Of Walks, Jelly, Yeast, Mothers Moving House, Cake, Cats, and sundry other matters.

[bunn]

My mother has completed her house move, and now she, cat & dogs have moved to Mary Tavy (a small village at the bottom of the Western slopes of Dartmoor). Everything seems to have gone OK: I went and helped unpack on Thursday, taking with me an attempted apple and cinnamon cake, which turned out to be rather heavy. I think I should have added extra baking powder to the self-raising flour, and perhaps a bit more water too - cakes with more water in seem to rise more, though it wasn't a dry cake, so maybe just the baking powder. Hum.

We found a great quantity of stuff that really should have been chucked out before the move, but I suppose she had lived in her previous village for 25 years and accumulated a lot of junk. I drove home via the recycling place where I got rid of the junk, and many of the unpacked boxes too.

Friday night, philmophlegm & I had a last-minute impulse evening out at Percy's. Lovely place, and trying hard on the food, but a lot of the stuff they serve they grow/rear themselves, and I think they'd grown some rather mustardy leaf vegetable which they'd used rather more of than was really required. I grew some of that stuff (or similar) in the greenhouse, and I'd noticed mine had got rather pungent with the hot weather: I think perhaps the same had happened to theirs. This is why chefs should always taste the food they cook, I suppose!

This morning I met up with my mother again, for a morning dog-walk on Dartmoor:

Dartmoor Cross (with dog)


Dog (with Dartmoor Ponies)


She told me that she had accidentally let Blott (the cat) out yesterday, having only been in residence for about 3 days, which was a bit hair-raising. Fortunately Blott was sensible and came back after half an hour's exploring. Obviously my incompetence in keeping cats inside is genetic.

Today I ignored the needs of the lawns, hedges, greenhouse and various other garden bits that are all looking terribly shaggy and really needing cut, and made 4 and half jars of blackberry and apple jelly. It was surprisingly easy, though it took longer to start to set than I was expecting (or the recipe suggested). I think possibly I should have used the apples from the cooking-apple tree, rather than the sweet apples from the eating-apple tree. I used the eating apples because they don't keep at all, but I think they may have been a bit low on pectin. Hope I haven't overdone it and it doesn't become hard when it cools. It's a nice clear deep purple though.

While waiting for the jelly to get to the setting point, I surfed on the topic of yeast. I do think yeast is magical: the smell, and the way it makes hugely more of itself, and the whole mysterious rising / brewing thing. Apparently you shouldn't eat uncooked yeast. Poot. I do love uncooked bread dough. Still, it's not killed me so far.

I was wondering if there was any information on how long yeast(s) had been in use, and where it was discovered, but the information I found was slight and contradictory. I suppose it's the kind of thing that doesn't make much imprint of itself much in the archaeology.



The Great British Duck Race is next weekend. I love the idea of an attempt to break the world plastic-duck-racing record: could there be anything more delightfully pointless? If you want a duck or 2 you can buy them via the Oldies Club and make a donation to help old dogs (not ducks!) here: http://www.thegreatbritishduckrace.co.uk/charitypage.php?charity=426

Comments

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I've often wondered this: how do you get the dogs to be such beautifully positioned foregrounds for your beautifully composed shots? I've just about got Pellinor trained in Foreground Duty ("stand there, look in the direction I tell you, and don't move") but all photos that include cats fail miserably, since they wander off or wriggle while I'm focusing. I suspect you have papier mache models of all your animals, which can be substituted for the real thing for photography purposes.

Kind of worried, though, by the fact that the NotYours dog has mislaid three legs. Azure has a certain levitating feel to him, too, while his shadow clearly reveals the monstrous inter-dimensional being that he really is.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I think cats are harder than dogs. Dogs are bigger and not so wriggly!

May also help that my camera is a fast-focussing model chosen for taking high-speed pics of running pointy dogs!

[chainmailmaiden]

Our cats are definitely hard to photograph. Both of them instantly look up when they hear the camera switching on, even if you try and do it in another room. We have missed numerous cute cats sleeping photos because of this. They move around too much when they're awake to get good pictures at the moment (unless they are eating).

[chainmailmaiden]

A higher amount of sugar in cakes tends to make them lighter, that's one of the tricks used in commercial cake making. Of course it has the downside of making the cake very sweet, I usually just up the amount of baking powder, though if it's a large fruit cake dropping the amount of flour and adding an extra egg works too.

The eating apples probably were a bit low in pectin, however if the jelly is very solid you can use it as a dessert - serve it sliced on top of shortbread biscuits with clotted cream - at least that's what one of my books suggests as to what to do with overcooked jams or jellies :-)

[bunn.livejournal.com]

The jelly has come out really well in the end - very clear and purple, and just the right sort of texture.

The sugar thing makes sense. I tend to reduce the sugar quantities when making cakes, because I find sponges too sweet, so that probably didn't help.