George is Home

Well George is home, totally surprised everyone, I came up to Work and popped in to see Naomi as Amy was there, I don’t get much chance to see Amy as she lives in Nottingham, and as I walked up the stairs to Naomi’s flat George jumped out in front of me. I nearly had a heart attack; she had sneaked home without telling anyone and got her mate to bring her down from the airport. Poor thing she was used to temperatures of 40 degrees in Oz, and it was about 5 here. She's only been home a week, but she's brought a car, had several job interviews and generally whizzed around

I had to stay at work for an extra couple of days on a course, but then brought George and Naomi down to Devon for a few days. I didn’t tell Yvonne, who was as thrilled as me to see her. We had a great time out and about and I took them home when I worked on the 19^th.

So that’s why I have been strangely silent for the last few days, which is not to say that it's been quiet, I'm only now catching my breath.

I'm still persevering with the sourdough, and as it gets older (It's now 1 Month) it's getting better, the last loaf was a lot more open, still more like German Rye Bread than an English loaf, but edible and tasty. Hortense is out of the fridge for a few days intensive feeding and hopefully a growth spurt.

Risen Overnight

Ready to Bake

A Better Crumb

Unfortunately, I haven’t got a lot of pictures of food at the moment, Yvonne has been doing a fair bit of the cooking recently, and with all the excitement the camera has been left unused, however as it was shrove Tuesday I made pancakes, with Cherry Compote and Ice-Cream, very nice.

Yvonne is doing her signature dish, Chicken with Peaches and Mushrooms, it's bubbling in the slow cooker as I type, filling the house with a better smell than damp dog!

Seriously, it's a superb meal, served with rice and one of the first things she ever cooked for me. Along with her Pizza, home-made Burgers and her Chilli, I'm exceedingly lucky when she cooks.

Not only that, she has been making a patchwork cushion cover, just needs a pad now, when it's ironed I’ll put a picture up.

Saddest news this week, the Magdelan Project called on Monday, I was expecting them to confirm the Bread Course on Thursday, but instead they said that they had to cancel it. Apparently not enough people had booked to make it worthwhile and the next course in April is on a day that I'm working. To say that I'm disappointed would be an understatement.

I did make some soup, with beef stock and mixed pulses, I added some cooked Chorizo pieces as well.

Yvonne had some Green and Blacks Chocolate left over from the cake, so I made shortbread and topped them with it.

I brought loads of Chorizo when it was on offer, and I have to keep coming up with ideas to use it. The latest was yesterdays lunch, which was Pepper chunks and Chorizo fried until the pepper was soft, with grated cheese stirred in until melted. I toasted slices of Sourdough and topped with the mixture, sort of an alternative Bruschetta.

Today will be a tortilla with peppers, fried potato peels and Chorizo.

And here it is.

 Down to the Black Cat yesterday, the Pink Speckled Cake was superb, as was the conversation. http://www.facebook.com/blackcatcafebrixham?sk=wall

 The Garden is slowly coming back to life, there are buds on all the fruit trees, Yvonne is just pruning the Buddleia, and I am still waiting to see if my seed potatoes and Horseradish  have survived the frosts. When the weather improves a bit more I have to rebuild the tree house, after the wind assisted demolition last year. Then it will be on with the veg. The wheel turns.