Monday

The start of another working week.  Good morning, one and all.  I hope you had a wonderful weekend.  It's freezing cold outside again but no snow!

It's been quite exciting for me.  After the reaction to my expensive looking but frugal loaf on Saturday, yesterday Beth brought round the loveliest gift for Mothering Sunday - an owl cushion that she had made herself.

Here he is.  Isn't he super?  I love him to bits.  She's so clever and creative, is my daughter.

I need to give him (or her) a name.  Any ideas?  Ollie Beak comes to mind, which really dates me, doesn't it?  Do any of my gentle readers remember him?

Here's the original Ollie Beak with Fred Barker on Tuesday Rendezvous or, as we called it, 'ren dezz vooz' until we were corrected.

Nostalgia rools, OK?

So yesterday evening I posted a photo on Facebook to show off my clever daughter's skill and to say thank you publicly and before I could say too-whit, too-who, there was a positive storm of compliments and requests from others to make one for them.

So I guess we have found our next Kitty Stitches project.  Not cats this time but owls!

Beth and Alex came round for lunch.  I made macaroni cheese which went down a real treat, not only with Beth and Alex but also with Sonja and Milli later on.  A cook always likes her efforts to be appreciated so I was well chuffed.  I have to say, it did taste pretty good.

It was a very worthwhile afternoon.  Beth finished her runner that she's making as a specific order and I got on with the Tonk sock cats and we're nearly finished the order of fifteen now.

Today starts with swimming, then goes on to some crocheting and some bread making, followed by afternoon coffee with a friend who is coming round to chat about stuff.  I also have a broccoli stalk to make into soup but that might have to wait for Tuesday.
There's nothing scheduled for the evening, thank goodness.

Today's food:
B:  poached egg on toast
L:  soup, fruit
D:  ham with leftover veg from yesterday and maybe some oven chips if I can be bothered, fruit yogurt.

Now, though, I need coffee.

Sunday

Good morning, everyone.  A very happy Mothering Sunday to all of us who are mothers, whether or not we still have our children.  At they say, you stop having children but you never stop being a mother.

Yesterday was an amazing day.  I drove through nasty, sleety stuff to where the Thermomix demo was and this time I didn't get lost.
The first time I went to a demo there I got thoroughly lost and had to phone Leonie to find how to un-lose myself again.
In two hours she covered a seeded bloomer, Chinese cocoa steamed buns, rosemary focaccia and a hot crossless bun loaf.  They all looked and tasted amazing.
Yes, there had been some preparation beforehand but not nearly as much as I had expected and Leonie managed the whole thing impressively well.
I now have four fab recipes that are on the list to make.  Many thanks to Leonie and if you're interested in getting a Thermomix, I can put you in touch with her.

The ingredients she used were very fine and pretty expensive and as I drove home I felt the urge to make a frugal loaf that looked good and tasted fine too.  So I did, using some recently acquired techniques and it seems to have cause a mini sensation (I do mean really, really mini!) on the Facebook Group where I posted about it.  I've blogged about what I did here and the next post is a review now that I have cut and tasted it.

Today I have my friends visiting and Beth and Alex are coming over for lunch.  I have a sourdough loaf to make - I retarted the rising which is a new thing for me so fingers crossed for this one.  Also, if I have time, I also want to try a spelt loaf using a recipe that a friend gave me (thank you, Rachel).

Today's food:
B:  has to be toast from the frugal loaf made yesterday
L:  ham, macaroni cheese and peas, fruit yogurt
T:  ham sarnie, apple and orange

Now, where's the coffee?

Saturday

Hello, everyone.  It is so jolly cold outside right now but we've had no snow and the ground looks dry.  I'm hoping that the expected rain holds off until everything has thawed as I have to drive somewhere this morning, partly on country roads, and really don't want to find myself on a sheet of ice.

I'm off to a two hour bread making session for Thermomixes (or should that be Thermomices?) run by the consultant who sold me mine.  She lives not too far from here and I have already been to one of her demos and came away with lots of ideas.  I'm hoping for interesting recipes to add to my repertoire of loaves.

After that it is back home to cook for my guests who will be keeping the house warm for me.  Well, maybe not exactly 'cook', more like 'get stuff out of the freezer'.

In a facebook group I belong to, someone posted a recipe for English muffins that uses sourdough discard.  It goes over two days so I thought I would give it a whirl and see.  I have plenty of crumpets right now so don't need to make any more yet.  I also want to make another batch of the sourdough crackers, this time adding some cheese to the mix.

Yesterday, after having my hair tamed and organised again (and I feel so much better now), Beth and I set too and finished the Tonk sock cats.  Now we just have three to make, all black, as requested by the lady who made the order.  We were pleased to get them finished!  I thought I would fall asleep after Beth left but I managed to stay away.  Consequently I had a wonderful night's sleep!

Today's food:
B: either toast or maybe a toasted crumpet, apple
L:  soup and bread/croutons to dunk
D:  not totally sure yet.  I need to rootle in the freezer.  Perhaps something with pasta as I have plenty of appropriate veg

But now I need coffee.

Friday

Good morning, gentle readers, and welcome to Friday's entry.

Yesterday was wonderful!  In the middle of the afternoon two friends and I idly sauntered down to the bus stop and got on a coach that took up into the West End.  We had dinner at Bella Italia (a shared garlic ciabatta, carbonara and three scoops of scrummy ice cream) before walking ten metres down the road to the Queen's Theatre to see Les Miserables.  I don't have treats like this very often and I had a thoroughly enjoyable time.  I wish I had taken my camera as the theatre was really ornate and a few photos would have been great.  I shall have to fall back on Google.


Until yesterday I must have been one of the few people to have seen neither the stage show nor the film but not any more.  Now I have to get the DVD!  The singing was brilliant (I hadn't realised it was operatic in style with no dialogue), the staging was fantastic and all in all I had an amazing time.

I shall be tired today.  By the time we got home (one friend was staying overnight and went home this morning) it was well after midnight and by the time we had finished a drink and had a chat it was after 1:00.  We were both up by seven this morning too!  No complaints - it is lovely to be able to be a gadabout without worrying about work the next day.  And what a delight to just get on a coach and be driven there and back - no worries about train times, tubes, etc.

Beth is here right now and later on Sharon is coming to do our hair.  I am glad - this last week I have felt very shaggy and unkempt and it will be good to feel neat again.  After that we hope to finish the sock cats!

Today's food:
B:  toast and marmalade
L:  soup, natural yogurt
D:  fish, sweet potato chips, peas, apple and orange

Have a lovely day!

Thursday

Good morning, everyone.  After quite a miserable day yesterday, on and off, with lashing rain and strong, icy winds, it's lovely and sunny right now, albeit pretty cold.  We had no snow as far as I know, though.

Today is a busy day.  Homey things this morning and this afternoon a couple of friends are over.  Should be fun.

Yesterday the bannetons arrived but, unfortunately, too late for the loaf I was making.  As you can use them for ordinary bread as well, I will try one out on the granary/wholemeal loaf, the dough for which is currently rising nicely.  The other I will bake normally, just in case, because I will need it!

Unusually for me, I popped into the Approved Foods website to see if there was anything and, even more unusually, there was.  They had bags of Hovis granary flour for 50p each.  Now, bearing in mind that they normally cost around the £1.70 mark, that was a significant saving.  I managed to find enough other stuff to make the minimum spend so placed an order.  I have checked and the flour can safely be kept in the freezer so I have no worries about keeping the flour.  My half and half granary/wholemeal loaves are my favourites.

I generally find that Approved Foods only has the sort of bargains I neither need nor want - highly processed food stuffs like cakes, biscuits, sweets, jars of sauces, etc. but maybe I ought to check a bit more often.  Certainly there are significant savings to be made if and only if it's what you would buy anyway.  It's too easy to be sucked in to getting rubbish though.

Well, I'd better be finishing now.
Today's food is
B:  marmite on toast, apple
L:  soup and yogurt
D:  I'm eating out so no idea right now.

Have a great day.

Wednesday

Good morning!  I'm not late today, I haven't slept in longer than I should and, best of all, I have a free day.  Well, sort of free . . . there's nothing in the diary anyway.

I covered most of yesterday in my late entry yesterday but, sadly, the parcel wasn't the bannetons.  However, excitedly, it was the big box of meat from muscle food instead.  The owner of one of the facebook groups I help to admin (Feed Yourself for a Pound a Day - great group, look for it and ask to join) had negotiated a deal with the company that meant it was all half price so brilliant value.  Beth and I have gone shares so I spent yesterday evening sorting and wrapping meat.  Not the most pleasant way to spend an evening, I know, but it's all done and in the freezer now.

I still have the bannetons to come.  Maybe today?

Today I intend to get a whole load of little things done and out of the way.  It's really good that it's a blank day in my diary.  I'm still struggling to get to grips with some of the basic points of sourdough and today I will have another go.  I have decided I don't like it too sour/yeasty/chewy but I do like a little bit of it so it's well worth pushing on through.  Anyway, it is a challenge.
I have to say, sourdough toast is absolutely gorgeous!

Today's food is
B:  bacon sarnie, apple
L:  home made soup, fruit yogurt
D:  Probably more of the chicken korma I made yesterday.  It was extremely delish and I have blogged about it in Teacher's Recipes.

. . . and lots and lots of coffee!  Starting now!

Tuesday

Phew.  So sorry about the brief message about oversleeping (which I have now removed).  I hardly ever oversleep so wasn't aware of how late it was getting and I was due to go into school to hear readers, hence the rush.

Anyway, I am home now and it is a dull and dismal day with a wet playtime and noisy children.  As a nanny helper I wasn't expected to do anything about it, thank goodness!!

I know it's late but pinch and punch for the first of the month and happy St David's Day to all my readers.

Yesterday was a pleasant enough day, sunny and getting warmer.  I think I am getting a bit better at the sourdough bread - at least, yesterday's effort seemed better (it could hardly be worse than Sunday's offering which ended up in the bin).  I looked up about 'feeding the starter' and 'hydration' and 'adjusting the recipe' and ended up getting very mathematical but it seemed to work.  I'm having trouble slashing deep enough though so I think I might just have to invest in a lame, a dough slashing thingy.  Will it never stop?  

After a morning in school today, I intend to have a nice easy lunch and then decide which bit of my home needs tidying most urgently.  I have the new Delicious' magazine to tide me over and the telly might provide some background entertainment, you never know.

When I got home there was a note to say that a parcel had been left next door.  I think it is my bannetons.  However, J seems to be out at the moment so I will have to possess my soul in patience for a while.  However, I think it is safe to say that there will be more sourdough on the make tomorrow.

Today's food

B:  Poached egg on toast (I seem to be having this a lot but I have eggs to use up and delicious bread so I can't lose really!

L:  baked breaded plaice (reduced in Morrisons and I suddenly craved it!).

D:  chicken and sweet potato korma.  Loads of veg in the curry so no rice needed.

I think lunch is ready so I'd better go.  Hopefully my time keeping will be better tomorrow.