The tree workers have an interesting company name and motto - some companies go for plain "Tree Works" names, others are afflicted with arty ones. This one has gone full hairdresser (in two ways, actually) as "Down to the Roots", "A cut above the rest".
There used to be a local company which emptied sewage tanks. Their lorries were sludge brown and carried captions such as “The motion is carried” and “The way to suck cess”.
We used to go on canal holidays, many years ago, and I remember seeing a boat with a similar purpose called “Two loos leau treck”.
I'm afraid I didn't notice the smell of the shop - smells don't really penetrate the mask. No brown coats (rather disappointing) - but the gentleman who served me was wearing a quilted waistcoat, which may be the modern equivalent.
I think the shop will have to be referred to as Fork Handles though!
Actually, there is a hardware shop of that name in Teignmouth - I'd link to it if I wasn't using my mobile.
I'm currently waiting for my brother and s-i-l, and we're going out for a celebratory lunch, albeit a dry one, as there's no booze allowed in restaurants here.
I'm afraid I didn't notice the smell of the shop - smells don't really penetrate the mask. No brown coats (rather disappointing) - but the gentleman who served me was wearing a quilted waistcoat, which may be the modern equivalent.
I think the shop will have to be referred to as Fork Handles though!
Actually, there is a hardware shop of that name in Teignmouth - I'd link to it if I wasn't using my mobile.
I'm currently waiting for my brother and s-i-l, and we're going out for a celebratory lunch, albeit a dry one, as there's no booze allowed in restaurants here.
Don’t complain - eating isn’t allowed in restaurants here!
We had breakfast delivered today (very nice American waffles). The slight catch was that Dragonlet 1 ended up sharing some: literally as I was about to chivvy him up to put his shoes on and get out of the door, we got a text from school to the effect that someone in his class bubble (later email says one of the staff) had tested positive and he needs to isolate for 2 weeks! Cue lots of forms emailed home so we can do online lessons next week.
@Pendragon mmmm delivered breakfast - now that’s a nice idea, even if you did have to share it.
@Piglet I do like a proper Fork Handles hardware shop and it’s a delight to come across one.
Today I entertained a neighbour’s cat for an hour or so (just company, no food) before installing a key safe outside - following key shenanigans a few days ago I felt it was about time I have one. Another neighbour has a spare key, but what if I get locked out when they are out or (worse) away!
Now to plant some alstroemeria clumps yet another neighbour has given me - apparently they multiply quickly which sounds a Good Thing.
I can attest to the wonderfulness of the Linlithgow DIY shop. Always very helpful, especially if you only know the sort-of-thing you want or the job you're trying to do
It's just one of the many good, independent "little" local shops in the High Street
I'm in weekend mode as I've been doing (and enjoying) some proofreading for my son. I've sent it off for him to check over the weekend and will do some more next week, but I think I can take the weekend off. We have online wine tasting with friends soon and then curry for tea. What are other people's plans?
I've just had a very pleasant day doing nothing much Today was booked as leave, so I got a lie-in, followed by a nice bike-ride to town to buy food and a few other essentials. Then after lunch, a supermarket run for some other bits and pieces including wine and beer, followed by delivering items to the parental Knotweeds (they're staying out of supermarkets whenever possible), and picking up some home-grown apples and 2 holly trees whilst I was there. All done contact-free by leaving the relevant shopping bags and plant pots on the driveway.
Dinner tonight is random veg with a chicken breast. Going to try doing wedges with celeriac on the side. No idea what any of it will turn out like! I think I warned @Sandemaniac that it was experimental cookery night...
Now he's retired my husband has promised to cook more. Tonight we had a very nice mushroomy stew with dumplings and mashed potato on the side. There is plenty for tomorrow which is just as well as due to loads of viewings of our house we have to be out all day. We're taking ourselves off on a long train journey to the seaside and back. We might have gone for a walk in the local are but the forecast of rain all day rather put us off. Let's hope we don't get stopped for breaking some covid regulation or another.
Fairly busy. Meeting with other Trustees to discuss Covid-safe measures at the Charity Shop we're hoping to re-open shortly, a quick nip to Waitrose and then swimming. Afternoon at home doing a bit of church work, then Junior Youth Club (only the second this term) in the evening - very noisy but the kids enjoyed it, as did the leaders!
Soy, sugar, sesame oil, lime juice, ginger, garlic, chilli. Coat some cubes of unexciting fish in this and grill, and the results are gratifying. Wash down with some Moldovan Chardonnay.
There used to be a local company which emptied sewage tanks. Their lorries were sludge brown and carried captions such as “The motion is carried” and “The way to suck cess”.
A company in New Hampshire that did this work had written across the back of each truck
Don’t complain - eating isn’t allowed in restaurants here!
"Here" as in Germany or as in Usual Boogieville?
Lunch was very nice - I had a ciabatta sandwich with bacon, brie and cranberry sauce. Then a quick flick round Aldi (their wine is really cheap) and a foray to Argos to get a whizzy-whizz for soup making, and back to mine so that they could help with hanging pictures (of which I think I have more than I have wall space). It's nice to have them up: they make it seem more like My Place.
I’m off for a walk shortly then I have a student seminar to attend (I’m enjoying meeting with other students this year, the research school has been making more effort online now we are all in lockdown).
This afternoon I need to make my entry for the ‘bake your research’ competition. And I need to feed the birds.
I have 4 late essays in my inbox and might mark them today to clear the decks for the next lot.
Captain Pyjamas' speech therapist is in a rather chic part of town, and their local Carrefour has loads of exciting stuff. Including a foreign aisle with Heinz baked beans and - oh joy!! - proper English marmalade. The French have what they call "orange jam" but it's not the same. Usually I get English stuff from Marks and Sparks, but under the lockdown rules it's too far away.
Captain Pyjamas' speech therapist is in a rather chic part of town, and their local Carrefour has loads of exciting stuff. Including a foreign aisle with Heinz baked beans and - oh joy!! - proper English marmalade. The French have what they call "orange jam" but it's not the same. Usually I get English stuff from Marks and Sparks, but under the lockdown rules it's too far away.
This afternoon I shall make a marmalade cake.
Ooh, I haven’t made that for ages, must find the recipe!
My wife has has an online Welsh lesson all morning so I've been into the city to do some Christmas shopping. It was comfortably busy and the Christmas market has opened so that was nice to see. Hope the retailers do well though a lot have closed down of course.
I have drawn the curtains to keep the bleakness out. With a skylight the room is still well enough lit, and it feels cosier than looking out onto the rainy garden. I might even turn the all-year fairy lights on.
Having ploughed my way through paperwork this morning, I shall enjoy making lace this afternoon - nothing fancy as I’m still a beginner.
Dinner tonight is random veg with a chicken breast. Going to try doing wedges with celeriac on the side. No idea what any of it will turn out like! I think I warned @Sandemaniac that it was experimental cookery night...
Luckily said Sandemaniac will eat pretty much anything that stays still in the presence of knife and fork long enough. I'm still here to write this, so it can't have been lethal.
Celeriac wedges are quite tasty, BTW - softer in the middle than a potato wedge.
Mr F and I took a bus into the Old Town - primary objective a 2nd-hand bookshop where we spent lavishly on green Penguins. (I remember when you'd pay a couple of shillings for one - now it's 'first edition' and £5, £7.50, even £25).
After that we tottered down to the Grassmarket, which has sprouted a Saturday market in the years since we were last there. Acquired smoked duck, smoked cheese, smoked butter, pain au chocolat, a bottle of mead and some very good pork and apple sausage rolls.
If this is what the outside world has to offer, we may go again.
I hope it was from Wilkins of Tiptree!
It's a dreich but mostly dry day here, so I had a little amble down to Tesco's to further augment my spice collection: I now have the requisite bits and bobs for making a half-decent curry. Or bacon, lentil and tomato SOUP, as I am now the proud possessor of a whizzy-whizz.
I'm still contemplating storage issues: while I like the idea of a proper spice rack on the wall, there's a little pull-out larder (more of a larderlet really - it's not very big) beside the cupboard under the sink, and it might be feasible to have all my herbs and spices on the top rack of that. The lower rack is a bit of a bummer - it's separated into four sections which are each about the right size for a bottle, but because of the dividers, there's a limit to what other things you could put there.
I will get there - it's just a matter of working out what fits best where. There's what ought to be a really useful cupboard in the living room - full door height, over 5 feet wide and 18 inches deep - but for some reason it's been fitted with just three shelves, 18 inches apart and 10 inches deep. If I had them ripped out and replaced with sensibly-sized and spaced ones, it could make an excellent larder; at the moment I've got dishes and glasses in it, as it seemed like a sensible place to put them when we were unpacking my stuff, but I could see it with tins, jars and glass canisters of this, that and the other.
@Piglet Congratulations on the new position! I'm so very pleased for you. And worry not. Five years out of the workforce is a mere sabbatical. I have faith. As to wine matches from the chippy, I found that you need a thirst quencher. I've gone with good success with a Vinho Verde (low alcohol - about 9%), slightly effervescent, very nice cold - so it helps to cut the possible greasiness, it's refreshing, and you can drink somewhat more of it than a NZ sauvignon blanc. This brings back memories of when I lived in Islington - my chippy's chips were adequate, but the cod was the size of a dolphin, and superb.
@lavieenrouge Your mention of marmalade cake brought back decades. It brought a tear to my eye. Tell us how it turns out. [Digging out my Great British Cooking....]
I love hearing about the home-making plans at Chateau Piglet.
I've been making a December journal for myself out of some craft paper; I'm very pleased with the result and looking forward to using it. November's a difficult month for me, but I don't like wishing my time away either. (It's put me in a slightly festive mood which I'm having to hide from Mr Nen as he is Bah Humbug about Christmas. )
For tea we are having stir fry and are going to be trying the sulphite-free wine which I managed to find at Tesco's and which we're hoping is going to be the answer to Mr Nen's problem with red wine. He loves it but it seems to sit very heavily with him as he's got older.
It's been raining pretty much all day. I'm still in what is euphemistically known as "lounge wear" (nightwear and romper suit) and starting to wonder whether it's actually worth getting dressed as it's starting to get dark outside.
"Bake your research" sounds fascinating! What are you going to bake?
My research title is: How can students with mental health challenges be empowered to become independent learners within a technology enhanced learning environment?
My cake will be topped with green fondant icing which I will add a circuit board design to (I have purchased several icing writing in tubes in gold silver and pearl). When the cake is cut open it will reveal a layered rainbow cake.
That’s theory anyway. Layers 3 and 4, green and blue, currently baking.
Hm, marmalade cake, haven’t made that in ages. I make it like I would a lemon drizzle cake but pour marmalade on top.
I began a sermon last year thus: "Some people in this church have said that I ought to be more definite and decisive in my preaching. So I begin my message this morning with a statement about which I will allow no disagreement whatsoever: the best marmalade in the world is “Tawny Orange”, made by Wilkins of Tiptree. I accept that other brands of marmalade are available (do I hear Keiller’s or Frank Cooper’s?) but none of them even comes close!"
I don't think it got properly light here all day: I had to put the lights on when I came back from Tesco's, and that was before 3 o'clock. But this is November in Scotland, so what should I expect?
I took the elements for a paella out of the freezer yesterday, so I'll go and assemble them shortly. As I've just had a lovely long Facebook chat with my best friend in Canada, the SOUP hasn't happened, but it can wait.
I've never been hugely successful with paella. I'm scared of not cooking the prawns enough, so they end up chewy, and it tends to be a bit bland. I've tried adding chorizo but that makes it too fatty.
In other news, I've showered, am back in "lounge wear" (as @Bishops Finger would say, let the reader understand ) and thinking about stir fry and WINE.
Ooh I loved that vesta Chinese(?) with the crunchy bits.
We've been all the way to Weymouth today and back. We had back to back viewings of our house all day and the weather was dreadful, so hours on a train seemed like a sensible way to while away the time. We intend to go back when the weather is nicer and stay longer than an hour.
I'd forgotten all about those Vesta packets! My uni provided 4 (!) meals a day in the refectory from Monday to Friday but at the weekend we were provided with a box of goodies to make our own meals. A packet of Vesta Chop Suey, Paella or Chilli was always included. I rarely cooked them and took each term's supply back home in the vacations. My dad really enjoyed them which was a bit of a shock for my mum who was a typical 'all fresh ingredients' type of cook!
Captain Pyjamas' speech therapist is in a rather chic part of town, and their local Carrefour has loads of exciting stuff. Including a foreign aisle with Heinz baked beans and - oh joy!! - proper English marmalade. The French have what they call "orange jam" but it's not the same. Usually I get English stuff from Marks and Sparks, but under the lockdown rules it's too far away.
This afternoon I shall make a marmalade cake.
Ooh, I haven’t made that for ages, must find the recipe!
There is something a bit of a guilty pleasure about food like that when you normally have fresh cooked. I have a bit of a liking for instant noodles, but I tend to go for tom yum, kimchi or gherkin flavour depending on where I got them. Tonight was fish or sausage and chips, with both mushy peas and curry sauce.
I particularly like Roses lime marmalade.
Dragonlet 1 gets the Beano delivered every week. The current edition contains an 8 page pullout for grown ups making fun of 2020. It's quite funny, and I think that we can safely say that the staff don't vote Tory given that it takes pot shots at several prominent members of the government and an extended dig at Cummings. It is of course produced in Scotland.
I am now watching and listening to a live (?) broadcast of Mozart’s Requiem by English National Opera.
I guess they are well spaced, as required, but I can’t help wondering how much ventilation there is in the building- sufficient for their safety, I hope.
The sound the chorus makes is quite different from any I have heard before. Obviously they are professionals, but very different from the sort of sound that The Sixteen, for example might make. It occurs to me that some may not have sung it before, it not being part of their normal repertoire, whereas as a member of amateur choirs, I have sung it maybe ten times or more.
Well the layered rainbow cake looks great, but I’m going to ice it tomorrow in better light.
Husband made homemade burgers for tea and now I’m having a blackberry gin and tonic.
Vesta paella! Lovely! What happened to Vesta?
We had a Saturday out today, the first for months. (We came back off holiday in September to local lockdown, followed by all Wales lockdown). It was so nice to go to Abergavenny, especially as the craft market was on in the market hall, and it was nice to speak to a lady who has made me some beautiful handbags over the years, and also to some friends of my late uncle. Lunch was at the wonderful Emmeline’s, who also provided scrumpy cakes for dessert this evening.
Daisy Daisy, I used to make lace, but my MS means I don’t have the coordination and accuracy to do the prickings or place the pins any more ☹️. I have included my bobbins in my will - a young friend who’s learned will be having some, and a good friend who has progressed to Honiton will have bobbins and all my other equipment.
I'm impressed by all this baking and thoughts of marmalade cake have me somewhat salivating.
I semi-recall a couple of recipes - one microwave fudge. The ingredients were icing sugar, double cream, white chocolate and butter and vanilla essence but I can't for the life of me remember the proportions. I also semi-recall a recipe for microwave carrot cake which had something like 5 fl oz of sunflower or olive oil. That was delish! I wish I could remember them.
...We've been all the way to Weymouth today and back. We had back to back viewings of our house all day and the weather was dreadful, so hours on a train seemed like a sensible way to while away the time...
Marmalade CAKE was tonight's pudding and a roaring success. I made a pound cake, or what the French call "four quarters" - weigh the eggs and then use equal amounts of butter, sugar and flour. Three tablespoons of marmalade were then stirred into said mixture. I glazed it with more marmalade (loosened with a little hot water) and drizzled icing. Husband en rouge says I can make another one any time I feel like it.
I remember the Vesta curries from the 1970s, but they were a very rare occurrence in our house, as Mum was a very good cook, and happy to do things from scratch.
My paella came out very nicely; the prawns were already cooked, so they just needed to go in at the end and heat through. The sausages were a bit of a let-down: I used to use Costco Italian sausages, which were variously herby and spicy, and worked very well, but I think these would have been better suited to bangers and mash or maybe a fry-up. I'll need to look out for proper sausages (or chorizo, which I haven't tried before) for next time.
Still, there's enough left over for a light lunch tomorrow.
You totally need chorizo. Lupe Pinto in Tollcross, or the little grocer at the top of Marchmont Rd a little up from Cork and Cask for the echt stuff - but I think Sainsbury's do a cooking chorizo.
Dinner of grilled lamb chops, tzatziki, chips and a very nice Uruguayan red.
A while back, the people who I have Zoom dinner with each Saturday decided it would be a Good Idea to hunt down Vesta Chow Mein and have a shared experience - for once, we’d be eating the same thing. We won’t be doing that again - it isn’t what any of us remembered. We’ve gone back to digging whatever we can out of our freezers or, as a treat, having a pub home delivery (like meals on wheels, really).
@Priscilla what a lovely way to pass on your lace making bits.
The only way I can tolerate marmalade is in a cake - yummy! But my go-to cake at the moment is a microwave chocolate mug cake. Hmm, thats an idea.....
A few years ago I made some marmalade which turned out chewy. Worse, it could be rolled into marble sized balls and bounced. As it was all wrong for spreading on toast, i used it up in marmalade cake and marmalade sponge pudding. I don't think I've made marmalade cake since.
I semi-recall a couple of recipes - one microwave fudge. The ingredients were icing sugar, double cream, white chocolate and butter and vanilla essence but I can't for the life of me remember the proportions. I also semi-recall a recipe for microwave carrot cake which had something like 5 fl oz of sunflower or olive oil. That was delish! I wish I could remember them.
Helix you could try an internet search for carrot cake in a mug. Obviously it wouldn't be a large as a full sized cake - but then you could make several.
The only carrot cake recipe I have made was in the slow cooker - I make it to prove to a friend that it could be done. I don't think either of us really believed it would come out as yummy as it did.
Comments
There used to be a local company which emptied sewage tanks. Their lorries were sludge brown and carried captions such as “The motion is carried” and “The way to suck cess”.
We used to go on canal holidays, many years ago, and I remember seeing a boat with a similar purpose called “Two loos leau treck”.
Btw, should you be walking up an Edinburgh close and hear a shout from above of 'Gardy loo!' the correct response is 'Haud yer hond!'
I think the shop will have to be referred to as Fork Handles though!
Actually, there is a hardware shop of that name in Teignmouth - I'd link to it if I wasn't using my mobile.
I'm currently waiting for my brother and s-i-l, and we're going out for a celebratory lunch, albeit a dry one, as there's no booze allowed in restaurants here.
Don’t complain - eating isn’t allowed in restaurants here!
@Piglet I do like a proper Fork Handles hardware shop and it’s a delight to come across one.
Today I entertained a neighbour’s cat for an hour or so (just company, no food) before installing a key safe outside - following key shenanigans a few days ago I felt it was about time I have one. Another neighbour has a spare key, but what if I get locked out when they are out or (worse) away!
Now to plant some alstroemeria clumps yet another neighbour has given me - apparently they multiply quickly which sounds a Good Thing.
It's just one of the many good, independent "little" local shops in the High Street
Dinner tonight is random veg with a chicken breast. Going to try doing wedges with celeriac on the side. No idea what any of it will turn out like! I think I warned @Sandemaniac that it was experimental cookery night...
A company in New Hampshire that did this work had written across the back of each truck
,SHIT HAPPENS.
"Here" as in Germany or as in Usual Boogieville?
Lunch was very nice - I had a ciabatta sandwich with bacon, brie and cranberry sauce. Then a quick flick round Aldi (their wine is really cheap) and a foray to Argos to get a whizzy-whizz for soup making, and back to mine so that they could help with hanging pictures (of which I think I have more than I have wall space). It's nice to have them up: they make it seem more like My Place.
Both!
It’s nearly 6am here and I seem to be awake. Too early to get up so I’m happily perusing the Ship.
🙂
This afternoon I need to make my entry for the ‘bake your research’ competition. And I need to feed the birds.
I have 4 late essays in my inbox and might mark them today to clear the decks for the next lot.
This afternoon I shall make a marmalade cake.
Ooh, I haven’t made that for ages, must find the recipe!
Enquiring minds need to know!
Having ploughed my way through paperwork this morning, I shall enjoy making lace this afternoon - nothing fancy as I’m still a beginner.
Luckily said Sandemaniac will eat pretty much anything that stays still in the presence of knife and fork long enough. I'm still here to write this, so it can't have been lethal.
Celeriac wedges are quite tasty, BTW - softer in the middle than a potato wedge.
After that we tottered down to the Grassmarket, which has sprouted a Saturday market in the years since we were last there. Acquired smoked duck, smoked cheese, smoked butter, pain au chocolat, a bottle of mead and some very good pork and apple sausage rolls.
If this is what the outside world has to offer, we may go again.
It's a dreich but mostly dry day here, so I had a little amble down to Tesco's to further augment my spice collection: I now have the requisite bits and bobs for making a half-decent curry. Or bacon, lentil and tomato SOUP, as I am now the proud possessor of a whizzy-whizz.
I'm still contemplating storage issues: while I like the idea of a proper spice rack on the wall, there's a little pull-out larder (more of a larderlet really - it's not very big) beside the cupboard under the sink, and it might be feasible to have all my herbs and spices on the top rack of that. The lower rack is a bit of a bummer - it's separated into four sections which are each about the right size for a bottle, but because of the dividers, there's a limit to what other things you could put there.
I will get there - it's just a matter of working out what fits best where. There's what ought to be a really useful cupboard in the living room - full door height, over 5 feet wide and 18 inches deep - but for some reason it's been fitted with just three shelves, 18 inches apart and 10 inches deep. If I had them ripped out and replaced with sensibly-sized and spaced ones, it could make an excellent larder; at the moment I've got dishes and glasses in it, as it seemed like a sensible place to put them when we were unpacking my stuff, but I could see it with tins, jars and glass canisters of this, that and the other.
@Piglet Congratulations on the new position! I'm so very pleased for you. And worry not. Five years out of the workforce is a mere sabbatical. I have faith. As to wine matches from the chippy, I found that you need a thirst quencher. I've gone with good success with a Vinho Verde (low alcohol - about 9%), slightly effervescent, very nice cold - so it helps to cut the possible greasiness, it's refreshing, and you can drink somewhat more of it than a NZ sauvignon blanc. This brings back memories of when I lived in Islington - my chippy's chips were adequate, but the cod was the size of a dolphin, and superb.
@lavieenrouge Your mention of marmalade cake brought back decades. It brought a tear to my eye. Tell us how it turns out. [Digging out my Great British Cooking....]
I've been making a December journal for myself out of some craft paper; I'm very pleased with the result and looking forward to using it. November's a difficult month for me, but I don't like wishing my time away either. (It's put me in a slightly festive mood which I'm having to hide from Mr Nen as he is Bah Humbug about Christmas.
For tea we are having stir fry and are going to be trying the sulphite-free wine which I managed to find at Tesco's and which we're hoping is going to be the answer to Mr Nen's problem with red wine. He loves it but it seems to sit very heavily with him as he's got older.
It's been raining pretty much all day. I'm still in what is euphemistically known as "lounge wear" (nightwear and romper suit) and starting to wonder whether it's actually worth getting dressed as it's starting to get dark outside.
My cake will be topped with green fondant icing which I will add a circuit board design to (I have purchased several icing writing in tubes in gold silver and pearl). When the cake is cut open it will reveal a layered rainbow cake.
That’s theory anyway. Layers 3 and 4, green and blue, currently baking.
Hm, marmalade cake, haven’t made that in ages. I make it like I would a lemon drizzle cake but pour marmalade on top.
I don't think it got properly light here all day: I had to put the lights on when I came back from Tesco's, and that was before 3 o'clock. But this is November in Scotland, so what should I expect?
I took the elements for a paella out of the freezer yesterday, so I'll go and assemble them shortly. As I've just had a lovely long Facebook chat with my best friend in Canada, the SOUP hasn't happened, but it can wait.
In other news, I've showered, am back in "lounge wear" (as @Bishops Finger would say, let the reader understand
We've been all the way to Weymouth today and back. We had back to back viewings of our house all day and the weather was dreadful, so hours on a train seemed like a sensible way to while away the time. We intend to go back when the weather is nicer and stay longer than an hour.
Ooh, I haven’t made that for ages, must find the recipe!
I particularly like Roses lime marmalade.
Dragonlet 1 gets the Beano delivered every week. The current edition contains an 8 page pullout for grown ups making fun of 2020. It's quite funny, and I think that we can safely say that the staff don't vote Tory given that it takes pot shots at several prominent members of the government and an extended dig at Cummings. It is of course produced in Scotland.
I am now watching and listening to a live (?) broadcast of Mozart’s Requiem by English National Opera.
I guess they are well spaced, as required, but I can’t help wondering how much ventilation there is in the building- sufficient for their safety, I hope.
The sound the chorus makes is quite different from any I have heard before. Obviously they are professionals, but very different from the sort of sound that The Sixteen, for example might make. It occurs to me that some may not have sung it before, it not being part of their normal repertoire, whereas as a member of amateur choirs, I have sung it maybe ten times or more.
Husband made homemade burgers for tea and now I’m having a blackberry gin and tonic.
We had a Saturday out today, the first for months. (We came back off holiday in September to local lockdown, followed by all Wales lockdown). It was so nice to go to Abergavenny, especially as the craft market was on in the market hall, and it was nice to speak to a lady who has made me some beautiful handbags over the years, and also to some friends of my late uncle. Lunch was at the wonderful Emmeline’s, who also provided scrumpy cakes for dessert this evening.
Daisy Daisy, I used to make lace, but my MS means I don’t have the coordination and accuracy to do the prickings or place the pins any more ☹️. I have included my bobbins in my will - a young friend who’s learned will be having some, and a good friend who has progressed to Honiton will have bobbins and all my other equipment.
I semi-recall a couple of recipes - one microwave fudge. The ingredients were icing sugar, double cream, white chocolate and butter and vanilla essence but I can't for the life of me remember the proportions. I also semi-recall a recipe for microwave carrot cake which had something like 5 fl oz of sunflower or olive oil. That was delish! I wish I could remember them.
My paella came out very nicely; the prawns were already cooked, so they just needed to go in at the end and heat through. The sausages were a bit of a let-down: I used to use Costco Italian sausages, which were variously herby and spicy, and worked very well, but I think these would have been better suited to bangers and mash or maybe a fry-up. I'll need to look out for proper sausages (or chorizo, which I haven't tried before) for next time.
Still, there's enough left over for a light lunch tomorrow.
Dinner of grilled lamb chops, tzatziki, chips and a very nice Uruguayan red.
@Priscilla what a lovely way to pass on your lace making bits.
The only way I can tolerate marmalade is in a cake - yummy! But my go-to cake at the moment is a microwave chocolate mug cake. Hmm, thats an idea.....
Helix you could try an internet search for carrot cake in a mug. Obviously it wouldn't be a large as a full sized cake - but then you could make several.
The only carrot cake recipe I have made was in the slow cooker - I make it to prove to a friend that it could be done. I don't think either of us really believed it would come out as yummy as it did.
@Piglet Definitely a chorizo for your paella (dried, but I like not too dry, so that the fat melts out and conveys more of the flavour).