Busy, busy weekend! How comes they always go so fast? Still Simon only has this week to work and then he is off for a week for half term. We would so like to go away somewhere hot but it isn’t possible. We have no dog sitter and of course the grandbaby is due so we just can’t.
I’m having a half hour day today in an attempt to get some jobs done. The house has disintegrated into a bomb site and I’m not even quite sure how! Ok its 11am and I need to work................back in half an hour!
Back again! Goodness that half hour flew by. I did a bit more tidying in the kitchen, folded some washing put another load on and got a chocolate tray bake in the oven. I’m not sure how it is going to work out. We went into town on Saturday afternoon for a short while and I went into Lakeland Plastics because I wanted a pie dish; Whist there I saw a tray bake tin that comes with a lid with a handle for easy transportation. Since I often make cakes for Simon to take to school I thought this would work well. I haven’t made a tray bake for years, probably not since the children were all at school so I looked up a recipe. I liked the sound of the Good Food one for Sticky Chocolate Drop cake.
First problem was I didn’t have any cocoa (going to go to Sainsbury’s for the grocery shopping tonight) I did have some praline drinking chocolate from Thornton’s so I have used that instead. I figure it should work but might not be as chocolaty. Second problem, the recipe says the tin should be 20 x 30 mine is 25 x 37! The woman in Lakeland said it was a standard size!!!!! Looks standard to me. Anyway the mixture did cover the whole thing but it wasn’t very thick so it has a hell of a lot of rising to do if I am not to end up with biscuits.
Third problem was the oven temperature. My oven has been playing around for ages. I keep telling Simon that it is not heating up properly. Fairy cakes which should take 15 minutes take about 35. A bigger cake that I do which is supposed to take about 50 minutes takes at least an hour and a half. If I am doing a dinner of shop brought pies that say 50 minutes from frozen on the box they will still only be luke warm. I think the oven needs to be recalibrated (is that the right word? Simon keeps saying buy an oven thermometer.
So on Saturday in Lakeland Plastics I purchased an oven thermometer for £4.99. I really just want it to prove to Simon that the oven is up the creek. Of course the stupid thing doesn’t give you gas marks only centigrade. So I had to look up and convert. My recipe says gas mark 4 which is apparently 180 degrees. I popped the thermometer in the oven and gave it 20 minutes to warm up....it was 130! Way out so I kept turning it up and up. I have it on Gas mark 6 now and the thermometer is reading about 165. I don’t dare turn it up anymore because I think it would just burn on the top before it can rise....I think......is that possible or not because although it says gas mark 6 according to the temperature it isn’t even up to gas 4 yet! Anyway, I have the thing cooking now and we shall see. I am not at all convinced. Keep your fingers crossed.
Back to the weekend.....On Saturday we went to the allotment in the morning. Simon lit a bonfire so we could burn off lots of weeds. He started on digging over the bed where the potatoes were. We want to get the autumn onions in there. Which reminds me, that is another of today’s jobs to order the onions. I did a load of weeding and also picked some more of our produce. The last of the peppers and chillies, plus some carrots and parsnips. We have a very odd looking parsnip. I’ll take some photos so you can see. I also took a video on my new bloggie which I will post soon. I think it has turned out ok considering I couldn’t actually see the screen! The sun was quite bright and it makes it very hard to see. Not a good point! Anyway, I have moved more slowly and I think it is ok.
In the afternoon as I already mentioned we went into town because Simon wanted to exchange the charm he got me for my birthday. Remember apart from the cam-corder he got me a dog charm for my Pandora bracelet and it didn’t fit. I let him go to the jewellers on his own so that he could choose another one. That was when I went to Lakeland.
He didn’t actually get another one as when he explained to them that it didn’t fit on Pandora they said they could sell him a link that simply attaches and then the link fits on Pandora so that is what he did and I have my doggie which pleased me because I really liked it. It would have been so much easier if he had said it was for a Pandora bracelet in the first place! Men!
On the way back to the car park with those 2 jobs completed we had to walk past the Lush shop and I couldn’t resist going in. I have already used the lovely bath bombs that I had for my birthday so Simon treated me to 3 more. At the till they give us a leaflet about greyhound rescue. It seems they are supporting the local rescue centre. She said if you donate £1 you get to pull something from the lucky dip. I got Simon to do it and he pulled out a bath bomb! Brilliant and we helped the doggies.
Saturday evening was very relaxed watching Strictly Come Dancing. Simon made a really good pizza using his famous scone base. Yummy. (I have “Strictly” news which I will tell you shortly).
I can smell my cake... it has 10 more minutes.... I am not going to go and look until the buzzer goes which will be time for me to do jobs anyway.
Yesterday we went up to Stevenage to see my Dad. My sister always takes him to see Mum on a Sunday and then gives him dinner at her house. She had a break this week as we were there. Dad is still really unwell. He had been hoping that he would be up to us taking him to see Mum but he really wasn’t. He hasn’t seen her for 3 weeks now. He is just sitting in his chair not even watching TV, just sitting there. It is not at all like him. He will finish his antibiotics in Wednesday and my sister and I agree that if he is still the same we will call the doctor out again.
We did have quite a good time with him and we cooked farmhouse chicken for dinner which he actually ate and enjoyed. He hasn’t been eating well at all. We came home as usual laden with goodies. These are for Christmas. There is a case of the red stuff and so many boxes of biscuits and chocolate that we could open a shop. He has really gone mad this year and it will take us forever to get through them even with our family.
I am getting really concerned.....I can REALLY smell that cake..... 5 more minutes.
Yesterday evening Simon went over to his barn and I made a few phone calls and watched the Strictly results show. YAY! They got rid of the stupid little gnome man aka Paul Daniels. I can’t stand that man he is SO irritating and he REALLY, REALLY cannot dance. Neither of course can Ann Widdecomb but she is funny.
I mentioned I had “Strictly” news...... I’m so excited.....................I have tickets!!!!!! As it is a live show you can apply via the BBC ticket line for free tickets. They do it as a draw because it is so popular. I have applied the last couple of years for a few dates but no luck. This year I applied for every date. I have been lucky. I have 2 tickets for the Saturday the 30th of October show. All I have to do now is decide who to take with me!!!!!!
Midday time to go and do some jobs and see what is going on with that cake, I hear the buzzer now.
Well it is ok. It has only risen about a half inch to an inch in the middle. I was disappointed. But I have now had a slice with my coffee and it tastes absolutely yum even without any icing! I’ll put some butter cream on it later and some chocolate buttons and Simon can take it to school. I am quite sure they will eat it.
I have been washing off and cleaning the carrots and parsnips ready to either go in the fridge or freezer. We are having pork chops tonight so I will use some then. I have got more washing and ironing done. I need to hoover right through. I need to wash the kitchen floor. I need to order a couple of things online. I need to look at our bank statement. I need to do a whole load of stuff!
Although these look a bit manky I have discovered that if I peel them thickly they are fine!
Think I will finish this now as I want to play farm games in my next “me” half hour. Two things before I go. Why is Lakeland Plastics called that? It is a kitchen shop. Weird. Second thing, did anyone notice that my photo a day blog for the 16th posted itself twice? I have no idea how that happened. One had 2 comments and the other 6 so I have deleted the one with 2 comments. Plus one of the comments was offensive regarding Mr Williams. Mickey you naughty man. DO NOT DISS ROBBIE!!!!!!!
Ok, I’m off now, more jobs to do. I will post my photo a day entry this evening.
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