Get Involved Part 2

I have got paid! After more messing about than you would believe, it turns out that my account number was written down from my email incorrectly, so someone else now has the money as well. Apparently the person who did that no longer works for the enterprise.

Funnily enough, and I'm too cynical for my own good sometimes, this all came to light and was resolved within 3 hours of me suggesting that the Small Claims Court may be able to assist in resolving the issue.

Mixture

 

 

First of all, here's a memory, back in 2008, I had the privilege of piloting the British Columbia Ferries new-building "Coastal Celebration" up to Tower Bridge. On a voyage from the builders yard to Vancouver it was decorated to advertise the 2010 Winter Olympics.

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know who that bloke was getting in the way. (LOL)

It doesn't seem like 6 years ago, more like yesterday.

Enough reminiscing, back to sunny Devon.

Its been very mild here, probably caused by us getting all our winter clothes ready, so now we have nothing comfortable to wear out in the muggy, warm days.

Food wise I have been revisiting a few old favourites, we had roast turkey last Sunday, a bit keen but you have to get the practise in. There was a bit of meat left over, I cut it into chunks and marinated it in the fridge in a 50/50 mixture of Sweet Chilli Sauce and Crunchy Peanut Butter for six hours. (Overnight is just as good)

It had 40 minutes in a 180 degree oven and although the pictures are a bit gruesome it tastes brilliant.

You can do the same with raw chicken or pork, just cook a little longer to ensure its cooked through.

To accompany, I cut potato wedges with an apple corer, part boiled and tossed in oil and vinegar. They went into the oven for the same time as the meat,

I'm still experimenting with various biscuits, I used to enjoy Fig Rolls and thought I'd have a go. I used the Oat and Sourdough base mixture that I use for Digestives and date puree as I had no figs. They were more like a flapjack but very nice,

perhaps I could do a biscuit assortment for Xmas, I can do Custard Creams, Jammie Dodgers, Digestives, Date Rolls and Ginger Nuts, oh and Condensed Milk Cookies.

In anticipation of NaNoWriMo, I did a rough word count of my works in progress, to give me a base figure. I'm not starting from scratch, I want to finish something, at least to the first draft state.

Myra 36561, Ribbonworld 28281, The Rocks of Aserol Part 2 8903.

So we'll have to see how they change.

Get Involved.

Back in August, I helped out at a community boys school holiday project baking bread.

I didn't do it for the money, although that was nice, so when I was asked to send an invoice I did.

Then the fun started, they wouldn't pay by cheque so I had to send my bank details, then I had to sign a contract, then re-send the bank details, then no answer to phone or email.

Meanwhile I kept getting calls asking me to do other projects, which I had said at the start that I couldn't do.

As of today, I still haven't got paid, perhaps they think that if they hang on for a while I will forget the whole thing, well they are WRONG in that respect, but I won't forget when it comes to next year and they are looking for people to help.

And they say get involved in your local community!

Walking in the Rain.

 

I love charity shops, you never know what you will find, I must admit that sometimes I wonder at the reason people get rid of things that I covet (I'm glad they do though)

 

Anyhow, I got this book for £1.49 and its about to change my life (and my waistline!) I've got the ingredients for a couple of the recipes so stay tuned.

 

 

In other news I got a brand new shirt for £4.50 but you can't eat that.

I also took my camera for a walk with the dogs today, it was bright sunlight without a cloud in the sky when I set off, I thought that the light would make some amazing pictures up at Sharkham.

Well in a feat of timing, when I got up there it was raining and cloudy, then I'd only taken a few pictures and the camera battery died, so I wrapped my camera in a dog-poo bag to keep it dry and trudged home.

When I put the pictures onto my computer I was quite shocked at how well they had come out, so I'd like to share them with you.

First view of the Sea



It's just up here

Berry Head from Sharkham.

 

I never forget how lucky I am to have this 10 minutes walk from my front gate. It's always different, always beautiful (even in the rain) and helps keep me sane.

 

What Well Bread did at the Weekend

I thought you might like to see this post from my other blog, if you like it, check out the archive.

The days when I'm not baking for customers, I like to try something different. This saturday I had two projects that I wanted to try, one that I have been meaning to do for a while and one that I only found this week.

I had to start my prep on Friday, when I got my sourdough starter Hortense out of the fridge and woke her up. I fed her twice on friday and by saturday morning she was raring to go.

What I wanted to try was sourdough doughnuts, I had seen the recipe ages ago but never got round to it. I wanted to see if I could bake them, so I divided the dough and tried both ways.

Oh and here's the Baked one looking sad......Healthy but sad.

As you can see, you can't bake this particular recipe, so fried it will have to be in future. I had a look inside one and it had puffed up perfectly,

Now I just need a thing to fill them with jam..



Now for Part 2

Here's the address of a superb website, and the place I found my next recipe.(Well spotted Yvonne!)

http://www.red-brolly.com/2014/10/summertime-bread/

I don't need to tell you all the details because its so well done over there but take it from me, and from Yvonne and from Norma our neighbour and from Phillip her husband (I think you get the idea) that the Bread is amazing, I made it in a springfrom tin in the end as it seemed a little loose for a freeform loaf but that was probably something I did (without my glasses on.
)

Ready for the second rise

Oven ready

The bread was really nice buttered.

A week of bits and pieces.

A lot of random things happened this week, mostly enjoyable.

I went to see the Orthapedic Consultant on Monday, and had scans and an Xray of my shoulder.

The results showed no structural damage, so no surgery for me at the moment, but there was a lot of inflammation in the area (maybe arthritis?) so I've had another Cortisone injection, a bit more targeted this time, in the region of the subacromial bursa.




The needle actually went into the Acromioclavicular joint but I never felt a thing.

I still have the pain, and the limited range of motion, hopefully that will start to improve soon, at least I know that there is nothing major wrong and that I'm not making it worse by using it up to the limits of pain.

That's enough technical stuff, back to non-medical things for a bit. But first, we had the squirrel back to make sure there were no nuts left for the birds.

persistent little fellow.
We also had a voucher for a free breakfast at the Breakwater Bistro, great views and great food,

we sat outside, it was a warm dry morning, there was even a man swimming in the sea.

Since then, however the weather has turned a bit wet and windy, it'll soon be back to GMT and soup, drawing the curtains early and snuggling down.

That leads me on to croutons, I love them in soup (or on salad but the link is harder) and made a big batch, using half a loaf and plenty of Blackberry Vinegar. I thought that they were burnt, but it's where the vinegar has caramelised on the cubes, either way they taste great and will keep us going for a while.

Totnes sunday market has come around again, so I need to make room in the freezer for goodies, I found a bag of biscuit dough that I had saved and thawed it out.

While I had the oven on for the croutons, and a pair of Ciabatta, I made biscuits.

Unfortunately they didn't come out to well, but the taste was fine and they were nice broken into yogurt.

That's Greek yogurt with Cranberries by the way.

Saturday morning and we're off for our Flu jabs, not the most exciting way to spend a morning, but the hospital is only a five minute walk and its not raining that hard.
At least we shouldn't get flu this winter, when we get back its baking and a cup of good coffee.