Soledad's Journal

Today I cooked for two days in advance and prepared the main ingredient for the third day. I call that progress. My cauliflower cream soup turned out great: thick enough for a spoon to stand straight in it. My Geschnezeltes was excellent as well. So, no cooking tomorrow and very little cooking on the day after. *happy dance*

I repurposed an old towel; one that was made of such a hard fabric that we used it as bathroom rug. It was frayed on the edges, so I cut it in four pieces and am in the process of turning them into pot holders.

I also went to vote. We'll see how the elections end. A great many people went, too; almost 80 percent, which isn't usual. Apparently, getting the results can take as long as a week. My hopes are low to nonexistent. :(

In the early evening I talked to H. on the phone. The poor thing caught some bug from the grandkiddies over Easter and is now down with a really bad cold. I hope she'll recover, soon, now that the holidays are over and the kids safely back to school and kindergarten, respectively.

This definitely wasn't my day. I had to cook for two days because we're supposed to have visitors tomorrow - I believe it when I see them - and I don't want to be exhausted when they arrive. I also finished that Easter cake for them, which I wouldn't have made at all otherwise; my filling hasn't exactly turned out the way I wanted it to but it looks reasonably pretty. I'll take a photo tomorrow before it gets cut because afterwards it would be an unholy mess: too hard sponge, too soft filling - a bit not good. At least everything tastes yummy.

Dreamwidth has also developed a glitch. I've tried to import my journal two times within a week - no luck. I hope they'll iron out the glitch, soon. I've started hand-copying my LJ entries, but it's boring, time consuming and annoying.

I was so exhausted from all that cooking and baking that I was practically useless for the rest of the day. The only positive thing was that H. gave us a call. The grandkids were making lots of noise in the background; I think she's dead on her feet by now, too.

And I had hoped Wednesday would be calm and relaxing. *insert sarcasm*

It started with the fact that I got some free pears at school yesterday, when I went to choir practice. Pears are ridiculously expensive in the shops nowadays, so I jumped at the chance and today I made pear&ginger jam. It was a real burner at last year's fair, and jam does not expire quickly, especially if you add enough sugar and leave the jars in dry damp (yes, I know it sounds stupid - it means to wrap them into a blanket and let them cool down slowly over two days or so) properly. So, now I have four lovely little jars of delicious pear jam. I added a few cubes of crystalized ginger and a few cloves to each jar before filling in the jam, so they look really pretty.

Then my young cousin showed up unexpectedly, bringing an external speaker for our telly, which Mum can put on the coffee table and actually hear what is being said in the programme. We gave it a trial run and it worked well; of course, this means we'll have to switch the speaker on every time, as it goes into sleeping mode fairly quickly. Still, it was nice of Danny.

After he left and I was finished with my jam, I took out Mum for a walk. We added another short stretch to our path, reaching the first bench on our way to the corner café. If the weather remains nice, we might be able to reach the café in two or three days. *fingers crossed*

Ugh, I just see I forgot to mention the crafting part, which was the very first thing I did in the morning. I made little bunnies out of large pom-poms and put them into the hand-woven little paper baskets that have been waiting for half a year or so to be used for something. I'll add little chocolate eggs tomorrow, assuming I find any at Lidl, and they'll be perfect little gifts for friends. A photo will be coming up as soon as the eggsies are added, I promise.

And just now I've typed up a whole page's worth of hand-written stuff. So I consider this day full of accomplishments.

... and I'm not speaking about the usual routine, like giving Mum her weekly shower, washing my hair, taking down the dried washing and the likes.

Today I had kitchen duty. The cauliflower I had bought yesterday needed to be pre-cooked, cooled down, put into freezer bags and frozen for future use. For lunch, I made a mushroom-and-ham omelet with grated cheese and history's worst soup. For some reason trying to make gebundene Gemüsesuppe always ends in failure. I don't know why. It isn't such a complicated thing; and yet I fail every single time with it. Of course, I made a large pot. Enough for at least three days. Mum, being the soup junkie that she is, will eat it willingly enough. I might kip my portion into the loo...

Aside from the cooking disaster, I did some writing and crafting. The red felt bunnies are almost done. All that's left is the stitching of their faces, plus sewing the front and back panels together and stuffing them. I hope to finish them tomorrow or the day after. *fingers crossed*

Writing was considerably less abundant, but I did write a little bit, after I've googled for info on infected leg wounds. This is an alternate version of the TOS episode "Plato's Stepchildren", after all.

... has been finished as well. Take a look here. Again, I added the original photo on the package, so that noadvertising can find the right one, should her local Tedi have them.

I'm more or less content with the kitty, especially with her expression due to the added eyebrows, and the pink heart on her chest. The only problem with these Tedi toys-to-make-yourself is that they are made from such a stiff felt. It not only wrinkles badly, there's also no way to stuff them without giving them a rather prominent goiter, but that can't be helped. My friend Evie declared that her granddaughter would love the kitty, so I'm content with the outcome.

Not much else happened. I had to cook for two days, as tomorrow the One technician is due to come and replace our old internet modem (apparently, it can no longer deal with the improved speed), which makes me nervous in advance. I hate changes. I prefer things to remain the way I was used to them. Clearly, I'm getting old.

I had a restless night. Neck and shoulder (and back) pains made me unable to find a position in which I could have slept any longer than two hours in a row. It took me nearly fifty minutes to fall asleep in the first time, and then I woke up again... and again... roughly every two hours.

Of course, the fact that I had to get up an hour earlier than usual because Mum wanted to attend to Mass via TV didn't help. Ah, well, at least I was pissed off suitably to finally clean the kitchen; something that had been long overdue. And to take down the dried laundry. And to give Mum her weekly shower.

Funnily enough, neck and shoulder (and back and wrist) don't bother me when I'm doing slave labour. Just when I'm trying to rest. Or to work at the computer. Bleh!

No cooking was necessary - long live the leftovers - so I used the time to do a tiny bit of sewing. One set of laundry room shelves is now finished. All I need to add are the little hooks for the towels, which I need to buy first in a sewing shop. A good thing that I'll have to go to the Allee shopping center tomorrow anyway. They have an excellent craft and sewing supplies shop. I hope I'll find there what I need.

After lunch I gave in to the inevitable, and since my various body parts chose to behave I slept for two hours. It was a real blessing. Then I gave H. a call, who's fighting off a bad cold (again), posted the next chapter of 'Alternate Caretaker' to otherworlds_lib and we watched the GBBO - the only thing worth watching tonight.

Oh, and I forgot: I also started a small notebook for collecting various... unusual jam recipes I intend to try for this year's Christmas fair. Like apricots with rosemary, sour cherries with thyme, strawberries with basil and balsamico vinegar and the likes.I've just added the spicy fig jam of noadvertising's DiL to the list.

... was fairly busy again. I started with taking down the dried washing, continued with giving Mum her weekly shower and then went on to do some cleaning. Not a very deep one, where - as a former colleague of me liked to put it - I would bite out every spider from each corner, but I did a fair bit of surface vacuuming. Enough to temporarily kill my back as usual. But that was in the morning. I'm better now.

Cooking was an easy affair - I mostly finished the Champignonfleisch yesterday, just had to add the creme freche to it and to make a salad and some Semmelknödel aus der Tüte as side dishes. It turned out delicious... we probably ate too much of it, but there's still enough for tomorrow. Long live the leftovers!

I think this flooded bathroom/loo/kitchen thing has brought me to the end of my tether. I keep taking naps several times a day and am still ridiculously tired all the time. Last time I was so floored had happened back in 1988 when I left my convent and was put up by a German friend for a couple of months. *sigh*

At least I managed to do a bit of crafting again. Not much: I just cut out the parts for the washing machines for the dollhouse quiet book. They're supposed to look like this one, only with silver front doors instead of grey ones.

We then watched "The Incredible Dr. Pol", "Salvage Hunters" and the GBBO (not in one sitting, of course; we usually watch TV while having breakfast or lunch), and that was basically it.

I've made the coconut-and-cashew cookies today. And the toffee-Brazil nut ones. Only that I used hazelnuts instead Brazil nuts because I got a 200-gram-bag of chopped hazelnuts from H. as part of my birthday gift, which spared me the effort of hand-chopping 100 grams of Brazil nuts. I really need to invest into a chopper; a good one. Chopping any kinds of nuts by hand takes forever and is a killer on the back.

Anyway, my cookies turned out very well (Mum approved of the samples) and half of them are boxed already. I love those recipes where the decoration happens before the baking, so as soon as the cookies are cooled they can be put away. For the other batch I'll have to brave the ladder and get my tin cookie boxes down from the highest shelf of the kitchen cupboard. I'll do it tomorrow when my legs aren't shaking from exhaustion; less chance to fall off the ladder that way. *g*

I also made a very cauliflower-heavy lunch today (noadvertising, close your eyes!): a cauliflower Strudel, and a vegetable soup based on the boiling water of said cauliflowers. So, counting in the leftover chicken paprikash from yesterday, I won't have to cook in the next two days, which is always a relief.

Surprisingly enough, the muse dropped by for a short visit, too. I'm well content with today's achievements.

... because today was really slow, with only mundane things to fill it. I like mundane. Mundane is safe.

Anyway, it started with H. calling us to postpone our visit to Saturday because the younger generation (my goddaughter, her hubby and the two kids) will be home on Saturday and so they can take us home after our visit. Meaning that we won't have to take a cab and thus save a batch of money. It was nice of them to offer, and so we agreed. In this way I can work on H's birthday gift some more: print out more recipes, add more decorations and all that.

Also, the physiotherapist lady had called yesterday if she could come today as she had to reorganize her schedule due to the upcoming national holiday. We said yes. It is actually a good thing for me as this way we can have lunch tomorrow at the usual time before I'd leave for choir practice.

I cooked for two days tomorrow: Tunfischauflauf, which is a casserole dish made of canned tuna, canned sweet corn, chopped tomatoes and grated cucumber, with a cheesy bechamel sauce poured over them and the whole thing baked in the oven. Yum! Also: no cooking tomorrow, yay!

Other than that, I was lazy today. I watched some YouTube videos, took a nap, watched some telly, and now I'm about to type up and print out some more recipes.

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.