GBBO again

Week 2 was bread week.  My fitst attempt at challah and at braiding.  It tripled in size when baked.  Not quite as airy as expected, so i wonder if i should be using bread flour for extra gluten.

3rd week was tart week.  I thought of making a tartes tan like the bakers did in their signature bake, but decided to make cherry curd (i've never made curd before) and use it with custard in a tart.  Cherry curd doesnt really taste like cherries, fyi.

If i made it again, i'd probably make it with cherry jam and save the curd for toast.  The tart was just soft and sweet without a strong flavor of anything.

I watched episode 3 at a friend's house. Can you believe she's never watched it before?

Peach cherry upside down cake

Everything is crumbling into chaos.  Quite seriously, the only thing still dependably lovely and enjoyable is the Great British Bake Show.

PBS is broadcasting a new (to us) season starting tonight: theme is cakes.  So I made a peach cherry upside down cake.

Not too bad, if i say so myself.

Pool

First trip of the year.  It started late and ended early because of lightening, but we got a couple hours of swimming in, just enough to outlast our sunblock.

Fattening up

I've been working on building a vegetable garden since we moved in.  Andrew built the actual bed, and I've been working on adding more and more soil amendments every year: bought manure, home made compost and more compost, and lots of worry. Plus gallon after gallon of hand carried water. Soil here is all clay and terrible for growing veg.

I had started a few dozen tomato plants and leeks from seed in the house in late winter.  Most survived to be planted outside and are doing okay.  I planted beans and squash from seed outside a couple weeks ago.  These have not been as successful.

I decided to dig up the seeds to see if they'd even sprouted.  I found either no seeds, or dead seeds.  Also grubs.  First of all - gross.  Second- i knew they'd eat my hard work, so they had to go.

I spent 30 min or so digging them up with thick gloves (cuz again gross), and collected them in a bucket.  Baby and i took them over to a friend that has chickens.  I wish I'd gotten a video cuz those chickens loved them.

Baby and i went for a treat.