Good Morning, Afternoon or evening, depending on where you are reading this.
I, for one, feel refreshed and filled with hope. Hope for us all…
This past week has been very quiet and I am missing the family so very much. We FaceTime daily, sometimes 3 or 4 times. There are times that I’m grateful to be on my sofa as their house is filled with noise. Happy, chatty, laughing noise.
A lot of the time I am wishing that I was there with them. Trying to remember how Jackson’s head smells. How funny they all are and how I yearn to cuddle them, holding them so tight.
Yesterday, during a happy and noisy facetime, the boys decided to put some music on and have a disco. Jackson was thrilled. Kane being the dutiful big, big brother chooses the music for them all, knowing which song Jackson likes the most.
There was clapping, and bopping. Wiggling bottoms, hands flapping and laughter. LOTS of laughter whilst they all busted their moves.
My phone has a thing which means I can video whilst taking part in a FaceTime. I decided that this was one of those precious moments that I want to show them all, when they are older. So I pressed record.
Lots more dancing and shrieking. Jackson made it pretty clear when he didn’t like the song DJ kane was putting on. And in one moment Mummy said something to DJ Kane, to which he replied “I know Mum, they are all crap” (oh I nearly died laughing)
Then as quick as a flash, something orange flew across the room. “An orb? Ohhh must be an orb???” I got a little excited thinking that the boys were being watched over by a bright orange orb.
I couldn’t wait to get off the phone and go through the video! We ended our call after about 20 mins or so. I began to scroll through my video.
THEN…
I found it! I found the orange splodge and started to scroll back slowly… very slowly.
IT WAS NOT AN ORB AT ALL!
It was a MINI CHEDDAR!!!
I started to laugh…. and could not stop!
As I looked through the video, I saw Rowan flop down on the sofa this causing a lone mini cheddar to be expelled through the air!
Today I decided it was a baking day. We had two very nearly black bananas and I did not want to waste them. Also, FYI the Hubs adores my Banana bread! I really enjoyed making them.
I do believe that baking is my therapy. Although I am a “bit of this, bits of that” type of baker. The “oh we don’t have that, So I will use this instead” baker. As you can imagine I have my successes and my… er… not so.. successful ones too. (Still trying to find anything tasty made with oats!)
Banana bread? No problem? Sponge cake? No problem. However there are things I have never dared attempt to do because it seems a lot of trouble for something that I will stuff my face with and will be gone in seconds! Or it’s too fiddly, I have big, fat, sausage fingers and can’t do delicate or precise! I’m not that type of gal!
Anyways, after the success of the banana bread, I decide I want to make Churros! Not any churros but The Pioneer Woman’s Churros. I had seen one of her programmes, on the Food Network Channel, over the festive times and had literally been drooling at the TV.
I read, and reread the recipe. It seem quite easy. Dee made it look simple.
I got my pan out. My measuring cups and spoons. I began to weigh out the ingredients and put them into the pan of milk to melt. Slowly. That seemed to be the ethos of this recipe. Everything done relaxed and chilled.
Well, let me tell you. MY kitchen was not that organised, I had the rice cooker on, cooking Sherlock’s rice. I had two banana loafs cooling on the side. (Tested & tasted… verdict: delicious) I was running out of space. Had a bit of an accident with the flour and it was now over the side, toaster & kettle.
I then remembered we could either air fry them or fat fry them! I decided to let the Hubby chose. He mumbled about “something… something.. air… something.. fry..) I realised he was going to crush my dream of creating the most perfect churros! (Just call me “the not-so-pioneer woman). And to do this, I needed FAT!! Golden fat, slightly bubbling in a pan.
Moving on. I had made the mixture. I had followed the recipe to a T! Errr… mmm… well, nearly! All I had to do now was to find or make a piping bag, pipe them, those tasty, little sugary, cinnamony sticks of fat and carbs! (Omg drooling!)
Firstly.
Do not try to use a sandwich bag as a piping bag! Even if it is “double bagged”! I will let you in on a secret… no matter what you do with these bags, one of them WILL split and your dough will go everywhere!
I tried, in vain to make a piping bag with greaseproof paper. I have no flippin idea how you make them and despite 6 YouTube videos later, I still could not do it! (How stupid am I?)
The darling Hubs helped. We found a pampered chef contraption, right at the back of the cupboard and it was perfect to use as a piping bag. (I do think that’s what it was for as had nozzles etc)
It worked. We managed to pipe the churro mixture into a shallow frying in pan. I do need a thermometer as obviously the oil was far too hot as mine came out looking like little dog poops! Not the most attractive looking ones, still they tasted ok!
All this baking has worn me out. Well… not so much the baking but the tidying up!
(This was written before the recent lockdown)
Take care of you,
Love & Hugs
Anita x
My Big Fat British Bladder Tumour 