JUDGEMENT DAY

Well the moment of truth has arrived, and as you can see from today's picture the result was quite good, at least it did not collapse in a shame making heap. My son photographed the whole nerve racking procedure so there was no hiding place and as the plate was turned a hush settled over the kitchen, I lifted the mould........nothing happened, I ran a knife around the edge and turned the bowl again........still nothing. One more try accompanied by fervent prayers and ….yes! Out it came. I decorated it quickly with the berries and poured on a fresh raspberry sauce, one or two of the berries slipped off but it stood firm until we demolished it for afters. Note to self - refrain in future from making rash promises, even if I do have a bad conscience.

Today has been a real family day, my son brought me tea in bed, two cups, and I had plenty of time to wake up, no flying start this morning. He also gave me a parcel that came in the early post, it was a jam pot I picked up on eBay which I was not expecting for days, it is just what I wanted and was quite inexpensive. It is big enough to take a full jar of jam and it looks perfect in my old fashioned kitchen,we used it at breakfast filled with strawberry jam, we had crumpets wholemeal muffins and croissants, orange juice and a pot of tea,it was a lovely start to the day. Even better was the fact that Pa got up without any trouble at all and was wide awake at breakfast so we chatted away and larked about,jousting with words which is an old game of ours at mealtimes, great fun and not to be taken seriously.

We had decided on kebabs for dinner so I made a stack of buckwheat pancakes, a dish of bulgar wheat with diced peppers and a spicy tomato sauce,very simple and very quick. You can use any thing to make the kebabs, this time a used mini sausages and bacon rolls, my sons favourite,I like cherry tomatoes with button mushrooms and chunks of courgette and these will be on the menu as soon as the tomatoes are ready, pork with shallots is Pa's favourite, we have it mostly in the winter time.

Spicy tomato sauce
1 red pepper
1onion
eight garlic cloves
1 large tin of chopped tomatoes
three tablespoons of olive oil
3 tablespoons of tomato purree
pepper and salt to taste
If you like chillies add as many as you can stand

Wash pepper and cut in half, peel onion and cut in half and place on an oven tray with the garlic and chillies if liked.
Roast in a hot oven for about thirty minutes of until the peepers blacken a little.
Empty the tinned tomatoes in to a blender,add the tomato purree and the roasted vegetables, blitz until smooth the pour in to a saucepan and reheat when required. If you leave out the chillies and add some Italian herbs this makes a very rich pasta sauce. Oh yes, don't forget to pour the oil in as well as this is full of flavour and makes the sauce very smooth.

A quick trip to the garden centre produced a useful feathery scarf which I shall use on a fancy dress costume that I have in mind, I do it for fun now but years ago I designed costumes for the theatre, it was fun but the hours were horrendous. I walked out into a frosty morning having worked non-stop for a couple of days. There was a wonderful smell of new baked bread and I followed my nose to a little back street bakers shop. It was so early that it was not even open so I hammered on the door and persuaded the baker to sell me a loaf and strolled through the town eating it still warm, It was only then that I realised I had not eaten for more than forty eight hours, I survived in those days on a diet if Guinness and was very skinny indeed. Not any more!

Today I picked the first of this years climbing French beans, I ate several raw and decided to use the rest tomorrow, I think I shall do a roast. Now I am off for a bath before some one else bags the bathroom, it's every man for himself at this time of night.