I have rather a
small kitchen, only nine feet long and five feet wide. After I crammed in a fridgefreezer, cooker,
and sink, there was very little space left for a table, storage, etc. Most of these problems were solved when I
bought a 1930s Hygena kitchen cupboard.
It has a pull out table and storage above and below, and aside from a
little storage space underneath the sink it is all the cupboard space I have. But since the skillets are hung above the
sink, and the pots have their own dedicated potstand, everything I need fits
quite neatly.
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| A tie hanger cum sausage storer! |
These last few
days I have been making candied orange peel (my favourate sweetmeat, terribly
expensive when one tries to buy it in shops, and usually unavailable). Friday I bought 20 oranges and 4 lemons (just
for luck – I am not actually all that fond of candied lemon peel), squeezed out
the juice, scooped out the remaining flesh, and boiled up the cut up peel three
times in water to reduce the bitterness.
Then I made a thick sirup, dumped the peel in, and boiled it up. Then I let it cool down. Then I boiled it up again. And cool down. And so on and so forth until today (Sunday
afternoon), when I fished out the peels one at a time and deposited them on
racks for drying.
As you can see, I
went a little overboard! The kitchen is
completely dominated by drying peels, and will be unusable for a few days. Making candied anything is a sticky business,
and the kitchen is a sticky mess.
When the peels have dried a bit and no longer drip I shall take them into the dining room, which is warmer, so they dry a bit faster. When they are finally dry to the touch, I will cut them into smaller pieces and store in a glass jar. I might even dip some of them in chocolate, if I can be bothered.
All these
culinary projects seem great at the time, but once you get started they take
ages and take over the house. I was
really truly going to sort out the attic this weekend, but after all the
candying I am no longer in the mood.
I feel like mixing myself a stiff one and crashing out in front of the
telly, but since I rarely drink alcohol and don’t have a television shall have
to make do with a cup of tea and a game of solitaire. And then it is back to knitting waistcoats
and watching French movies!
What do you think of the balloon picture? It is an oil painting I picked up a few years ago during one of my Charity Shop Shuffles for £2. I suspect it has no artistic merit whatsoever, but it is so cheery it makes me happy every time I see it. It hangs in the kitchen, goes well with the yellow walls. I just took it to the dining room to photograph.
I wonder what
excitement Easter Monday will hold?
