Sunday, 12-03-23

 Morning, one and all.  Welcome to a mild and sunny Sunday - it is here, anyway, and I hope it is pleasant where you are too.

Yesterday, I forgot to mention a couple more nice things that happened at Slimming World.
One of the newer members (who did look vaguely familiar to me) came us and asked 'Are you a teacher?'  Teachers don't/shouldn't have favourites but this student and their family were both pretty special, I carried on tutoring them when I retired and this lady is godmother to the student.  We had met years ago at an important meeting when she came to support the mum which is why she looked familiar.
The other was when someone walked in who I immediately recognised as an ex colleague.  She was a TA for a while before joining the office staff and I had her oldest twice, once in Y1 and again in Y4.  It was so nice to see her and have a quick catch up chat - she usually goes to another group but couldn't make it this past week so came to ours instead.
It was a lovely group this week for so many reasons.

Yesterday turned out to be 'interesting'.

I got the herb shelf sorted.  I did end up having to throw a few things out but basically they were items I got for one thing, haven't used since and were well past date - and I mean 'well'!
Then I was inspired to tackle the next shelf up which has my stocks, sauces (like soy and teriyaki - that sort of thing), etc.  Again, it wasn't terrible but there were some very old stock cubes (over ten years past date- ooops!) which saw the inside of the bin and it is now all in a more organised state,

Looking at this makes me very happy.  I can see what I have and it's all sorted out.  I should have taken a 'before' photo really but didn't think to.

That silver thingy on the bottom shelf is a little, battery, stick on light (which is not stuck on).  I probably don't need it now but it helped me to see what was further back when it was so crowded.

I did take a look at the top shelf too but it hardly needed anything doing to it, surprisingly!

I made up my bread dough in Thermione, as always.  When it had gone through all the rising, punching back and proving stuff, I had a go at using Nellie to bake it and the answer to 'can I bake bread in my Ninja?' is an unqualified 'sort of'.
It actually baked the loaf very well - a lovely crumb, not stodgy but good and even without any big holes. 
(Going off track a bit, does anyone else call these holes 'butter thieves' or is it peculiar to my family?)
It was never going to be crusty; the recipe doesn't make a crusty loaf anyway and I don't want a hard crust, I want it soft so I can slice it and freeze it without too much wastage.
The main issue was that the top rose quite close to the element and ended up darker than perfection expects.  I will definitely try this again because it's so much cheaper than using the oven, but maybe do it for a shorter time, then take it out of the tin and pop it back upside down to finish.  I'll give it a go anyway.

The other 'event' of the day was a bit unsettling and rather upset me at the time although now I am very thankful that it was no worse because it could have been awful.  I won't go over it again but have written about it in the other blog, the Slimming World one, so do pop over and scroll down to the pasta photo to find it if you're interested - it's here.

I didn't get any washing done so it's top of the list for today.  I'll be able to get it all out on the line in the sunshine.
Also, I'm working on my answers (thanks for the interesting questions) and will probably post them this afternoon
Apart from that and a bit of the daily stuff (things like wiping round the loos and the kitchen and the clearing up after meals stuff) I am taking the day to rest and relax.  I feel a bit tense so will do some of Lindsey's tone and relax clips - they always help.

Have a great day, whatever you have planned, and stay warm.