Yesterday the kids were off away for the day with Poppy and Evie. It rained pretty much all day so I spent it almost entirely baking – I had four wholemeal loaves to make and seven pies for an order. A walking group staying in the bunkhouse who had been in touch about produce. They wanted eggs, jam, bread and pies. I had made the error of offering very specific choices so ended up with 4 different options across the 7 pies including a vegan one. I was really cross with myself having found a recipe for oil pastry and making that batch up separately to realise I had used vegetable fat based spread to make the rest of the pastry anyway having checked the tub so actually it was all vegan pastry! Six of the pies were venison which I had made the basic venison in garlic and wine gravy for last week when Mum & Dad were here and we had pie one night and frozen a batch of, so that got defrosted and the various combinations added to it while I cooked up cubed potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, onion, garlic, mushrooms all in separate pans and a tomato based veggie mix for the vegan pie with plenty of herbs. Finally having used pretty much every pan we own I had seven pies for the order and a further four for us for our dinner today, and four huge loaves of bread. And an apple pie with some leftover pastry and some apple sauce to have with dinner. I washed everything up, let it all cool sufficiently to wrap it up and I was done. It took hours – catering on the small scale simply is not cost effective like that but at least I enjoy doing it and I hope they will enjoy eating it.
Ady was in and out of the caravan between showers. We both went out to feed the animals, if only for some fresh air. My wellies are leaking at only a month old so I emailed the company I got them from and they refunded me. I am waiting for a new pair but am wearing plastic bags over my feet inside them for now until they arrive.It is not entirely effective and is creating more of a surprise ‘the bag has leaked!’ type experience rather than the more expected ‘your feet are wet as soon as you leave the caravan’ feeling I have been used to the last week or so…
Ady cooked dinner, I rang my parents and with lots of effort managed to book them a centerparcs lodge for January. Bad phone line, slightly hard of hearing parents and a general lack of patience did not all collide with glee…
Today – Davies and Scarlett were off for more teen hanging out for the day, they have certainly had a good boost of socialising this last couple of weeks. After Popmaster Ady and I walked down to the village with a wheelbarrow to take the battery from the Rangerover for a charge up and deliver all the produce to the bunkhouse. On the way we saw Jed and Derek, Ross and Dave. On the way back we saw Jed, Bad Neil and Fliss, so plenty of stopping and chatting. Back at home we had a cup of tea on the sporran and had intended to do some outdoors stuff but it started raining again so we came indoors. We ended up having a big brainstorming session about things to sell in the shed and came up with some good ideas which led to some online purchasing of various craft and other materials. I have a book on Cottage Industries which offered some inspiration and Ady looked through some preserves and edible seashore books for ideas too. A good productive ideas afternoon. It finally stopped raining so Ady went out to do some repair work on the log burner chimney which he has been planning for a dry spell when the chimney is cool for about a week but not found the right window before. I spent an hour or so working on the Friends of Rum newsletter which is long overdue and have it almost ready to go.
We walked down to the village to collect the veg, stopping for a bit of a chat with various people at the shop before coming home. Somehow we’d missed the kids who we had tentatively arranged to meet at the shop so they beat us home. Ady finished the chimney while I had a shower and got dinner on.