Procrastination, Power Cuts, Preparation And Pulseox Meters!

So I finally got off my backside and posted.....about damn time eh? Why the delay Helen asked, well to start with it was my normal procrastination.....why do today what I can also put off tomorrow!! Then when I shook that off we had a power cut which put the mockers on posting that night......then more procrastination, a brief trip to hospital for a checkup on some sleeping problems then back to more preparation for this weekends cookery and next weeks adult education evening talk on Christmas food........add to the mix the need for getting some of the Christmas cookery event food ordered now to book delivery slots, stuff for the fundraising meal and some family commitments and voila suddenly 2 weeks go by with no posting.

So what's new then?

To answer Helen's question, the adult ed' day course seemed to go quite well. Everyone appeared to have a good day and all of the comments were positive....not much more I can say really. I think that out of all the talks from recent times this one has the possibility to be done again without any problems....although I'm not sure if the education department would feel the same. The best thing of the whole day was hearing from people that they never really realized how much went into the work that they get to see when they visit the working kitchens...all of the research work done by us and the craftsmen that we use to reconstruct some of the items that we use.

Next weeks evening talk on 'Christmas Past' looms large and I'm fairly happy with the talk so far.....just the usual tweaking to do for me to be truly ready to go with it, but that'll have to wait until Monday and Tuesday because of this weekends cookery.
What are we doing this weekend? Hopefully a lot of the 'donkey' work for the Christmas cookery like preparing some stocks and grinding up some almonds and so on; this should mean that at Christmas we can crack straight on with the cookery.
Carter and Pick will also be nice and busy this weekend.....no more bread experiments for them....it's back to meat with a vengeance for them. We've got two deer carcasses coming from the annual deer cull in the park so the boys should b kept nice and busy jointing those up ready for the Christmas cooking.....although I think that we can afford ourselves a treat for Sunday dinner with a little fried venison fillet..... hmmmm.......can't wait.

We should also be trying out some more of the recipes for the fundraising dinner, again trying out portion size and so on, hopefully it'll all go as well as last month which was a resounding success I think....well certainly in terms of clarifying things in my mind anyway. The menu seems to be finalised at our end, we just have to get the conservation department to take a look at it now, then take all of their alterations and set the final dishes.....plenty to keep us on our toes.

As always, the aim over the weekend is to post and keep you abreast of things (technology willing) and pop some pictures up on Flickr after the fact......by the way, there are a few more new ones of Roberts up just now......If you get the chance to pop in and see us cooking then do say hello.

TTFN