ALL SET

As of 11.59 pm last night, our country went into total lock down.

Everyone has to stay home, except essential service people... Medical personal, police, fire, ambulance, supermarket workers, pharmacies and so on.

Anyone who can work from home, is.

Stew is all set up:



ABOVE:  Our lounge is now his office.  He can close the doors and take calls, and work during the day.
He will probably stick to his usual routines, BUT...  I will get to have lunch with him in his lunch hour *smiles*.

ABOVE:  And we have a third section of knitting on the tree.  
While I was stitching it on a family walked by and the mum was intrigued with what I was doing.  So I explained what I was doing ...

ABOVE:  She thought it was very interesting, and wanted to take a photo... which of course I said was fine.
Again... mission accomplished ... lots of smiles.

Our neighbourhood watch group keeps in touch via Whatsapp... and yesterday I got messages from a couple of the ladies asking if I'd done that to the tree.  And one said she had stopped and had a good look at it, and she thought it was really neat.  How lovely.

So, our new 'normal' starts today.
Stew is off to work (*snort*) and I shall potter around the house.  Today I might make a start on cleaning windows.  Dammit, it's going to be a rather BIG job as every single window and door (with glass) has to be cleaned.

But, slow and steady and it will get done.

Lacy sure chose a good time to bugger off and get stranded up north.  

ONWARD...

10.45 am:  And today I started my day with a walk on our treadmill.
Until it abruptly stopped on me!  And wouldn't go again.  Stew said it's happened to him too.  Grrrr.

No more little videos for a while, our internet is so slow now I can't get them to play.

It's kinda wet today, so I canned the windows and am re-organising my pantry.  I'm then going to sit and knit for a while.

12.36 pm:  Stew spoke to the IT expert from work and he said "When did you last reset your router?"

Ummm, never?

So we did that and our internet is up and running properly again. Stew can do his phone calls without it dropping off all the time.  Problem solved.

We do have Ultra Fast Fiber here, so we are set.

ABOVE:  It took two hours, but the pantry is now sorted out.  It's really comforting to see it well stocked in light of the lockdown.  

I tidied up the freezer yesterday too, so I know EXACTLY what we have, and don't  have.

ABOVE:  Sometimes being a 'collector' of baskets (among other things) is a blessing in disguise.  I now have a knitting basket.  *smiles*  The girls found it interesting... for like, 30 seconds.
Then they buggered off cos there was no food in it.

FOOD.... yeah!  I'm starving.  Almost Stew's lunch time too.  Hmmm... what to have?

Well we all had a sandwich and now Stew's back at work and Me?

ABOVE:  I dragged my computer over to the bench (so damn handy having it on a trolley), and I'm baking a LUMBERJACK cake.

It takes well over an hour to bake, so you will have to wait a while for the finished result.

This will be the first 'baking' I've done in this house.  I've done meat dishes of course, but not a cake.  I think I really live here now.  *smiles*

 ABOVE:  Well, after a bit of tinkering with timing, as my oven is a very hot oven, I got that cake done in just an hour.
And OMG!

It is the most moist, delicious cake I've ever made.  Positive of it.
I will post the recipe if anyone is interested.

It's got grated apple and dates in it, and a coconut and brown sugar coating on top.

It's like, crunchy on top and super soft and moist inside.  TO. DIE. FOR.

Brylee got tricked into tasting it, I lied about it having dates in it... cos she assured me she hated dates.

She LOVED IT.  Then I told her about the dates.  *snigger*

ABOVE:  Stew was very happy to be hand delivered afternoon tea.  In his office.  lol

This easy lumberjack cake is made with apples, dates and has a delicious coconut topping.

Ingredients

• 2 large apples, grated
• 1 cup dried or fresh dates, chopped
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 125g butter, melted
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder 
• 1 Tbsp icing sugar to serve

Topping

• 60g butter, melted
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp milk
• 1 cup shredded coconut (I used half coconut chips)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180.C fanbake. Grease and line a 23cm round cake tin.
2. Add apples, dates and baking soda to a bowl. Pour in boiling water, mix together and set aside while you make the batter. (10 mins)
3. Melt butter in a large microwave proof bowl, pour in sugar and whisk together. Crack in the egg and a teaspoon of vanilla then mix again. 
4. Add the apple and date mixture and sift in the flour and baking powder. Fold everything together until just combined. 
5. Pour into prepared cake tin and bake for 55 minutes. (or until cake springs back when you press it)  ​36 minutes in my oven, fanbake 180 degree C
6. Topping: Add all of the ingredients to a bowl and mix together. 
7. Remove the cake from the oven and carefully spread the topping over the cake. Return to the oven and bake for another 20 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and leave the cake in the tin to cool, then turn out and place on a serving plate.  
9. Dust the cake with icing sugar before serving. 

This cake is amazing as a dessert too, just warm it up and add yogurt, ice cream or cream.  YUM.

Well... when Stew got home from work (took him 4.3 seconds), he cooked dinner!
We had home made rissoles, mashed potatoes with onion, and a lovely lettuce salad.

And since then, we have watched TV.  And I knitted more for me tree.

Now... signing off for the day.