Month: June 2020

Day 101

Well according to the recording in my diary.

101 days since the 17th March. 101 days of altered life.

Lockdown didn’t begin then. It started the following week, on Monday 23rd. But on the 17th I wrote in my diary , “Odd day. Sort of day one” .  The day before there’d been  a press conference discouraging us from all non essential social contact, recommending against visits to cafes, bars, theatres etc.

It wasn’t an order, not at that point.

On the 17th I had my hair done, by the 18th I began to hear of friends self isolating. Our walking group met for the last time on the 19th.  Instead of the usual groups of two or three people of the same pace chatting together, we were a long straggly line.  Friday the 20th we returned from the shops to find signs warning of Covid in the area*

And so it’s continued, through an often glorious Spring.

 

My May blogathon. Horrible word. Sorry.

Lots of baking

Many,

many,

photos of DogS.

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“you can never have too many photos of me”

And now things are beginning to change.

We’ve had drinks with friends in their and our garden.

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And we have plans to take our fortnightly quiz** “live” next time.

But it’s still baby steps, as it should be. And always with fingers crossed and touching wood. Though it’s science and hygiene that will guard against a second wave.

I’m looking forward to lots of things: travelling beyond the town to take DogS to the beach,  enjoying tea and a scone at the outdoor cafe afterwards, visiting a garden.               MasterS being able to visit. Meeting family and friends. Conversations that’s aren’t yelled.

I wish I could honestly say it’s all the simple things. But that’s not me.

I want to be able to travel further.  To sit with a drink as the sun sets***, hearing a language that’s not my own.

But I’ll wait. Keep with the baby steps. Appreciate what I’ve got.

Resist the temptation to rearrange the acceptance mantra  “it is like this”.

And now I’m off to bake.

Until next time.

Marina xx

 

 

* Yes, I have documented this before.

**We do this online with two other households, each writing a round of questions. For big money prizes. So weather permitting we’ll all meet up outside. And yell the questions at each other.

FLORA TOILET ROLL2

sometimes it’s veg from the garden 

***we’re just past the solstice, the sun sets at around 10pm.

 

baking some more

It doesn’t look as if we’ll be travelling abroad any time soon*, so I decided to partially make up for it by baking up another taste of Portugal.  I found this recipe for Bola de Amendoa on the Great British Chefs site. It’s a good resource for recipes and tips.

Anyway, I’d planned to make it a couple of weeks ago but had run out of ground, or indeed any kind of, almonds.  As had our local shop.  So I had to wait until we did our “big shop” (see* below) in Oban.  It was worth the wait.

I love almondy cakes, and gooey centred ones so this recipe promised a double treat.

dry ingredients

Here’s the ground almonds and butter ready to be pulsed together

 

sugar and spice

Sugar and spices

The sugar and egg yolks are whisked  up together,  salt, spice and lemon zest  folded in and then in goes the almond mixture.

all mixed up

egg whites whisked to soft peaks

Next  comes the trickiest part, gently adding in the whisked egg whites. Tricky because you have to mix it enough to avoid streaky white stripes of egg, but gently to avoid beating out the air.

Actually it can’t have been too tricky because I managed it quite successfully,  and into the oven it went.

My one mistake was using a baking tin which was a) slightly too small and b) a push rather than spring release. This meant I had a cuff of cake spilling over the side of the tin which I had to cut away to release the rest of the cake. This did mean I had a bit of cake to “test” – for purely critical purposes you must understand. So silver linings… But next time I think I’ll use my slightly bigger spring release tin, which might mean keeping a close eye on the last few minutes of baking, as the mix will be spread more thinly.

Anyway here’s a not terribly good photo of the finished cake

fuzzy finished product

I didn’t notice how fuzzy this was until it was too late

And once I realised,  I thought I’d take a picture of a slice.

But  I went to look,  and there was none left!  Cake thieves must operate in this area, who’d have thought?

I’ll just have to make another one.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and stay safe.

Marina xx

 

* Mind you it was a huge excitement the other day just walking in a different part of town. We went to the garden centre, along the esplanade, and then to the fishmonger.  Usually it’s the small supermarket, pick up our food hub  order and home.

Update!

I made another one,  and took a photo

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baking some more

Well it’s been nearly a week since I completed my #EveryDayinMay challenge. So it’s about time for me to post again.

June started out with sunshine, great for my daily walks and working in the garden.

Well, maybe not always working in the garden….

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MrS’s delicious homemade ice cream

But yesterday was a lot cooler, windier and rainier, just the weather for spending time in the kitchen.

I decided to try something new and flushed with my success making the Portuguese roulade thought I’d try this almondy version I found in Olive magazine. It’s more of a cake than the orange custardy pudding, so managing the rolling up would be trickier. But I have made chocolate sponge roulades at Christmas time so decided to give it a go.

That’s icing sugar lining the tin, and in the other picture ground almonds ready to be mixed into the flour, lemon zest and baking powder in the bowl. Eggs and sugar get whisked together.

egg and sugar mix

it doesn’t make for such a good photo.

And then the dry ingredients are gently mixed into the creamy egg/sugar mix, poured carefully into that prepared tin. Then baked for around ten minutes.

I was a bit worried at this point and kept a close eye on the oven. My mix hadn’t been quite enough to fill the tin so I was afraid it wouldn’t need as much baking as advised in the recipe.

After nine and a bit minutes it was ready to turn out and roll up.

all rolled up to cool

which was the part I was most nervous of.

Once it had completely cooled came more trepidation as I unrolled it for filing with raspberry jam and whipped cream, and yes I’d managed to buy the right type of cream.

filled and finished

Well I was mostly successful, only one crack. And those of you who’ve looked at the recipe  might also spot that those aren’t flaked almonds. I didn’t have any and only decided on this recipe after my trip to the shop. But I did have some walnuts which need to be used up, so on they went.

And as they say, and I think I’ve said before.

“The proof of the pudding is in the eating”

and serve

And though I say it myself, it wasn’t half bad

Until next time.

Stay safe,

Marina xx