A Tale for our Times

Once upon a time, it came to pass that a certain printer refused to print black properly, so in accordance with the ancient scrolls that he found in the loft, where they had been put for safekeeping, (right at the back) the valiant owner proceeded to try and clean the nozzles, including buying special cleaning cartridges. All to no avail, the printer finally admitted, via its control panel that a terminal error had occurred and it was time for it to go to printer heaven.

So (in our story), the brave printee, scoured the land (well Amazon) for a new printer to take up the challenge, but his first selection suffered from foul reviews. Hope was at hand with a different model, of course it was more expensive, but it was well liked in the world of Amazon-land and such was its beauty, that surely its purchase would make all things right.

So our hero waited, and lo it appeared through the driving rain, borne by the great being from Parcel Force, in haste it was unwrapped, and in accordance with the ritual set forth in the sacred Quickstart Guide, it was brought to life.

And the Black didn’t print!

Mind you neither did any of the other colours.

I’m sure that there is a moral here, but for the life of me I can’t see what it is. Perhaps it’s trying to tell me that things are more than just Black and White.

Meanwhile, a replacement will be here on Monday or Tuesday, I can’t fault customer services, but it means another day stuck waiting for a delivery.

Potato Bread

Well after my spiritual revelation last time, this post will be about food, the weather, printers and shopping.  

The weather has wrecked all our gardening plans this year, most of the flower seeds either got washed away, or rotted in  the ground, the slugs carpet the ground, and have climbed up into some amazing places (no pictures of that I’m afraid) and most of my veg have either been eaten or soaked. The stems of all my second early potatoes were rotting and eaten, so to salvage what I could I dug the rest up. Not a bad crop but looking at the number of small tubers, I wonder just how many more large potatoes I would have had in August.

I think we will be eating a lot of Potato dishes in the coming few days.

We were going to Exmouth on Tuesday, but it was raining so much as we got onto the M5 that on the spur of the moment we decided to go to Cribbs Causeway Shopping Centre near Bristol, at least it was inside 

Having worked out George’s camera for close up pictures, I found a couple of flowers that weren’t completely destroyed by the weather.



Will it go Red before the Slugs get it?



My printer has died, the black nozzles are blocked and no amount of cleaning, including special cleaning cartridges would get it going properly. So I have had to get another, which should be coming soon, probably when there is no-one here to receive it.

On Tuesday we had stuffed jacket potatoes, the inside is scooped out and refilled with a mixture of cheese and bacon, then put back in the oven until it’s all melted together.

I kept the potato flesh from these and used it in my bread making today, adding it to the dough for a wholemeal sandwich loaf.

I am using an autolyse of about 20 minutes in my technique, after reading about it on the web. I can really recommend it, as it helps the flavour and rise develop, but I add the yeast before autolyse, and the salt after, which while not strictly correct, seems to work just as well as adding both after.

So my proportions were,

320g Wholemeal flour,

180g Plain White flour,

180g cooked Potato, roughly mashed,

25g Lard,

20g Honey,

10g each of Salt and Yeast

350ml warm milk.

Mix everything except the salt until a rough dough is formed, leave for 20 minutes. Add the salt and mix again until a good dough develops (Window Pane test) Leave to rise for 90 minutes, knock back and shape, leave to prove for another 30 minutes while the oven heats up to 220 degrees.

Cook for about 40 minutes (Internal temp is 95 degrees), cool and enjoy.

Now I understand

There has been a lot happening in my life, things seemed to be going along a path that I was not sure that I wanted to follow. And now, in a way, it’s all starting to make a bit more sense.

A bit of history at this point will make the rest easier to follow.

Back in 2009, I was told, during a psychic reading, that I would have a change of life, and that I should be in Devon, that there was “Something” there for me. Yvonne was told the same, and whilst we both were open to the idea, we really couldn’t see how this would ever happen.

Well, to cut a long story short, I looked for work in Devon; we sold our house and moved down. I kept my job, but went part time in the same job as I couldn’t find one in Devon, although I’d had a couple of offers they just weren’t “right” in on way or another.

We have been in this situation for two years, during which time Yvonne has had a lot of healing of various kinds, and is in my opinion a New person. I have resolved a lot of my issues, with help, and adjusted to my new lifestyle.

Anyhow, back to the real reason for this post.

I don’t know if it’s me, but at a very few times in my life I’ve felt what I can only describe as an overwhelming feeling of emotion bursting out of me. Not a specific emotional feeling, like Love or Anger, which I get all the time, (although less anger just lately) just a pouring out of what I guess is just raw neutral emotion. It seems to be triggered by an outside event, a piece of music, or even a sunrise, and in the past I’ve thought of it as a reaction to that trigger, and nothing more.

This week we went to Tavistock and saw Anita at Crystal Wisdom, and on her recommendation we watched Gregg Bradens lecture on the Divine Matrix from Youtube. It’s all starting to make sense to me; I now believe that the feeling is my contact with the Matrix, and that it’s something that I need to encourage in some way, as an aid to my spiritual development. The realisation dawned on me when, after watching and being interested in a general way in the subject, I felt the emotion on hearing a piece of music, driving to work. It was like a light coming on in my head, because at that moment, it felt like all things were possible to me, like I could do or be whatever I wanted, just by holding the feeling that was flooding my body. And I remembered that, after watching Gregg explain his theory, I thought “Well that’s OK but how can you get the feeling he describes” My next thought was “I haven’t played  ***** for a while, I’ll listen to it on my way to work”.

I guess the fact that I have had psychic readings gives you a clue to the fact that I am very open to the explanations given by mediums about life and death and spirit, and I have had things happen to me that can only be explained in that way, that only make sense if this is truth.

Significantly, I have begun to question my present path, and whether there isn’t “Something Else” that I should be doing. I know that Yvonne has been thinking the same thing too. With all the things that are going on in the world, and the knowledge that things could be so much better if only change could happen, and the rapid approach of December 23^rd, I wonder if we are not at the point where the present way is about to end in favour of a new start for everyone.

So although it may take a bit of prompting to get my attention, I’m waiting for the next little push in the direction that I’m clearly meant to be moving in.

Back to normality now, and if you’re still with me, a bit of cookery to round things off.

I watched the Hairy Bikers programme where they make crumpets a couple of weeks ago, and have been looking for the cooking rings they describe ever since. But at £ 4 - 5 a pair they seemed a little expensive for what they were; eventually I found some spring form tins with bases at £ 1.50 each, which gives me the flexibility to use them for other things as well.

Good Bubbles in the Batter





And here they are, the temperature of the griddle is a bit tricky to get right, but in the end the results more than justify the effort, the taste is about 100% away from a shop version, and I think that crumpets will now be a major part of my repertoire. I think the resipe is still on the BBC website, search Hairy Bikers and Crumpets.

Soup

Firstly, thanks to Pattypan2 at  http://tarragonnthyme.blogspot.co.uk  for the kind thoughts, I’m thinking about my response. But it's nice to know that my ramblings are read and enjoyed, my daughter just says that they make her laugh.

I’m clearing out the freezer, ready to store my berries as I pick them, and found some stock veg that I had saved (Swede, Parsnip, Celery and Onion), I use them in soups and gravies, and since we had eaten all the spiced nuts that I made on Sunday, (apart from the ones that Yvonne took over to Norma, and she started eating them on the Doorstep!) a healthier days food was required.

Anyhow, I boiled the veg up for about 40 minutes and then liquidised them,

  meanwhile frying some chopped Chorizo in its own oil.

I mixed the two together with some Tomato puree and seasoning,

 we can have that for lunch with the Baguettes that are currently cooling.

As you can see at the back, I also made breadsticks, which will be nice with a little Garlic Mayo, or maybe salsa.

For our evening meal, we are having a prawn salad with some of our new potatoes, baked in a little oil. Unfortunately our crop of salad leaves has fallen victim to rain and slugs, as has the next sowing, so I had to BUY lettuce at Riverford Farm Shop yesterday, along with other good things. The veg and salads they produce can be recognised by the taste unlike a lot of supermarket offerings, so what if it’s a bit more expensive. And it’s a small price to pay to enjoy your food. And if you can’t enjoy your food, what’s the point?

Another Day, Another Disaster

After my sourdough problems, I thought that a return to my old favourites, bread wise, would be a good plan.

I brought some multigrain flour, as I hadn’t made a brown loaf for a while, and tried the Sandwich loaf recipe that I’d done many times, using Honey, Lard and milk.

Well when it came out of the oven, it looked and smelt good, but on cutting, I found a huge hole in the middle, all the length of the loaf. I think that I didn’t shape it properly, or maybe the dough developed a skin on rising, that ended up in the middle and didn’t join together.

So I used it in a bread and butter pudding.

 The day out in Heligan was amazing, we both find the place so inspirational, It feels timeless and to me has such an atmosphere of peace (apart from the noise of the other visitors) It also gave me a good chance to try out Georges Camera.

We also visited Tessier Gardens in Torquay, which had a different sort of atmosphere, very cold and restrained, but a very friendly squirrel.

Yvonne has been busy with the jewellery, now she is trying freestyle rope beading, the camera has trouble coping with close-up work but I think you can see how good it is.

Now back to the cooking.

Twice Cooked Potatoes.

Here’s an idea that I had when faced with a pan of cooking juices from chorizo and veg, (Aug 25^th last year) because, having enjoyed the flavour, I didn’t really want to just throw it away.

So, thinking of dauphinoise style potatoes, I decided to use the liquid as a stock.

I sliced potato into the stock and cooked at 150 degrees for about 90 minutes, until the potato was soft. I then put them into an oiled roasting tin, sprayed with oil and baked for 30 minutes.

Potatoes Poaching in Stock



Ready to Bake



Yum!

Meanwhile I fried up a mixture of Onion, pepper and Mushrooms with Balsamic Vinegar, and of course some sausages.

Talking of Potatoes, it was time to harvest the first earlies, should be nice with Roast Beef.

We have enough Rhubarb in the garden now for a crumble, with the addition of some of last years Blackberries and the last of the bottled apples.

We are both very partial to a snack, and have recently discovered Honey Roast Peanuts, by a well known manufacturer. Being averse to spending a fortune on these unless I have to, I have tried a version of my own.

500g mixed raw nuts

250g Icing Sugar

10g Smoked Paprika – or to taste

10g Sea Salt – or to taste

Wash and drain the nuts, and mix the other ingredients together in a bowl. Mix in the damp nuts and stir together until well coated. Place on a lined baking sheet in a 180 degree oven for about 10 minutes. Leave to cool, break up and store. Will keep until the football (or decent movie) is on.

Washed Nuts

Coated

Baked

Ready.

Olive Oil Crackers.

A basic yeast-less dough of Oil, Water Semolina and White Flour, rolled out very thin and baked. These go with soup or cheese, and can be topped with herbs, or salted. If anyone wants the recipe, e-mail me.



Dough Ready to Roll 





Mint Sauce.

I make a lot of this for people that I work with, and as the mint grows like weeds in our garden I’m never short of a supply. No recipe needed, just put the leaves in the processor, add just enough vinegar (Malt, Balsamic or Whatever) to enable chopping, and a small amount of Brown Sugar.

I feel that his post has been a bit disjointed, there is a lot going on here, if I can sort my head out normal service may be resumed.