Purple Carrots

At our local farm shop they were selling purple carrots. I had heard of purple carrots but never eaten them before, so we bought them. They taste just like normal carrots and are in fact orange on the inside. However before you rush out to buy purple carrots beware of two things:

1. It confuses the family no end, there was even refusal to try prurple carrot but then I told Mr Yoastie to stop being childish and just eat them
   
2. The colour that makes the carrots purple stains really badly. It took 24h to get the colour of my hands.

A quick handy recipe for carrot salad
4 carrots
50g salted peanuts
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp groundnut oil

Grate the carrots coarsely or chop into fine batons. Mix the grated carrots with the peanuts and other ingredients. Try to stop the children and husband from eating your salad. This normally doesn't work so double (or triple) the quantities.

Paperfree

Dear Mrs Yoastie,

Thank you for signing up to our paperfree billing service. You will be able to manage your account online blah blah etc etc


Yes, thank you for your letter but wasn't the whole point of signing up to paperfree that I would no longer receive letters from you?

Patio Doors

Our dining room did not have double glazing. "No matter. It will be fine to not have double glazing. Lot of nonsense; we never had double glazing when I was a lad and we were fine!" said the much-beloved last year when we moved in. I spent quite a few of my formative years in Germany. I too remember not having double glazing and it is cold. The frost on the windows can be very pretty but cold.

And behold Mrs Yoastie was right. It is cold without double glazing. It came to pass that one of our neighbours asked to borrow a jumper when they were invited over for dinner. Yes, real hospitality there. We'll cook dinner for you but don't expect us to pay for heating as well.

When summer came this year (I think it was a Thursday in May) Mr Yoastie was complaining that he had to walk all the way round the house to be able to sit on the patio, with his beer, and admire his estates (walk through the kitchen and look out on to the backgarden). The decision was made: the window must become patio doors and the side window must be double glazed as well (imagine Handel's Messiah the Hallelujah chorus).

Quotes were requested. Prices were compared and a supplier/fitter was chosen (he has done most of the houses in this street and comes highly recommended). Oh, and as he was cheaper by far the kitchen door is being replaced too. Oh, the downstairs lavatory, I think a window that can be opened maybe? After all the man will be on the premises anyway, so no need to pay call out costs again.

The Patio doors are in and so is the side window in the dining room. Tomorrow the "gentlemen with the big van" will be back to finish the backdoor and the loo window. We will be fully double glazed. Hurrah.

Harry Potter 7

I have finished HP7 but Mr Yoastie hasn't even started it yet, neither of my parents have read it and best friend K is away in Cornwall (with HP7). I am getting a little annoyed that I can't discuss the book with anyone. I will have to wait at least six weeks before the much beloved has finished the book. Luckily K will be back soon.

Buttergebäck - 2

Success! It worked.
Bit messy though. The little ones got very helpful with the flour and later on they washed the cookie cutters. Flour and water a great combination for mess.

Buttergebäck

Today was a miserable rainy day. The kind of rain the UK used to specialise in when I was a child - drizzle. My mother never bakes biscuits (well hardly ever). I love making biscuits. I have a collection of cutters in different shapes and sizes. We recently acquired new ones, so being a rainy day I thought to entertain the girls by making biscuits.

Auntie H's book on "Weihnachts Gebäck" (Christmas biscuits) was found and Buttergebäck was chosen. The sous chefs did a sterling job and all was set to go but then we came unstuck or rather stuck. The recipe says to leave the dough to rest in the fridge for an hour. I think this was not enough. The butter just went soft as soon as I tried to roll it and it stuck to the surface and the rolling pin.

Tomorrow is another day. I have tried to rescue as much of the dough as possible and returned it to the fridge. Fingers crossed I will be able to show off some pictures of the biscuits tomorrow.

Kitchen

I don't know if Mr Yoastie has mentioned this but our kitchen is useless. It was put into the house 25 years ago and the working triangle was largely ignored when designing it. To create more space we want knock through one of the walls and make the kitchen an open-plan affair.

Not a problem says Mr Yoastie, that can be done. Well excuse me but he studied Hotel-management; he is not a structural engineer. I do not want to end up on BBC's "DIY SOS" or "DIY from Hell" (ITV1). Anyway we need to find an engineer (to tell us if it is possible) and a builder (for quotes and timescales), after that a kitchen design and then we need to agree on it all.

Our daughters, who are as yet blissfully unaware of project management, have already chosen the kitchen cupboards. CS saw kiwi green ones in the show room and keeps saying that we need those. CE spotted the colour options on the glass worktops and thinks that pink or orange glass worktops will set of the kiwi green nicely. I hope they don't find out that you can get the same colours in glittery floor tiles.

Floods, Grandparents and picnics

Well so far the summer holidays have been quite eventful. On the last day of term the heavens opened and Oxfordshire was flooded. We live on top of a slight hill, so we were all right but my parents were flooded. Well their house wasn't but the street looked like a river. There was another picture in the paper with my Father on it. We know it was him as we recognised his orange safety coat.

Mr Yoastie's parents were over for a long weekend. They coped with the fact that we drive on the correct side of the road. We did worry with regards to the flooding but most of it had subsided by the time they arrived. Also they drive a 4x4, so would probably have been all right anyway. The girls were thoroughly spoiled but it was a fun visit.

Today we went on a picnic with my best friend K. The little Yoasties were SO keen to start the picnic that we had it in K's back garden. We went to the park afterwards and tested the playground. My daughters did think K and I had lost the plot when we had a go on the merry-go-round. Well it was all I could do to stop K from going on the rope-slide :-)