The Good and the UPF

 The contrast between the good and the weird.

From a couple of weeks ago........... a home made quiche - very rough looking shortcrust pastry case - my pastry cases would never win a prize -  filled with  vegetables (onion, peppers, sweetcorn, peas and tomato) and cheese, egg and milk. Because it had so much filling it fed me for 5 days rather than 4 which is good - no thinking needed.

And the Weird ........the cheap 53p sponge mix from Asda that I'd seen mentioned as a good bargain. It doesn't appear online either in ' Baking' or 'Just Essentials' but it was on the shelves in store. .

The ingredients seem to be mainly flour, sugar and oils with some complicated raising agents.

How can this small amount possible make a cake I wondered and would it be edible with only an egg and water added? Only one way to find out.

This is what it looked like, using 6 inch cake tins as specified. I mixed up a small amount of buttercream icing and the very last from a jar of strawberry jam made two years ago for a filling. 

Tried a slice (⅛ )with my afternoon cuppa - it was edible but a slightly artificial taste although lighter and fluffier than my home made sponges which always seem to come out more solid than light. Useful as an occasional  quick and  cheap  tummy filler I guess or a cheap way to make sponge for an old fashioned trifle.

It actually tasted better on day two for some reason, not sure how dry it will be by day 8!.

Tennis news...........................There were 4 British men playing yesterday, all predicted to lose which wasn't surprising considering they were playing people seeded much higher, especially Oliver Tarvet playing Alcaraz, although he put up a good fight . But Cam Norrie played really well and beat Tiafoe.

(I'd scheduled this post and switched off the lap top before Arthur Fery played so he might have been a winner. ) I don't take much notice of women's tennis as you can tell!

Weather news........cooler but Mid Suffolk missed out on heavy rain with just a few showers, water butts now empty. I'll be using mains water for watering for the foreseeable as there's no rain forecast for a week at least.

Back Tomorrow

A Hot Lazy Tuesday

The overnight temperature on Monday was supposed to be around 20℃ - uncomfortable for sleeping - so I took two freezer ice packs and two cooling gel pads to bed with me and slept soundly from 10pm to 4am , perhaps it wasn't as hot as forecast.

I made an effort yesterday morning to go and open up the village hall in case people came for the Keep Moving Exercise group but the few of us who did arrive decided it was far too hot for any sort of exercise so we all went home again to keep cool.

 Then it was another good day of Wimbledon tennis on TV and more British men through to the second round. Jack Draper was two sets up when his opponent retired due to injury and Jack Pinnington Jones - one of the wild cards and playing in his first Wimbledon (I think that's what they said) also won in straight sets and lots of top seeds have been knocked out - makes it more fun when that happens.    I was glad to be at home flaked out as the temperatures climbed to well over 34℃ there and not much less here. I switched off the lap top before the Djokovic match ended when it was one set each but I expect the old misery won through.

Obviously not a lot of housework was done although I did manage a quick hoover round  and picked enough beans for another two meals, they are doing really well, I'm making the most of them as there are no runner beans this year.

It cooled down beautifully late evening and a bit of rain was forecast .

Back Tomorrow 

Library Book Photo for June

 Well, Wimbledon started with good tennis and a lot of heat, hot here in Suffolk too - love it!

Collected last week from the library van, just 5 that I'd reserved and one I spotted on the shelves.

Decided to read (or re-read from 50 years ago) another Nevil Shute. There's books from authors I know ............... Kristin Hannah, Christina Koning and Katy Watson but the 'Clues in the Fjord' is a new to me author and a translation from Finnish or Icelandic - not sure which and not sure I'll like it and finally the book by Jenny Pearson is a children's book that looked interesting as it's set in WWII.

Last time (when the mobile didn't come but they kindly sent my books to Stowmarket) there were 15 and I've written about those I read on the Books Read 2025 page. Some went back unread as I just couldn't get into them and there is still one here to read.

Three of the these read, one still here and the rest returned unread.

 The Katie Fforde wasn't a thriller as the spine label says but her usual light stuff but I couldn't get into it at all.

Enjoyed all these four

I went online to reserve some more books but discovered the online reserving thingy wasn't working, thankfully it was only off for a week or so. I'm enjoying the re-reading of the Nevil Shute book so have already reserved another.

Back Soon