09 August 2011

Just a Typical Tuesday

Well almost. Today started out as a typical Tuesday. Up with the alarm, breakfast and lunches made. Kitchen tidied, dishes and floors done, rubbish out. A load of washing on.  Hannah to school, home via the post office.  Nothing unusual.

Until I decided to make some cinnamon scrolls. Now I've made these scrolls so often I don't even get the recipe out anymore and they are always good. So what went wrong today? They didn't rise. At all. Oh the dough rose the first time. It doubled up beautifully, a round shiny ball in the bowl. It was the second rising that failed.  They didn't rise, even a little, during the baking either.  Oh my they were sad.  Hard, little lumps of rolled up dough.  They were so bad I couldn't think of a single way to rescue them.

Custard and ice cream wouldn't disguise the disaster they were.

Whizzing them into crumbs and sprinkling over fruit wouldn't disguise the disaster they were.

Not even soaking them in egg and milk for a bread and butter pudding would disguise the disaster they were.

There was nothing for it. They had to go, so go they did. Straight into the bokashi. Hopefully they'll eventually turn into lovely compost and at least give something back.  Either that or in a few hundred years some future explorer will be digging around and find these odd, scroll shaped, petrified things. Perhaps he or she will even do a futuristic Time Team 3 day dig to find out all about them (and us)!

While the cinnamon bricks were cooking I made up a kilo of brown sugar. It's the easiest thing to make, just white sugar and molasses, but it does take a long time to mix the molasses into the sugar. I dumped it all into the mixer, set it on low and let it mix away for about 20 minutes. Result was beautiful brown sugar, identical in colour and almost identical in texture as the bought stuff.  You can mix with a fork, but it takes a long time so be prepared and be patient.

I just love being able to make something instead of buying it. Knowing that I don't have to rely on supermarkets to supply food for my family is so liberating.  These days the grocery trolley only has basics in it, although even shopping at Aldi it's getting harder and harder to get just basic ingredients. I've noticed that they are now stocking the shelves with more and more convenience packets and meal kits, and less and less of the basics which is a shame.  Packet meals, sauces, casserole bases and so on may be convenient but they are only good for one, perhaps two things.  Get out your basics and you can make just about anything, sweet or savoury, frugal or extravagant.

After that the rest of the day was really ordinary, just the way I like them.

Oh, don't forget to do your Census tonight. Wayne did ours as soon as he came home, it's already by the front door waiting to be collected.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment...I just love hearing from you!

Just a couple of things:

Please don't use your comments to advertise your business or goods for sale, any such comments will be removed.

And please include your name, ANONYMOUS POSTS WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED AND WILL BE RECORDED AS SPAM.