suppers. I do so love being able to put an added bonus supper in the freezer like that.
In truth, I was hoping secretly that there would be enough pasta left over from Golden Time cooking this afternoon to feed at least the kids tonight, but it was not to be. However, I am not upset about this. I'd chosen a vegetarian recipe for today as there are a couple of children in the class that are cooking at the moment who are veggie and have various allergies. The recipe is a variation of a sausage pasta recipe I got off the Good Food website, and just calls for frying chopped courgette and mushroom with some crushed garlic and chopped rosemary, then chucking in some cherry tomatoes. When the cherry tomatoes start to break down, stir in some creme fraiche and may be slop in some of the pasta water to thin it out, and stir into cooked pasta. When the session started, we were met with a few moans and groans, particularly about the mushrooms, but to my surprise, they were very enthusiastic once they started chopping, and really got into it. We had kids eagerly volunteering to do the washing up, and apart from a couple of the boys who really didn't want to try it, they ate up ALL the pasta, and I only saw a few mushrooms getting sneaked into the bin. We were also finished and cleared up by 3.25.
The kids were in a good mood at the end of school - Pink had got 5/5 for her first spelling test (allow me to be a proud mummy) and it looks like we've seen the back of Biff, Chip & Kipper. I'm not sorry to see them go. We negotiated Friday sweets without the usual standoffs, and back home, my loaves are now baking, while the kids are watching Charlie & Lola, and I have a fishpie all ready to put into the oven when the bread is finished, along with a couple of mini apple crumbles that I made a few weeks ago using some leftovers, and froze in ramekins.
The sun is still shining, the husband is on his way home, and THE DISHWASHER ARRIVES TOMORROW!! Oh happy, happy days.
The children seem to have picked up from the deathly tiredness that was afflicting them last week (perhaps they're getting into the rhythm of school now, just in time for half term at the end of next week) and Blue in particular seems less exhausted. But maybe that's just because we've enforced a no lights on before our alarm goes off rule for the morning. We had been allowing him to read from 6 as he seems incapable of sleeping beyond then, but he has been pushing this, and the camel's back broke on Wednesday morning at 5.30.
However, I digress. Spurred on by the sourdough success earlier in the week, I made a double batch of sponge last night and found the time to get the dough kneaded (in the Kenwood, it must be said) AND the breakfast things washed up before leaving for school. Truly a momentous occasion.
It's been a glorious autumnal day here, and I had a lovely walk with the dog after dropping the kids at school, during which he mostly stayed within my line of vision and didn't kill anything (he had a grouse on Monday), get himself stuck on the wrong side of a barbed wire topped fence (yesterday morning's little excitement) or launch himself into a 'pond' only to find himself up to his armpits in sticky, foul smelling mud (yesterday afternoon's pleasure). Got home by 9.30, and while the kettle was boiling for my coffee, I managed to get the potatoes peeled for this evening's fish pie. Work was good - all going smoothly, no grumpy/misogynistic/pedantic editor quirks to deal with today, and had enough time once I'd finished to make the fish pie. I used up the second pack of disappointing salmon that I was complaining about a few days ago. I really couldn't think of anything else to do with it, and, having poached it in milk with the haddock (undyed, smoked and unsmoked), I think it was probably the best thing I could have done with it. I did a quick trim of the spinach and chard in the garden, steamed and chopped up really, really small to mix in with the fish too. And the biggest bonus was that there's enough for 2 suppers. I do so love being able to put an added bonus supper in the freezer like that.
In truth, I was hoping secretly that there would be enough pasta left over from Golden Time cooking this afternoon to feed at least the kids tonight, but it was not to be. However, I am not upset about this. I'd chosen a vegetarian recipe for today as there are a couple of children in the class that are cooking at the moment who are veggie and have various allergies. The recipe is a variation of a sausage pasta recipe I got off the Good Food website, and just calls for frying chopped courgette and mushroom with some crushed garlic and chopped rosemary, then chucking in some cherry tomatoes. When the cherry tomatoes start to break down, stir in some creme fraiche and may be slop in some of the pasta water to thin it out, and stir into cooked pasta. When the session started, we were met with a few moans and groans, particularly about the mushrooms, but to my surprise, they were very enthusiastic once they started chopping, and really got into it. We had kids eagerly volunteering to do the washing up, and apart from a couple of the boys who really didn't want to try it, they ate up ALL the pasta, and I only saw a few mushrooms getting sneaked into the bin. We were also finished and cleared up by 3.25.
The kids were in a good mood at the end of school - Pink had got 5/5 for her first spelling test (allow me to be a proud mummy) and it looks like we've seen the back of Biff, Chip & Kipper. I'm not sorry to see them go. We negotiated Friday sweets without the usual standoffs, and back home, my loaves are now baking, while the kids are watching Charlie & Lola, and I have a fishpie all ready to put into the oven when the bread is finished, along with a couple of mini apple crumbles that I made a few weeks ago using some leftovers, and froze in ramekins.
The sun is still shining, the husband is on his way home, and THE DISHWASHER ARRIVES TOMORROW!! Oh happy, happy days.
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
guilty to absolved in not many steps
So I felt really bad this morning - Blue was shaking the money out of his piggy bank when he was supposed to be getting dressed. "What are you doing?" I asked (probably in a rather stressed tone - Blue is easily distracted and we were already running late this morning). "I'm getting some lunch money" he said "Can you check what's for school dinner today?""No I can't and you can't have school dinnner - I've made your packed lunch and it will be a waste". "Ok can I have one tomorrow? I'll pay for it." Hence my feelings of guilt. The husband & I decided that we would not pay for day to day school meals any more - they are £2 each and while I don't doubt that they constitute a properly balanced meal, they just did not seem to be filling even Pink up (and she has a tiny appetite most of the time), let alone Blue. I can provide more for less in a packed lunch, and it just makes financial sense. Blue, however, feels a bit differently. Even though the dinners weren't filling him up, he really enjoyed them, and has clearly decided to take matters into his own hands, by funding school meals out of the little pocket money he gets. And I feel bad - even though I know he perfectly enjoys the packed lunches he gets, and I know it makes sense. "Well," I said "If that's really what you want to spend your money on, I can't stop you, but you will get the Christmas lunch and stuff". "It's too far away till Christmas" he said.
Secretly, though, I really want him to change his mind. So on that basis, I made a turkey & sausage meatloaf for supper, and am going to tempt him with cold meatloaf sandwiches and potato salad - a combination that in the past has been hard to beat as far as he is concerned. I used turkey mince that I got from the butcher. I had to order it in, but along with his sausages, the texture of the meatloaf was definitely superior to ones I've made before with supermarket mince and sausages. it may of course just be a coincidence, but I am going to keep on making an effort to get meat from the butcher. Anyway, I feel that meatloaf, plus potato salad (which he loves), with the promise of banana bread for pudding, may just win the day in the lunch wars.
The other reason why I feel he may just swing back to packed lunches is the sourdough success. Having made up the 'sponge' last night (the bit where you take some of the starter, mix it up with flour and water, leave overnight and use that as the basis for the loaf), I made up the loaf this morning and left it to rise all day. The dough was quite wet, but it rose nicely and by the time I'd got back from the school run it was ready to be knocked back for the final rise in the airing cupboard. 2 hours later, ready to bake, and the result is amazing - if I do say so myself.
Secretly, though, I really want him to change his mind. So on that basis, I made a turkey & sausage meatloaf for supper, and am going to tempt him with cold meatloaf sandwiches and potato salad - a combination that in the past has been hard to beat as far as he is concerned. I used turkey mince that I got from the butcher. I had to order it in, but along with his sausages, the texture of the meatloaf was definitely superior to ones I've made before with supermarket mince and sausages. it may of course just be a coincidence, but I am going to keep on making an effort to get meat from the butcher. Anyway, I feel that meatloaf, plus potato salad (which he loves), with the promise of banana bread for pudding, may just win the day in the lunch wars.
The other reason why I feel he may just swing back to packed lunches is the sourdough success. Having made up the 'sponge' last night (the bit where you take some of the starter, mix it up with flour and water, leave overnight and use that as the basis for the loaf), I made up the loaf this morning and left it to rise all day. The dough was quite wet, but it rose nicely and by the time I'd got back from the school run it was ready to be knocked back for the final rise in the airing cupboard. 2 hours later, ready to bake, and the result is amazing - if I do say so myself.
I know it might all sound like a bit of a faff, but each little step is really quick and the bread is just 10 times better. Granted it's not the easiest thing for sandwiches, especially once it's a couple of days old. but it is delicious for toast, bruschetta and that sort of thing, and it just looks great too. I'm only writing this now to try and stop myself getting in there with the butter and the lemon curd, and making a real pig of myself.
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
It's a sign of how things are that a 'good day' at the moment can be indicated by whether I can get the breakfast things washed up before the school run. The dishwasher has been broken for a couple of weeks now. It has been declared uneconomical to repair, and while we have now ordered a replacement, the best financial deal involves a wait while the machine we want comes into stock with our preferred supplier. So washing up it is. Every day. And sometimes 2 or 3 times. I know there are many, many worse things that could have happened, and I will probably sound quite princessy, but I'm going to say it anyway - I want my dishwasher. NOW.
Now that I've got that off my chest, I've had a couple of kitchen successes that are possibly worth sharing. In the theme of what to do with leftovers, last night it was roast dinner risotto. I realised as I was making the kids packed lunches yesterday morning that I had no means of providing them with any form of vegetables in their lunch, other than the left over cooked veg (cauliflower and roast squash) from the sunday dinner and a field mushroom the husband had foraged on his walk with the dog. This was the theme for the day (and indeed continues to be so - the garden is not providing much in the way of greens at the moment and sainsburys doesn't come till tomorrow), and so in an attempt to be creative with leftovers, what didn't go in the lunches was chopped up with the left over chicken and added to risotto. Pleased to report that it was very edible.
Along the same lines, I had 5 very squashy bananas leftover from a bulk buy a couple of weeks ago. Pink has been making pointed retching noises everytime she saw them (she's not big on fruit anyway) so I decided that something had do be done. Nigella's banana loaf - Domestic Goddess, where else - leaving out the walnuts so that the kids can take it to school (although I have to say I did leave in the rum soaked sultanas for extra fruit - so the 'healthy' element might have been cancelled out). I have started slicing up cakes like this and freezing lunchbox portions otherwise the danger is that I will end up eating most of the cake which is absolutely no good at all. I couldn't bring myself to freeze all the banana loaf though - it just smells too good. This is fatal, as I still also have some gingerbread left from the weekend. Still the kids like that as well so I will be able to keep the banana loaf all for me.
Finally, a sourdough update. I posted a few weeks ago about my sourdough starter and whether it would survive a long stretch in the depths of my freezer. Well it sort of did and sort of didn't, but the first loaf I made wasn't a huge success and I lost a bit of heart. However, Mrs W has kindly given me some of her starter, which I fed yesterday and now have a sponge on the go ready to bake with again tomorrow. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out. I'm wondering if the yeasts in the W household produce a different tasting loaf, and how it will rise. Someone told me about a friend of hers who made sourdough bread and then moved to a different area and the bread turned out tasting very different. During the cider making at the weekend, I had quite a long conversation with one of the other couples who bake almost exclusively using sourdough starter and they were positively evangelical about it so my enthusiasm has been rekindled.
The problem with all this baking though is that it at least doubles the amount of washing up. I am not a neat and tidy cook and my preferred method is to get everything out and use as much as possible. It drives the husband mad. However, it's also now driving me mad. Maybe some good will come out of this after all and I will learn to be more selective in my choice of baking and my use of equipment. But on the other hand would it be as much fun?
Now that I've got that off my chest, I've had a couple of kitchen successes that are possibly worth sharing. In the theme of what to do with leftovers, last night it was roast dinner risotto. I realised as I was making the kids packed lunches yesterday morning that I had no means of providing them with any form of vegetables in their lunch, other than the left over cooked veg (cauliflower and roast squash) from the sunday dinner and a field mushroom the husband had foraged on his walk with the dog. This was the theme for the day (and indeed continues to be so - the garden is not providing much in the way of greens at the moment and sainsburys doesn't come till tomorrow), and so in an attempt to be creative with leftovers, what didn't go in the lunches was chopped up with the left over chicken and added to risotto. Pleased to report that it was very edible.
Along the same lines, I had 5 very squashy bananas leftover from a bulk buy a couple of weeks ago. Pink has been making pointed retching noises everytime she saw them (she's not big on fruit anyway) so I decided that something had do be done. Nigella's banana loaf - Domestic Goddess, where else - leaving out the walnuts so that the kids can take it to school (although I have to say I did leave in the rum soaked sultanas for extra fruit - so the 'healthy' element might have been cancelled out). I have started slicing up cakes like this and freezing lunchbox portions otherwise the danger is that I will end up eating most of the cake which is absolutely no good at all. I couldn't bring myself to freeze all the banana loaf though - it just smells too good. This is fatal, as I still also have some gingerbread left from the weekend. Still the kids like that as well so I will be able to keep the banana loaf all for me.
Finally, a sourdough update. I posted a few weeks ago about my sourdough starter and whether it would survive a long stretch in the depths of my freezer. Well it sort of did and sort of didn't, but the first loaf I made wasn't a huge success and I lost a bit of heart. However, Mrs W has kindly given me some of her starter, which I fed yesterday and now have a sponge on the go ready to bake with again tomorrow. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out. I'm wondering if the yeasts in the W household produce a different tasting loaf, and how it will rise. Someone told me about a friend of hers who made sourdough bread and then moved to a different area and the bread turned out tasting very different. During the cider making at the weekend, I had quite a long conversation with one of the other couples who bake almost exclusively using sourdough starter and they were positively evangelical about it so my enthusiasm has been rekindled.
The problem with all this baking though is that it at least doubles the amount of washing up. I am not a neat and tidy cook and my preferred method is to get everything out and use as much as possible. It drives the husband mad. However, it's also now driving me mad. Maybe some good will come out of this after all and I will learn to be more selective in my choice of baking and my use of equipment. But on the other hand would it be as much fun?
Saturday, 8 October 2011
feeding the hoardes
After the total wipeout that was yesterday, I had high hopes for today, and I was not disappointed.
True, I was up at 6, having been woken up by my son and father-in- law sneaking downstairs to watch the rugby, and, unable to get back to sleep was out walking the dog by 6.30. I was hoping for a beautiful sunrise - not quite on offer, but, daybreak, although reserved, was lovely and peaceful. I went a new route in a bid to avoid rabbits (admittedly an impossible task round here) and ducks and my effort was rewarded. Fred did however have a really good choffle, and was suitably exhausted by the time we got home. For anyone not familar, 'choffling' is the closest I can get to a word to describe the noise the dog makes when he is running flat out with his nose to the ground following a scent. It's a noise from his nose/mouth, and it sounds like 'choffle' - chofflechofflechofflechoffle....
But I digress. I was about to describe the catering arrangements for today, the cider day. After various cider making efforts last autumn, and given the bumper apple crop that we've had here, there appears to have been a collective decision amongst the local menfolk to pool apples and resources and spend a day making cider - or rather, pulping apples and bottling the juice. The father-in-law had brought down an enormous cider press and 'scratter' (think that's what it's called - the thing to chop up the apples, anyway), purchased by the husbband's older brother, and the scene was set.
Menu for the day - soup and hotdogs followed by gingerbread or bakewell slice. I made the fresh gingerbread with lemon icing last night (Nigella of course) and collected 50 sausages from our local butcher (25 Cumberland, 25 straight pork) on the way back from walking the dog. Had a quick turnaround to make the Bakewell slice before taking the kids swimming. The Bakewell slice is another Nigella recipe, this one in Feast. It's what she recommends as a pudding to follow roast beef, but frankly, I'd eat it anytime. It's a winner in my book because the pastry base is one that you press into the tin rather than rolling out, so no annoying broken pastry. Once it's baked, spread on a jar of raspberry jam and pour on a really easy frangipane mix (melted butter, eggs, ground almonds, caster sugar), top with some toasted almonds and bang in the oven for 35 mins.
The first of the cidermakers arrived in time for the England/France rugby match, and I was slightly concerned that this was merely a ruse to sit round eating bacon sandwiches for the rest of the day, and the pounds of apples secreted about the place would stay unpressed, but my fears were unfounded. By the time the kids and I got back from swimming, the press was up, and a system was developing - apple slicing on tables set up on the lawn, scratting, then pressing.
We had 3 apple presses on the go at the height of production, and even the kids were proving useful - if not working their own production line ("This is to be apple juice, NOT for cider, Daddy") then acting as ballast to hold the various machines in place while they were being operated. I expect the H&S executive would have had a collective heart attack.
Given that everyone was working so hard, I thought I'd better get on with some soup and as planned made Hugh F-W's lentil and bacon soup for lots of people (that's what he calls it in the Family Cookbook).
The sausages from the local butcher were definitely the stars of the menu today - they took a bit longer than I was expecting to cook in the oven but they were really meaty and delicious. Feeding just over 20 adults and children, hot dogs were definitely a good way to go. There were several takers for the soup, although admittedly, it was probably a bit tricky to eat al fresco and standing up, but no matter - all the more for us to put in the freezer for another day. Both cakes disappeared with indecent haste - no suprise as far as the Bakewell was concerned but the gingerbread was a surprising hit with the kids too.
By 4 p.m. the house was restored to order, approximately 90 litres of apple juice ready to be fermented into varying ciders, in various households around the village - watch out for the tasting party - and many sore heads...
True, I was up at 6, having been woken up by my son and father-in- law sneaking downstairs to watch the rugby, and, unable to get back to sleep was out walking the dog by 6.30. I was hoping for a beautiful sunrise - not quite on offer, but, daybreak, although reserved, was lovely and peaceful. I went a new route in a bid to avoid rabbits (admittedly an impossible task round here) and ducks and my effort was rewarded. Fred did however have a really good choffle, and was suitably exhausted by the time we got home. For anyone not familar, 'choffling' is the closest I can get to a word to describe the noise the dog makes when he is running flat out with his nose to the ground following a scent. It's a noise from his nose/mouth, and it sounds like 'choffle' - chofflechofflechofflechoffle....
But I digress. I was about to describe the catering arrangements for today, the cider day. After various cider making efforts last autumn, and given the bumper apple crop that we've had here, there appears to have been a collective decision amongst the local menfolk to pool apples and resources and spend a day making cider - or rather, pulping apples and bottling the juice. The father-in-law had brought down an enormous cider press and 'scratter' (think that's what it's called - the thing to chop up the apples, anyway), purchased by the husbband's older brother, and the scene was set.
Menu for the day - soup and hotdogs followed by gingerbread or bakewell slice. I made the fresh gingerbread with lemon icing last night (Nigella of course) and collected 50 sausages from our local butcher (25 Cumberland, 25 straight pork) on the way back from walking the dog. Had a quick turnaround to make the Bakewell slice before taking the kids swimming. The Bakewell slice is another Nigella recipe, this one in Feast. It's what she recommends as a pudding to follow roast beef, but frankly, I'd eat it anytime. It's a winner in my book because the pastry base is one that you press into the tin rather than rolling out, so no annoying broken pastry. Once it's baked, spread on a jar of raspberry jam and pour on a really easy frangipane mix (melted butter, eggs, ground almonds, caster sugar), top with some toasted almonds and bang in the oven for 35 mins.
The first of the cidermakers arrived in time for the England/France rugby match, and I was slightly concerned that this was merely a ruse to sit round eating bacon sandwiches for the rest of the day, and the pounds of apples secreted about the place would stay unpressed, but my fears were unfounded. By the time the kids and I got back from swimming, the press was up, and a system was developing - apple slicing on tables set up on the lawn, scratting, then pressing.
My what a big one... |
We had 3 apple presses on the go at the height of production, and even the kids were proving useful - if not working their own production line ("This is to be apple juice, NOT for cider, Daddy") then acting as ballast to hold the various machines in place while they were being operated. I expect the H&S executive would have had a collective heart attack.
"Scratting" |
The sausages from the local butcher were definitely the stars of the menu today - they took a bit longer than I was expecting to cook in the oven but they were really meaty and delicious. Feeding just over 20 adults and children, hot dogs were definitely a good way to go. There were several takers for the soup, although admittedly, it was probably a bit tricky to eat al fresco and standing up, but no matter - all the more for us to put in the freezer for another day. Both cakes disappeared with indecent haste - no suprise as far as the Bakewell was concerned but the gingerbread was a surprising hit with the kids too.
apples... |
...apples... |
...more apples... |
By 4 p.m. the house was restored to order, approximately 90 litres of apple juice ready to be fermented into varying ciders, in various households around the village - watch out for the tasting party - and many sore heads...
Friday, 7 October 2011
Mr H saves the day
I didn't think my day could get much worse. When I say day, the bad things started yesterday evening with a hectic turnaround from school to Rainbows, then up to school for the KS1 maths evening, with someone else's almost childcare disaster thrown into the mix, just for good measure. Blue was dispatched to a friend's so we could go to the evening with Pink on her own, but a combination of it being nearly the end of a busy week and straight after the excitement of Rainbows meant that she just wanted to play shops rather than tackle the carefully laid out maths challenges that we were supposed to enjoy with our children. I headed off to another meeting I had already planned just after 7 and got home at just before 10, completely done in.
Pink woke me at 1.30 a.m. worried about a plastic spider on the 'construction table' at school. By the time I'd actually got her to calm down and explain exactly what the problem was we were both wide awake, and it took a couple of goes to get her back to sleep. I think she was angling for an invitation into our bed, but having never slept with either of them in our bed as babies, I'm not keen to start the practise now, and I had a worrying night a few weeks ago when the husband was away when she spent most of the night with me.
So when the alarn went off this morning I was dragged horribly into the day, needing at least another couple of hours sleep. The children wanted to make their wraps for lunch, so I then had to de-marmite the table before we could have breakfast. By this point I am only just holding it together, and it's only 06.55.
Half way up to school we realised that Blue had forgotten his trumpet. I say Blue, because I have been trying a strategy to help him be more organised and remember things. So he wrote out a chart, which is on the fridge, of the things he needs each day. That way, all he really has to remember is to check the chart. This he had not remembered to do today, so I let him sweat for a bit (oh the tears, oh the misery) before I said that I would, ON THIS OCCASION, go back and get it for him. When I actually got to school, I remembered that we had also forgotten to bring tins for the harvest festival offering, As I was one of the parents who'd lobbied to donate tins for a local food bank rather than doing shoeboxes for Romania, I felt I really needed to support it, so back I headed.
By this stage, the dog was heartily hacked off as he thought he was off for his walk. To reward me for my selfishness and forgetfulness, he disappeared off down the river (I don't normally let him off the lead in this particular place any more but I simply forgot and let him run) and came back to present me with a duck. I though rabbits were bad. Ducks are worse. Let me gloss over the next few minutes...
Anyway, trumpet and tins retrieved, I walked the long way back to school to give Fred some more exercise then returned home to start the day's work. All went reasonably well until something that I could not have anticipated (indeed I thought I had anticipated - but it is far too complicated to explain) happened and I got to the point of logging off the laptop feeling thoroughly ground down.
Off up to school for Golden Time cooking - the first session of the year. This is a slot that I have run for the last 2 years (taking over from someone else) where children have the opportunity to cook & eat a healthy (ish) meal in 45 minutes (think sausage pasta, real fishfingers, lamb koftas). Today's gem was chicken fajitas. All going well when 2 minutes before the children are due to arrive for the session, I realise that I have left the tortilla wraps at home. Cue much swearing and cussing (under my breath - this is of course a primary school). Fortunately my co-cooker managed to remain calm, and even more fortunately, one of the school office ladies walked passed at the right moment. "Mr H is in the office" she said. "Can he help?". Mr H is our 'Facilities Manager' in name, but in reality, he is so much more. He runs the school, he knows all the kids and he is a top, top bloke, especially when stressed out mummies forget crucial elements of shopping for golden Time cooking sessions. Before I knew it, he was off down to the Co-Op in his looking for wraps. But just my luck, school office is back - "Wraps are on offer in the Co-Op - they've sold out".
AAARRRRRRGGGGGHHH.
But never fear - Mr H is still here. I started off down home to pick up the original wraps, and he met me - a knight in a dirty grey Volvo estate, picked me up drove me home, wraps collected (I did manage to take my keys with me) and back to school. When I got back, there were 3 girls assembled, and slicing. Apparently the teacher whose class were cooking today had forgotten. By that time, I frankly couldn't care less, but 3 more boys turned up and we cooked a very successful set of chicken fajitas. Used 300g of chicken breast, 2 red peppers and a red onion, and a spice mix of 2 tsp each of ground cumin and coriander and a pinch of cayenne (rather than using a sachet). Usually the session s run with 8 or even 10 kids, but 6 was a good number. The girls had done most of the prep before the boys pitched up, but once all 6 were in situ, there were enough jobs to rotate through actually cooking, coriander chopping and cheese grating and the all important washing up. They all loved the wraps and everything disappeared. Mr H got an especially big one as a thank you.
I’m now looking forward to a big gin and tonic and my lovely steak supper thanks to the local butcher who saved me some lush looking rib eye. We are hosting an unspecified number of people to make cider tomorrow (!!), so I have used the opportunity to bake another Domestic Goddess recipe, as yet untried – fresh gingerbread with lemon icing. The gingerbread is baked ready for the lemon icing (and smells heavenly), and I am just finishing off a batch of bread before starting on the chips. It’s definitely G&T time. Cheers
Pink woke me at 1.30 a.m. worried about a plastic spider on the 'construction table' at school. By the time I'd actually got her to calm down and explain exactly what the problem was we were both wide awake, and it took a couple of goes to get her back to sleep. I think she was angling for an invitation into our bed, but having never slept with either of them in our bed as babies, I'm not keen to start the practise now, and I had a worrying night a few weeks ago when the husband was away when she spent most of the night with me.
So when the alarn went off this morning I was dragged horribly into the day, needing at least another couple of hours sleep. The children wanted to make their wraps for lunch, so I then had to de-marmite the table before we could have breakfast. By this point I am only just holding it together, and it's only 06.55.
Half way up to school we realised that Blue had forgotten his trumpet. I say Blue, because I have been trying a strategy to help him be more organised and remember things. So he wrote out a chart, which is on the fridge, of the things he needs each day. That way, all he really has to remember is to check the chart. This he had not remembered to do today, so I let him sweat for a bit (oh the tears, oh the misery) before I said that I would, ON THIS OCCASION, go back and get it for him. When I actually got to school, I remembered that we had also forgotten to bring tins for the harvest festival offering, As I was one of the parents who'd lobbied to donate tins for a local food bank rather than doing shoeboxes for Romania, I felt I really needed to support it, so back I headed.
By this stage, the dog was heartily hacked off as he thought he was off for his walk. To reward me for my selfishness and forgetfulness, he disappeared off down the river (I don't normally let him off the lead in this particular place any more but I simply forgot and let him run) and came back to present me with a duck. I though rabbits were bad. Ducks are worse. Let me gloss over the next few minutes...
Anyway, trumpet and tins retrieved, I walked the long way back to school to give Fred some more exercise then returned home to start the day's work. All went reasonably well until something that I could not have anticipated (indeed I thought I had anticipated - but it is far too complicated to explain) happened and I got to the point of logging off the laptop feeling thoroughly ground down.
Off up to school for Golden Time cooking - the first session of the year. This is a slot that I have run for the last 2 years (taking over from someone else) where children have the opportunity to cook & eat a healthy (ish) meal in 45 minutes (think sausage pasta, real fishfingers, lamb koftas). Today's gem was chicken fajitas. All going well when 2 minutes before the children are due to arrive for the session, I realise that I have left the tortilla wraps at home. Cue much swearing and cussing (under my breath - this is of course a primary school). Fortunately my co-cooker managed to remain calm, and even more fortunately, one of the school office ladies walked passed at the right moment. "Mr H is in the office" she said. "Can he help?". Mr H is our 'Facilities Manager' in name, but in reality, he is so much more. He runs the school, he knows all the kids and he is a top, top bloke, especially when stressed out mummies forget crucial elements of shopping for golden Time cooking sessions. Before I knew it, he was off down to the Co-Op in his looking for wraps. But just my luck, school office is back - "Wraps are on offer in the Co-Op - they've sold out".
AAARRRRRRGGGGGHHH.
But never fear - Mr H is still here. I started off down home to pick up the original wraps, and he met me - a knight in a dirty grey Volvo estate, picked me up drove me home, wraps collected (I did manage to take my keys with me) and back to school. When I got back, there were 3 girls assembled, and slicing. Apparently the teacher whose class were cooking today had forgotten. By that time, I frankly couldn't care less, but 3 more boys turned up and we cooked a very successful set of chicken fajitas. Used 300g of chicken breast, 2 red peppers and a red onion, and a spice mix of 2 tsp each of ground cumin and coriander and a pinch of cayenne (rather than using a sachet). Usually the session s run with 8 or even 10 kids, but 6 was a good number. The girls had done most of the prep before the boys pitched up, but once all 6 were in situ, there were enough jobs to rotate through actually cooking, coriander chopping and cheese grating and the all important washing up. They all loved the wraps and everything disappeared. Mr H got an especially big one as a thank you.
I’m now looking forward to a big gin and tonic and my lovely steak supper thanks to the local butcher who saved me some lush looking rib eye. We are hosting an unspecified number of people to make cider tomorrow (!!), so I have used the opportunity to bake another Domestic Goddess recipe, as yet untried – fresh gingerbread with lemon icing. The gingerbread is baked ready for the lemon icing (and smells heavenly), and I am just finishing off a batch of bread before starting on the chips. It’s definitely G&T time. Cheers
Sunday, 2 October 2011
Horsefly bites and mojitos - good job everything was already cooked!
So I have left you all in suspense about last night's dinner: my week's culinary satisfaction rolled into one night. This is because I have used up quite a lot of energy today pretending that I didn't drink too much mojito last night, and the rest of the energy has been dealing with the incredibly itchy horsefly bite (sustained while drinking said mojito) that has now made my right foot swell up to twice its usual size. I had some anti-histamine about 10 minutes ago and am sitting down with foot up and in ice, but if I fall asleep, you'll know why.
I had been going to start the menu last night with chard and coconut soup - already in the freezer, but the weather has been so glorious and hot that I changed tack and we had a kind of 'mezze' (I like to think) mixture, consumed al fresco - such a treat for it still to have been just about warm enough. The Husband made the garden look lovely with candles, and we had:
Hugh FW's beetroot & walnut hummus (River Cottage Everyday) (although I burnt the first lot of toasted walnuts, and didn't have enough to do a full lot second time round so it was beetroot, walnut and pecan hummus)
Yottam Ottolenghi's squash spread which was in the Saturday Guardian mag a few weeks ago (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/series/thenewvegetarian). We kept the recipe, because like courgette, I do end up getting a bit stuck for ideas with the squash from the garden because the kids aren't hugely keen (whatever Annabel Karmel might have said about weaning children, mine never liked the butternut squash mushes) and there's only so much soup you can eat.
Nigella's Moonblush tomatoes (from Express)
parma ham (from Sainsburys(!))
Pitta chips which I found online from Sainsburys too
Home made bread
The dip/hummuses (or is that hummi) were dead easy to make, although Hugh's has a bit of faffing with toasting nuts and cumin seeds. Because I used the rarified stripy pink beetroot from the Husband's veg patch, instead of the vivid purple ones, the colour was more like putty, but that's where the al fresco bit came into its own. The moonblush tomoatoes are just lush, and so dead easy - halve cherry tomatoes, sprinkle on some thyme and sugar and salt and whack them into a hot oven which you then immediately turn off and leave the to cool overnight.
I was pretty pleased with how it all turned out, and having cooked it all in advance it was just a bit of an assembly job to get it all on the table. In view of the enormous jugs of mojito, I was even more grateful that I could just bung some plates on the table and enjoy a bit of a chat before sorting out mains.
It was getting chilly so we moved inside for mains - Darina Allen's "Gutsy One Pot" from a Good Food magazine. Allotment Junkie gave me a copy, laminated, singing its praises, although she now denies all knowledge, but it's essentially a cassoulet style (i.e. it has beans in it!) pork casserole, using shoulder of pork, bacon, ham hock and chorizo. It has carrots, peppers and tomatoes in too, so no need to do extra veg. The serving suggestion is just crusty bread, but I thought it probably needed something else so did some rice too. I've cooked it before, and last time the meat did fall apart a bit, but this time, when I cooked it on Thursday evening, I didn't give it the full 2.5 hrs cooking time so it could finish off cooking when I heated it back up. It definitely worked better this time round.
I meant to take a photo of the pudding complete in all its glory, but unfortunately the mojitos had kicked in and I forgot. In fact, I guess I should have taken pics of everything, for your delight and delectation, but frankly, sometimes, life is too short - I just wanted to eat! But back to pudding. It was massive - almost obscenely so - hazelnut meringues filled with lemon curd folded into whipped double cream, topped with more cream and raspberries. It was so big that 10 of us couldn't finish it, although there was one taker for seconds. This means of course that there is a lovely big bit left for supper this evening:
I had been going to start the menu last night with chard and coconut soup - already in the freezer, but the weather has been so glorious and hot that I changed tack and we had a kind of 'mezze' (I like to think) mixture, consumed al fresco - such a treat for it still to have been just about warm enough. The Husband made the garden look lovely with candles, and we had:
Hugh FW's beetroot & walnut hummus (River Cottage Everyday) (although I burnt the first lot of toasted walnuts, and didn't have enough to do a full lot second time round so it was beetroot, walnut and pecan hummus)
Yottam Ottolenghi's squash spread which was in the Saturday Guardian mag a few weeks ago (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/series/thenewvegetarian). We kept the recipe, because like courgette, I do end up getting a bit stuck for ideas with the squash from the garden because the kids aren't hugely keen (whatever Annabel Karmel might have said about weaning children, mine never liked the butternut squash mushes) and there's only so much soup you can eat.
Nigella's Moonblush tomatoes (from Express)
parma ham (from Sainsburys(!))
Pitta chips which I found online from Sainsburys too
Home made bread
The dip/hummuses (or is that hummi) were dead easy to make, although Hugh's has a bit of faffing with toasting nuts and cumin seeds. Because I used the rarified stripy pink beetroot from the Husband's veg patch, instead of the vivid purple ones, the colour was more like putty, but that's where the al fresco bit came into its own. The moonblush tomoatoes are just lush, and so dead easy - halve cherry tomatoes, sprinkle on some thyme and sugar and salt and whack them into a hot oven which you then immediately turn off and leave the to cool overnight.
I was pretty pleased with how it all turned out, and having cooked it all in advance it was just a bit of an assembly job to get it all on the table. In view of the enormous jugs of mojito, I was even more grateful that I could just bung some plates on the table and enjoy a bit of a chat before sorting out mains.
It was getting chilly so we moved inside for mains - Darina Allen's "Gutsy One Pot" from a Good Food magazine. Allotment Junkie gave me a copy, laminated, singing its praises, although she now denies all knowledge, but it's essentially a cassoulet style (i.e. it has beans in it!) pork casserole, using shoulder of pork, bacon, ham hock and chorizo. It has carrots, peppers and tomatoes in too, so no need to do extra veg. The serving suggestion is just crusty bread, but I thought it probably needed something else so did some rice too. I've cooked it before, and last time the meat did fall apart a bit, but this time, when I cooked it on Thursday evening, I didn't give it the full 2.5 hrs cooking time so it could finish off cooking when I heated it back up. It definitely worked better this time round.
I meant to take a photo of the pudding complete in all its glory, but unfortunately the mojitos had kicked in and I forgot. In fact, I guess I should have taken pics of everything, for your delight and delectation, but frankly, sometimes, life is too short - I just wanted to eat! But back to pudding. It was massive - almost obscenely so - hazelnut meringues filled with lemon curd folded into whipped double cream, topped with more cream and raspberries. It was so big that 10 of us couldn't finish it, although there was one taker for seconds. This means of course that there is a lovely big bit left for supper this evening:
The recipe is from Thomasina Miers' book 'Cook'. It's actually a variation suggested by her on a winter chestnut meringue cake, but given the weather, I'm glad I went with the summer version.
As it took 8 egg whites to make the meringue, I will confess to making the lemon curd, using a recipe in Hugh FW's Family Cook Book - which is a great book - it's about cooking things with kids, although slightly older kids - and 'proper' food rather than just bakling. Not that there's anything wrong with baking with kids - I do it all the time, but this book approaches it a little more like grown up projects, and he's got lots of good explaining in a non-patronising way. The whole egg thin gwas a bit of a disaster because our chickens are moulting and not laying so well. It took me all week to amass the 8 eggs for the meringue, then I needed to get some emergency eggs from my lovely neighbour to finish the lemon curd, because as well as the yolks, it needs whole eggs too. Anyway, the only thing I will say about the lemon curd is that I managed to avoid lemony scrambled eggs, but it always takes longer than I think it's going to. But the time it takes to make lemon curd is ALWAYS worth it.
I've used up for more of the egg yolks making ice cream today with Iona (another Hugh FW recipe from the Family Cookbook), 3 more to go. As I obviously had a headrush and ordered far more cream than I could ever possibly have needed, I guess it will be spaghetti carbonara for dinner tomorrow. Tonight though, it's nice easy sausage tray bake that I think I've seen in a magazine somewhere - using up some of the left over pumpkin that didn't go in the squash spread and some red onions. I can't remember where I saw the recipe, but I'm sure it will turn out just fine if I chuck it all in the oven. Frankly, that's all I can manage just now...
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