Last night I never slept…
Well that is not entirely true. I was deadly tired by 19:00 and it was about this same time that the occupants of the house in front of our block decided to crank up their music.
The beat was loud and it was drowned out by the voices and loud, raucous laughter that accompanies plenty of liquor. In days gone by, this would have been an assault to my senses, but I have definitely mellowed over the years.
Now I close all the windows, increase the volume on my iPad and funnily enough, just ignore them. So when 20:30 arrived, I switched off the video I was watching, turned over and went to sleep.
Imagine my surprise when I woke to total darkness. Not a light shining anywhere! You guessed it, Load Shedding had kicked in and that had put paid to the proposed party next door. On looking at my watch it had just gone 22:00 and now I was wide awake.
At 04:00 I got out of bed, made something to drink and returned to lie quietly, hoping I would fall asleep again. It didn’t happen. So as soon as it was light enough I made the bed, removed the pillow slips and protectors from my feathered pillows and put two of the pillows into the wash.
This set the scene for the rest of the morning. How on earth can there be so many feathers that escape through the protectors and the ticking? Too many to count. I have had the vacuum cleaner out and ready to suck up all the little ones who escaped in the wash and dryer!
I finished drying them and they are once again on my bed, looking nice and clean and smelling a lot better than they did before their wash! Job well done.
Pressure pot …
Brett and Amor purchased a new pressure pot last week and sent me photos of the Lamb Shank that they were preparing in it. It was a lovely shiny stainless steel pot and I thought of the one that I have had since 1972.
It is a Tedelex 6 litre with the traditional orange lid that houses the screw in pressure release valve.
For the last 10 years or so, the handles have been very wobbly. The screws that are used to secure them, must be either rusted or perhaps have lost their thread.
It takes me about 20 minutes to find the “sweet spot” where the pressure is able to build up with the gasket that lines the lid. Aluminum, it is pitted and very well used.
Air fryers…
But I have been craving an air fryer for over a year now, so decided to go to Makro on Monday to purchase one.
Oh my goodness, there are so many on the market right now. Some that resemble an oven – with an opening door and shelves. Another round glass one with a fan at the top, identical to one that my Aunt Gladys gave me about 15 years ago that was very nice, but the fan stopped working and the dish was given to Petros to use.
The one that held my interest was a 2 drawer Eiger Air fryer. The drawers were fairly large and I liked the idea that I could cook things in either drawer to be ready at the same time.
So what I did was to ask them to give me the recipe book that comes with the appliance. I then went to the coffee shop in the store where I read through the manual and looked at all the recipes.
I was so pleased that I did this. I found that the items that they showed were not things that I normally cook. When I do roasted vegetables, I do a huge oven tray full of them, bake them in the oven and then decant them into smaller containers which I freeze. This is what I do.
I love stews and soups. I never cook potato chips, chicken wings or nuggets…
After a very satisfying snack and coffee I was ready to approach the salesmen and return their book to them. I discovered that what I was really needing was a new pressure pot after all and not an air fryer.
And back to pressure pots …
I settled on a lovely Russel & Hobbs stainless steel one at a fraction of the cost of the air fryer, and left the store feeling really happy.
There are very distinct differences in the pot I have had for years and the new fangled one I bought, and these were brought home to me very quickly.
After purchasing the pot it is suggested that you clean it out by having a trial run before cooking in it. I had it on the stove as per the instructions, but it didn’t work. I ended up looking at a video first, before I discovered that there is a lock on the handle that needed to be in place before steam can build up.
Lesson learned. Today I decided to put it to the test by making a thick shin and vegetable soup. All went well till I needed to get the pressure to drop to check on the progress of the soup.
The old one was easy. Take the entire pot to the sink and douse it in cold water. Before any length of time, the pressure drops and you can open the lid.
I did the same thing with the new one, turned on the water, but the little button didn’t drop. I shook it under the tap and this was a mistake. Steam shot out from the sides of the pot and scalded my left hand.
Ouch. I replaced it on the stove top and stood back to see why this had happened. Then I realised that I had not released the steam by opening the front valve on the pot. I certainly will not make that mistake again.
Fortunately the scalding was not too severe and this evening I am not even aware of it any more. But it was a lucky lesson that I was not more burnt!
The soup is delicious. There is enough for three meals, so this is a good way of preparing food.
Sweden and the work going on there …
Morne and Ulrika have been very busy over the past two months. Their garden has thrived and they have had bumper crops in both the green house and out in the open. This has been thanks to Ulrika who works so incredibly hard.
Their home is large, she is an artist who loves to pursue her career, but during the summer months she is very involved in the gardening.
At the rear of their home, overlooking the beautiful lake, they had an area that was causing concern because it became very water logged. This was not ideal as the moisture gets into the basement through the walls.
They decided to erect a wooden deck there instead. This was a huge job, but Morne sent me photographs of the completed work during last week.
They have incorporated a wall on the left hand side of the deck where they will be able to stack their wood from the pruning of trees for the winter months.
I hope you enjoy the photos that accompany this Blog.
As I was unable to visit them this year, there is talk of them coming to South Africa in March next year. I can’t wait to see this amazing family again.
