Fooling Around

The sun was shining beautifully this morning when I got up, so off we all went to the garden centre. After wandering around there for a bit, choosing some bedding plants and a couple of Clematis plants, we drove home. And it started raining. After lunch, James had a nap and Christopher played 'shop' with his toy till while Hubby and I did some tidying up around the place. Late this afternoon, it was still raining heavily, so we gave up on the gardening as a bad job and went out again, this time to buy a new toilet seat, as the old one had finally given up. I don't know why the manufacturers don't seem able to get around the problem of the bolts on toilet seats rusting through after a while. We also went into the carpet shop to look at some lino for the bathroom floor. What a glamorous life we lead!

We were so late back from town that Karl had to give James his dinner and get him ready for bed while I got supper ready for the rest of us. Luckily I'd made a pudding earlier in the day, so I quickly assembled a Kedgeree, nipping upstairs to feed James and settle him for the night while the rice was cooking. In spite of being somewhat 'thrown together' it was very much enjoyed by all three of us. We followed the kedgeree with Rhubarb Fool (made with rhubarb picked from the garden only this morning) and some shortbread biscuits.

Rhubarb Fool

500g rhubarb, washed and dried
150g vanilla sugar

Put the rhubarb and sugar in a ovenproof dish, cover with foil and bake at 180°c, for 45 minutes. Strain off the juices and boil down to about 125ml. Purée the strained rhubarb, then set this, and the reduced syrup, aside to cool completely.

300ml double cream

Whip the cream until thick. Fold in the fruit (actually, it's a vegetable, but who cares) purée, then drizzle the syrup over.

Serve the fool in individual bowls or one big one, as you like. Use glass serving dishes if you can, so that you can see the pink swirly beauty of it all. Shortbread biscuits to go with are a must for us.