Wednesday - Curtains, Dinner, and Finding a Proper Job

Curtains
Today the eyelets and tape arrived for the curtains I'm going to make for our living room. We have a weirdly shaped bay window, and a radiator underneath it so I can't hang proper full length curtains without blocking the heat. I thought about moving the radiator, but three of the four walls already have either a door, or the window taking out a large chunk of wall space, so I didn't want to further restrict it by hanging a radiator on the only remaining wall!

If we were in town I would just hang blinds at the window, but in the country, somehow, that just looks odd and unfinished. My solution is to make floor length curtains that when drawn, will only cover the side panels of the bay, and make a blind (Roman, probably) to cover the middle panel. That should keep it nice and soft. I got the fabric at half price in the local Fabric Warehouse so I'm very happy. Tomorrow, I'll start on them, but today I've been absorbed in other things.

Preserved Ginger
After looking at the various job sites for a "proper job" I started browsing for recipe ideas for tomorrow's dinner. My eye was drawn to a 2004 Jane Grigson recipe for salmon with lime and preserved ginger. Now, I have salmon in the freezer, and I have limes, but I have no preserved ginger. I'm 9 miles from the nearest supermarket, and to be honest, I didn't want to drive all the way there on the off-chance that they might have some. I did have a piece of root ginger about 10cm long in the fridge, however, so after consulting the internet and ignoring most of the advice I found there, I've made my own.

I peeled the ginger and cut it into 8 chunks (four lengthwise and two widthwise), then I put it in plain water, brought it to a rolling boil and kept it there for 10 minutes to soften it. After that I dissolved 400g caster sugar in 200ml water, put the ginger back in and boiled it again for 15 minutes. I decanted it into a pyrex bowl to cool down, and once it's cool I intend to put into one of the many clean and pretty glass jars I've got stored away in the spare corner cupboard (you know, the one in the corner that you can never really reach into properly and which gets full up with things you only use at Christmas or on picnics). There's too much syrup, so if I ever make it again I'll halve the amounts of sugar and water.

I'll post a picture once it's in the jar.