I love my slow cooker

My slow cooker is so old it could almost be on Antiques Roadshow.  I'm pretty sure I had it before I moved to Essex which means that it dates from the late 70s/early 80s.

Several times recently I have meditated on retiring it and buying a new one.  A bigger, oval one that has a few more functions.  Then I thought about it some more and realised that it does everything I want it to do with the exception of being the right shape for a turkey drumstick - and how many times do I need to cook a turkey drumstick in the slow cooker?

I rather like the look of it in an old fashioned way.  After all, retro is very in, isn't it?  The inner bowl is a lovely grey ceramic that looks good on the table and can go in the oven if necessary.

The outer casing is pretty (and old fashioned) and I like it.  I guess I'm old fashioned too!

I guess it doesn't hold as much as some you can buy now and what it holds would be in pints, not in metric (not that is matters one bit!), but it is fine for me.  Overnight I made a savoury mince with veg that has made five very good portions and it wasn't full.  I can slow roast a chicken in it.  What's not to like there?

The functions are fairly basic but again, what more do I need?  It has a high, a low and an auto that starts on high and goes to low when it's boiling.  It's all I need.

So, sorry, slow cooker, but I'm not retiring you yet.  You're still a valued part of the kitchen team, you more than earn your cupboard space and long may you continue!

Wednesday

I learnt something new yesterday.  It seems a bucket list is a list of things you would really like to do before you 'kick the bucket'!  How morbid!!!  I'm not sure there is much really - maybe that's not quite true but I'm being realistic.  There's things I would like to see, do, experience and some of them are in the pipeline but for others I know I will never get the chance so what's the point in dwelling on them?  Better to be satisfied with my very pleasant life than to yearn after things unrealistically.  Or have I got it all wrong?

Yesterday was a funny mixture of a day.  Sunny am, rainy pm.  In class until 11:00, then out of class for the rest of the day.  Slept well but was dreadfully tired by the end of the day and came home early (early for me, that is).

Over Monday night I tried something new - 'roasting' a chicken in the slow cooker.  It worked OK although I left it in too long.  Given that I was asleep, it would he hard not to.  The house smelt absolutely wonderful through the night!  I will do that again, definitely!

Then last night I knocked up a savoury mince and cooked that overnight too.  It's delicious this morning so I now have meat for the rest of the week and beyond.  Excellent!!

Today will be a long day and then there is staff meeting afterwards.  I'm glad I have a dinner all prepared and ready as I will be tired again.

Tuesday

I was a little unsettled yesterday.  A fellow blogger had nominated me for a 'Leibster Award' (for my food diary blog).

No, I hadn't heard of it either and am still not totally clear what it is but one thing stood out and that was that to 'qualify' for this I needed to nominate eleven other bloggers.  To me (and this is a very personal reaction), it smacks of a sort of pyramid thing so I won't be taking it up:  I can just imagine Diane's reactions if I nominated her, for example.   I'd never dare!

 The lovely lady who nominated me asked questions to answer, and I liked them, so here they are with my responses.

1.  What was the very first thing you made in your chosen craft.
Oh, gosh, what is my chosen craft?  I've been crafting since my earliest days, one way or another.  I remember making 'Gonks' with fabric and newspaper stuffing for little friends when I wasn't much older than they were.  I did paper sculpture and origami before secondary school.  I knitted, sewed, crocheted, made lace, wove baskets and macrame hangers, composed music - you name it, I've probably tried it (or would like to).  What came first?  I have no idea.  What's my chosen craft?  I haven't a clue. Jack of many trades, master of none, that's me!  And I'm happy with that.

2.  What is your favourite TV show?
Well, I don't watch a lot of TV (no time) but I like Pointless, Eggheads, Bake Off, Strictly, Doctor Who . . . I did love Robin of Sherwood, decades ago.

3.  Do you drink tea or coffee or something else all day.
Goodness, no!  I'm a teacher.  'Comfort breaks' have to be timetabled!!!!!  You can't drink anything 'all day' if you're a teacher.  Bladders come under OFSTED regulations.  Bowels too, come to that!

4.  Who is your favourite TV chef?
Now that's easier.  It has to be Delia.  Take away the 'TV' bit and I would say 'my mum'.  I'm old fashioned like that.

5.  What is your most favourite place to eat out?
I would say round at mum and dad's.  Can't eat better than there.  And it's free!  Win-win.

6. Have you got a bucket list and, if so, what's at number 1?
What on earth is a 'bucket list'???  Is it a sort of flower or vegetable thing?

7. Do you have a favourite pet?
No!  :-)

8.  If you had a choice from all over the world, where would you prefer to live?
In the Derbyshire Peaks.  In a 'character cottage with period features' as they say in Escape to the Country. It would need tardis like qualities too.
After I won the Lottery.

9. Do you play any sport and are you any good at it?
Nay, nay and thrice nay!

10,  Are you a morning person or a night person.
Any regular blog reader will know I am a morning person through and through.  Nights are for sleeping.  Mornings are for living.  And blogging!  And Facebooking.  And getting ready for school.

11.
If you were stranded with a flat tyre, could you change it yourself?
In theory, yes, but in practise, why do I pay the RAC  if not for things like this?


After reading through all this I can only come to two conclusions.  The first is that I am a very ordinary, thoroughly dull and boring person.  The second is that boring or not, I am usually comfortably grounded and that is not to be sniffed at!

Life is good.

Monday

Hasn't it been blustery?  Cold too - my heating was clicking on yesterday evening, much to my dismay.  I was worried about the grow house in the very strong winds but with the door zipped closed and being tied down to the fence, it's been OK, no dangers of it blowing away or falling down.  Now it has all calmed down and there's a beautifully starry sky although, of course, it's quite cold in the clear night air.  However, it's probably too cold for blight, which is a blessing.  There's still a whole load of tomatoes to ripen!

Yesterday evening felt so chilly that when I went to bed I lay an extra cover on my bed, over the quilt.  It was only a cheap bedspread but another layer always does the trick and I was cosy and snug all night.
Small blessings are important.

It's been a wonderful weekend with Mum and Dad.  On Saturday, we went to see the Arcadians' concert performance of Sweeney Todd and my goodness, it was a powerful performance.  Different to their usual work but absolutely excellent.  We had a fantastic evening and I'm already looking forward to their next offerings: something Christmassy in December and a show (not finalised) next June.

Their garden, as always, looks wonderful.  I took this photo of the beef tomatoes from the bedroom window and the biggest tomato is the size of my hand, absolutely enormous.  I'm pondering on growing one next year myself now.  His other tomatoes were a glorious orange variety called Sungold and he's going to let me have a plant or two next spring which is very kind.  There was a pot of these out for snacking on and they are so sweet and delicious!

(From the Thompson Morgan site)

Today is a full day with my class, good-oh!  All is prepared and ready and I'm looking forward to the activities I have planned for them.  I hope the children enjoy them too.

And now I'd better start making my breakfast!

Sunday

After two bad nights, or rather, after two ridiculously early wakings, I had a glorious night's sleep last night and woke just before seven which, for me, is a real lie in.  I feel so much better for it.  Yes, I was later to bed because I went out to a concert performance of Sweeny Todd (brilliant, more another time) but I must have had a good eight hours' of sound sleep.  It feels great.

It's supposed to be wet and windy but here it is still calm, still and sunny.  Sometimes our weather can be so weird!  I'm a bit concerned as to how well the grow house will stand up to really strong win!s so am hoping it won't be so bad.  My garden is pretty sheltered but less so than it used to be now that the hedge has gone so I will have to wait and see.

It's wonderfully relaxing to know that even if I do not one stroke of work today I am fully prepared for tomorrow (more or less).  Having PPA on Tuesday and having to have next week's planning ready for a meeting on Friday (not school policy, just a class thing) means that my weekends are much free-er than they used to be.  I like it.

After my meeting on Thursday, I now have the housework thing set up.  Two hours once a fortnight, I decided, and she (the company owner, who happens to be a mum at school too) has managed to timetable it on Fridays which is perfect.  Her 'girl' can't start this coming week which is also perfect because, as it happens, each time I have something on at the weekend, my house will be cleaned on the Friday before, even just before Christmas.  I couldn't ask for better, could I?  And I will HAVE to keep the place tidier too.  It's a win-win for me and, while the guilty feeling is still lurking, it's being pushed out by the sense of relief and by sheer common sense.

Just look at the time - you can tell it's the weekend as I am typing this in bed with the laptop balanced on a pillow.  So decadent!!  Now I'm off for a nice hot bath!  I think one of the big secrets of a happy life is to rejoice in the smaller things (which actually aren't necessarily all that 'small' really) and, for me, I am so appreciative that my life is filled with good, small things.  A nice hot bath is definitely one of them.  I like showers but baths are better every time!

Borrowed from Google search - not my bath but, as it happens, the same shape as my bath and I love it.

Saturday

After managing to stay awake until past nine yesterday (just) I found myself wide awake again at just after four.  Better than around two, that's for sure.

So I've strung and sliced the beans I picked yesterday, put on some washing and will be roasting another lot of tomatoes because there's so many and I will never manage to eat them before the next load gets picked.
It's been a glorious year for tomatoes after such a late start but in this current damp weather it wouldn't surprise me if they suddenly got totally blightificated! There's been a number of high risk periods over the last week or so.  It will either be that or an early frost!

It was such a wet day yesterday although the children did manage to get some (damp) fresh air.  It was a bit like the hokey cokey at times - in, out, in, out - but we managed!  And I had to smile (inwardly) when little D came up to me in great distress because he'd looked EVERYWHERE for his new school jumper and couldn't find it ANYWHERE!  He soon cheered up when I pointed out that he was wearing it!  At least he didn't then complain that someone must have 'put it there', as another little lad did years ago.  That one still makes me chuckle.

I've just peered out into the dark (and it is extremely dark as they turn out the street lights between midnight and 5 am) and it is wet, windy and yucky.  We're forecast to have some very bad weather over this weekend, which is a shame.  Where's our Indian Summer?

A blast from the past

This week we have been revising the phoneme /ng/ (plus letter formation, joining, etc).  For some reason the old Spike Milligan poem, 'On the Ning Nang Nong', came to mind and today the children enjoyed identifying the /ng/ phonemes.  I've just been onto Amazon to order a copy of 'Silly Verse for Kids' which takes me right back to my early teaching days.  I shall have fun, I can tell!