Soledad's Journal

I've finished the first part of my baking commission. The results are 93 pieces of Cashew-Coconut Balls, which turned out extremely well... at least according to Mum. I liked them, too. I've made three batches, two for the commission and one for us. They're now peacefully resting in their cookie tins, and I'm a tad tired. Hand-shaping 93 walnut-sized balls was time-consuming and hard on my back and feet. I know, there are people who can do such thing perfectly well sitting down. I'm not one of those people, unfortunately. Grandma never sat down while cooking or baking, and that's how I was trained, too. *g*

Tomorrow things will continue with jam-filled, flower-shaped shortbread biscuits and these meringue-topped ones, so that the excess egg white won't be wasted. This is an economical household. ;))

I also made Shepherd's Pie, which wasn't finished in time, so we ate leftover soup and sandwiches - but that means I won't have to cook in the next three days, which is always a win. I talked on the phone to H. and my friend Evie, meaning that there was also social life. And now I'm pretty tired and decided not to do much for the rest of the evening.

Well, actually the crap wasn't so much... or too bad. Just the same.

I went to the Savoy Park (mini) shopping centre in the morning. Visits to Pepco, Kik and Tedi were overdue. I also tried to get my hands on some peppermint essence, but neither the bio-shop nor the herb shop had it. They only had this oil you can burn to scent the air - not exactly suited for baking. I'll have to find some place where they sell baking ingredients, I guess, since online shopping is beyond my modest abilities.

In any case, Tedi had reduced the price of several items (mostly lace borders and the likes), so I bought a heap of them "for later". (I really need to sort my craft supplies; I'm fairly sure there are dozens of items I've bought twice or three times already.) But the big catch was at Kik. They had reduced kitchen utensils, and I found a wonderful, non-stick, expandable baking sheet for the equivalent of one Euro. Due to my Kik card I get a further bonus, so that it was actually very, very cheap. I hope it will work out well nonetheless when I start my baking commission next week.

Other than that, not much happened. I took a one-day break from crafting, we ate leftovers for lunch and I talked to H. and to my friend Evie on the phone. Stupid Paprika TV turned their programme upside down, so that the GBBO re-runs now come an hour later, fracturing my evenings even more. But that can't be helped.

Happy birthday, dear mirasaui!



I hope it was a lovely, peaceful one, despite everything life has thrown at you recently. *hugs*

We had a quiet day. I hadn't slept well and was tired all day, so didn't get done much. Small household tasks, some telly, a bit of craft preps, some crossword puzzles. I even skipped choir practice - again. The odd fact is, I find it increasingly hard to leave the house in the afternoon. I have no problem hopping around the shops all morning, but the afternoon... that's a different cup of espresso. The afternoon is for naps, for telly - that sort of thing. I'll try to be less lazy next week. After all, choir practice is fun... most of the time.

There are 13-17 degrees out there, and while the flat itself is considerably warmer, one has the impression of freezing because of the clouded skies and the intermittent rain. No heating and no warm water don't help, either. I might be inclined to bake something tomorrow, just to get a bit warmed up.

Anyway, it wasn't an eventful day. No warm water meant no showering, either, and being restricted to the bathroom sink and having to heat up water in the kitchen first is definitely nothing I'm used to in these days, although in my childhood it was the norm. At least we still have water in the flat, and I don't mean coming through the balcony, thank God. When I was a child poor Mum had to fetch water from the well first.

I also skipped choir practice today - again. I know, I know, I'm horrible. Especially as I had to go to the school anyway, to leave a dish for the strawberries. But I couldn't bear the thought to stay there till 6.30pm to practice for a gig I in which I won't even participate. So I came home instead - with a little detour to Aldi - and did a bit of crafting instead. At least I met two of my former colleagues I like very much, so that was nice.

The little sewing kits are taking shape. I've sewn on another 30 buttons today; only 36 more to go. That should be doable during the week; after that I can start decorating the boxes themselves. Assuming I can cough up a working design by then. I'm thinking of a glued-together patchwork band. I've got an ungodly amount of felt rests, really small snippets, that need to be used up for something. We'll see how it works.

For tomorrow, I'm planning a somewhat more thorough kitchen cleaning project - if I can bring up the energy.*fingers crossed*

I planned to do a bit of grocery shopping today. And to sort out at least one shelf in my craft cupboard. And to finish all three remaining pincushions, just to get them out of my hair.

Well, I have finished two of the three pincushions. Other than that, I did literally nothing but reading, solving crossword puzzles, watching telly, taking naps and going for a walk with Mum. There are so many things in the flat that need to be done but I just don't feel up to actually doing them.

At least I talked to my friend Evie on the phone. That's one thing not related to household things. Ah, well, tomorrow I'll have to leave the house to buy some food, perhaps that will break me out of my grey mood.

My friend Eenie supplied a jar of peanut butter for the Christmas baking, to help with the costs. Only that it was a 375gr jar - and I needed 50gr of peanut butter for the cookies. Poor opened jar had been waiting patiently in the fridge for a purpose, until I realized that it would reach its "best before" date on April 30. So, last night I surfed the 'Net for peanut butter recipes and, among others, I found this one. So I gave it a try. Since the peanut butter I had was smooth, I added some leftover homemade hazelnut Krokant for the crunchy texture and sprinkled the chocolate on top with the other half of it.

The peanut butter slices turned out heavenly. They remind me a bit of Halva, which I love, only softer, more crumbly. The fact that they don't need baking only added to their attraction. However, they are also rather rich; the two of us alone could never have eaten them. So I offered a third of them to our neighbour, who happily accepted. Having two adolescent kids to feed is hard work, I guess. *g*

Not much else happened. I skipped choir practice because I was tired from yesterday and totally unmotivated. But I did make another pincushion; only three more to go. I took Mum out for a short walk, and I talked to Ilonka (a former colleague, now also retired) and to H. on the phone. And I took a nap. So, all in all, it was a good day.

I was all over the district the whole morning. First I did some grocery shopping. Then I tried to fetch Mum's medicine; the one for osteoporosis. Guess what? The thing was nowhere to be found. Again. At one pharmacy they said they might get some next week. I certainly hope so, as Mum ought to take it on May 1 - it is the kind of thing she needs to take once a month.

It is partially our own fault, of course. We know the thing - Ossica it's called - periodically vanishes from the market, no-one knows why. So we should have had the new dosis prescribed at least a month ago; Mum just thought she still had one last pill. She was mistaken. Hunting down somebody - anybody - at the clinic was a two-hour-act in itself; her own rheumatologist simply didn't answer the phone. Then I cruised between various pharmacies in vain. Ah, well, we've (hopefully) learned our lesson.

On my Ossica-hunting cruise I also dropped by at Kik and bought some acrylic paint to replace all the pots I had to throw out recently. Only a few basic colours and only because I had a bon that allowed me a 15% price reduction for everything I bought. So there came some good out of the whole thing, after all.

The afternoon was socially active. First, I called H. and we chatted amiably for a while. Then two of my friends/ex-colleagues called, and we did the same. Consequently, there was no time left for a much-needed nap, and I could only finish one pincushion. But it was worth it.

... even though not entirely eventful. But I didn't have to do any housework, and all the other things were pleasant.

I've actually finished all the egg baskets, including their handles. So, tomorrow there'll be painting all 21 of them. *shudders* Still, it has to be, so that they can dry and be filled during the weekend. I want them packed and ready to be delivered for Tuesday, because next week promises to be hectic.

We had the Tunfischauflauf I made yesterday for lunch. Well, half of it. I don't want to cook tomorrow, as tomorrow will be grocery shopping day. Then I watched some YouTube videos and solved a bunch of crossword puzzles. We took out the rubbish, checked our mail (the snail mail kind), and I delivered the cookies to the neighbours.

My friend Eenie came mid-afternoon to fetch her cookies. We had a nice time together; even called our conductor, who's still down with some sort of stomach bug, and had a three-way phone call. She stayed till half past six - it was fun. After she'd left, we had supper and watched some telly, and now the day is almost over again.

As I said, the day was eventful but still very pleasant. I'd really need more days like this.

Choir practice got cancelled today because our conductor had fallen ill. Poor thing must have picked up the virus that's running its circles among the kids. So I didn't get to deliver the cookie boxes as intended, but Eenie and Elise are coming to pick up theirs tomorrow and the day after, respectively.

I put the unexpected free time to good use and made another six egg baskets. Only 12 more to go - unless I decide to make a few spares, just in case I ruin a few during painting, which is a distinct possibility. Still, it's a relief that half the required numbers are done. I hope I can finish the whole project by the weekend and can distribute them among my fellow choir members next Tuesday.

Not much else happened. Mum had a visit from the physiotherapist lady, we ate leftovers and rested a bit. My friend Evie called in the middle of the GBBO and talked to me till the middle of "Salvage Hunters", so I didn't see much from either. It wasn't a problem with "Salvage Hunters", I already saw that episode, but this season of the GBBO is shown for the first time, so I was a bit miffed about it. Only secretly, of course. One should appreciate when one's friends call. :)

PS: Oh, and the ads have arrived in the meantime. *sigh*

Which can be because of serious sleep deprivation. My nights are seldom longer than 6 hours, and in the last three days I didn't manage to take my usual afternoon nap. I'll try to do better from now on!

That said, it was a relatively quiet day. In the morning, even before Mum would get up, I quickly iced my cinnamon-and-nougat cookies and put them out on the balcony, so that the icing could harden out. By the time we had gone through our morning routine, the cookies were ready to be boxed. Yay! Two sorts done, four to six more to go. But I won't bake again until next week - or, at the earliest time, till Sunday.

After breakfast I had to clean out the lowest shelf of the pantry cupboard (literally, as it serves as a sorry excuse for an actual pantry in the kitchen), to sort my packages of flour by their 'best before' date. The same with cans of pineapple, mango, pureed tomatoes, green peas and sweet corn. Now I have a general idea what we have in reserve and what has to be used up first.

Writing-wise it was a good day, too. I've dug out my Enterprise DVDs and re-watched "Rogue Planet", thus getting the necessary details for the description I needed to write. My total is almost two full pages, which is fantastic progress, after the dry spell of recent days.

No actual crafting was done today, but I finally managed to take a halfway decent picture of my little felt box (after three failed attempts). You know, the one that started as a failed pincushion and got repurposed. It still isn't entirely finished (I need to fix the front loop), but I think it looks nice enough.



For lunch I did some express cooking: Tütensuppe (10 minutes), fried fish fingers (another 10 minutes) parsley potatoes (about 12 minutes, since the potatoes were boiling while I did the rest of the dishes). I sliced some cucumbers in lieu of a salad, and that was basically it. But Mum liked it, and I didn't have to waste half my day in the kitchen.

After lunch we went for a walk with Mum, and after that I talked to some friends on the phone (3 out of 5 actually answered the phone, which counts as a good percentage). So yeah, it was a good day. I'm just falling asleep on my feet every ten minutes. Every five minutes if I sit down. *g*