Sunday

Good morning, everyone.  Sunny Sunday greetings to you - I hope.  It's just getting light right now.  It is really noticeable that the days are slowly getting shorter again now and the nights longer, especially for us early risers.

This is where David took me for lunch.  A nice little pub called the Butcher's Arms, out in the country north of town.

https://butchersarms-essex.co.uk/

 

It has a lovely seating area outside.

Ye Olde, (not necessarily) authentic stocks . . .

and a nice view over the countryside.

I had a lovely time.  Thanks, David.

It was such a lovely, warm, sunny day without a hint of humidity (as far as I could tell) and the insects were buzzing around busily pollinating the tomatoes, cucumbers and runner beans.  I realised that, while they are busy producing lovely food for me, I missed their weekly feed last weekend so I set to and now they are fed again.  I do want them to keep producing for as long as possible so it's only fair that I feed them.

Talking about producing, I had a great big bowl of tomatoes so I've had a go at dehydrating some using some of them and the relevant function in Nellie the Ninja.  It was simple - halve the tomatoes, add a bit of salt, a bit of pepper, a bit of dried Italian herbs and a splash of olive oil, lay cut side up on the three small drying racks and gave them six hours at 70C.  The top two layers were done; the bottom layer had another hour and I left them in overnight because I wanted to go to bed.  They're now squashed into this jar and covered with extra virgin olive oil supplementing the oil that was left in the commercial jar - waste now!

They're very small because my tomatoes are small and they really are super delicious.  I have some larger ones coming along and I'll have another go with them in a few weeks.  

I feel a Mediterranean salad coming along - salad veg, feta, olives, sundried tomatoes and a dressing of balsamic vinegar - oh, yum!  Not today though, today is already planned!

I don't have enough chillies yet but, in fact, they are slowly dehydrating on the window ledge so it might not be necessary.

I've just popped a loaf into Thermione - well, the dough ingredients anyway.  I'm making a yeasted loaf for Beth and starting her a sourdough too.  She can have the loaf today and I'll take the sourdough effort over on Tuesday.
I think I have someone else to bake for - David said he likes wholemeal sourdough (he's a SW member too, so it has to be wholemeal) so I will bake him one as a thank you.  Not for next Friday but for the following one.

The whole of August looks like being one easy day after another and today is no exception.  I will do a bit of crafting and spend some time in the kitchen, watch some telly, read, enjoy the sunshine (bit of positive thinking there but the forecast is good), pick tomatoes, pick runner beans and generally be thoroughly lazy chilled.

Have a lovely day too, everyone.  Stay hydrated, sun blocked and cool.  See you tomorrow.  xx