My Lockdown Life (with pictures)

I have been doing some experimental baking. I tried making dough with flour, dried potato, yoghurt, yeast and a little salt. I was intending to use it more as pastry than as bread. And I made these:

This was filled with mushrooms and cheese.  It was very tasty but the mushrooms cooked down and the cheese escaped.  Next time I'll cook the mushrooms first so there is more filling and less air in the middle - oh, and seal the edges more firmly.

These were filled with chicken, asparagus and feta. The bread dough rose more than I had expected. They were like a toasted sandwich with thick slices of bread.  I'm definitely going to make them again, but I'll roll the dough much thinner next time. They made an excellent lunch with a side salad for Lindsey and me at work on Wednesday. Jim had homemade chicken and vegetable soup which I left in a picnic flask for him . He's struggling with the microwave now and he definitely would not have enjoyed cold soup.  He had one of these, filled with cheese on the side:

These are non-experimental plain white rolls

With the left over yoghurt dough I made some flat breads, which were very tasty with some hummus and tzatziki

Our current bread supply came from the Mount Clear bakery, which I called into yesterday morning when doing a top up shop. I had intended to call into the butcher as well but there was a long queue waiting outside plus the allowed number of customers inside. I decided to go to the butcher on Monday and went to the IGA instead, where I might have accidentally run into Lindsey.

In a further foodie adventure, I went to Tokyo for a cooking class on Monday at lunchtime. We learned how to make rice and sweetcorn, chicken wings in a rice vinegar sauce, yucky horrible okra and yummy miso soup. There were two other students, one in Sydney and one in Margaret River. I am doing another class today at lunchtime, although the leader isn't in Tokyo but somewhere else in Japan. The classes are part of the Japanaroo festival which is usually an actual physical festival in Sydney but which this year has gone online, to the advantage of those of us who do not live in or near Sydney!

We have had some lovely late winter / early spring weather lately, although Friday morning didn't start quite so well:

Very atmospheric, especially as it rolled in from a clear, dawn sky
and obliterated it

But then it went away and the rest of the week has looked more or less like this, interspersed with some rainy spells, largely overnight:

I am quite pleased with progress in the back garden, though it could do with considerably more attention. The front yard has had no attention at all!

Perpetual spinach, which I might replace
in a few weeks. They're beginning
to get a bit stalky 

View of the veggie garden, which needs some attention

Silverbeet / chard.
Can you see Brandy hiding in the picture?

Sprouting broccoli and celery
(with little pots of sand in the corner)

Last year's asparagus plants are starting to throw up new spears. The gooseberry and blackcurrant bushes are starting to grow new leaves. The herb bowls are starting to reshoot. Although, it has obviously been a fairly mild winter - most of the mint didn't die back at all. But spring is definitely in the air.

Oh - and it turns out that I hadn't ordered a greenhouse. Had I read the page further I would have noticed that I was entering a lucky dip. I might very well have entered the lucky dip just for fun, but it wasn't at all clear that that was what you were doing until you had scrolled way, way, way down the page, which I didn't until several days after I thought I had ordered a greenhouse. I was surprised to get a pair of gardening gloves in the post and even more surprised to find the pretty card thanking me for entering the lucky dip.  An expensive pair of gardening gloves. Mind you, had the greenhouse turned up, it would have been a very cheap greenhouse. Oh well. Caveat emptor, as they say. And you can't have too many pairs of gardening gloves.

In the meantime, the boys are all enjoying the lockdown conditions. Mind you, I'm not sure that things have significantly changed for them

Whiskey, helping me not to make the bed

Hugo, surveying his estates
 from the comfort of his new snuggly chair

Rupert, passing the time of day
on his beloved, ancient couch

Brandy thinks that if the bedroom clock says
that it is before dawn -
then it is much too early to get up. 
Jim is much inclined to agree 😉💤🛌