Produce from the garden, soft bread rolls . . . and best laid plans (not!)

Today we harvested these goodies from the garden, along with more peas.  I am trying to keep a record of our produce (weight; numbers and dates) for future reference, although we crop lettuce as and when and I don't record that.  We've noticed that our bean plants have nothing like the growth they had last year, and we suspect the crop will be quite small (we only recently finished the beans we froze last year).  Hopefully the peas will make up a little for the shortfall.  These potatoes are 'freebies' - they are from a couple of spuds that started sprouting in the bottom of the veg basket, and which N just stuck in the ground to see what would happen.  Well, I can tell you that they were delicious, simply boiled and served with a bit of salt and butter.

I've been meaning to try making some soft bread rolls, following on from my success with loaves.  

Something on the move under the tea-towel!

Recipe for Soft Bread Rolls

450g white bread flour

2 tsp salt

7g dried quick action yeast

150ml milk

150ml water

50g butter (I used margarine)

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.

Heat the butter, milk and water until the butter has melted, allow to cool to blood heat.

Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and mix together to form a sticky dough.

Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes. (the dough was very sticky and I did have to use a bit of extra flour on the worktop)

Place in bowl, cover with clingfilm (I use a damp tea-towel) and leave to prove until doubled in size.

Remove from bowl, knock back and knead for about a minute.  Divide dough into 8 equal amounts, form each into rounds, flatten slightly and place on greased/floured baking tray.  Cover again and leave to double in size again.

Bake in pre-heated oven, gas mark 6 (200 C; 180 C fan oven) for approz 18-20 minutes.

Though I say it myself, these were the most delicious rolls I have ever tasted, let alone baked.  So soft and very, very more-ish.  I was very pleased with the results.

Yesterday was our 4-weekly to-ing and fro-ing for the Flatmates, so we had been saving up a number of things we needed to do to keep us busy while we waited to collect them for the return trip.  Having dropped them off, we did all the things on our list and were feeling quite pleased with ourselves at such a productive morning.  We even had time to have a lovely walk along the esplanade while we waited for the boat.

It was another gorgeous day, and N and I really enjoyed our walk.  There is always something to see on the water, and yesterday we saw an old friend,  Leopard, cruising around the Solent.  We have followed her for several years - she is a beautiful racing yacht, and usually dwarfs all the other craft around her.

So far, all according to plan.  We collect the Flatmates, return home, have a cuppa, meet up with the pair of them again ..... and head off to the hospital - this bit was not planned!  S has to be admitted for a couple of days with asthma problems.  We have been here before, but hopefully not as bad as on  previous occasions.  We were glad we were in a position to do the running around for them - we have always been at work before.  We have kept in touch with her by text (I have to admit technology has it's uses!) and visited this afternoon.  So far so good.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

I had not had much experience of asthma before I met N and his family, and had little idea of how serious a major asthma attack can be.  It is very frightening to witness such an attack, and I can only imagine the fear and distress of suffering from one.  N has asthma himself, but not as severe as S. The worst I have seem him was last summer, when he was clearing some long grass around the allotment we had just taken over.  Within minutes, he was struggling for breath, and got back home with great difficulty.  The grass pollen had aggravated his hayfever, which in turn had triggered an asthma attack.  Thankfully he was OK, but it was a salient reminder to us.  Needless to say, we had to give up the allotment.  It was a blow, especially as we had waited over two years for it and had hoped it would be the answer to our wish for a bigger garden.  However, it just hadn't occurred to us the problems we might face with the cut grass.  It was a lesson well learned.

Tomorrow my son is coming to stay with us for the weekend - I'm looking forward to catching up on the wedding plans :)

New bread recipe

A little blue-tit in the garden this morning

The kitchen has been put back together after the leaking pipe episode.   We had to replace some boarding that the fridge had been standing on, but luckily N was able to  find another piece in the shed that just needed trimming down to fit the job perfectly.

Bread proved and about to go into the oven

I tried a new bread recipe yesterday which has produced an excellent loaf of white bread.  I think I'll stick with this recipe for a while and see what kind of loaf other types of flour produce.  Here' s the recipe I used:

500g strong white flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp granulated sugar
15ml vegetabel oil
7g fast action dried yeast
300ml luke warm water

Mix flour and salt in a bowl, stir in sugar and yeast.  Add oil to water and add to dry ingredients to form soft dough (I found I needed a bit more water).  Knead for approx 10 minutes to form smooth, elastic dough.  Shape dough and place in oiled 2lb loaf tin.  Leave to prove in warm place - I always place a damp cloth over the dough - until doubled in size.  Place in pre-heated over 230C / gas mark 8.  Bake for 15 mins then reduce oven temp to 200c / gas mark 6 and bake for further 15-20 mins.  Bread should be risen, golden and sound hollow when tapped on base.  Turn out to cool on wire rack.

Perfect slices!

Poor N continued to have real problems following his dental work last week.  Now he has an tooth/sinus infection to contend with ;(, but fortunately we had some antibiotics so he was able to start on those over the weekend.  We're hoping it will have cleared up by next weekend as we have an engagement party to attend :)

I was pretty pleased I managed to link to some other blogs yesterday.  And I even posted a comment on Down to Earth.  BTW, it makes me smile to myself that being in the UK, I read the post for the 25 March on the 24th!  When I checked to see if my comment was there, Rhonda had put a little reply to it.  Big grin :))

Housework, emails and things ticked off list yesterday and today.  

Latest sewing project under way

The weather around the UK has been terrible this weekend - freezing cold, drifting snow, ice bringing power lines down.  I really feel for all those people affected by the bad weather - it can't be much fun to be without power in these temperatures.  This winter seems to be never-ending.  We rarely get much snow this far south, but we've had far more this year than I can remember for a long time.   Spring still seems a long way off.

Date and walnut loaf

Wow, two posts in one day!  I'll have a round-up of what I succeeded with today in a minute.  Firstly, I wanted to clarify (to myself as much to anyone else) some points from my earlier post today.

When I looked back through what I had written, I could almost hear my daughter telling me I was stereotyping and being judgmental towards young people.  That was not what I meant.  What I was trying to say, rather clumsily, was that we have created a culture within our society where too many people feel they are entitled to a particular standard of living, without making any effort or contribution themselves.  This consumerist culture does not encourage thrift, responsibility or thoughtfulness.  Rather it encourages us, at every turn, to spend money we don't have, and borrow money we then can't repay in order to satisfy the demands of the ad man, turning us into materialistic individuals drowning in pointless stuff that just becomes a burden instead of a pleasure.  There is an expectation, an entitlement to all of this, and the old saying of 'living within your means' seems way too old-fashioned for life today, which is a shame because far too many are ending up in the grips of debt.

Anyway, onto brighter topics . . . like food!  I made my date and walnut loaf and jolly good it looks, too.  We're being very restrained and keeping it for a day (to improve, apparently), and will try it tomorrow.  I have to say it does smell very yummy.

Date and walnut loaf waiting to be eaten

Here the recipe, from Allrecipes.co.uk site, originally posted by wakeylass.

4oz chopped dates

2 oz margarine

225 ml boiling water

1 tspn bicarb of soda

8 oz SR flour

2 oz walnuts (I used some extra hazelnuts leftover from Christmas)

6 oz brown sugar (no brown sugar in the cupboard, so I used white)

1 egg, beaten

Place dates, margarine and bicarb in a basin and add boiling water.  Mix together, allow margarine to melt and dates to soften.  Cool.

In separate bowl, mix flour, nuts and sugar together.  Add date mixture to the flour mix, add egg and mix together.  

Spoon into greased/lined loaf tin and bake for 60-75 mins on 170C, Gas 3.  Test with skewer to check it is cooked throughout.

I also drafted up the waistcoat pattern, with alterations, so I should be able to pin and cut out tomorrow, all being well.  And the beret instructions are coming along, too.

I promised myself I would gather together all the bottles, jars and plastic containers that I have accumulated in the name of 'beauty products' (LOL - way past any help, methinks!)  I was gobsmacked to find I had no less than 61 bottles etc (and that doesn't include any make-up).  Granted, quite a few I had specifically requested for presents at various times, but isn't it amazing how the collection just grows?  I have now made a resolution to use these products up, and not purchase or ask for any more.  I think I'd like to try my hand at making my own soap, and perhaps look into other ideas for cleansers, moisturisers etc.  In the meantime, it's one plastic bottle or jar at a time - I wonder how long it will take me to finish them all up?

I could open a chemist with this lot!