I had an encounter with the local wildlife on the weekend: a wasp stung me on my lip. It was not a particularly nice experience. I blame the cinnamon bun.
I had gone to Bandit Bakery to get some bread. Bandit Bakery is the best artisan bakery on the planet and they make the best sourdough you can buy. The baker who runs it only just opened it earlier this year. He was previously the baker at Foodstory Café. I can remember times at Foodstory when they’d have no sourdough and it was always because the baker had gone away for a holiday and he didn’t want to share his secrets with anyone so there was no sourdough in his absence.
After several years baking for Foodstory he opened his own bakery this year and since day one it has been very popular. There’s always a queue outside and if there’s no queue it means they’ve sold out. He mills his own flour from spelt grown in Aberdeenshire. Who could possibly compete with that?
I went on Saturday just after midday and they’d sold out of everything except for four remaining cinnamon buns. I bought them all.
Bandit Bakery cinnamon buns are the best. They’re not too sweet, the bread is delicious, and they’re vegan. Everything at Bandit Bakery is vegan.
Being the impatient greedy guts that I am I couldn’t wait until home to eat my cinnamon bun and began devouring as I was waiting for Elizabeth to finish Highland Dance. I wasn’t paying much attention to the bun as I was looking towards the dance studio and so I didn’t notice the wasp when it joined my feast. On my next bite I felt a stabbing pain in my lip and only realised what it was when I saw something fly away from my mouth.
It was very painful and I was unsure how I’d react as I’ve never been stung by a wast before. My lip swelled up quite quickly and for once I was grateful for a face mask to hide my fat lip. Fortunately the swelling subsided and after about half an hour it had gone down considerably. Later that evening I took a photo. By then it was only a little swollen but still painful to drink from a glass.
The next day it was completely better. The lesson is never stuff your face with sticky bun outdoors in summer! Or at least, watch what you’re eating.
The allotment has started producing its bumper crop of courgettes. I seem to have more than ever this year and am having trouble eating them all so we’ve been giving them away. Last week I made chocolate courgette cake twice. We found a really nice oat cream you can whip. It was delicious with the cake.
I’ve also been making stuffed courgettes, courgette stew, and courgette soup. The kids hate courgettes so they’re not happy about it. I’m hoping I can make them change their minds eventually and come to appreciate this vegetable which I think is quite yummy.
Something the kids do like eating is a good bean chilli. I make it most weeks now and follow Dr Greger’s three-bean chill recipe which is very good. Daniel always makes the guacamole for it. Maybe I’ll sneak some courgette into that this week.
The council has written to me twice about the allotment this year telling me I’m not using enough of the land. Consequently I’ve been putting plants in every available spot I can find. I think part of the issue is they don’t understand that some of my plants are perennials and at the beginning of the season they had gone to seed. Probably they thought I needed to discard them but they’ve since started their new growth for the year. My peas have also never made it past ground level because something is eating them. A couple of weeks ago I bought some more fruiting plants and crammed them in too. Here they are on Penelope ready to make the ride to the allotment.
We’ve got a little pond at the allotment now. I’m hoping it will help the local frogs and toads.
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