Soledad's Journal

Or still. Whatever. In any case, we had laundry day as on every Saturday, unless we have a visitor what hardly ever happens. Fortunately, Louise the Elder (=washing machine) is doing most of the work, even though Mum insists on soaking the lingerie first for an hour or so. That's her persona contribution.

I also had to fetch the rest of Mum's medicine, since they only had 2 doses instead of the required three and had to order the 3rd one. I also went to the Savoy Park shopping centre, where I visited the local Aldi and the Auchan. Aldi seems to lose against Lidl, at least in our district; their shops are becoming a bit run down or whatnot, and their offer is a far cry from what it used to be. I still go there sometimes because of the price-reduced product of the week, but not so eagerly as I once did.

Mum's oldest friend cancelled her planned visit because she had managed to drop a heavy fire proof dish, right onto her foot. Putting on shoes is an impossibility for her right now, and the weather just isn't warm enough for sandals anymore. So they had to postpone. I feel sorry for Mum but I'm glad I didn't have to bake today, even though the only thing planned was a banana bread. But a visitor-free Sunday means I can finally make my gingered pear jam and thus finish the jam project for good.

In the afternoon I was working on H's birthday gift. I printed out some more recipes, filed them and made the front page of the "Granny's Secrets" recipe book (photo coming up later). I hope I'll be able to add even more tomorrow; then it will be finished and gift-wrapped, and I'll have another thing off my to-do-list.

In the morning I made the obligatory food run - just to Lidl, but it was quite the tour. I had to push the shopping cart home because I couldn't have hauled all those bags home on foot.

In the afternoon, I went to school to transport two huge shopping bags full of things I had made for the fair to Erna. I met a few colleagues I still have a friendly connection to - it was very nice. Afterwards, I did the second part of the shopping - only that I took the wrong path from school and had to walk a long way because I turned left instead of right. I managed the same for a second time when I took the wrong bus home; this time with a heavy shopping bag, full of washing powder, body lotion, shower gel and the likes. Fun is something else.

Finding my way in the end, I did the third part of the shopping, then I went to the pharmacy to fetch Mum's medication... which took about half an hour as they didn't have it and had to order it first. I'll have to go back tomorrow or the day after to fetch it.

When I finally got home, we had lunch (leftover soup and some giant cheese pretzel I bought at some point of my odyssey), watched the GBBO, and then I simply went to sleep for an hour and a half. Originally, I wanted to finish wrapping my Christmas candy, but it has to wait until tomorrow. My energy level is at zero right now.

I've made it, yesssss, Precioussss! Two different kinds: one with coconut and lime flavour and one with chocolate and peppermint. The latter was a trial - stupid recipe only told me how long I needed to boil the sugar syrup but not the level of the heat, so it suddenly became rock hard before the boiling time would be over. I used a one kilogram iron weight to break it into pieces and then pulverize it; added biscuit crumbs and butter and cocoa powder to somehow make it manageable. In the end, I reached a consistency where I was able to shape the candy, but it was brutal.

At least it's shaped and wrapped and packed into small cellophane bags I had folded months ago. For the wrapping, I had been saving the original wrappings of Lindor chocolate balls and reused them for the candy; the little bags look really pretty with the Washi tape decoration and the handmade little labels. The coconut/lime candy needs a night in the fridge, as it's got white chocolate icing that needs to harden properly, but it will be wrapped similarly tomorrow.

Candy-making took the whole morning and part of the afternoon, too, as I needed to make the labels for the coconut/lime ones, plus to sort out the wrappings. I've got enough blue ones for the coconut/lime candy; the chocolate/mint ones have different colours. I'd have liked them to be all green, but clearly, we hadn't had enough Lindt chocolate balls with pistachion filling. *g*

So, after all this I was completely done in. Fortunately, we still had Scheiterhaufen from yesterday (and will have the rest of it tomorrow, too), so all the cooking I had to do was to make some Tütensuppe - chicken soup with noodles, in the unlikely case anyone wants to know. Then I had a nice, long chat with my friend Evie and decided to call it a day.

I didn't want to go to the shops today because frankly, I was too tired from yesterday. So I decided to make a plait indeed, with lots of leftover dried fruits, flaked almonds - the works. Well... it wasn't meant to be. Yeast dough is always temperamental and unpredictable. By the kneading I felt already that something wasn't right - the dough felt a bit rubbery. Then it refused to rise, even after an hour and a half. Either the dried yeast was no longer operative (I prefer working with fresh yeast, but this particular recipe asks for the dried version), or I killed it with too warm milk.

Therefore the plait wasn't an option; it would never bake through. So I made buns instead. Fairly little buns, in the hope that they won't turn out completely raw in the middle while burn on the outside. They didn't. But they barely rose in the oven, either, and they remained somewhat rubbery. Tomorrow I'll slice them thinly and toast them; they do have a nice flavour, they are just not easy to eat, especially for Mum.

Then I made ginger syrup, which was a lot of hard work - fresh ginger offers stubborn resistance to being peeled and cubed, even though I had learned the best trick from an Asian TV cook: peel them with a teaspoon - but turned out exceedingly well. Up to the point when I filled it into small, 100-ml-bottles and started to screw on the caps. At which point I managed to knock over three of the still open bottles. The kitchen was covered in hot, sticky syrup, and I lots the amount of an entire bottle. Needless to say that I was pissed off like whoa!

The bottles have cooled down by now and got cleaned on the outside and properly labelled. They look pretty. I'll take a photo tomorrow, assuming the weather cooperates and gives me enough natural light.

Other than that, I made lunch (fish fingers and rice, plus leftover soup), talked to my friend Erna on the phone, and that was basically it.

I've made 7 jars of apple-elderflower jam today. Granted, they are fairly small jars, about 150 ml each, but it means that the ones with the irregular jars won't go to the fair but stay with us. Since the jam turned out absolutely terrific, we both are happy with that perspective.

Mum talked me into making a very easy, not work-intensive lunch... not that she needed to be very persuasive. I'm always glad to spend as little time with cooking as possible. So we had Tütensuppe - the El Gusto brand sold at Aldi, this time the veggie soup called Frühlingssuppe - and toasted cheese sandwiches. Since we own a small, tabletop grill/toaster combi, I didn't even have to switch on the oven.

I was tired and lazy for the rest of the day. We watched some telly, I watched some inane YouTube vids on my iPad, Mum selected the clothes she wants to wear tomorrow on the Big Birthday Outing(TM), and that was basically it.

I've made them this morning while Mum attended to Mass via telly, yess, Precioussss! They turned out very well, despite the fact that they could have come out of the oven five minute sooner for my personal taste. Mum loved them nonetheless - so much so that she voted for postponing the Topfenknödel and have soup and scones for lunch. Needless to say that I didn't argue. *g*

After lunch I felt really tired, so I decided to take a short nap. Short nap lasted over two hours, but afterwards I almost felt like a human being again. I even brought up the strength to do a bit of crafting. Dressing room #2 now has a finished vanity table, and I started working on the wardrobe. Go me!

We then watched today's GBBO rerun, and that was basically it. I'm planning to type up some already written stuff later on, but we'll see if it will happen or not.

Anyone who wants the recipe to my super quick and easy cheese scones, just holler!

To three different supermarkets. Got lots of stuff for a reduced price - most importantly coffee, the price of which has skyrocketed in recent months. Still spent a lot of money; that's the trap behind reduced prices. But in the end I didn't really buy anything unnecessary, so that's okay.

Our café meeting for next Thursday is taking shape. All four invited friends have promised to come - unless some family emergency happens. Unfortunately, that's always a possibility; all four of them have multiple grandchildren, and Elise has to care for her ailing father, too. But we are trying.

Not much else happened. Two of our daytime television programmes were cancelled due to the national holiday in Germany. Why even commercial channels need to replace them with totally idiotic movies every time there's a holiday is beyond me, but it can't be helped.

Again. I woke up with the firm decision not to go. I don't feel up to spending two hours practicing pieces I don't like and seething about favouritism. So I stayed home, did a tiny bit of crafting on my felt book project and took a nice, long nap.

That was the afternoon. In the morning I went grocery shopping, spending a sh*tload of money that always lifts my spirits. Not that I'd have bought anything unnecessary; well, except the four cans of iced coffee in three different tastes. Everything else was just normal, everyday food stuff. But hunting them down for a reduced price always gives me the proud feeling of accomplishment. *g*

Mum had her weekly physiotherapy session. The weather remains unusually cool; fortunately, the heating has started. Just enough to keep the temperature pleasant in the flat when turned up fully, but it's enough.

We ate the last remains of the cake today. Tomorrow, I'm going to make cauliflower Strudel (noadvertising, cover your eyes), with ham, creme freche and grated cheese. That will serve us for another two days; fortunately, I bought a big heap of Tütensuppe at Aldi today, which always makes cooking much easier. I'm not a soup fan, but Mum loves soup, all kinds of soup, so I like to keep sources in the house. Although I might make potato soup from scratch tomorrow if I can bring up the enthusiasm. We'll see.

I've made this cake today. Basically, it's an orange sponge (Grandma idiot proof recipe with orange flavour), vanilla custard (the other half of the custard powder that needed to be used up) and dried apricots (that had been soaked in baking rum and cut into tiny pieces, so that Mum could eat them). It doesn't look very impressive but it's absolutely delicious, and that is what counts, right?

I also made Shepherd's Pie, which means I won't have to cook in the next two days. Considering that tomorrow is cleaning day, that means a lot. And we had laundry days, so we're both suitably dead on our feet. I from baking, cooking and making the long overdue inventory of my baking ingredients, Mum from spontaneously washing up any dishes she could lay hand of. And today there were lots of dishes.

In the afternoon I called H; her eldest grandson turned 10 today and the youngest granddaughter will turn 6 tomorrow. Good grief, how did these kids grow up so quickly! As if it had been yesterday that Theo was born, and he's 10 already! And the girls will start school next year! The mind blows!

The rest of the day was spent in the usual catatonic state: some telly, some inane YouTube videos, some resting. We both needed to gather our strength for tomorrow.

Not the grumpy, hairy, potato-nosed Scandinavian ones. These Christmas gnomes are young, happy and very colourful. *g*



I also folded, filled and painted with cat faces over 30 empty toilet rolls. The number of surprise boxes is beyond 70 now, and I hope there will be more till December. These things are always very popular with the younger kids.

Other than that, I had kitchen duty today. I fried fish fingers (bought ready-made ones, bought at Lidl) with parsley potatoes from the scratch. On the baking side, I made French custard slices, which are basically two pieces of puff pastry, with a layer of vanilla custard and a layer of whipped cream in-between, plus a strong coffee glaze on top. They belong to the usual "ugly but yummy" category, which is still better than the other way round, right?

That took all morning. We then watched some telly and took nice, long naps in the afternoon. I love days like this.