2021 - 52 weeks of doing something different

What week we on? Anyway this week’s was very unexpected. I was watching the sir David Attenborough research vessel in our loch.

   

   

Done some research on it . It’s very interesting. 
https://www.bas.ac.uk/polar-operations/s...enborough/

Amazing!! I'm envious.

This week as well as my daily French class, I'm doing some basic Spanish too.
We go to Spain often (I can see it from here) on motorcycle rides but speak very little beyond dos cervezas/aguas por favor! When the borders open and we've all been vaccinated we're planning on some longer trips, starting with Barcelona, a five hour drive.

My new thing was cooking split fava beans and making "hummus".
https://hodmedods.co.uk/blogs/recipes/fa...-ful-nabed
It wasn't a great success as I was missing a few key ingredients!!

INGREDIENTS
100g Split Dried Fava Beans
2 tbsp Tahini
2 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp Lemon Juice
1 small clove Garlic
1/2 tsp mild Dried Chilli
1/2 tsp Lemon Zest
1 tbsp chopped Parsley and/or Mint
Smoked Paprika to garnish


Actually, I only had the Beans and the Oil and I added Mint sauce as a lemon juice & Mint substitute.
I'll be better prepared next time. 

My new thing was trying out using a bit of bicarb on mince before cooking to make it retain moisture rather than leaching it when frying it off. Not too sure whether it affects nutritional values as it's supposed to do when our mums used to add it when boiling tough broad beans, but the experiment was quite good. I had some yellow stickered pork mince in the freezer and combined that with tomato dollop from the summer to make a ragu, which is currently simmering in the oven ready for perhaps making into a pasta bake with a cheesy souffle topping. The meat tasted really succulent after frying. I will try with beef next time.

Make a list of what you've tried to date each week - you may surprise yourself!!

1. Pickled Red Cabbage (tasted good)
2. Sprouted Broad/fava beans and peas (failed - went mouldy)
3. Followed a recipe (almost) - Dal Saag/ Split yellow pea and spinach daal (Nice - will do again)
4. Switched from using Kleenex to table napkins for hankies (Still doing - permanent habit now)
5. Went to Splott for a Covid Jab
6. Followed a recipe almost for split Fava bean hummus (Failed - need right ingredients).

The list goes on forever!

1. Almost run - not likely to happen again
2. Sowed seeds in January - the jury is out on that until the aubs, chillies and peppers are picked.
3. Wrote a poem - for the sake of humanity it's best if I don't follow that path.
4. Made pinhead oatmeal for breakfast - a definite keeper, pinhead oatmeal every day now.
5. Made a large batch of pinhead oatmeal in the slow cooker - not worth it and made the porridge too soft, so not doing that again
6. Bought and set up growlight - experiment with Red Robin proves the light is beneficial, very pleased with results.
7. Overwintered begonia semperflorens and took cuttings for summer - will take more cuttings and do again next year.
8. Bought and ate bulb fennel - will try to grow and possibly buy again
9. Bicarbed mince - worked a treat
10.Booked my covid jab for Friday 19th Feb

So far on my weekly something new.
Week 1 - electric pole moving
Week 2 - design spare room built in wardrobe & polished some loom boat shuttles.
Week 3 - cleaned Hoover filter
Week 4 - tried a new recipe & arranged a meeting with builder
Week 5 - left village for first time this year & brought floor tiles
Week 6 - watching the research vessel Sir David Attenborough
Week 7 - ???

My list to date - 

Week 1 Joined Instagram and now doing a weekly 'view from the window' post.
Week 2 First try at Eccles Cakes   (Could do better)
Week 3Grow lemon tree from a pip  (rotted!)
Week 4 Make a Baguette  (See week 2)
Week 5 Cinnamon buns  (See week 2 - bit of a theme )
Week 6 Study some Spanish every day

Week 7 . Not very exciting. I got a new coat. The old one has done me 15 year. The last 11 of those has been daily use. So now it’s not as warm or as water proof as it once was. The new one will also double as safety gear for the build site because its hi vis.