Kitchen Capers

We had been planning our new kitchen for over a year and decided November would be the month to get it fitted.  We were doing most of the work ourselves and only needed a plumber to fit the double ceramic sink and an experienced worktop fitter to cut the solid oak tops we had bought.  We spent many miserable hours getting lost in Ikea and:

• queuing to collect what items they had in stock
• queuing to arrange delivery for those they didn't
• explaining that if Ikea choose to warehouse their goods in Peterborough that's their choice and therefore we are not paying additional delivery costs (we won)
• paid, in fairness, a reasonable sum of money
• arranged to work from home so we could take delivery
• re-arranged our working from home days when the delivery got changed
• piled the 70 plus boxes into the shed thoughtfully emptied for us by the October robbers
• booked a long weekend to get started
• bickered like children as we both tried to organise the other (I let Himself think he'd won.  Psychology in action)
• remembered that between us we had 3 European business trips in Nov.  

Below shows what we lived with for a few days while Himself went to Germany.

Then we had a weekend of this...

 and this...

Here's what I left when I went to Budapest one week and Germany the week after.

And this is (more or less) what I came home to.  The new (stupidly heavy) sink is in and hasn't fallen through the floor, the worktops are shaped around it and behind, going deep into the window and the new corner cupboards with an integrated microwave are installed.  Ikea messed up on the two drawer fronts you can see missing and promised we'd have them 5th Dec, then 22nd Dec, now 21st Jan.  Ho hum.

On the other side - the worktop is fitted beautifully and fairy lights are strung round the range.

The wooden kitchen table had it's legs sanded and painted in a sheeny cream colour ready for Christmas.  We have more work to do to replace the corner cupboards in the top right of the picture below before we can finish off with the under cupboard trim stuff (don't know what you call it), downlights and then the tiles can go on. So we've nearly finished this massive job which started 18 months ago with Himself tripling the size of the chimney so it could take the 110 cm range cooker I wanted to bring with me when I moved in a year ago.  Phew.  Then it's only fitting new external doors, laying flag stones in the front and back porches, replastering the living room, bedrooms and staircase, fitting a new bathroom, moving a couple of internal doors, fitting velux windows in the roof and replacing some windows to go.

Budapest

Work took me to Budapest for four days at the end of November.  Unfortunately our work and meeting schedule didn't allow much down time to explore the city so we were limited to a couple of hours during daylight on day one and two hours on our final evening.  Below is a photo of a bar opposite our restaurant where we ate on our first night since we were keen to experience local life.  People lovely and friendly, food less so.  (Although the hotel had the best fresh muesli I've tasted.)

I'd been warned I wouldn't be able to pronounce the street names.  True.

There were some very elegant if tired looking buildings. 

We made it to the river.  This is probably where you see Budapest at its best but the weather wasn't kind to us and the whole of our visit was conducted under grey, clammy skies.

I love a tram, me!  

And here are some heroic sculptures...

Our big adventure was taking the underground to visit a market on the other side of the city.  It took us 10 mins to work out how to buy a ticket and the escalators are the steepest, fastest and deepest I've experienced.  The photo below was taken when we were half way down.  

We visited a market with colourful displays of paprika, garlic and vegetables...

...and salami.  (I panic bought a salami and now have no idea what to do with it.)

We tried the local tipple.  Don't try this at home.  Really.

Almost before we knew it, we were back at the airport.  I don't feel qualified to say much about the city because I'm pretty sure it would be different if you were there on holiday in summer with time to wander around and enjoy it.  So mostly I think I should just share the photos.  

On the flight home I did a little doodle.  So Hungary did leave an impression on me, if only a vague one.

Lightening Strikes

September and October were to be our nice socialising months before we got stuck into fitting the new kitchen and preparing for Christmas.  We went to a couple of supper clubs organised as part of the Great Bath Feast (greatbathfeast.co.uk) and had a couple of trips to the theatre.  One show was in Glasgow so we combined that with a visit to the family and a very nice time we had.

Having landed at Edinburgh airport we decided to try out the recently installed tram system.  Nice.  Slow, but nice. 

The SSE was the venue for the show we'd booked for in Glasgow.  The locals call this the "bunnet" because it looks like one, a bonnet that is.  If you ever get a chance to see a BBC Scotland TV show called "Still Game", see it.  It's about pensioner pals Jack and Victor living out their twilight years on a Glasgow high rise council estate.  It's OAP's behaving badly (and often laugh-out-loud rudely) but written and played with a rare wit, warmth and wisdom.  As soon as I heard there was to be a live show, I booked.

Then two things tripped us up.  One night, a few out-buildings and sheds in our village were targetted by thieves and we were one of those who had a break in and several items were stolen. Two weeks later there was a terrific thunder and lightening storm in our area.  While we were admiring the storm (they don't usually last the 3 hours this one did) our house took a hit.  The electricity blew but we presumed all would be well in the morning and went to bed early thinking the worst that might happen was that we'd lose some freezer foods in the power cut.  (I wish I'd taken the photo below but it appeared in the local paper, the Bath Chronicle.)

Next morning we woke to find anything with an electrical circuit had been fried so there was no broadband or phone connection.  The boiler was affected so there was no hot water.  Two TV's, two games consoles, a PC monitor and the dishwasher had broken.  We traipsed round the house flicking switches to see what the storm had left us with that worked.  Thankfully the cooker and kettle were still operational and nothing looks too bleak if you can wrap your hands around a comforting cuppa.  Many of our neighbours were in the same predicament but the small group who gathered round our garden gate to offer help (mostly to those without working kettles) knew enough plumbers and electricians to begin the repair work.

October wasn't our best month. Neither of us had ever claimed on household insurance and suddenly we had two claims within two weeks.  Bah.

We cheered ourselves up by taking to boys to Wookey Hole, aka The Wookey's Hole, the Hole of the Wookey etc etc make up your own rude names.  It's a series of caves and you can visit as part of a guided tour.

Spookily lit lakes.  Rubbish photos.

This is one of our favourite wacky days out in deepest Somerset with lots of odd added attractions - so giant dinosaurs are found next to a clown museum which is beside a 1950's seaside style penny arcade. The boys go for the crazy golf and ice cream and I go for the cave aged cheese which is rather good and stored in nice photogenic shelves in the caves.

We took home a 1.8kg truckle of finest cave aged cheddar.  I think the excuse was we needed it for Christmas.

How to not burn macarons

Generally I've been quite satisfied with the results of my macaron experiments. A few weeks ago I worked my way through the splendid "Mad About Macarons" book and I turned into a feeder both at home and in the office, pressing macarons on anyone within the same postcode as me. My book said bake at 160 fan for 8-12 minutes. But this gave me a problem with browning which spoiled the aesthetics (though not taste) of the smooth shell surface. Having got most of the rest of the techniques right, I really wanted to crack this one. And I was keen to stop making the ugly monster macarons of earlier blogs.
I had already switched to powdered food colourings, having read that liquids and some gels are not heat resistant and decided to conduct scientific experiments with temperatures and timings. I started by checking my oven temperature by sticking my sugar thermometer on shelves at the top, middle, bottom and sides of the oven starting at 140 degrees (fan). It was giving a reliable temperature throughout so the next test was to prepare a batch of macaron batter and be willing to sacrifice it in experimentation. I drew up a list of temperatures, each with a range of times beside it and piped 5 macaron blobs onto my baking sheet, 4 in each corner and 1 in the middle to make sure I was checking all extremes of my oven. Starting at 140 for 18 minutes, I baked and crossed my fingers and got not one but two nice surprises. You are advised to rest the batter for 30 mins to allow the top of the shells to dry out before placing in the oven. This is important in forming the little ruffled foot at the base of the shell. Because I was testing for browning I didn't bother with this step and popped the piped shells straight into the oven and look what came out....Lovely little ruffles and no browning in sight. Great!

I decided not to rest any of them and had no issues with feet not foarming, they all came out beautifully. This will be a real time saver in future!

The shells did have a slight hollowness which isn't a problem I've had before so I did a second batch at 140 and gave this one 20 mins. Perfect. Naturally I then wanted to check the key colours pink, yellow, orange and green. This lead to a bit of a macaron fest...

See the goldy shines one below? It's some food glitter powder which I applied using my finger.

One of the useful things about making plain white shells is that they are neutral in flavour terms so you can fill them with any coloured filling and not worry about having a mismatch of shell colour and flavour. Below is salted caramel. These were simply gorgeous and I had to freeze them immediately or risk eating the whole lot. I love that about macarons, you can freeze them and defrost as needed. Make sure you defrost them inside a bag or a sealed box. If the air gets to them as they defrost the shells go mushy. Keep them covered and they come out crisp and just as good as when you put them in the freezer.

Posted with Blogsy

Foraging and Bottling

I know this is titled up foraging but I'm making a short deviation from the heading to tell you about my little brother's amazing cycle across Britain.  This picture was taken last sunday evening in Bath at the end of the second day's ride.  We went along to cheer the 800 riders over that day's finish line.  And one of them was my bro.

The next morning's route took them all through our small village as they headed north and I was there again with my camera.  It's a grueling challenge. On the road by 8am and over 100 miles each day for 9 days.  There's little time for aching muscles to rest and recover.  So to complete this has been an impressive and fabulous achievement.  Well done Walt!  I prefer poking around my favourite kitchen ware shop where, this weekend I found a very appropriate biscuit cutter.  Biscuits were baked in my bro's honour and eaten on his behalf too!  (Cornwall kept breaking off which was a shame 'cos that was the best bit.)

It's late summer in our corner of the world.  The tractors have been harvesting and baling in the field opposite our cottage.  The weather has been glorious.  So dry and warm you feel as if the long lazy days are going to go on and on.

But the ripening apples and hedgerows full of blackberries, elderberries and cob nuts mean autumn is on the way and it's timer to gather what you can.

There's a small woodland behind our lane where we go for all things fruity and will return later for sloes which are growing in abundance this year.

 We've even got a special foraging bag!  Cob nuts are so expensive in the shops, we're lucky to have a ready supply.

Although we don't grow our own plums or pears, they're plentiful and cheap just now and there are lots of recipes I want to try.  This was my first go at bottling fruits.  The plums with a brandy syrup and the pears with a cider syrup.

They need to sit in a bath of hot water for a while.

Then they can be labelled and put in a cool dark place and left to let the flavours get to work. 

 And preserved lemons looked easy (lemons and salt) so I gave that a go too. 

We took a trip to a local wood recycling project because part of the plan for the big shed is to make a bench down one side - it's officially my potting bench and in my head will look very nice with neat rows of seedlings but I fear it will get used as a dumping ground and there will be limited potting.  We found all the wood we needed and got it much cheaper than we had expected.

This is where Himself really excels.  We picked up the wood on Saturday and by Sunday afternoon he had made this fabby potting bench!  There's a little more work to do so I've only taken a photo of the completed section.  It has to be sanded down but once that's done it's going to look great. The bars on the window are a necessity and were fitted by Himself as extra security because a couple of weeks ago our shed was broken into. Somewhere, someone is enjoying a very nice bike and some good camping gear.  There were three other break ins that we know of round the village that same night and all lost something.  

 The weekend was rounded off with some seriously naughty fudge.  This was made in the thermomix with a googled recipe and is a proper gorgeous fudgy squishy texture.  I better keep on with my running programme!