Category: Uncategorized

Use yer loaf….

At the weekend I saw Dan of @FoodUrchin was disputing the kneading technique that I favour and that I learnt from @dan_lepard (yes two Dan’s already).

He didn’t belive that you could get a great loaf with such minimal kneading (3 lots of 10 seconds).

Those in the know on Twitter told him to try it and see.

He later came back with impressive results.

And it reminded me I hadn’t baked in a while so yesterday I decided to make the same recipe.

Well sort of.

I adapted it a bit with guidance from @dan_lepard to 50:50 wholewheat and white flour.

Brilliant stuff.

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For a 50:50 loaf you only need 3/4 tsp fast action yeast and rising takes less time, just let it increase by 50% rather than doubling.

And really tasty.

Beans or no beans

This year we planted borlotti and runner beans. 

They’ve survived the onslaught of snails this year, and improvement over last summer.

They’ve produced nice flowers.

Pale pink on the borlotti, scarlet on the runners.

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But few beans.

So far I’ve counted 10 borlotti pods and 1 runner pod.

From 10 plants.

I guess its a better return just than money in a bank account, maybe.

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So what shall I do with my 11 beans?

Bargain eggs

Today I went to the local farmers market in Wanstead high street.

It’s once a month and been going for just over a year. I go pretty much every month.

Today one of the things I got was some eggs.

They were called mis-shapes. So they were only £1.40 a dozen.

The man said its mostly because they are not brown and most people want brown eggs that they are cheap.

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I mean they don’t look very mis-shapen to me. The shells are rougher and some have marks on but hey I’m not eating the shells.

Nearly as much of a bargain as when Ocado sent me 24 eggs I’d not ordered and weren’t on the bill.

Auction fever

About a month ago I went to my first ever real live auction hoping to bag some bargains.

I remember going to viewings at the local auction room as a child but I don’t recall us ever being there when the auction took place, I think my parents left their bid with the auctioneer. I don’t even know if we ever won the items in question.

This time I’d looked at the catalogue on line and my friend Lynne (@josordoni) had been to the viewing and checked the items over for me along with the lots she was interested in.

I set my maximum prices and off we went the next day. We took a quick look around, registered me as a bidder (getting my own personal number, excitement) and then as there was a wait for our first lots we went and had a coffee and a natter.

Back at the auction I was fascinated by the whole process especially the very low key bidding on some rather nice pieces of furniture.

Then I got the jitters worrying I would not stick to my prices once bidding got going. So I handed over to Lynne.

I got all three lots. For a song.

Heres my Susie Cooper tea service.

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Nice isn’t it.

And the bargains to be had made me wonder why anyone shops at IKEA…..

Playing with Hipstamatic

Okay so everyone already has Hipstamic (well everyone with an iPhone).

And they’ve played about with it no end. 

And every other picture on Twitter has been taken with the Hipstamatic app.

Why. Well because it creates curiously old looking photographs. Like ones you find a in a dusty box in your Grandma’s attic.

Well sort of because it depends what the photo is of but the look of the photo is pure nostalgia even if its content isn’t.

I kind of like the look so I thought I’d do a collage.

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Same shot. Once with each lens and each film that comes with the basic version of the app. There are of course further lens and film options you can buy.

Not sure I’ll be doing that any time soon.

It was fun though.