More People "Ort" To Do It!

 Elizabeth David the celebrated food writer wrote that a good cook does not have leftovers. I disagree completely! Leftovers are not a sign of failure. Let me explain why I think her assertion is incorrect... 

If you are catering for a family, or a number of guests, portion control can be difficult. Maybe one extra person will turn up, or maybe someone else will be particularly hungry. It is important to have enough for everyone at the table - and therefore sometimes there will be leftovers. 

If your oven is on, it is a good idea to cook as much as you can, to get maximum benefit from the energy you are paying for - so that may mean cooking food for a later meal. 

We had guests for lunch yesterday. I wanted to provide a meal where they could pick and choose how much to eat. I served jacket potatoes, salads, cheeses and cold meats. And I cooked extra spuds. 

So yes, we have leftovers in the fridge. We each ate a spud, with butter, on Thursday night, and we will be eating up salads and cold meats for a day or two. [I may add rice or bread as our carbs.] And these meals are produced with minimal energy.

As much as I can, I double up on cooking to get Planned Leftovers. 

If I'm boiling spuds, I'll keep a few back from the mash or whatever, and they get sautéed with Saturday's breakfast, or diced into a soul or salad. An extra cooked sausage or two makes a great sausage sandwich, or gets sliced and folded into pasta. Less waste, money saved, we all benefit. 

The old English word "Orts" meant a meal made with leftovers - I think it's time we revived this word. Forget Ms David's snobbish attitude - and fight food waste! 

What is your favourite orts meal, made from leftovers? 

A Get Well Gift

Bob came home on Monday with a gift - he had been in Wymondham, and popped in a Charity Shop - where he found a book he thought I would like. I have blogged about the Quaker Tapestry before. Check out the website here. The Centre in Kendal sells embroidery kits. This book is a guide to the stitching, with a particular emphasis on the Quaker Stitch.

One Sunday in 1981, a twelve year old boy called Jonathan Stocks asked why he had to just do colouring with the younger children on a Sunday at the Quaker Meeting, Wasn't there something more interesting?  From this, Ann Wynn-Wilson developed the idea of the Quaker Tapestry. A piece [similar in idea to the Bayeux Tapestry 900 years before] work as a collaborative project, to tell the story of the Quakers, their faith, their history, their deeds... It took 15 years to produce, with 77 panels, and around 4000 people involved. Now you can see in on display in Kendal. Cumbria. It is a wonderful piece in a beautiful location.

The fabric used is a woollen fabric with a random warp producing a low key stripe. The weave and stripe provided a guide to keep lettering and buildings vertical. It is backed with calico, which carries the design for the picture and wording on the front.



Quaker Stitch was developed especially for the tapestry and is now recognised by the Royal School of Needlework

Quakers have always promoted gender equality- and one kit features a bicycling woman! My book shows how to recreate this piece, and personalise it.

There is also information [and an alphabet guide] for stitching your own words!

I have had such fun reading through this book, and I suspect some of the ideas may make their way into Collaborative Project #3. 

I have learned too, that the word crewel comes from the ancient word describing the curl of the staple of the wool. Crewel wool has a long staple, which is fine and can be strongly twisted.

I love this book!

Thank you Bob! And thanks too to everyone else who has posted kind Get Well Comments - my sore throat is improving [but I am grateful not to have any preaching commitments this weekend!]

This book gets a *****rating from me! 

I think it is wonderful too that the Quakers refer to themselves as The Society Of Friends. 

A Lot Of Hoo-ha

 According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, hoo-ha  means "Too much interest or discussion about something that is not important. Synonyms; commotion, disturbance, kerfuffle" There's plenty of hooha in the sporting world right now.

Those who know me well will be aware that I am not in any sense a sport sort of person - I don't support any football teams, or watch sport on TV. I cheer Steph and Gaz from the sidelines when they are running. That's about it.

 My only competitive game is Scrabble. And don't get me started on the 'new' version announced last week. All I can say is words fail me!

This summer the Olympic Games will happen in Paris

The French team revealed their outfits recently, designed by Stephane Ashpool, the guy behind the popular Pigalle streetwear brand. I quite like it, well thought out, using the tricolor as its overall motif - and clever twists [check out the link above - I like the fencing kit - all white apart from the tricolor mask]

We've yet to see the Team GB uniform - but there was some hooha when they revealed the new flag. There has already been so much fuss about the pink and purple that they have had to agree that the team themselves will have the traditional red-white-and-blue flags.

But if you really want kerfuffle, take a look at the outfits designed by Nike for Team USA

For starters, these are all different colours, there's no cohesiveness about them. Then [you can't see this here] the script on them is apparently very close to the despised comic sans. But worst of all, the kit appears to many to be extremely sexist in design.

Nike have said "On the apparel side, why it's a game changer for us, is that because we've now been able to take athletic insights, along with data, and use that algorithm to create something that allows us to get to a level of specificity, fidelity and accuracy that we've never been able to do before"

For track and field events, men get to wear shorts, but female athletes have a sleeveless one piece which is high cut and extremely revealing round their ..lower regions [in the US often referred to as the hooha]

There has been an incredible amount of backlash. These garments have been declared totally unfit for purpose. Many sportswomen have said they would feel unable to run, do long jump, or high jump, or walk - basically, they feel any movement might trigger an embarrassing "wardrobe malfunction". Not to mention chafing and general discomfort. 

One suggested that they might like to get EuropeanWax to be the team sponsor. Others have questioned where they got their "Athletic insights" saying "men just need to worry about their athletic performance, women have to worry about chafing...and getting a bikini wax. Definitely equal opportunities, huh!"

Nike is worth $138 billion, they surely are aware of the impact of this design. These garments imply sexism and incompetence. Girls are twice as likely as boys to drop out of sports by the age of 14. Dealing with body mage and self-esteem issues is very hard, without being expected to wear such revealing, uncomfortable outfits. Nike have got this one very wrong!

Let's hope someone at Team GB is taking note, and when the British kit is announced later this month, it is a little more appropriate. This is meant to be world class sport, not a throwback to the days of Baywatch [toned down porn]

When the first modern day Olympians said "Faster, Higher, Stronger" the second word did not refer to the cut of the garments!!
 

Follow The Yellow Brick Road

  

In "The Wizard Of Oz" Dorothy skips along and finally gets to the Emerald City and finds the Wizard. On her journey, she meets the Munchkins. 

In the book [pub 1900] Frank L Baum describes these people as the same height as Dorothy, and dressed all in blue, their favourite colour. Hollywood ignored these details when they made the film.

We were asked at Craft Group to contribute some cakes or savouries on Sunday [the event raised over £500 towards the upkeep of the Village Hall] 

On Saturday afternoon I stood in the kitchen wondering what to make. I decided fairy cakes are easily manageable. I got out my 1996 Dairy Book, and spotted a recipe I have never made before - Munchkin Cakes. It only needed one egg, and I had all other other ingredients, [apart from crystallised Orange and Lemon slices.] So I set to and made a batch.

       INGREDIENTS

• 100g butter
• 100g sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• grated rind and juice of ½ orange
• 200g self raising flour
• 100ml fresh milk
• 75g apricot jam
• 75g plain chocolate, melted
• crystallised citrus slices to garnish

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 170º
2. Melt butter and sugar over low hear for 2 mins, stir occasionally 
3. Add egg and orange rind, beat well, 
4. Fold in flour, gradually add milk and orange juice
5. Spoon into 16 paper cases [2tbsp per case]
6. Bake for 25 mins till risen and golden brown
7. When cool, scoop out centre, place tsp jam in hollow.
8. Replace lid, ice wirth melted chocolate
9. Decorate with orange or lemon slice.

I grated the rind with the microplane and stirred it through the mix. Having no slices, I put gold stars on each cake. The cakes were fairly uniform [wouldn't win BakeOff though] 

I kept back the wonkiest pair for us to sample later,

Conclusion - they taste just like Jaffa Cakes!

I may make these again, when my little Munchkins from London or Manchester come to visit.

Well Run Steph

Time, four hours forty eight minutes. That's two minutes faster than 2015! And yesterday was Gaz and Steph's wedding anniversary too. 

I was so busy at the Repair Cafe yesterday I never took pictures! But here are some taken when we were setting up. We displayed things we had recycled/up cycled. I took my dining chair, and a Memory Bear [kindly lent by Amanda] Bob had a great time promoting the Shed Project. 

I've developed a really sore throat, and can barely speak this morning. So Monday will be a Quiet Sabbath  Rest Day. Thank you all for the lovely comments yesterday. 

2. 5 K from the end of the Marathon, Gaz and the boys were there to cheer Steph on. I'm sure it was a great encouragement 

 

Running, Repairs

 

In 2015, Steph ran the London Marathon. Today, nine years and two babies later, she will be running the Manchester Marathon. We are so proud of her.

I would have loved to have gone to support her today - but we had already committed to being at the annual Repair Café here in Norfolk.  I will report tomorrow on both events!

Sorted!

It's the beginning of April - so I did my wardrobe sort. The bag of summer clothes came down from the loft, and everything from the wardrobe and the bags was put on the bed. All the hangers went into a laundry basket. 

Then I did a ruthless sort of all the clothes. The large box and the bag on top were filled with garments I won't wear again. They have gone to the Charity Shop.

Ones that were too small, or I didn't actually like, or I had duplicates of. Steph gave me some black trousers, which fit me better than the ones I already had. No point in having the spares.

I really did get rid of a lot of stuff this time. And all the things which went back into the wardrobe were hung with hooks 'the wrong way round'. When I wear a garment, it is replaced with the hook the right way - so come October, I will know which garments just never got worn. 

I think that I am not quite sticking to the 'rule of 5' idea [explained here]  as Steph gave me a dress and a coat as well, when we visited Manchester. and Liz passed on a dress last week. But I have definitely got rid of more than I have gained [a jacket and three dresses, as well as a two skirts and some tops]

But I like doing the summer/winter swap - I find things I had forgotten about. I actually wore sandals this week for the first time in months.

It feels good to have the wardrobe tidy and organised.

Do you sort your wardrobe on a regular basis? 

I should probably sort out my shoes next, if only to avoid any more oddness. Did you see 'Beyond Paradise' last night? He was wearing ODD SHOES - I was definitely ahead of the curve there!