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My name is Lucy and I have never blogged before. Well that's a lie. I have, but it was this one, and I neglected it for a little while... I live in a commuter town outside London having moved here about a year and a half ago after making some pretty big changes in my life. I share a beautiful little cottage on the Grand Union Canal with 1 crazy beautiful little girl and an equally crazy cat called Bandit (appropriately named as he now lives in all the houses on the street and steals...). Lawyer/working mum and it would appear, terminally single (I've reserved my spinster plaque already) I was fortunate to escape the evil commute about a year ago but seem to have less time than ever.... If I entertain you, make you laugh or fume (or make you have an emotion of ANY description) then my job is done. Enjoy x

Tuesday 15 May 2012

Intermission

This week has been a poor week for blogging.

  1. My mother-in-law has been visiting so I do not want to be antisocial and sit blogging all night and ignoring her (its fine when its just hubster and I.  Usually we happily ignore one another on our respective laptops - him breaking down film or planning football (American not UK) plays (the word "spread" has 2 very different meanings in our house) or that week's practice; me prattling away on the blog or baking).
  2. Work has been super busy, so I've been particularly distracted and mega-S-T-R-E-S-S-E-D.
  3. I was ever-so-slightly suffering on Saturday from a boozy late night with my neighbour (all for a good cause mind!  She offered (read *bribed*) me with wine to help make posters for the local school fete).
  4. Because of #1 I was determined to demonstrate my baking skills...
    • I went to make Pizza again on Saturday night and despite it being a breeze the last time, it was a complete disaster this time.  First batch (yes, that's first) I got all the ingredients out, followed the recipe and then couldn't understand why the dough wasn't coming together.  I then looked at the bag of flour.  It was rice flour.  I was trying to make Pizza dough with rice flour.  What was more stupid is that when I had been doing the yeast part of the recipe (at the VERY BEGINNING) I had been reading the back of the bag and finding it bizarre that the "bread" flour had recipes using rice flour.  Why I hadn't looked then when it was blindingly obvious....I don't know.  
    • The second batch the yeast wouldn't activate so the dough wouldn't rise.  On the plus side I said I wanted thin crust and I certainly got that.  We cooked both up and they tasted ok, just ok though, and certainly nowhere near as good as last time.
    • I then went to make a cake for US Mothers Day.  It was all going very well until I put the cakes in the oven.  When the timer buzzed I went to take the cakes out and I clearly have a problem with my oven.  The top of each was half dark half still raw.  Grrrrreat!!  So I had to put them back in and each cake cracked (and when we cut into them it was clear they could have both gone a bit longer).
    • When I went to make the icing that all ballsed up too (it looked all curdled because it had lemon juice in and wouldn't thicken).  At that point I considered my baking confidence well and truly knocked.
Heard this before? Pride? Falls?  Its total foobah.   Basically nothing went right and so here I am ranting about it.

Oh, and I've eaten my bodyweight in unhealthy food so I'm now squeezing myself into my clothes.  Joy.

Think happy thoughts...think happy thoughts....think happy thoughts.....think....

2 comments:

  1. when it all goes wrong... make a note of it and get back into the kitchen ;-) sounds like you're too distracted to bake but think of your kitchen as a haven from the stress and once in there forget about everything else...zen.... also don't eat crap food! ;-) you're a chef, so I gotta ask why???! x

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    Replies
    1. Because I'm also extremely lazy.... ;)

      Back in the kitchen right now waiting for choccie cupcakes so fingers (thumbs, arms, legs, toes, eyes) crossed that I'm back on top of my game xx

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