Friday

Hi, gentle readers.  It's a jolly chilly morning out there - frost on the shed roof, would you believe?  The sky is clear and the sun is shining: it's really lifting my spirits!

Yesterday was another typically April day, sun, showers and quite strong breezes at times.  One lot of guests departed and another guest arrived.  I made bread, soup and soda bread.  We talked, went food shopping and talked a lot more.  Lovely!

We were feeling frugal so, instead of going to the chippie, we bought oven chips and some cod in batter, a toffee cheese cake and some cream and paid less than we would have paid for the takeaway fish and chips and with no waste.  And I reckon it was less effort than driving to the shop, waiting around and driving back.  Almost as quick too.
Can't complain about that, can you?

The half and half no knead loaf went a dream.  The dough looked dreadful at first and I really had doubts, but after the long rising and the short proving, the resulting loaf was a bit of a stepping stone towards a sourdough loaf in texture and, to a certain degree, in flavour too.  It was a small loaf - I used half amounts so just right for me.

It tasted wonderful with my home made celery soup.  Mmmmmmmmm . . .

Today I will be making some banana choc chip muffins before we trot off for a visit to Cressing Temple.  It's fairly close (about half an hour's drive away) but I've never been so am looking forward to it.  Here's a link so you can see what it is.
http://www.visitparks.co.uk/places/cressing-temple/

Better get into the kitchen and get started.