Sri Lankan-style plant burger with salad in a pitta; berry crumble and custard

I almost called this post “In which I finally master the crumble”, because I did it: crumble mastery achieved! The answer, obviously enough in hindsight, is to use block butter rather than the spreadable type. With it, I have crumble that is crunchy on top, stodgy in the middle, and with a lovely caramelly flavour from the brown sugar. Yum.

As always when I make crumble, mum showed great enthusiasm for the idea, complained about me “making a mess” when I spilled a bit of flour, got defensive when I suggested that wasn’t entirely fair, then refused to eat any when it was cooked. She wanted chocolate instead.

If I tell myself often enough that I’m not hurt, I might start believing it.

Earlier today, we had a visit from our new cleaner / helper, M. M is lovely, cheerful, and a very efficient cleaner, so much so that mum had a brief panic that she couldn’t find things after she’d gone. Unfortunately, at some there had been a miscommunication and M was here for one hour rather than two, which was barely enough time for her to clean the bathroom basin and loo, hoover my bedroom, wash the kitchen floor and counters, and do a bit of washing up, then stand in front of the fan for a few moments to cool down before rushing off to her next job.

She chatted happily and interestingly throughout her short visit and, after she went, mum commented “she’s nice, isn’t she?” We like M, and I hope she’s wrong when she said she didn’t think she’d be able to do the two hours we want and need.

For dinner, I did something I very rarely do: I ordered and cooked something I wanted, and that I strongly suspected mum wouldn’t like. I will never know if I was right – although I strongly suspect I was – as she refused to even try the burgers. Instead I cooked her some sticky chicken skewers, which have been in the freezer for ages as mum has gone off this old favourite after buying several boxes of them.

I thought the burgers, from Tesco’s Plant Chef range, were very good: a bit sweet, from the big chunks of sweet potato, but with a good spice and coconut flavour and a nice chilli warmth.

For afters was the crumble:

I didn’t have seconds, but I was very tempted.

Then, with the evocative sound of church bells (Wednesday is practice night) ringing out across the village, I refilled the bird feeder for second time today, then settled down to write this post.

I still haven’t heard back from the Memory Service. 😠