Glanbrydan’s Weblog

Having taken the broken kitchen scales back and been given new batteries, the old ones having lasted only a few months in the scales I have been back in business tonight preparing Christmas pudding mixtures. They will now sit over night and I will cook them tomorrow using the pressure cooker.

T-W-O has been cooking lots of dried liver dog treats and tomorrow I will start to prepare the pasty mixture for Saturdays market. There is loads of vegetable preparation to be completed as we are not around on Thursday evening when I would normally prepare the cooked meats so we need to do as much work in advance as possible.

I wanted to introduce large family pies for the farmers market at Brecon on Saturday but it seems I won’t have the preparation time available for a first time run so it will have to wait a week. It hardly seems like Christmas this year but we are looking forward to a week with feet up with no work to speak of and few glasses of the red stuff.

Sunday was to be spent buying and decorating the tree but my Dad has had an operation recently and I want to visit him so the tree may be a mid week purchase and an evening spent debating over which decoration should be placed where. When I was a child Christmas seemed to be here and gone, as an adult it seems to go on for much longer normally. This year at least Christmas may be making just a fleeting visit, the build up so much shorter than usual.

It’s odd but like the recent recession that is affecting us all so much I feel Christmas is so much a man made event. It seems I have come to realise that any event is partly what we make of it. I know as individuals or families we cannot make a dent of the recession but at least we can appreciate Christmas.

This evening I set about producing another batch of Christmas puddings, a little late you may say but I have found they are as nice with just a week before being eaten. My new scales have decided to let me down and I am now stuck with half my dry ingredients mixed together and packets all waiting to be emptied.

I am not willing to risk puds made up without the scales as I think the ratio of fruit to dry goods is quite important as the pudding can end up too rich. I will be off to the shops first thing to get my scales sorted out.

In reaction to this unfortunate incident I have flopped down on the sofa and am taking solace in what will be an early night to bed. In preparation I will be gathering the hot microwave thingy that looks like a bottle and heating it up. Tonight the fire doesn’t seem to be keeping the cold from nipping around the edges and I need a blanket to wrap round my shoulders and legs is in order.

Just a quick drop in to say hello. We are back from the family get together and it was great to see them all (even if one little boy, our youngest was missing). We had a good time with our two young ladies, the grandchildren, who enjoyed a couple of early pressies from Santa.

All in all a good weekend.

It’s Friday night and that means no day job for 2 days. It’s the day job’ pays the bills,  but I realise as time goes by that the ‘day job’ isn’t all it’s blamed for. We have to pay the bills somehow and it actually seems not a bad way to do so but then I consider the option of working for myself full time and that is worth working for.

So looking into the future, which none of us is able to do, I would love to be my own boss. What does that mean though? I think if you haveto make money to live by working ( and we do) then it’s more serious than we realise. I hope though that by making food people want to eat then our little business can weather the political storm around us.

Tonight I’ve been cooking again. This time a few quiches for a family get together organise by middle daughter, Lisa and her husband Iain.  The family shall unite on Sunday lunch time for a Christmas get together and lunch. A new event in the calender of the Winter family. If they are not careful it may fall to them to organise every year!

I have no idea if men feel a little bit smarter when they leave the barber but I think most women feel at least a bit better when they come away from the hairdresser. Groomed, sleeky locks fall neatly into place and make me walk a tad taller. That bit of self confidence is an amazing boost when you are feeling a bit spotty or a bit out of the world of fashion or you can see that little spot of something on your blouse from making something in the kitchen earlier.

When we have walked around the streets of Italy or Spain we have seen woman all over delivering that taller walk. Just a little bit proud, a little bit confident, a little bit better dressed and groomed. It seems something that British woman aren’t gifted with, the right to self respect. We perceive ourselves as the for runners of fashion in the UK and I love that idea but somehow those Continental ladies have an old fashioned style and I’m sure it’s as much as how they hold themselves as the clothes on their backs.

You may have guessed I went to the hairdressers this evening and now my golden locks are restored from the root onwards. I guess I must be careful not to slip over if I hold my head up too much in an effort to walk taller and don’t watch what the feet are doing.

My goodenss the 3rd of December and today saw the first festive card arrive on the door mat. All I can say is that I don’t yet have the festive spirit or the will to write cards. It must arrive soon as Christmas will be upon us before we know it but for now I am happy to worry about not having organised my Christmas.

The younger members of the family already have a list for Santa while the rest of us have no idea what we might like until January when it’s all too late.

We have entertained tonight and my goodness we are feeling it. Off up the wooden hill to freezing cold beds! Maybe I’ll heat the hot water bottle thingy that goes in the microwave first.

Sometimes I forget which recipes I have posted and I forgot that this recipe, which I make about once a week at home, is not on the blog. These potatoes work well if people are coming to dinner as they keep in a warm oven for half an hour or more quite well. The main thing is not to under cook them and then just keep them warm once they are cooked.

An eight inch quiche dish or similar pie dish will do 4 people with lots of other food on the plate, we tend to do 2 pie dishes of this as every one so far has loved them.

This is very similar to the cottage smallholders recipe http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=176 and close to dauphinoise potatoes.

About 1 pound of potatoes. They need to cover the base of the dish you will be using to cook them in when cut in half so you may need more or less than this.

A mozzarella ball, the packet in my fridge is 125g (they sell them in sealed packets in most supermarkets)

A peeled and crushed clove of garlic. (or if you do it my way, chop off the ends, crush the middle using a big knife held flat over the garlic and push it down hard with the palm of your hand – be careful. The skin should come away and the garlic should be crushed)

Between 50g and 75g of tasty cheddar, grated.

A pinch of grated nutmeg, which can be left out if someone is not keen on it

salt and pepper

about 10 g of butter

about three quaters of a pint of milk but allow more/less depending on the dish you use and potato size.

You can add a dash of cream if you have some lurking in the fridge but it is optional.

Oven to 180 degrees C or Gas mark 4

Take a quiche or pie dish. Peel a potato and then place on a chopping board. Cut it in half and make fine slices that don’t quite go all the way through the potato. It should look sliced but you should be able to move your half potato in once piece into the pie dish.

Repeat this until your pie dish base is full of halves, if you have big gaps fill them with off cuts of potato. Now pour the milk over so the potatoes are about half covered, add a pinch of salt and put the crushed garlic on top spreading it around a bit. sprinkle over the cheddar and then cut the mozzarella into slices and lay that over the top. Sprinkle over the pinch of nutmeg and finish with a good pinch of pepper.

Cut the butter into little pieces and drop onto the top. If using pour over the cream.

Pop into the oven for about 45 minutes. Try a sharp knife through a potato and it should feel like a cooked boiled potato if it’s ready. The top should be a lovely coating of melted mozzarella.

Fresh pork pies baked tonight

OK we’ve done the things that make us happy and things we love so lets do the things that annoy us!

I get annoyed by the drivers who make their way down the windy lane next to our home and imagine that if they beep their horn as they approach a corner they won’t hit anything on the road so they don’t slow down. To start with the noise is annoying and then where do they imagine the people/animals/cars coming the other way are going to go as there is a sharp drop off the road into the ditch.

I get annoyed at CCTV. I imagine that without it we would live in the same society and I worry that it gives the people who venture out after dark the idea that someone is keeping an eye on them. I believe that it’s not used for our good most of the time but used to keep us in order.

Lastly I get very annoyed by our own snobbery. Something I am guilty of myself in believing I am better in some undefinable way than the next person. I find myself imagining the tramp to be unclean and that somehow washing makes me a better person. I think that the way we shop gives me the right to judge the way others shop.

So we are all far from perfect and yet all believe in our own good. All in all a good act is one we do without reward, without expectation and without self gratification. I challenge you to try a good deed without one of these – please don’t kid yourself. Give up that seat on the bus to the plane or the underground to a pregnant lady, speak to your neigbour and pop and see that old family friend once in a while. It will make you feel better and …..less annoyed.