Friday Files

As usual, Friday was in the kitchen and I was a little challenged. This time, not because of the long to do list, but because I was short of jars for the soup. I try, as far as possible to use old jars that I have either saved, or the good folk of the village bring to me. I try, too, to use the same jars for a particular product. Yesterday, well, actually, last Friday I was also short. I had to find two different types of similar jars for the soup and curry offering.

Not only was last week's offering a hit, but most of it went to visitors which means that the jars don't come back. Locals get a -

I'd be very grateful if you'd return the jar...

...schpiel. Some are better at returns than others and when I looked at my supply for this week's "in-the-jar" - French onion soup - I only had three. The poor Husband was detailed offered to repurpose some of the jars we'd turned into hurricane lamps to guide people to our door on Sundays...and did.

Not a perfect set of quadruplets, but acceptable.

Grey

It was a very grey day and promised an equally grey and probably wet (it was) market. The brightest part of the day was as we left for our usual trip down to the local: the hedge.

As an aside, and before I talk about the hedge: the market was grey and drizzly. We came home damp and with certain things sodden. And it was good. Not only did a new village resident and who's fast becoming a regular buyer of whatever's in-the-jar tell me that last week's curry was fantastic, but returned three jars! Next week's soup selection's at her request.... Local customers are bread and butter...I'm happy to oblige and keep them happy.

It's a green and orange wall. It's taken a long time but it's been worth the wait. Now, it's time to extend it along the other fences and encourage the other, tall, leggy ones to grow from the bottom.

Good hedges are the most environmentally friendly boundaries. They screen one from the street and neighbours, are difficult to climb over - more difficult than a wall or fence. Best of all, they don't create wind tunnels and add to the heat by releasing long wave radiation to an already hot summer's night. We know all about that having been walled into our previous home in Cape Town.

The plant: tecomaria capensis. Aka the Cape honeysuckle or golden shower. Now that I'm getting my groove back and we have found someone who will reliably help in the garden once a week, things are beginning to take shape. Again.

Embracing rejects

A friend and talented chef in the village started a business during lockdown: frozen pizzas on sourdough bases. Now they're sold all over the province but occasionally, some of the bases aren't suitable for the frozen product. He rejects them. We know they're good because we've eaten them "fresh" - as it were - at the restaurant. I also figured, knowing A that they must be perfectly useable "rejects".

And so they were:

Friday supper: a cheat's flammkuchen using cottage cheese and Trish's garlicky tzatziki, slices of onion and bacon.

Pizza using my Passata as the tomato base, leftover braaied pork neck chop, pepper, pepperdews and, of course, cheese. Not mozzarella. That's on the shopping list for next time because we shal most certainly be embracing more of those rejects!

Until next time, be well
Fiona
The Sandbag House
McGregor, South Africa

Photo: Selma
Post script
I am participating in @traciyork's twice-yearly Hive Blog Posting Month. Join us?

If this post might seem familiar, it's because I'm doing two things:

• re-vamping old recipes. As I do this, I am adding them in a file format that you can download and print. If you download recipes, buy me a coffee. Or better yet, a glass of wine....?
• and "re-capturing" nearly two years' worth of posts.

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Original artwork: @artywink

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