Monday 21st September 2022 - Total Raised, Radio & Bond Successes and Pastry

I have put up some posters in the village publicising, £1062.99 was raised here in Overstrand for the Poppy Appeal (see today’s photo). This is only a few pounds difference compared to last year which, given that people are cutting back due to increase in prices etc., came as a very pleasant surprise. It is good to know that the British Legion, as a charity, is valued for the work it does for service men and women, as well as their families.

Yesterday morning, we heard Poppyland Radio won a silver award in their class in the National Community Radio Awards. On Facebook, the station directors thanked the presenters who, since the station was launched in February, have recorded a variety of programmes for broadcasting. Studio Manager, Will Wilson, emailed me with, ‘We had a great time at the awards and we are already putting our new ideas in to place after meeting so many inspiring people and stations on the day.’ The recording studio is based in the Belfry Centre for Music and Arts and while members of Poppyland Radio were in Bedford for the awards, a Bond Night was held in the centre to raise funds towards the heating costs in the coming winter months. Photos, on the centre’s Facebook page, show this was an evening of glitz and glamour with casino games and live music – all Bond style, of course.

I have mentioned before, Peter downloads the series of radio programmes, The Kitchen Cabinet, which we generally listen to over lunch. With a panel of food enthusiasts, the other week pastry was one of the topics under discussion. To be more specific, it was shop bought versus homemade. The general consensus was, good results were obtained using shop pastry and it wasn’t worth the faff of making your own. I like to cook things, as far as possible, from scratch and don’t buy packet or jars of sauces or the like. However, on the basis of the Kitchen Cabinet panel’s recommendation, and despite feeling a bit of a cheat, I bought a pack of short crust pastry. I used the bulk of the pack to line a flan tin and the rest as a topping for a mince beef and onion pie. I thought the pastry behaved well in the flan and would buy it again for this purpose but it was lacking when used for the pie topping, which I think was down to the fact I make my pastry using all butter. I quite enjoy making pastry, I find it therapeutic in an odd sort of way, so yesterday evening I topped apple and mincemeat with my homemade short crust and not shop bought.

I am going to take a break from my blogs as we have family visiting for a pre-Christmas get together. I’ll be back next week, before we head into December.