Moving on

Cherryfudge

Watty1 said:

Thought of you this morning as checking emails.  I occasionally buy from a place called "Wasted Kitchen" as they sell salad bento boxes in a local deli and do every month a meal (I've never tried it, though the bento boxes are fabulous, around 6 small servings of different salads and make a fantastic meal).    Anyway their emails are always about eating seasonal and greengages got a special mention (greengage gin and greengage martinis!)

  Gin - check. Martinis - well, there's time yet!

rtandon27 said:

@Cherryfudge - I'm with you on feeling overdressed yesterday - it was torrential here yesterday and as we don't have the central heating on yet at home, the damp made me feel chilled - I ended up wearing a wool nordic sweater over my t-shirt and arrived at the physio who had her heating on & had to strip off my thick layer!

 I went from layers in the morning to short sleeves in the afternoon and evening, but that was because of work where, would you believe it, I found there was a radiator switched on! I know I've been tempted to put heating on at home but really at this temperature, all I need to do is be active. Once I've done a shift I'm well warmed through and still happy to walk home in short sleeves even though it's going dark.

Cherryfudge

DH has taken the cakes to the cake stall and is going back to take his turn over lunch, which we will have early. I bought fish yesterday on an offer, so while it's not the cheapest, it's one we know we like.

Meanwhile I have a hot wash in the machine and there's a bit of sunshine. I've started sorting the latest backlog of receipts as the area around the computer is getting messy.

Looking ahead to next week (early, but it's on my mind as it's looking crowded):
Sunday - children's activity in the morning
Monday - cried off a half day with the Wednesday team. Evening - work
Tuesday - Childcare during the day. Evening - course.
Wednesday - evening - church group
Thursday - evening - work
Friday - church cleaning - pm either work or accompany DH to an appointment
Saturday - car boot sale?
Sunday - church

It's not as crowded as I thought, so perhaps I've forgotten something? I can see I've not done any catching up on course work as I'd thought I would... the stuff for the next session landed in my inbox the other day.

Cherryfudge

We had some of our own home grown tomatoes with lunch: the little yellow cherry ones are absolutely delicious.

DH's stint at the cake stall went okay. He thinks it's probably been a  good fund raiser.

I just about have the story and activity together for tomorrow: I've spent the last hour or so making the puppet that I hope is going to introduce a memory verse and be part of a theme for the term. Inspired by the Sewing Bee, I hacked into scarps of fabric and didn't worry too much about it being perfect - so Mattel need not worry about market share.

I've done about an hour in the garden too: another jug full of greengages and the rest was weeding. I'm still on the small section by the back door where the Battle of the Ground Elder continues, though its not returned to the bit nearest the door. It's slow going, working through gravel, ivy, geraniums and a bramble, none of which should have been on the path in the first place. I've saved some of the geraniums, though.

I also found what Google tells me may be toad eggs in the compost heap. I'm excited about that as there used to be a toad there and they are fascinating.

DH has commented on how his condition always seems to improve when we have the chickpea tikka - which is quite a often, and I'd noticed he is keen on it. The distinct ingredient there is garam masala, which we don't at present have in other dishes When I looked it up, it has a history of semi-medicinal use. Can't hurt to keep making it then!

Well, DH spent a bit but I've not gone further than the garden gate. I did manage four lots of washing while the rain held off, and it was mostly quite breezy so most of it is now dried and put away. One lot was the lounge curtains which DH gallantly re-hung. It's not a comfortable job. I also sorted out some problems with the header tape on one, and used a hair to sew a top seam that was coming adrift. I'm delighted with the result: a perfect match of 'invisible thread' and so thin that it's hard to see the stitches. I will remember that for future mends! I also mended a sock and a cuff with the same.

Time I was in bed...

in_need_of_direction

Is there another regularly made dish that could accommodate Garam masala? It might be worth testing the theory

Cherryfudge

in_need_of_direction said:

Is there another regularly made dish that could accommodate Garam masala? It might be worth testing the theory

There probably is: I will have a look through my recipes and also a site Greying Pilgrim mentioned recently. DH decided to make curry for dinner today but from memory it's chicken Rogan Josh and there is curry paste to use up. The recipe I use for tikka makes a very big batch so we tend to get three meals out of it, perhaps if I put a portion in the freezer, he could have that instead of a supermarket meal when I'm working.

This morning's children's session went okay: I'm now going to try to catch up on a bit of sleep!

rtandon27

I remember seeing a garam masala yogurt cake some time ago - might be a nice alternative to using it in a savoury dish?!

Sleep well - Sunday afternoon naps are so refreshing!

Cherryfudge

I slept a couple of hours, thanks, @rtandon27! I'm so often wiped out after lunch but a post-2am bedtime the night before had certainly set me up for being tired.

When I got up I managed about 40 minutes gardening: the slow work on the little path under the dining room window continues. It's taken a lot of the summer and is only half way through but it looks better and is undoing the neglect of years. Thankfully the dry summer has meant the weeds haven't taken over elsewhere, and the fact I'm saving the gravel and separating out the weed roots to ensure they don't re-sprout in the compost means it's a very slow job. There are also so many bits of plastic, old paint, mortar and sundry rubbish to take out as I go.

DH made a chicken rogan josh for dinner, so we ate well. There's more of it to finish during the week.

Today is forecast to be very wet and windy, but the yellow warning of wind last night didn't seem to come to anything. I have a lot of tidying up indoors to keep me out of mischief, and I really need to have a look at the course work again, and update the preschool lesson schedule before the leaders start prepping the wrong sections. Between one thing and another, things around the preschool have dominated August even though we weren't meeting! I now need to draw together everything for business continuity so it makes sense to other people: while it's in my notes it's of no use to everyone else, should it be needed. I've spoken to the children's work leader who seems okay to work with me and, while I know it needs to be part of a church-wide plan, I know that will have to wait till certain other things have been completed.

Anyway, that's not today's job.                                                                                                                      

Watty1

The science brain in me really wants to know what spice is in the garam masala that is helping?   Or is it a combination of them?  Are you making your own mix? Or is it a purchased mix?  Would the same effect be had with another mix?  Or is there a spice that is having the effect?  Cinnamon can help balance insulin receptors, coriander is anti inflammatory and anti microbial and anti bacterial I think for reading a herbal book some time back and cloves and cumin have some properties I cannot quite remember.    I'm also wondering what would happen if you put the amount of garam masala in a supplement capsule (you can get them from amazon) and he took that daily.

OK, the science brain realises Mr Cherryfudge is not a school science experiment and leaves still pondering

Cherryfudge

Watty1 said:

OK, the science brain realises Mr Cherryfudge is not a school science experiment and leaves still pondering

I rather think he might be a science experiment! The little research I've done indicates there are regional variations in garam masala and in fact the mix I have is a supermarket alternative simply labelled as a tikka curry powder. It doesn't have turmeric but does have cumin, and I suspect the curcumin therein is part of the answer. However, googling the ingredients in this particular mixture, nearly everything has antioxidant effects and multiple other benefits too - though interestingly there's advice against over-consumption of cinnamon. The one that stood out on a quick read is coriander for DH's particular symptoms.

Last night's curry had a similar mixture of spices in the curry paste and DH says he'll have another helping tonight. 

And the rain has stopped.

And I've put the heating on.

badmemory

Is it possible to make any of the spices into tea rather than actually cooking them, although I suppose pouring boiling water over them could class as cooking.