Disaster Day

Do you ever have days that seem to be a complete and total disaster?
I think I'm having one of them.

The first clue was just after lunch, when I was making some no-bake yummies to take with me when I go to volunteer tomorrow (because charity shops and cakes are an excellent combination).

Yummies.

The recipe called for the chocolate to be melted with butter (I used Stork margarine instead) which meant I had to do it on the hob in a glass bowl, over a pan of hot water.
To save time, I boiled water in the kettle first, to pour into the pan. When the kettle was boiled, I lifted it up and managed not only to clobber the top of it on the bottom of the overhead cupboard, but knocked the bowl of the scales flying too! Luckily the bowl was empty, but it made a real clang when it hit the floor!

Anyway, the 'cakes' themselves went well enough, thank goodness.

I went to make another Monstar and managed to sew the arms on the wrong way around...No picture of this, because it's a present for somebody who might read this blog!
...admittedly I rectified the mistake by sewing the legs on backwards too...

Moving on!

This afternoon we heard a loud bang from the back door and Howie (our cat), ran into the kitchen...closely followed by Alfie (another of ours). We could easily guess that Alfie tried to attack Howie through the cat flap...

Alfie has no bothers to give.

...the cat flap which is now in pieces. Alfie clearly does not care (but did know he was in trouble).

I unscrewed the cat flap from the back door, as there were bits of sharp plastic hanging from the flap. Alfie didn't want to pose with it, surprisingly!


As for this evening? This evening, I decided to make soup to take with me tomorrow, too. To be precise, butternut squash and ginger soup. 
I'd read online that using cashew nuts in soup can make it creamy, so I thought I'd try that out! I also had to use a different stock to the one I normally use in soup.

I prepared and boiled up the butternut squash and an onion, and tossed in a load of pre-prepared ginger, the stock, and some herbs for good measure. As the bubbled away and the squash softened, it smelt quite delicious! 

When I first blended it up, it was too thick. I returned some to the pan and added water to the soup remaining in the blender, put the lid back on...and hadn't put the lid on well enough.

Basically I managed to explode soup all over the place. That soup was hot. Boiling hot. Most of what hit me landed on my clothes, but I have a burn on my wrist now. Owie!


To add insult to injury - quite literally - the soup tastes disgusting. The cashews obliterated the taste of the vegetables, and the stock is so disgustingly salty that the soup tastes of nothing more than liquified, oversalted nuts.

And I have a whole jug of the stuff. :(


(At least the cakes turned out okay...)