Monday, 18-09-23

A very good morning to everyone as we start a new week.  We have had rain overnight here and it looks as if there's more to come as we go through the day as well as a bit of sunshine.  One of those days when you never know what to wear when you go out, in fact!  

Coat, umbrella, shoes, sandals?  All of them?  😉

I had a nice, gentle day with plenty of kitchen activity.  

I made some rye bread and, oh, my, it is delicious.  It's not pure rye, it's a mix of rye and wholemeal flours; I used the Cookidoo recipe and Thermione.  Cookidoo is the subscription recipe site for the Thermomix and the recipe feeds straight to the machine and takes you through, step by step - it is ever so clever.  I also added a bit of treacle (because most of the other recipes I investigated added treacle, molasses or similar) and folded in some mixed seeds because I usually do and I love 'em.  It was a long slow process, the first rise took for ever but it wasn't a problem as I had all day and it came out dark, not too heavy because of the flour mix and absolutely delicious.

I've already posted this on t'other blog but this is what it looked like as a toastie.  I did wonder if it would toast OK and it did!

The rest is sliced and in the freezer to enjoy at my leisure.  And I will certainly be making it again.

I roasted a chicken for dinner - decided to splash out!  Chickens are no longer cheap meat; it's more like when I was a little girl and we often had a roast chicken at my grandparents' but never at home - and always for Christmas!  However, the chickens most certainly had a better life . . .
Anyway, a whole roast chicken is not as poor value as it seems because by the time I had picked off all the meals, there was a whole pile to use this week and the carcass has been bubbling away in the slow cooker all night, making the kitchen smell amazing and giving me a most wonderful smelling stock.

I did a bit of tomato sorting (huge ones for cooking/processing, medium ones for frying and small ones for salad) and the huge ones are now making passata in Thermione.  I've found a baked bean recipe to make UK baked beans, not USA ones using canned white beans (the recipe says cannelloni but I have haricot) so I'm giving that a go. 
Heinz they won't be but, looking through the ingredients, they will taste great; they can't do any other with the likes of passata (garden tomatoes), onion, maple syrup, herbs, spices, Henderson's, etc, etc, etc.  I might also add some finely chopped bacon.  Mmmmmm.
I'm rambling, sorry!

I'm getting on with Bertie's little jacket and have plenty of yarn so that's good.  I made the back, including the shaping, then decided maybe it was a bit short - Bertie is a tall toddler - so pulled the raglan shaping undone, lengthened it a bit more and I'm much happier with it.  It's a nice stitch; I do love knitting Aran patterns, they are very tactile and satisfying.  Photo when I've finished.

Oh, I've just looked out and the sun is shining.  How lovely.  It's funny now sunshine makes us smile, isn't it!
Anyway, today I have one scheduled thing which is circuits.  There were not back grumbles after last week's classes so I'm going to give it a bit more effort this week - but I will still be very careful as I don't want another week like that one!

At home, I have the usual housework jobs, including a bit of washing (fingers crossed I can line dry) plus a stock to strain and sort out, ditto passata and whatever else comes into my head, after which I will settle in my chair with my knitting and my telly.

It's going to be a nice one and I hope yours is too.  Be good - but not too good, as my Dad used to say.  xx