Thursday 18 October 2012

Compote and Chocolate

We went wandering at the weekend and found ourselves caught in a downpour.  Thankfully we managed to take shelter till the rains eased off.  The view was beautifully golden, but sadly I only got to take one picture before the battery on my camera died.


My life has been revolutionised by the recent acquisition of a slow cooker.  After almost a week of dinner from the slow cooker every night, I decided to make quiche and salad tonight, followed by Autumn Fruit Compote from the slow cooker.

I popped half a dozen pears, a generous handful of dried dates, one orange (including grated rind), a spoonful of brown sugar, a few drops of vanilla essence, a teaspoon of mixed spice and three cloves into the pot.  I left it on low while I popped out.  The house smelled wonderfully spicy when I came home!

We enjoyed it with soya cream with lemon curd whisked through it.  I say 'we' enjoyed it but it wasn't to everyone's taste.  Ho hum, I liked it!


This afternoon we watched a programme on IPlayer about children working in the cocoa plantations in Ghana.  We all enjoyed it and afterwards the children tried to figure out the production chain on the fridge blackboard.  Hermione was already aware of the situation, but Miles was quite appalled to learn that the families who harvest the pods, risking machete wounds and poisonous snake bites, often have in the region of 75p per day to feed and clothe a family of ten; yet we pay upwards of 50p for a small bar.  Where's it all going to?  Not the children of Ghana that's for certain!

Oh, that's another angle to add to the Africa project I still feel rattling round my bones!


I'm getting quite into IPlayer education.  I can 'do it' while having a cuppa and I'm onto my second crochet recycled cotton dish/face cloth of the week!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

You need an IPad in your life. Actually, it feels really wrong saying that after you've blogged about the horrendous working and living conditions of some of the people who provide our luxuries!! An Africa project sounds good.

Claire said...

Why do I need an IPad? After all the humming and hahing I've still resisted getting a mobile phone :-)