Staring at me

My Cat is staring at me, he’s been doing it for a while, I get the impression he wants something, maybe food or milk. I woke up from a nap and saw him just sitting there, so I took a quick shot of him. Cats have their own way of doing things, this cat is definitely unique.

Right, I’d better go and feed him and put the heating on it’s blooming cold!

Healthy tea?

Tonight’s tea. I decided to have a mushroom omelette (closed cup mushrooms fried in a little oil, then a spot of milk and two eggs). Cooked until the omelette was firm.

The salad was salad leaves with grated carrot and red pepper, a few sliced cherry tomatoes, a sliced radish, a few slices of cucumber, a few sliced garlic stuffed olives, half an avocado, and finally a bit of light mayonnaise.

Toad in the hole from scratch

I followed BBC Good housekeeping magazines recipe for this. Vegetarians and vegans forgive me, you could use vegetarian sausages, but the batter needed eggs….

I used seven frozen sausages

2 eggs

1 small onion, sliced

Accompanying vegetables, potato, carrot and broccoli.

140 grams of self raising flour (I didn’t check which sort I needed)

Milk to add to the batter mix.

I oiled a dish and baked the sausages with some sliced onion for twenty minutes. In the meantime I put the flour in a bowl, made a dent in it and added the eggs stirring with a fork till it was all mixed together. Then I slowly poured in and mixed milk into the batter so it was like thick double cream.

I poured the batter over the part cooked sausages, and returned them to the oven on gas mark 8 because my cooker does not get very hot. I checked them over the next twenty minutes but I still managed to burn the batter a bit. I also think I should have added more milk so that it would have been moister. I chopped the vegetables up small so I boiled them on the hob for twenty minutes. Finally I added gravy granules to some of the vegetable water to pour over the meal.

I’ve never made this before, but it was something my mother made for our evening meals. I’m glad I tried. I will try and remember to make this again.

Milk on the pavement?

My arrangement with the milkman is to put the milk in the basket over our gate. It means it is safe and doesn’t disappear ( sometimes one bottle gets taken, other times more). But for the last week it’s been left on the pavement (it’s delivered every other day), so I’ve been trying to get up early to bring it in. Today I was late (eight am). There it was, not on our step, but a foot away on the pavement. I’ve left a note, asking them to put it over the gate, which was ignored. I think I need to email the dairy, but I’ve lost my password. Maybe our regular milkman is on holiday? We will see. I like having it delivered in glass bottles because they are reused and recycled and are not plastic!

Combined?

Somewhere in my warped mind last night I thought I could make my porridge nicer by adding custard powder! I have no idea why. But instead of dismissing it I decided to try it… Yuk!

I mixed up the oats with water, then added in a spoonful of custard powder, remixed it and added a bit of milk and sweetner. Probably not enough milk, as when I microwaved it the result was rather like yellow cement that hadn’t set but was close to doing so. I added some milk and Ate It! I must be mad. The taste of custardy oats is lingering. Yuk….

What odd combinations of food have you tried or created?

Stewed pears and custard

We are still picking pears from the tree and a quick meal is to chop then up into pieces and stew them up in a bit of water and sweetner. Then I make up some custard to pour over the stewed pears. Its warm and sweet for a cold day. It saves the pears from rotting as if you leave them they can get over ripe and go mushy and brown. It’s not bad for an old crooked pear tree that almost blew over one year!

Bottle experiment

When the milk bottles on my kitchen counter started to multiply I asked hubby to put them out for the milkman. He didn’t, so I asked again tonight (our house is directly on the street so if we put them out on a non delivery night they get knocked or kicked over). This time he did it, but not before I took this photo from above and processed it through the photodirector app on my phone. I think it makes an interesting picture. Daily chores can be fun!

First pancake

Mix flour (I use self raising flour), eggs and milk to a liquid the consistency of double (heavy) cream. (I suggest put in the flour first, then add eggs till its a softish mix, then add milk to make it more like double cream.) (this is the pancake batter) let it rest for a while then heat fat in a pan (butter or oil) so it coats the pan but pour off any excess. Make sure the oil is good and hot but not burning. Pour the batter in to cover the base of the pan, pour out any excess. Cook over the heat, you will see the batter bubble and dry out. When it’s dry use a spatula to turn it over. It should hold together and look like the photo. Tip out on a plate, add sugar or sweetener and lemon juice squeezed over the top. Make sure you don’t allow the oil to burn while transferring the pancake, add a bit more fat then pour in more batter. Cook again. Keep going and stacking till the batter runs out. Enjoy. (you can also add banana or chocolate). Amounts of ingredients vary depending on how many pancakes you want to eat.