New Year's Resolutions - at last

 I always say I like the New Year to get settled before I commit to making resolutions. Well, this year I might have left things later than usual, but there are still ten months and some days left, so plenty of time :)

Instead of the usual 'de-clutter' and 'do something arty' resolutions with which I start so many years, I'm going to be re-hashing my 60 Things idea from a few years back. Doing something (anything) new in the middle of a pandemic seems tricky but it IS possible. Anyway, restrictions are starting to ease, and trying or learning something new is always good for us - it stretches the brain, expands our horizons, and gives us something to do while we're holed up at home.

In part I've gone about this the wrong way round - doing a few new things and then deciding to turn them into a resolution, but doing something different throughout January and February was good for me, so extending for a year seems like an excellent idea.

First up, I took part in Veganuary, trying to cut meat and cheese from my diet for a month (I gave myself a 'pass' on milk as I didn't want to cancel my doorstep delivery). Then I decided that, months after everyone else, it was time to set up a sourdough culture and bake bread. And lastly I stumbled upon the concept of online escape rooms, played with family members from the lockdown safety of our own living rooms. 

Going forward I have lots of hopes for new places to visit, new festivals to attend, but until the end of March we'll all stick be stuck at home, so I'm looking for ideas to tide me through, and re-visiting something I talked about doing last year.

Back in Autumn I joined in with The Good Life Experience At Home - a festival that should have taken place at Hawarden Castle but ended up online - and with my activity pack for the weekend I received a preview of The Good Life Handbook. It contains fourteen activities for fourteen weekends, ideas ranging from fungi foraging to darning, from making a slingshot to making herbal teas (the full-sized Handbook contains more). I'm not intending to do all of them, nor confine myself to these suggestions, but it seems like a useful starting point and a spring-board for other ideas. 

More on this as the year progresses with a complete list here

Jottings - 21st February - Spring is in the air

 After last week's freezing temperatures, Spring has arrived with a bound. Or, at least, in comparison it seems that way. 

In the garden, the snowdrops are now fully in flower, and the crocus trying to catch up

My first pot of daffodil bulbs has died back but a second had buds showing, so I brought it inside and within days had bright cheery flowers on the kitchen windowsill.  There's nothing quite like a splash of yellow to liven up the last weeks of winter.

Being able to get out and about doing useful things in the garden is such a help when I can't go anywhere else, so with it being so much milder this week so I've been busy in the garden. I tidied last year's dead growth up so the snowdrops can be seen, and started to sow seeds; some rather late sweet peas (they can be set in November) but hopefully they'll catch up, plus mizuna for spring salads, and cauliflowers and leeks to be grown on down at the allotment. I should be setting tomatoes and chillies now but I don't want to have windowsills filled with plants that can't go outside because of late frosts, so they can wait a little while.

This, plus the hope of news of lockdown easing, has made this a brighter week. Maybe it's just the lengthening days but there seems to be an air of hopefulness around. 

My husband's birthday fell towards the end of the week, and we decided to try an online escape room game with the rest of the family. It was puzzling and perplexing, but between us we managed to 'escape' in just under the hour it was expected to take. I rather wish I'd discovered these games earlier, but it proves my theory that even in lockdown there are opportunities for trying new things.

My New Best Friend - Dodo the Sourdough

 I've taken up this whole idea of make your own sourdough bread really late. Everyone else discovered it back in the first lockdown, but it was spring and the weather was nice then, and I spent a lot of time gardening. During the second lockdown I mainly focused on Christmas and that (broken) promise that we'd be allowed a five day get together. 

But with another lockdown announced for after Christmas I felt I needed a focus to get me through to spring. January is too early for sowing seeds or doing anything outside in the garden so I was looking a house-based activity that would be more inspiring than dusting or ironing. Trying Veganuary helped me focus on food and cooking, and a sourdough culture seemed the next logical step.

 I asked for advice from Twitter before I started and someone recommended following Colm O Gorman, food columnist for the Irish Examiner, on Instagram, and his posts and videos made everything look SO easy. It isn't an overly complicated process - make some flour and water paste, keep it warm, throw half away each but day but feed the remainder with extra flour and water each - and sure enough at the end of a week I'd made a loaf, then a few days later another, and eventually one that looked good.

One of the delights has been the other things I've made 'on the side' from the half of starter that is discarded everyday (otherwise there's be the most massive loaf to be baked at the end of the week). I'd got the idea for this from author Sarah Jasmon (Sarahontheboat on Instagram) who I'd seen posting pictures of lovely things made this way.

First I attempted pancakes, just using the runny discard, but then I grew a bit more confident and added more flour to make cinnamon buns, dough balls, dumplings, and even cakes.

My two favourite things though are naan bread (cooked in a frying pan) and pizza.

Throughout these last few weeks it's turned out to be really therapeutic, giving me something to direct my thoughts and keep them away from lockdown misery.

 The sourdough culture is now at a point where I could allow it to rest somewhere cool for a few days, without needing to be fed every day, but for now I'm enjoying my experiments. 

Jottings - February 14th - hibernating

 

Last week it was so very, very cold outside that getting up and doing something (anything) wasn't appealing. Days were dull and cold but with little snow, sunsets were fiery red, and the birdbath water froze solid for three days.

 Maybe the contrast between lovely warm indoors and freezing temperatures outside encourages us to be lazy; to curl up somewhere snug and semi-hibernate. Obviously if you have work to go to, a dog to walk, grocery-shopping to do, then staying huddled inside isn't an option. But I've nowhere I need to go and, having seen forecasts for heavy snow, did my shopping early. 

So I stayed in. 

I tended to the sourdough (made my best loaf so far, plus naan, pizza and dumplings from the discard), 

I started reading Troy by Stephen Fry (one of my Christmas presents) and continued my Wii Lego journey through Middle Earth - that's nearly finished with just a few irritating tasks left to do, and I've decided to start a Lego Pirates of the Caribbean alongside.  Made cake with aquafaba, coconut water and blackberries from the freezer 

I finished the gloves/hat/scarf set made with another Christmas present, and I'm now at that 'find the next project' stage. 

Other places had huge snow drifts or beautiful icicles worth walking to see. We just had cold, iron-hard ground with the lightest covering of snow. On Tuesday I went out in the hope of finding some snow away from pavements and roads ... but didn't, although falling snow made pretty stars on my coat. 

Too Cold To Snow?

While the rest of the country has been smothered by snow or wandering through ice-encrusted wonderlands, this is as exciting as things got here.

It's definitely been cold - so cold that the water in the bird bath has been frozen solid for three days (don't worry I've put out a plantpot saucer of water and if the ice won't tip out in the mornings I'll just put out another) - and snow has fallen, but for some reason it hasn't settled. 

On Tuesday I went out for a short walk, hoping that by moving slightly uphill and away from houses/pavements/roads there'd be more snow. 

There wasn't.

But I've tried to make it look as snowy as possible.

Looking north into Derbyshire, there were certainly more signs of the white stuff.

While we were out more snow fell, coming down in perfect snowflake shapes that lingered on my coat. I've never seen this before, and it's magical.

That snow shower gave a light coating to ground and branches, but didn't last long.

 

Jottings - February 7th - light at the tunnel's end?

 It's been a week of ups and downs, but overall it's felt like a cheerful, hopeful week. One in which a glimpse of light at the end of the Covid tunnel appeared. It's faint and far off at the moment, but it's better than stumbling about in the pitch black as we've been doing for the last year.

The week, and month, started bright and sunny - always a good way to raise spirits. 

Enthused by the weather I went out for a short spell of weeding and tidying the garden, and uncovered snowdrops, polyanthus, and crocus; sure signs of spring being not far away.  

Inside, a pot of mini daffodils came into flower to brighten the kitchen windowsill.

This was just a background to the best news. One morning my husband unexpectedly received a text inviting him along for a covid jab that afternoon! We were both amazed. Obviously we knew the vaccination programme was underway, and trickling down through age/health groups, but even with underlying health issues we'd expected him to be waiting a few more weeks at least.

My youngest daughter phoned with two bits of wonderful news (I won't share them but they really cheered me up)

Having nursed my sourdough starter for a week, I've eventually made bread. The first loaf wasn't very good - too salty, and chewy - but the second was better., despite its rather crinkly crust. I've been sharing my sourdough adventures - cinnamon buns, pancakes, and baked apple sandwich - over on Instagram, and joining in with Some Good Ideas lockdownloafclub 

I finished knitting a hat with 'Christmas present' wool. I've already made gloves, and fortunately have enough for a short scarf, which is great.

Not all the week went as brilliantly. On Candlemas/Groundhog Day I watched the weather as I always do, and although it was an overcast start to the day, by eleven (which is the time that matters) the light was bright enough to cast shadows - not good. Tradition says to expect another six weeks of winter, and by the end of the week frosts had returned. Other things seemed to echo this but I feel like winter and the pandemic have turned a corner and better days are ahead.

Trying to be vegan for a month

My intent behind taking part in Veganuary was probably different to most people's. To be honest I wasn't thinking of animal welfare or depletion of planetary resources, I was interested in something nearer to home - finding a project to occupy me through the latest lockdown, and making use of our allotment produce. The huge chest freezer is full with tomatoes, runner beans, cauliflower, and blackberries. In the garage sit bags of potatoes, the porch is home to recently dug beetroot, turnips and swedes, and on the kitchen windowsill I still have three squash. It's silly to go to the effort of growing them and then eat ready meals, but too often that's what we opt for. Veganuary would, I thought, be an ideal incentive to encourage me to focus on seasonal vegetables (and those frozen tomatoes).

A lot of my meals were already accidentally vegan - BBQ beans with baked potatoes, or the many pumpkin-based dishes I make, from curries to chilli - so starting with a list of these I decided to try being vegan for a whole month.

For keeping me occupied and giving me a focus it was excellent. Sticking to vegan food, I discovered, took more planning than my usual diet. 

The hardest meal was lunch. Being at home, I would normally have grabbed a ham/cheese/tuna sandwich. It's hard to find something as quick and easy. What I hit on was mashing up chickpeas to make a lazy hummus, and using it as a base for salad sandwiches, but some days I ended up falling back on jam or banana as fillings. Homemade soup was a better idea, but then I had to be sure it didn't clash with our evening meal; I didn't want chilli, curry or winter roots stew twice a day!

I wasn't an eater of huge amounts of meat before this and one idea I've certainly been shaken out of is the necessity of adding it to almost every meal. For example, I'd previously make a curry with tomatoes, chickpeas and spinach, and somehow feel I needed to add some chicken, or need to add mince to enchiladas, even if just a small amount. Now I feel I've embraced vegetables for themselves, not as just a side.

There are a lot of websites out there offering help and advice, and most importantly recipe suggestions, and another great source of inspiration was people I follow online sharing their own Veganuary journey. My favourite new meal was discovered accidentally by following one link then another and ending up with a squash and cabbage sabzi recipe on the BBC Good Food site. This fits what I was looking for exactly, as I still have autumn's pumpkins, and cabbage is doing well at the allotment; I even made flatbread from my sourdough discard to accompany it.

Something I've been experimenting with since first lockdown is using aquafaba (the fluid from chickpeas or beans) as a replacement for eggs. It gives a rather meringuey texture to cake but I like it. My attempt at making vegan mayo with it didn't work as well but I'm going to try again.

I tried as much as possible to avoid substitute meats, as it went against my hope of using our own vegetables, but I have discovered some mock-chicken pies just as nice as the meat version that I'll continue to eat. 

Has it changed my eating habits? Somewhat. It was definitely a lot easier than I expected, and I didn't really miss meat that much. I don't think I'll stay vegan permanently but going forward I will be eating a lot less meat and dairy.

Jottings - January 31st - the longest month ever

I think almost everyone agrees that this January has been the longest on record. It seems to have stretched interminably. 

This last week, on the other hand, seems to have flown by. It started with snow, and ended with snowdrops. 

Like last week, it's been busy, though for different reasons. I had two trips out to different supermarkets to pick up online orders!! I can't remember the last time I did this, but there's always something that one supermarket stocks that's special, isn't there? This time it was a specific chilli powder, and particular flavour of Pot Noodle. 

My sourdough, now named Dodo, is still demanding a lot of attention, but even if the bread I make isn't edible getting my hands sticky and floury has been worthwhile for the range of things I've made from the unwanted mix discarded each day. Dumplings are a definite favourite, and pancakes made this way taste almost like those made with eggs and milk. 

What I'm most pleased with though is making reasonable naan-style flatbreads. I tried this before, after watching a demonstration at the Good Life Experience At Home in autumn, and they didn't work well, managing to be both burned and undercooked at the same time! This time I got them right; maybe not perfect, but not bad.  Oh, and I served them with a new vegan dish discovered on the BBC Good Food site - a squash and cabbage sabzi - which exactly fitted what I was looking for with Veganuary; using up the allotment produce.

And a lot of my time has been spent playing Lego Lord of The Rings on the Wii. If you've played it yourself (LOL) you'll know from the photo that I've finished the first play-through of the game, and now reached the fun bit where extra quests and mini games have opened up. It may seem an odd thing to spend so much time on but while I'm playing all that matters is escaping from orcs and fighting my way to the end of the level; there's no coronavirus in Middle Earth!