Typing Blog during a quiet evening.
Girls in bed, Eric studying, Michelle gone to her last night duty this week.
I really feel for her going off to nights just as everyone else is winding down & relaxing. It's something I never got used to & don't miss at all now. She has to eat her dinner with one eye on the clock, things will be so much better for her & the family when she works normal hours from home.
Things have worked out quite neatly for the last couple of weeks whilst I have not been working. I cook on the evenings that Michelle works which means she can have a decent sleep & Eric can get on with the 101 things he has to do around the farm.
This evening it was toad-in-the hole & gratin dauphinnoise.
As the toad went to the table Alice said
'Please don't take this as a criticism but that looks a bit of a disaster-area'
Kids - don't you just love their honesty ?
Prepare a Yorkshire Pudding batter:
¼ cup of bacon dripping
½ cup milk
1 egg, well-beaten
½ cup sifted all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
Fry sausages and lay them in the batter. Bake as for yorkshire pudding:
Temp: 450ยบ F Time: 10 - 15 min. If you use a glass pie plate turn the heat down 25°F.
Detailed directions
Combine a well-beaten egg and milk; beat till light. Gradually beat in sifted flour and salt; beat with dover beater till smooth. Let stand 30 minutes.
Put about 2 tablespoons bacon dripping into pan or divided up between 6 large muffin tins or into an 8"x8" pan. Heat in oven, make sure you watch pan as it will start to smoke! Pour batter into hot pan; and lay in your sausages. Serves 4.
The trick is the hot fat and the hot oven. Don't keep opening the oven to check. Serve immediately as it will deflate as it gets cold. Pour nice beef gravy over top.
Serve with Mash Potatoes, Marrowfat Peas and Gravy
British Food & Traditional recipes
Her other outstanding moment this week was when she was recounting a conversation she had been having with a boy who sat next to her. He asked her what it was like being a girl ?
'Just like a boy - but without the penis' came the 8yr old reply.
Classic.
There is much excitement in the Tanner household this week as both girls have made it to their year's final of their school's speech competition. Tomorrow morning we all go off to see them speak. Please let the both win or both lose. Any other result will be emotional.
A sad start to the day today as the girls discovered, on their way down the drive to the school bus, that Ermintrude's calf Gertie had died through the night. Eric had seen her sunbathing the evening before & she was fine so at the moment we have no idea what she died of. She was a strong, healthy calf so it's a mystery.
Poor Ermintrude has mooed vigorously & sadly all day. She must be tremendously uncomfortable with udders full of milk but she is not tame enough to hand-milk to relieve her. Eric is going to call the vet to enquire about an injection to dry her milk up quickly. I know we shouldn't project our own anthropomorphic ideas onto animals but I couldn't help but feel very sad for her as I watched her today. She really did seem to be searching the paddock & she kept sniffing the other calves to see if they were Gertie.
There is also the problem now of how to dispose of Gertie. There is a local company who remove dead calves but they only take yearlings & over. Eric has called another company 0800-cowdown (honest) & is waiting for them to call back.
If they refuse, then the offal pit looms which, strictly speaking she is too big for & Eric would have to dismember her to get her in there.
During dinner this evening there was the most remarkable transformation in the sky.
All day today it has been hot & sunny, in fact the first properly hot day I have enjoyed in the North (it has rained at some point every day since the 17th Aug). I called Michelle out to look at our local landmark the Hinuera Stones.
They were golden in the evening light & just a tiny segment of valley was illuminated in this one wedge of sunlight. The rest of the sky was a brooding greeny/purple like a large bruise.
As we started to eat the sky turned green. I know it sounds odd but it was like when you look through 1 half of those 3D glasses. The paddocks were intensely green & the air had that pregnant, shimmering quality that I last remember feeling during the eclipse in the UK.
Within minutes the green had gone to be replaced by a dusky, intense pink. Now, stretching far away was a thick, heavy, pensive cloud which scraped over the tops of the hills. Directly above the hills was the tiniest sliver of bright, pale blue sky.
It was all gone in a matter of minutes & then huge, fat, musical raindrops began to beat on the roof of the car-port. Quite the most enthralling sky I have seen since arriving in the North.
In a couple of hours it will be September 11th here & it & the people I went to New York with have been on my mind. I find myself thinking about the families too & how they will be marking the day. My memories are fresh & pin-sharp. It's odd now to know that whatever else happens in my life I am unlikely to find myself involved in anything that resembles those few weeks.
Hi to Di, Chef, Robin & Lolly - thinking of you all.
Good-night UK, take care,
Cx
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