Betsy (or possibly not)

Here is my melodeon, which has come to me on such a slim chain of events that clearly we are meant to be together. She is a D/G instrument of indeterminate age and history, and one sticky button, but I shall be researching her (and finding out how to unstick her).

I want to be able to play with the Morris band, and I’ve started on the whistle, but I wanted something with a bit more oomph. I was going to have a bash at learning the concertina – a friend kindly lent me an English one, but it simply didn’t suit my hands, and I must return it to her. I’ve been keeping an eye out for an Anglo, but nothing decent at an affordable price has appeared on eBay, and really I wanted a melodeon, but similar applied.

I mentioned this at Morris practice on Tuesday, and Joe said that there was a melodeon in Cash Converters in Selby; he’d had a look at it, it played well, and it was £135. *Ting*. We arranged that I would speak to Pete to see if I could have it (of course I could :), and Joe went back to have a look on Wednesday morning. Still there, and so he bought it, and I did a bank transfer immediately. Pete and I went to fetch her yesterday, and now I just have to learn to play her. Aargh – it is like nothing else I have ever played. My brain may explode. Still, I managed to get a scale out her last night, and she’ll come round, I’m sure.

Currently she is known as Betsy, but this may not stick – we’ll see. But she is definitely a gurl. I have ordered her a gig bag this morning, and have also ordered up the one melodeon tutor located in the entire Hull Library system. Watch this space. And buy earplugs.

Mirrored from kestrel.org.

soup (an ongoing series)

This isn’t quite the first soup of the season, it’s the second. But never mind.

Regular readers will know I’m not a fan of supermarkets, but if I have to use one, the local Morrisons is my favourite. We popped in there yesterday on the way back from picking up my new melodeon (yay!) for some wine, and popped some lamb bones into the trolley for soup. At £0.57, it would be mad not to, and I don’t have anything like that in the freezer right now.

As always, I popped them in the slow cooker with some water when we got back, much to Iggy’s delight; he loves warmz, and likes to sit beside that when it’s on. This morning, I finely chopped leek, swede, carrot and courgette and started them in the Remoska (what a surprise – love it love it) and realised that I should have roasted the bones in that first. So, undeterred, I fished them out of the stock, and bunged them on top of the veg, sprinkled with a bit of olive oil and left it for about 20 minutes, just to kick start everything. Lovely lambish smell ensued, and I shall combined everything with some barley to get the soup ready for tonight’s supper (eating quick and earlyish, as it it is music night).

Also, in Morrisons, I bought a shoulder of pork. Was discussing roasts in the gourmet conference on CIX, and realised that we haven’t had roast pork in absolutely ages. I have a red cabbage to cook up in the slow cooker, and I shall give the Remoska a try for roasting meat.

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.