Saturday

. . . and it's the weekend.  Yessssssssss!  So why am I up so early?  Well - you know what I'm like, but today I can go back up for a bit more kip later, if the spirit moves.  So far it isn't, but it's early days! 

I got a lot of stuff made and organised yesterday.  It was SEN day and there were no meetings or serious paperwork so I banged on with preparing phonic resources and organised them in folders.  Excellent stuff!

We were all of a flutter though - we have a new toy.  It's a new photocopier.  The old one was very poorly indeed.  When we used the top tray the machine uttered moans and groans reminiscent of me getting out of bed in the early morning and it kept jamming!  The new one is swish and - wait for it - best of all . . . it prints colour!  AND we have been told that it's cheaper to photocopy colour than it is to print multiple copies on the printer, so please use the colour function.  Woweeeeeeeeee . . .   I tried it after school.  I was sticking into their theme books a sheet describing the crisp tasting and realised that I'd printed one too few.  So off I went and made a copy.  The colour reproduction is very good - you really cannot tell the difference.  Oh, and it takes thin card too.  Excellent!

Diane tells me (as you will have seen from the comments yesterday) that I have  made blackberry cheese or even blackberry leather!  Nice one.  What a shame I wanted blackberry jam, eh?   She said it would be good with cheese.  Hmmmm - well, it is certainly good, absolutely delicious, in fact., with an intense berry flavour and I can see me using it in porridge, in yogurt and in stewed apple, etc, and I'm wondering which cheese would be best.  Today I'm having another go at jam in the new pan using the defrosted berries and those K brought for me yesterday.  Her little girl, who was in my class a while ago, assured me that 'we picked the best and biggest ones for you, Mrs Clark'.  Her older brother just looked amused!!!  Yesterday evening I simmered them and squashed them and at the moment they are warming up a bit before I push them through the mouli to get rid of the pips, etc.  Then I have another go and I won't make the same mistake again!  Proper pan = faster setting, must remember.
Update:  it is now a puree, one litre of the stuff, sitting in a bowl looking delicious - which it isn't because I haven't added any sugar yet.  It smells good though.

It's going to be a busy and productive day all round.  I want to go shopping early, then make the jam.  After that I have a couple of recipes to try - chickpea and butternut squash curry and sticky lemon chicken.  Also I have the leftover soup to make, although there isn't an awful lot of leftover veg this week so I may resort to chopped tomatoes and lentils as my base!  I'm going to get the newly cleared chest freezer defrosted so that tomorrow I can move stuff from the chest freezer and also do an audit of exactly what's in there.  I never want waste like that again!

Yesterday I made the Hairy Dieters red pepper hummus and, for the first time, I'm not so sure about one of their recipes.  I've never, ever been happy with home made hummus, but I've got it planned for lunch with crispbread, so we will see.  It might just possibly be one not to do again, for a change!

On top of that, there is the minor inconvenience of housework, washing and ironing.  Maybe . . .