A Parlour for a Plague

I think our pools have re opened. Varies from state to state I think.

We are apparently coved free at present in my state

Restaurants open with distancing observed. Not sure how many will reopen given that....probably cafe style will because they will still get enough bums in seats to be economic, given that people generally won’t linger long.

My fun day out yesterday, copied from my FB post.

Just bought the most expensive toaster ever

I was on my way to pick up a cheap toaster to replace the one totalled in my house fire

Driving along peacefullye when I noticed a cluster of police emergency vehicles pulling up on the other side of the road I was on

Couldn’t figure out why that was happening and was imagining a drama unfolding

Clearly somehow missed that a cop in one of the cars was signaling me to pull over onto my side of the road

Drove along a bit more and suddenly see a police car on my side of the road. It’s really hilly there so you can’t see ahead much

Began pulling over assuming it was normal emergency vehicle on wrong side of road soi needed to give way, when over the rise came a house taking up the full road and more!

I was startled to say the least and pulled over as far as I could and waited

Cop car came and pulled up behind me, also waiting

When house had passed a very angry cop erupted from said car and began yelling at me

I had been a bit startled and gradually realised I had missed an indication to pull over

Poor cop had, of course, seen this car ignoring direction to pull over and had seen in his future yet another round of pulling mangled a mangled carcass from the wreckage of my car hitting the house!

He had assumed I was a drunken hoon as well hence his aggression

He gradually calmed down as my licence, blood alcohol and drug tests all came back pristine

So I now have a $300 fine to pay, three demerits on my licence and a $25 toaster!

I can’t imagine how I missed the signal to pull aside. I’m not given to ignoring cops

At least I’m white so I’m alive

Hard luck, Deb. Hard nose dude; cut you no slack for having a toaster that was toast.

I've always been lucky in that respect ... getting off scot free, I mean. Back in the days of Jimmy Carter and the 55 mph. national speed limit, I was stopped for on a rural stretch of highway about 11:00 pm, running about 80. Nice state trooper only gave me a warning. Twice! Same trooper stopped me less than a month later ... same time of night, same highway, same speed. Must have forgotten and gave me another warning. I quit using that road

So...you never considered sticking to the speed limit at all?

I was a sales rep. Deb, and 55 mph on a highway felt like being parked when one was traveling 300 or more miles per day. Especially when starting out at 7:00 am and still on the road at nearly midnight. I was one of the few who didn't use a CB radio nor a fuzz-buster. I think perhaps the cops appreciated that, at least enough to give me a break. It was a cat and mouse game that I didn't play. I just did my thing and let them do theirs.

Not allowed to see that here.

I understand

Just Sammy Hagar singing I Can’t Drive 55.

In my community the pool is open. The powers that be have made the day into two hour blocks. One and a half hours is for swimming, half hour for cleaning. I haven't checked, but I saw a statement from the Community Association that people are not to move the furniture in the pool area. I have to assume that the furniture is placed in a "social distancing" manner.

Phoenix you inspired me to look more deeply at the Austin Park & Rec Aquatic page.

Starting yesterday, 6/2/20, the pool I prefer to go to is open limited hours. 4 days a week, modified hours, etc.
3 of the days is lap swimming only, which isn't going to work for me, as I've done jack for awhile. Even in the best of times, I'm not a great swimmer, and prefer to defer to swimmers that know what's what.
If it's busy, I can get plenty of exercise doing things that aren't lap swim. (which is boring anyway.)


Sundays though, from 1pm to 7pm, it's recreational swim.

Let me go look at the other pool schedules. Maybe I can find recreational swim at other locations.

Wow. ok, looking around I see a few other pools close to me that are open limited hours too. One you have to make a reservation, 2 (including my perfered place, you don't.

I'm going to check out to see about making a reservation late in the day, like 6pm at Garrison. The sun won't be directly burning down.

It's very satisfying to sit back with a cuppa to view the domain after a ton of hard work, yes? Sometimes I can feel that after just a good weeding. Good on ya! Congratulations

You're the 2nd person I *know* in less than a week that has had success with donuts Izzy. To me, that is so cool. I wouldn't dream of trying.

Tell me about the rose water flavour! Do you pair it with something else? I'm trying to imagine. Do you glaze them?

It's having a food mixer that did it. Many doughs are quite sticky and difficult to knead with your bare hands. In the past I've ended up adding a bit too much flour to make it easier to handle but that ends up affecting the texture.

That's not a problem with a food mixer, metal kneaders down stick to it as much as hands and can keep going.

My practice with all breads is to stick all the ingredients in the mixer and leave it for twenty minutes.

Then I just need a light dusting of flour to stop it sticking while I shape it into rolls, doughnuts, loaves whatever and leave it all to rise for about another half hour.

I need to change the oil in the fryer before I make any more doughnuts. Last night I made some onion bahjis so only savoury frying until then.

This is the recipe I used, (for the doughnuts, not the bahjis,) last time I substituted rose water for vanilla, but next time I'll use both, or just vanilla seeing on how I feel.

https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/ring-doughnuts.html

This dessert is wonderful. The only changes I make are adding a bit of vanilla to the custard mix at the end. And the pastry, I don't follow Blanc's recipe for that.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/appletartmamanblanc_93268

This is the pastry I use. I use it for all sweet pastry dishes. The pie is very good as well, but not a patch on Blanc's tart.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/applepie_89624

This recipe yields a lot of pastry so I half it and use one whole egg, no fiddling about with egg yolks.

I make my pastry in food processor as recommended by the hairy bikers. Dry ingredients + butter, then add the egg after it resembles breadcrumbs.

Thank you. They look delicious, and the tart looks incredible.

The pie recipe isn't my thing, but I don't like the texture of sultanas. I can see it would be tasty if I did.

To be honest I mostly use it just for the pastry.

You can always leave the sultanas out. I always view recipes as suggestions not hard and fast rules. One tip that’s really useful is sprinkling some semolina on the bottom crust before adding fruit. It not only stops the crust going soggy, it makes it a bit crisp.

I was just reading up on caster sugar. It's not something I've seen before. Interesting.

My mother's the baker in our family. At 91 she's still putting out pies once or twice a week. My meager efforts over the years have never compared, and I'm just as likely to use Tenderflake* premade pie crusts if I do get a hankering for a meat or potatoe pie, or quiche, which I haven't had in eons.

Like many others, I've a lot of extra time on my hands, and I've become more interested in the kitchen. Love the tip on semolina. Will try it one of these days.

Make sure you convert things right. I’ve had a few mishaps using American recipes.

Caster sugar is sweeter per spoonful because it’s finer. It doesn’t make a lot of difference when weighing because it weighs the same as granulated sugar despite taking up less space.

I read that it's similar to confectioner's or icing sugar here, but not as fine a powder. Somewhere in between icing and granular. I might give it a go with icing sugar.

That’s about right, we have icing sugar too, and you wouldn’t want to use caster sugar for icing.