Saturday: early one morning before the sun was rising . . .

And it is early today, considering I've been up for well over an hour.  It's always so on Saturdays but yesterday evening didn't help, given that I was fast asleep in my recliner at just after seven and woke just before nine, went up to bed and fell straight asleep again.  I am going to HAVE to have a sleep during the day as we have a Witches' get together this evening so the last thing I want to do is fall asleep early and miss all the fun!  The joy is that it IS Saturday, so I can (have daytime sleeps, I mean)!

Now, what shall I take to the Witches this evening?  I have promised them bubbly.  Not the expensive vintage sort, the reasonably cheap and cheerful sort.  It's the nibbles I'm pondering on.  I picked up a lovely recipe from an online friend, Veejay, for cheese and sesame biscuits, dead easy, which I will make and, hopefully, manage to resist before the event.  But what else?  Flapjacks, perhaps.  I will have to ponder.
I have to make something anyway as we're having an Infant staff meeting on Monday after school and, as the team leader, I provide something nice and nibbly.  It's lucky all the busy stuff has now past and gone, the planning is all done and I have an easy weekend of it.

I think I've mentioned that I have this barter system going with a colleague.  She gives me eggs from her hens and I give her whatever is the current gastronomic delight!  Last Monday it was a loaf, very fresh baked in the breadmaker - good idea for a barter, thought I, will do it again.  I then heard that she and her husband have a bread maker.  Darn it, not such a good idea after all!  However, we were chatting yesterday and she said how much she and A had enjoyed the loaf, it was so lovely and light, her breadmaker produces quite a solid loaf and they preferred mine.  After a little chat about adapting recipes, etc, it seems that it wasn't such a bad idea after all and so I will do it again at some point, maybe shaped like a cottage loaf next time.  I think this week I will make extra of the cheese and sesame biscuits for her.

As is often the way early on a Saturday morning, the house is starting to smell good.  I decided to make a batch of fresh cream of roasted tomato soup for lunch as the tomatoes have been piling up and need using.  So at the moment the tomatoes, some onion and some garlic are slowly roasting in the oven and they smell wonderful.  Then I will add some stock (probably low sodium Marigold with a splash of white wine), let it simmer to loosen all the sticky bits from the tin and then push it all through my mouli.  That's about it really, maybe a touch of sugar and then the cream just before eating.  Doesn't that sound delicious?

Well, better go and do some stirring!  Have a lovely Saturday.