T-Bird Anni Rides Again

Okay, busy day today, will try to deep to the point (stop laughing at the back!)

We did some Fimo-ing supposedly on a spring theme as I have a stash of the air drying clay for the craft ladies on Tuesday but wanted to see what I could come up with to get thier creative flair going (ie look, this is what I could do whilst sat bent double  in a chair and blanket tent on teh living room floor ladies, I’m sure you can create something lovely!)   Aprilia is now desperate for air drying clay once the Fimo is all used as then she won’t have to let it go out of her sight whilst it bakes!  I’m hoping it works as nicely as the Fimo!  Hers is the bunny by the way, I was so impressed with that!

After that we messed about in the muddy swamp we laughingly call a back garden.  I am totally convinced taht what we need is a minidigger and a huge skip to remove the top 4′ or so of sludgy clay and horsetail (the only thing that grows reliably back there) and then buy several tons of good topsoil and start from a "level playing field" so to speak.  I did however clear up a bit out there ready for making a raised bed to grow our runners in, we love runner beans but they just don’t do well in clay.  Last year we did them in tubs but they didn’t get watered whilst we were at Kessingland and never recovered   so I’m thinking raised bed with loads of pea gravel as a base then the spent "square bed mix" (vermiculite, coir and potting compost) from last year’s veggie beds on top  may do better and not suffer so badly if we aren’t there to water (or be easier to set up a leaky pipe system and timer to run whilst we are off) 

Aprilia carried on playing in the mud for a while once I’d done everything I was willing to do in 1 go so i sat in the kitchen and made a bag for the mooncup so it is now safely cossetted in a black crocheted bag hung by the drawstring to my bedpost (where hopefully it won’t wander off from!!!)  No picture of that as my camera couldn’t find anything worth focusing on (and it’s a plain black drawstring bag so hardly excited now is it!)

Also today I tried my hand at a healthy toad in the hole without the help of a packet mix.  We have always had pre-packaged toads in fairly grease laden holes in the past and I fancied seeing what I could come up with.  I liked it, Aprilia was very impressed and Duke cleared the plate and said "It’s even better than teh bought one, I’m not just saying taht!"

So Healthy Toad in the Hole to serve 4 greedy piggies or more if you are restrained!

1egg
1/3 cup wholemeal four
1/3 cup white flour
1 cup milk
1 good tsp baking powder (cos I don’t use SR flour)
pinch of salt
1 tbs olive oil plus a little more to oil the baking pan

1 packet of cocktail sausages

Dry fry the sausages to give them a bit of colour and evict some of the grease (yeuk!)
Mix all the batter ingredients together and beat well to get a bit of air in there - sifting flour might be a good idea but I don’t have the patience, aparently it’s the secret to fluffy Yorkshire puds though
Pre-heat your oiled baking pan which should be proabably something a bit smaller than a roasting pan - you want the batter to cover the pan a good cm or so deep!
Pour the batter into the pan then distribute the sausages in it
Bake near the top of the oven at gas 7 for about half an hour.

I did ours in a slightly too big pan so we had a bit of burnt stuff to deal with where the batter was too shallow so ahd cooked too quickly but thankfully our oven slopes a bit to we had 3/4 of the pan deep enough and just 1 corner not so good!  I wondered about doing little ones in muffin cups next time just for a bit of variety.