Dwylo Oer

Well, hardening the fuck up didn't work, so we move on to...

Without:

And with:

Should probably go for a ride now to try them out but it's dark and cold and wet and I've already had waterproofs on once today, so...  Will see how it goes in the morning...  Am mainly worried about not having enough manoeuvrability to change gears comfortably...  Fingers crossed...

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know it's not until tomorrow, but as I don't have the day off work here, this seemed as good a time as any to make my pumpkin pie!  In past years I've made pumpkin pie actually from pumpkin (I know...) as you can't get tins here, but Dave and I were in Cardiff a few months back and found this shop that sold tinned pumpkin so Dave bought me two tins at an exorbitant price...

I therefore had to use the recipe on the back of the tin, but made a few changes: The crust I obviously had to make from scratch as I've never seen frozen crusts here like you can get in the States.  I tried a new technique from Hugh FW who admits that he nicked it off Elizabeth David -- instead of rolling out the crust (which I hate doing) you just press it into the plate -- and it worked!  Wouldn't work for a top crust obviously, but for something like this...

Duck eggs (from Bridget) instead of hen.  Cinnamon and cloves ground from whole so fresher and more flavourful.  Couldn't get evaporated milk so made my own by simmering twice the quantity I needed for much longer than the internet recipes say it takes until it reduced...  And it is SO yummy!!!  How long will it take me to eat the whole pie???

In various other news, we decanted some of the apple brandy -- and that's yummy too!

First frost Sunday night -- good thing we pulled the last of the root veg out beforehand!

I also made some lovely mayonnaise this evening with a duck egg yolk, Blodyn Aur rapeseed oil, and some mustard which is giving it that lovely colour -- delicious with the leftover roast chicken that I made on Sunday to go with the veg!

And of course, waste not, want not -- I've also got a lovely chicken broth out of it which will be the base of all sorts of future meals...

Mystery vegetable of the day...

Before I get to last night's supper and the mystery vegetable of the week...

I had one of these the other week, and I photographed it and meant to post it here, but can see that I didn't, and no idea where the photo went to...  But handily, I had another one yesterday morning!  I know I've had plenty of double-yolked chicken eggs in the past (must be jinxed on the photo front this morning because I've just gone trawling through the blog looking for an old photo of a double-yolked chicken egg and can't find one!!!), but has anybody ever seen a double-yolked duck egg before?  They can't be that uncommon if I've had two in the last month or so...

This one you have to look really hard at -- but see the rainbow in the middle of the cloud?  Was walking up the bridge yesterday morning when I spotted this -- beautiful weather, unseasonably mild, blue skies with the occasional fluffy white cloud -- not really where you expect to see rainbows, is it?!

And now for the veg -- can you guess what it is?  This is fresh out of the ground (after I washed the soil off):

Then they've been boiled and skinned just like I'd do with their more conventional cousins...

And this is what I did with them -- it's sort of a take on borscht, but made with cod (caught yesterday morning in Burry Port) instead of beef, and then because I've got this lovely albino beetroot (yes, you heard right -- tastes like beetroot but doesn't bleed red everywhere!) I put that in and I used the tops as well instead of cabbage -- yum!

Halloween

Totally random autumn -- I'm wearing short sleeves today is how mild it is, but now that the clocks have gone back, I'm cycling home in the dark -- which is surprisingly exhilarating!  Lovely autumn food, although it's not really cold enough for it...  Freshly popped corn...

...and yummy sausages and roasted butter-nut squash...

Might treat myself to some Candy Corn this weekend if I can find such a thing for sale in Carmarthen!

Y Newyddion

I don't normally read newspapers, but I bought one yesterday and just wanted to share these two things that made me laugh out loud:

1.

2.  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/19/ebola-america-fear-barack-obama-virus

Y Canol

My snazzy new dynamo has been slipping in the rain, and my wheel has been out of true since day one -- so I decided to have a go a truing my wheel in the hope that it would stop the dynamo slipping...  If this works, I owe you a pint hairy American dude!

However, easier said than done...

The theory works if you know that your brake pads are straight and centred - but what if they're not?  In the end, I just aligned the wheel to the dynamo, so it's a straighter wheel now, but not necessarily a centred one!  There's plenty of rain in the forecast though, so we'll find out if it worked soon enough...

Ar werth...

The things that you find when you're having a tidy-up -- we all own far too much stuff, and it clutters up our minds as well as our houses...

Bwyd...

So these are black radishes that I planted -- completely different to salad radishes.  These ones are quite small but they are just my thinnings, so they will get bigger.  They need to be cooked, and you see them here with my turnip thinnings -- quite nice really!

Yummy yummy challah which is always gone too soon!  L'shanah tovah!

And Sunday dinner with Dave's lovely baby carrots -- and boy were they carrot-y!

Bwyd

Who needs Tesco when I have...

...blackberries from Rea:

...runner beans from Gerry:

...eggs from Bridget:

...parsnip wine from D:

...apple sauce from Arriva Trains Wales:

...and baby root veg from my own garden!

The world has now gone officially completely mad...

Okay, so as any intelligent cook knows, you must pierce eggs before boiling them otherwise the air trapped in the shell will expand as the egg heats up and you'll get random trails of egg white in your water...  I've always just used an ordinary sewing pin for this for years and years and years.  Then, quite some number of years ago, I acquired this lovely little gizmo -- it's quite handy because it's got a magnet on the back so you can stick it on the fridge.  I think Dorothy might have given it to me but can't even remember, it's been that long...

So today I was piercing eggs ready to make a batch of egg, potato, and bacon mayo, and the lovely little bit of plastic broke...  Oh well, slightly sad, but not the end of the world, I'll just go back to using a sewing pin...

Then I foolishly Googled "egg piercer" and found this bit of shocking-ness -- with a built in "integral safety lock" -- so we're going to let you use the stove with a pan of water full of eggs, but we don't trust you not to prick yourself on what is not a particularly sharp pin???  Save me!  What ever happened to personal responsibility???

Off to go run with scissors...

Goleuadau!!!

At long last, it's finally here!!!!

So Saturday before last, we took the train down to Cardiff where the lovely Ian at Cyclopaedia had a chat with me about my lighting needs and he said he would sort out a dynamo kit for me and post it to me and he had complete faith in my ability to fit it myself...  Well, the parcel arrived yesterday afternoon, and I spent a good two hours last night fitting the dynamo every which way except the right way and finally, with the help of Peter White, whom I would love to visit in person if I lived even remotely near there, I figured out which way it SHOULD go...  It doesn't help that all this stuff is made in Germany and doesn't come with clear fitting instructions for English speaking people who didn't grow up somewhere where bikes are required to have lights by law and they've probably all been fitting dynamos since before they could walk...

So this is my kitchen table about 45 minutes ago when I was slightly starting to despair...

...but I persevered...  and I now have working lights!  Woo hoo!  Here's Sally II (batteries not included!!!) in all her glory:

I am going to do as my Mother said and not say anything at all unless I have something nice to say, so the MANY unhelpful bike shops in West Wales, Swansea, and Cardiff that I contacted will not get named publicly here, but if any of them happen to be reading this, they know who they are: If I've told you I'm looking for a dynamo system, please don't ignore me and tell me how much better battery lights are.  You've now all just lost my business forever...

Afalau a glanhau

In apple news, we made a quantity of apple brandy at the weekend, so now we only need to wait 8 weeks to taste the fruits of our labours!

It's pretty simple to make -- brandy, sugar, apples, and cinnamon -- and then agitate at intervals...  Am a bit sad though as I used up the last of my cinnamon stash from what Dorothy and Jim brought back years ago.  Spices really do keep forever if you don't grind them until you're about to use them...  Will have to find some more cinnamon now...  Anybody out there reading this in Sri Lanka?

In the news recently has been all this nonsense about not being able to buy higher powered vacuum cleaners now.  The EU (as usual) has focused their legislation in the wrong place.  What they need to be doing is banning inefficient cleaners of any power.  Personally I recommend the Dyson -- not only does it use less power and have more suction -- it's endlessly repairable (she says with sore fingertips after stretching that belt around the beater bar with the help of a couple of screwdrivers because of not having the proper tool...!)

The weather is continuing warm and largely sunny, but first thing in the morning it can be quite chilly and misty -- my ears nearly fell off this morning!

And to close with, some happy peppers, from my organic veg box!  :)

Dydd Mawrth

We've unexpectedly had a bit of Indian summer.  Of course, now that the days are getting shorter, that means I can't hang laundry out when I come home from work and have it be dry before bed, so need to do it before I leave in the morning when the sun's just coming up...  Benefits to line drying laundry outside in addition to saving money and electricity/gas are that the sunlight sterilises your laundry and that it smells yummy!  (Here's where the internet fails because I'd now like to put a link to the scent of my sheets...!)

Thinned Dave's carrots this evening in an attempt to evade the carrot fly...

And I also got to use my new water butt for the first time -- since I've put it in, it's rained nearly every day!  This company has deals with most water companies around the UK and they offer cheaper deals on water butts than anybody else I could find.  Not the easiest to install (or, rather, not as easy as they would have you believe...) but if you get stuck just ask as I'm now the expert!  So all the water coming off my big massive slope-y roof is now mine for free!

Final question before off to bed -- how do you know when rechargeable batteries have reached the end of their life?  This is not a quiz question -- I actually am looking for an answer!

Newyddion

Sorry, got rather distracted by various bike related things last week which I will hopefully shortly have an update on, but bikes really do tend to take over your life!  To that end, I've sorted myself out a bike corner in the kitchen now so the bike and all the bike stuff will live here and it will stop taking over my house...!  One of the problems with living in a car-centric culture is that there aren't ready-made solutions for other modes of transport.  When I had a car, I parked it on the street in front of my house.  I suppose I could leave the bike out front, but then it would get wet, so it has to come into the house and take up space in the world's smallest house...  So I got this handy wall hanger thingie, and then the other hook that my rucksack and jacket are hanging from is something that I found in this house when I bought it...

The garden is coming along in leaps and bounds...

...and we ate the first fruits of it (or should that be vegetables?) yesterday -- radishes -- the fastest growing edible plant ever!  (With the exception perhaps of nettles!!!)

And in fact, dinner yesterday was comprised completely of foods that I know the provenance of once again...

Lamb chops and kidneys courtesy of Patrick and potatoes dauphinoise courtesy of Bridget!

Pudding was apple crumble, courtesy of Arriva Trains Wales and 10 minutes of our labour...

Now the question is, what do I do with the rest of the apples?!  We picked about 24 pounds and there are still tons more there if anybody else wants...