I started my seasonal baking yesterday with a perennial favourite - gingercake. The plum pudding is already stored and maturing in a dark cupboard but I have little in the freezer for impromptu nibbling. The gingercake is quite plain but tasty; I prefer it buttered, and it is so easy to make. I mix the whole thing in a pan on the stove. Here's the recipe:
4 oz. preserved ginger 1/2 tsp. baking soda
4 oz. butter 4 tbspn. milk
3 oz. syrup 8 oz. flour
1 oz. treacle or molasses 1 tsp. ground ginger
4 oz. brown sugar 1 egg; pinch of salt
Melt butter, syrup, sugar and treacle in a saucepan. Add chopped ginger and, when cool, 3 tbspn. of milk and the egg. Mix flour, salt and ginger and slowly add to saucepan, beating well until a smooth batter. Dissolve baking soda in 1 tbspn. milk and add. Bake in a small, greased loaf pan at 350 degrees F for 1 hour or until skewer inserted in middle comes out clean. Let cool before removing from pan.
This week has just flashed by - finished the paint job on Tuesday (very happy with the fresh new look), took James to play group on Wednesday and he made a very fine gingerbread boy at the craft centre, Thursday and today I got birthday gifts organized for Natalie, Steve and Alison (and bought myself a new winter coat and some lovely sherry glasses). Steve and Alison are on the 18th and 14th respectively, and Natalie's is on the 22nd.
So, tomorrow Judy is hosting a birthday threesome with a dim sum lunch and cake. Natalie will be 6 - can't believe she is so big. I'm hoping to get some good photos of the kids but they are really uncooperative when I bring out the camera.
I stuffed and cooked a chicken last Sunday and have been eating it ever since - two meals of the dark meat, stuffing and vegetables, and two meals of the white meat in a chcken pot pie with lots of carrots, peas and mushrooms. My fridge is almost empty - in fact I'm down to one banana, one lemon and some bread in the freezer! Shopping tomorrow.
I managed to get one last shot of a rose in the garden, looking rather wilted but hanging in. The nights have been below zero this week and more cold weather is on the way. No Indian summer this year!
It wasn't really warm enough (just 7C and a strong north-west wind) to keep the front door open but that's what I had to do while the paint dried on the door frame. It would appear that the rest of the woodwork will need a primer coat, but that will have to wait a couple of days. Other than that nothing much going on. Glad I have a good book on the go.
The gas fire is now up and running for the first time this year, such a welcome sight and adding some warmth to the family room. Leftovers warming in the oven and a quick apple crumble in there too. Unfortunately, no apples left for James tomorrow!
I thought I was going to have a quiet restful day today but that's not how it turned out at all.
The morning temperature of 4C was a surprise, and it rose to 13C by noon. This tempted me into tackling a job that I have been postponing for months - painting the trim in the front hall. When I had the painter in during the summer he left me with both primer and paint and the suggestion that the bare wood around the front door (probably been like that for 4 or 5 years) should be painted. I think he was angling for the job at the time but I didn't take him up on it.
So, first I sanded the wood and wiped it off, then applied the primer. Actually, I sanded all the trim in the front hall and will paint everything the same colour. With the day being relatively mild I was able to leave the door ajar until the paint dried although when it comes time to apply the next coat I may not be so lucky. I will tackle the final coat on Thursday (James is here tomorrow, not ideal time to have cans of paint out!) weather and other conditions permitting. I am excited to see how it looks after all this time with bare wood.
In the afternoon I dug up some mint and cleared a patch to put in next year's garlic crop. I was reluctant to dig into my current crop for the cloves as they are so tasty compared to the store bought variety, but the thought of the crop they will produce next summer made up for the loss. I still have three heads left but they will soon be gone. The onions I dug up in September are long gone. Next year I will plant a second crop of onions to harvest late in the Fall.
