Weekly piffle ...

We had the pleasure of Bri's company last weekend.  Here she is making poffertjes ...

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... with my strawberry jam - delicious!

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The cooler weather always makes me want soup so I made a healthy batch from my Annette Sym book...

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There is no way that this can be bad for you!

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It really hit the spot for lunch and there was lots left over for the fridge and some to freeze...

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We are still juicing each morning - I buy juice for the girls when they are home as they don't like our healthy juice - I know which one I prefer...
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 There is still fresh beetroot in our supermarkets so I bought another bunch and pickled it.  It is so nice and crunchy with a hit of pepper/mustard.  I eat it straight out of the jar...

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Dinner Thursday night - cauli/brocolli/carrot in cheese sauce, peas, baked potatoes ...
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 and Wagyu schnitzels with gravy...

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 I made bread rolls on Friday night and they just didn't turn out very good.  I baked them in my muffin tin and they were really hard and dense... so I had another go last night.  I used Rhonda's bread recipe from her book but I made bread rolls with it.  I used a new brand of dry yeast and a new packet of flour but even these didn't rise as they should have...

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 They weren't really flops, but I have had a better rise from other batches...

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As I usually use my mixer with dough hook, next time I am going to hand knead it to see if that makes a difference - and instead of mixing the yeast with water and sugar first, I am going to put the yeast in dry and add water to see if that makes a difference.

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 We had this last night - Lamb Dhansak - it was really delicious - very fragrant with just a bit of a kick!

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 We have bookmarked that one to have on our favourites list.  It only takes about 1.5 hours to make.

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 Here's a couple of pics of our girls, taken Easter weekend...

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Beautiful, hey?

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 And now onto that mundane task of pantry cleaning out!  Oh, Lordy!  I should be entered into the pantry Hall of Shame!

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 After a couple of hours, I had removed 3, count them 3! garbags of out of date food items.  Bottles and jars of sauces, jams, packets of soups, cereals, pastas, gravies, mixes, biscuits, spices, vinegars, oils, nuts - you name it, it was in there!  Cans that I know have been in there for 2 years or more...

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 The kitchen looked like a bomb had gone off!

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But now, organisation has been restored - it's all fresh and ready to use and easy to find!  Do you have a pantry that gets out of control? Does it irk you when someone doesn't put things back where they should (eg. on the perfectly clearly labelled shelves in perfectly labelled containers???  I have a husband someone who puts the packet of Cruskits up on the oil shelf when it came from 2 shelves down ... he does it every single day!!!!   If  I did that with everything in the kitchen, how the hell would you ever find anything??  Spatula in the utensil drawer - why no, it's in the saucepan drawer - just for something different!  Give me strength! (*breathes in and out...)

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This afternoon I am making a slow cooked beef ragu to have with home made pasta that we are also making so stay turned for that!  Now what did I do with the pasta maker....?

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Cheers - Joolz xx