Monday

Good morning, gentle readers, and welcome back.  It's dark, chilly and dry outside, warm and onion-y inside.  Normal service is resuming chez-Diary-of-a-Teacher!

Well, so sorry about the moaning yesterday.  It's odd how something as common as a cold can really drag one down, isn't it?  Still, I had a quiet day (missing something I'd have loved to attend but never mind, I would have spread germs right, left and centre) and, between tablets, had a little go at making fabric gift bags.  In the end I didn't use the method in the clip I posted but another on just as easy because the bags I wanted to make were titchy, just the size for 'showcasing' my jams and chutneys that I give as gifts as well as showing off pretty, cellophane wrapped home made biscotti, etc.
I think they are rather nice and at some point will show them off in a photo.

I didn't get bread made and I didn't make the slow cooker chutney I wrote about on Saturday so when I woke this morning I set to and now have a batch of dough rising and a slow cooker full of chutney ingredients.

The bread is for my two friends for whom I bake and I will be delivering that round to school this afternoon when I pop in to see what the work is for tomorrow.  In Aldi they had a few bags of what looks like a sort of granary flour equivalent only a lot better value, so I got a couple and am making half and half loaves today.  I hope they like them.

The chutney is an adapted version of one picked up on Facebook, cooked in a slow cooker.  I've never done that before but - well, there's always a first time and if we didn't ever try to do things differently we'd never move on, would we.  If it doesn't thicken, I can always do the conventional thing in my maslin pan!  I must try to remember to keep the kitchen door closed as it will be smelly enough without encouraging it to spread around the house!

I'm hoping Beth will be around today, although I must be careful not to breathe germs all over her as she's only just recovered from her own virus!  We will be working on a commission (sounds posh, that) for a friend.

I'm very glad I don't have to go to work today!

Oh, nearly forgot to say - yesterday evening I tried another of those more frugal steaks (hence needing to eat the other one in the pack today).  It was called flat iron steak and yup, it was lovely.  Flavoursome and tender and even my inexpert cooking didn't spoil it - and I am useless with steaks.  I cooked it to just a tinge of pink in the middle and had it with Dijon mustard.  Yum.
I think I enjoyed it all the more because I hadn't eaten much the rest of the day.

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Food:
Breakfast:  fruit and yogurt
Lunch:  Beans on toast (comfort food)
Dinner:  More steak (needs using up, oh, the hardship) with salad and oven chips