Look who paid us a visit!

Isn't he sweet?

I thought I'd imagined something sliding down the tree trunk a few minutes before...but when I was staring out of the window doing the washing up this little fellow popped into view! I think he is either a Wood Mouse or a Yellow Necked Mouse...we had the latter living in our loft a few years ago, but I couldn't see if this one had a 'necklace' on or not. It's so nice to think that even in Suburbia the wildlife still manages to survive :) I hope he comes to visit again it was great entertainment watching him having his breakfast.

Dox

The quest for a soft crust loaf...

We get through a lot of bread. I keep my bread in a breadbin these days but somehow it doesn't seem to keep like it used to, I am forever running to the shop because we've run out. I do freeze the odd loaf but somehow I think when it's defrosted, the keeping time is then even shorter. Something has to change, I hate wasting food and everytime I run to the shops, just like everyone else I buy much more than a loaf of bread!!!!

The obvious thing is to make our own but as I was discussing with a friend recently it can be difficult to achieve a soft crust like bought bread...the world and it's lobster seem to be intent on making the crustiest loaf out there but it's just not practical for everyday use!

Well I think I have cracked it. What you need is a milk loaf! Cook it so you only have a very pale crust...Follow that up with rubbing butter over the still hot freshly baked crust and get it into an airtight plastic bag as quick as you can!

get it in a bag quick!

cooking can be a social activity

soft enough to depress

no crustiness there, just the form of my finger!

I will report back on the taste as soon as the jury ( DH and DS ) have made their decision. If it is a success I'm going to work out just how much this will save me on the grocery bill each month...I'm thinking it will also save in fuel from not having to take those extra trips to the store. Hopefully the figures will be enough to keep me baking.

We do have a bakery around the corner. I used to be a loyal customer but IMHO the quality went down hill and not long after I stopped buying they closed, so I can't have been the only one that swapped to supermarket bread. In the last few weeks the bakery has opened again, revamped and under new management but I really would rather make my own if I can. :)

Pizza base...

The base was pretty thick!

I tried a new pizza base recipe...I had a go at the recipe from here.

Basically I took all the ingredients and chucked them in a food processor with a dough hook AFTER dissolving the yeast in the liquid, now I think about it, maybe I should have dissolved the sugar in the liquid too, didn't actually read the method, ooops lol.

After mixing/kneading the dough I just left it in the processor with the lid on for about an hour or so and then rolled it out to my needs and hey presto!

I rolled it out to about an inch thick and it cooked up a fair bit thicker. I'm guessing there was enough dough to make 6 individual snack portions. I just made the one pizza and it easily fed my two hungry men and a fairly hungry me! They both commented that it actually felt like they had had a meal, rather than when we have take-away pizza and it seems like a tasty but expensive snack!

My toppings were...

• spicy pickle/chutney on the base
• lots of cheese
• tomatoes
• chilli peppers
• yellow bell peppers
• herbs including rosemary and fresh chives.

Note, no meat...that wasn't intentional, I was going to try bacon but got a bit too busy with other things. Nobody seemed to miss it, so that was a saving in the grocery bill department!

The overall verdict was that they would both rather I made pizza than we order it!!!! I guess you can say it was a winner. From my point of view it was no effort and a heck of a lot cheaper than take-away or supermarket bought...oh and no packaging to get rid of!

I'm thinking of getting the breadmaker out again or buying a new one ( the paddle is stuck in mine and NOBODY can seem to shift it! ) we eat a lot of bread, so I am thinking we can make savings here...which of course I will squirrel away and spend on lovely craft stuff instead lol...

Dox

Homemade crackers

I made these crackers using a recipe from Joe Pasty's blog. They really are far superior to the kind I usually buy in the supermarket. I urge you to have a go, you'll be so pleased you did! He provides several recipes, so far I have only used the top/first one. I did these with rosemary and salt as a topping, very scrummy.

Dox 

Meet Elliot

"Hi, I'm Elliot."

"I love eating millet."

"Mum thinks I am the prettiest birdie in town"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is my new baby. Isn't she a darling?

Only 8 and a bit weeks old. Her little character is already coming through and we are all very fond of her...even Mr D has a soft spot for her, awww!

Dox

My veggie boats

These are my veggie 'boats' made from an old water butt that used to be my Dad's We had it for years but last year it started leaking and I just couldn't bring myself to throw it away...it seemed such a waste of such a large container...so between us Mr D and I managed to produce a lovely pair of twin veggie boats!!!!

Now there is an arch going from one to the other against the greenhouse, I have some runner beans making their way up it....this pic was taken a good couple of months ago.