Thursday

Good morning, everyone.  What dull and boring weather at the moment.  Rain, rain and more rain.  A bit of a let down after yesterday's glorious autumnal sunshine but never mind.  Everything was quite dry as we didn't have all that much rain on Monday.  Heavy showers, certainly, but they were very short lived.  I'm beginning to wonder if Kevin will come round to clear the garage, given that it is so miserable.

It was lovely day yesterday, with three friends round for a lunch that was almost totally home made: oaty rolls (using Diane's recipe), potato and leek soup, cake, banana bread and grapes (OK, so I didn't make them).  We had a great gossip and plenty of chuckles.  I gave out jams and received wine, a plant and some fresh laid eggs.  I have three portions of soup left over too, so that's sorted three school lunches next week.

Today and tomorrow I need to plan and prepare for our family do on Saturday.  I'm not going to be too adventurous and will go with the tried and trusted.  I shall be making the final decisions this morning and then the shopping list and  I'm thinking that it is just as well I have been paid recently!!!

The Victoria sponge ended up rather dry.  My own fault - I decided it needed a few extra moments and then forgot about it for five minutes or so - enough to make a difference.  Never mind, I was wondering what to have for a second dessert and now I can make a trifle - with jelly.  Eat your heart out, Mary Berry.  No alcohol though or the non-drinking members of the family won't be able to participate.  That and the magic key lime pie (or rather, lemon this time) will do nicely along with a birthday cake!

I'm not yet sure what's going on in the kitchen today but it will probably involve bread of some sort.  I'm going to make some more oaty bread rolls as I loved the ones I made at the weekend.  I might try them with wholemeal this time.  As I'm using Thermione and doing the rest slowly, timing doesn't matter as much so if it's slower to ride, no problems!  I also quite fancy making a plaited loaf like the Silver Fox showed us last night - I just caught it before I dropped off to sleep!

All of that, with more general houseworky stuff, should keep me nicely busy and out of trouble all day!