Tuesday

Good morning, everyone.  It's gone back to cold and below zero this morning with another frost.  The sun is making up for the cold though and it all looks beautiful.

Alex duly arrived yesterday morning.  It's a home-from-home here.  In fact, here was his home as a baby.  As a result, he needs no settling in whatsoever, just makes himself right at home.  Usually this takes the form of checking out the goodies in the kitchen and yesterday was no exception.  By the end of the day, the cake was a few slices down and the flapjacks were half of their original number.  He likes flapjacks!
I've posted the link and an adapted Thermione recipe in TsRs, if you're interested.

In the afternoon I gave him a cookery lesson - how to make savoury mince.  It was interesting - school food technology shone through as he informed me that we had just a certain time to make this, stating when it would definitely start and definitely finish (timetabling demands, I guess).  It took a while to persuade him that home cooking was different and that this particular recipe was better cooked longer.
We looked at the ingredients and he informed me that the yellow pepper was definitely NOT going in.  We also decided that the mushrooms looked a bit too old and manky for comfort so they went in the bin.  And then we started.
He managed very well although his stirring technique could be refined somewhat!  I managed to persuade him that a handful of red lentils would be a Good Thing which was a triumph as he insisted that he didn't like lentils and only relented when I pointed out that he loves my savoury mince and I always put lentils in.  He also coped with the concept of 'a little and taste' and that there can be variables in cookery.

I've learnt too.  This morning we are making savoury fish crumble (Alex's request) and I think I need to write everything down for him to follow.  It will probably be easier for him written down - worth a try anyway.  If it works I will write yesterday's recipe down too for him to take away.

I've just remembered  - must get the salmon out of the freezer!