venta

Somewhat behind-hand here, as I'm supposed to be learning one new skill every month.

March was the month for attempting to learn a smidgeon about babies.

As far as I can tell, babies are a bit of a black art which you can only really learn by having care of one (and anecdotally, it's not so much a case of learning as of noticing having done things which didn't go disastrously wrong).

For my limited requirements,

cuthbertcross and

dr_bob nobly stepped up and invited me round for the day. My day's training involved actually spending some time with short people (something I've actually only very rarely done), hearing lots of things about the care and feeding of short people, and (as specifically requested) a handy demo of how to change a nappy. Later in the day,

scarysaxon consented to allowing me to change her nappy after her afternoon nap, and very generously lay still and giggled instead of doing anything squirmy and difficult.

I'd like to say gosh, that was easy (the nappy-changing part was). But actually, I think what I mostly learned was that I really do have an immense admirataion for anyone willing to take on the huge job of bringing up a child. I think, so long as given careful instructions as to the correct food to apply to the baby, I could be safely left with one. Briefly.

But then I'd quite like to give it back, please.

Many, many thanks to CuthbertCross and Dr_Bob for putting up with me and my questions. And I should add that my continued vague antipathy toward short people can in no way be blamed on ScarySaxon (or indeed her big sister) since they both seem lovely.

April has only really begun tonight: yes, I'm a bit slack. April is bread-baking month, so I swung by Sainsbury on the way home to pick up some yeast.

Until Mr J Oliver started telling everyone that supermarkets gave away yeast for free, supermarkets gave away yeast for free. Last time I got any I had to pay a few pence for my two ounces. Today it seems the minimum I could buy was a block, which weighs about a pound and a half. That's a lot of yeast.

And indeed a lot of bread. If anyone has any suggestions of innovative uses for yeast in cookery, let's have 'em. In fact, if anyone has any unusual or interesting bread suggestions I'd like to hear those too.

(Actually, if the mother is reading, could she please sling her hot cross bun recipe my way ? I know I'm a bit late for such things. I'll miss the cross off and call them Pentecost buns or something.)

I presume yeast won't react well to freezing, and thus I do need to use it up. The bakery lady in Sainbury's told me it would keep for four weeks in the fridge, which was longer than I expected. The rather old-fashioned wrapped on the yeast says "now suitable for frozen dough". Huh ? Does that mean I can make dough, then freeze it pre-bake ?