Thursday

Good morning, everyone.  It's just starting to get light at 6:00 with the shadows of the garden starting to take on a little, muted colour and definition.  A lovely time of the day.

I've found two lovely food things, quite different from each other.

I started using Jackie's apples yesterday to make a lemon and apple curd from a recipe found on good old Google.  It's a River Cottage recipe and they are usually pretty reliable.  As Thermione is great with curds (temperature control and no need to stir as she does it all for you), I adapted the recipe to work in a Thermomix and it worked a treat, producing a spread that is so delicious, I have posted what I did on my Teacher's Recipes blog.
http://fooddiaryofteacher.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/apple-curd.html
(the link to the original, conventional recipe is there too)

It made five jars which have to be used up within four weeks.  That's the only disadvantage about curds; their life is very limited.  So that's one for Beth, one for my parents, one for me to take on holiday, one for now and one for Jackie which I will need to get to her somehow!

I'm going to half prepare a batch as far as possible along the recipe and freeze in recipe portions so I can make more another time.  This recipe is definitely a keeper!

The other lovely food thing was this.  Ages ago, with a magazine, I got a Spice Tailor punjabi tomato curry kit which I tucked away and more or less forgot about.  Yesterday I found it as I was looking for something else and made it up with chicken and some veg.  It's interesting - a pack of dry spices that you fry, a base sauce that you add to the spices, meat and/or veg and then a main sauce that you add before letting the whole thing simmer.  And it was simply gorgeous.  Bear in mind that I am not in any way a curry expert but this had flavour in abundance.  It made enough for two and now I am torn between freezing the rest or having it for lunch or dinner today.  Decisions, decisions!

Tesco and Sainsbury both sell it so guess what I will be stocking up on!  Not frugal unless it is a substitute for a take away and then it becomes great value!

I mentioned a while ago that I am expecting a tax rebate.  It's just as well too because yesterday I heard that the Cook-Key is now on sale in this country.  This is an addition to the Thermomix that enables you to put your own recipes into an online 'pro forma' which is then downloaded into the key so you can follow the instructions on the Thermo display.  It does more than that, but that's basically the purpose.  Anyway, guess who bought one.  :-)

I now have to learn how to use it but there are detailed instructions on the site and I tend to be OK with that sort of technology.

It was a spendy day yesterday as I also bought some Ordnance Survey maps for my holiday.  My Dad has some he would lend to me but they are very old now and extremely out of date.

Thermione earned her space yesterday as I also used her to cook a small ham.  That'll see me through lunches for a few days.

By the evening I was quite tired again and have slept like a log overnight.

Today I have a house to tidy, a passport renewal thingy to send off, some apples to deal with and an allotment to check over.  Fortunately I have no other commitments today so it'll all get done with plenty of time for play.

Have a lovely day, everyone.