Baked and Made - puddings and sleeve

Watching dh breathing IN this am to do up his shirt makes me think that maybe a home baked pudding every week is not such a good idea, and TWO puddings? .. oh well .. here goes: apple pie made with a different pastry comprising plain and SR flour together with cornflour AND custard powder .. phew .. it took me fair five mins to sort the ingredients from the cuboard never mind weigh and mix them!
If I'm completely honest, I think that plain regular pastry is just as nice! but it does have a nice added sweetness to complement the apple filling which unfortunately I left to boil to practically apple sauce consistency - had I been cooking roast pork indeed I might have done so! but we had one of those slow roasting shoulder thingies that sits in a pot on a pile of veggies and herbs steaming gently in a pint of stock for 3hrs and crumbles at the end rather than slices but is wonderfully tender and tasty! (and CHEAP!).

The reason for such indulgance?  its our no.1.son's last week home before we drive him to Uni at the weekend and as such everything he enjoys WILL be made, baked and cooked and EATEN! even IF it means he feels slightly sick!!  Tonight I'm cooking him a sausage/pasta dish that he has requested and tomorrow its fish pie OR mince'n'onion and I'm fully expecting to expand by the end of the week so NEXT week am hoping will feel so miserable and lost without him, that the worry will cause my weight to drop off .. hmm .. FAT chance!  nothing I'm afraid puts me off my food.  usually.  well. apart from that short lived episode of unwellness 4yrs ago which saw me lose 3st most of which in under 3months and was hardly picked up on other than an envious comment from a Nurse after I'd requested a note of my weight loss on my records that I'd "done really well!!!" .. had I ? well, I suppose HAD I been trying I suppose I would have!  Perhaps I ought have said I had? been trying? dieting? but dieting doesn't seem to work for me but after this week I think I might have a rethink on what I am eating!   In the meantime I'm resolved to not fussing about what I'm eating and just get on with it!

Apple pie was mostly for no.1.son and dh, no.2.son does not enjoy cooked fruit and as chocolate is his favourite pudding of choice I decided to have a go at the intriguing sounding "self saucing chocolate pudding".  it is DELICIOUS.  I'm not myself a particular fan of chocolate cakes/puddings etc, I do like them, but I can think of others in preference eg a nice lemon tart which NEARLY got made until I came to my senses and worked out that two desserts is pushing it a bit for our waistlines never mind the purse!

Slight panicky moment when reached the point of "now gently add the 500ml of BOILING WATER to the pudding and bake for 40 mins" .. but I can see how it gets its name, the water clearly does something to the mixture to make a "sauce" that is really chocolately despite the fact that apart from 50g of cocoa powder there isn't any chocolate in fact added!! 
Rather yummily we ate our puddings with icecream!

mixing by hand

I mixed the pastry by hand for a change just to see if it made a difference, I'm sometimes disappointed at how I roll out the pastry and feel I'm not rewarded with a better finish for my effort but tbh I wasn't any more rewarded but I felt slightly "better" for the mixing!

uncooked ready to bake

mixed and ready to bake

I timed it that I would bake the apple pie ahead and warm it through while eating dinner and as the chocolate pudding required boiling water adding just prior to baking for 40mins, got that ready to the point of adding the water/baking and flung it at the oven while I rested the meat ..

choc pudding burnt cooked

applie pie cooked

Pleased! with both! I know the chocolate pudding looks burnt.  (technically it is, having caught a bit but as its the sugar and not the dessert as such I don't think this counts?)  It doesn't taste burnt though! it tastes chocolatey! and anyway, once you cut into the pudding it reveals the reason for naming it "self saucing" as its filled with liquid chocolate spooned atop hides any burnt bits! hurrah!!

Choc Pudd & Icecream

Apple Pie & Icecream

No.2.son had the chocolate pudding and no.1.son had the apple pie ..

Tender: sleeve 1

After all that pudding what I needed was a good long walk! instead? another long night in front of the tv!  this time a marathon session of Xfactor (again!) followed by Spooks and then Downton Abbey .. all of which meant that the left sleeve for Tender got knitted!  I think I went a bit wrong with the final shaping but by 11.30pm I'd had enough and my eyes were going peculiar with all the tv viewing not to mention to get through such listing I'd had three large G+T's .. anyway, am hoping a bit of tugging and timely stitching will ease the sleeve into place .. slightly concerned/nervous about the yardage left for sleeve.2 and neckband - if I run out again I shall HOWL! 

Plan to CO for second sleeve tonight.  (double Corrie I think! hurrah! - apologies for being such a slave to the tv!  when I tell people I'm totally addicted to the tv I don't think half of them believe me! but I'm afraid its true! sigh).

focus next on GLOVES.  Have decided to knit a pair of knotty for myself in grey/raspberry and a pair of plain gloves for sil - fingerless and another pair of blackrose to gift ..