Project 365 day 268:

Some days, I share photos I've tried to compose and shoot carefully, of something I find visually interesting; other days, especially when time is limited, I post little snippets of everyday life, snapped quickly on auto on my compact camera; looking back at photos from years gone by, these everyday images are often the ones I find most interesting to recall.

Today, on my wander round the garden in search of inspiration, I experimented with using my macro lens slightly further from the subjects. It's my only prime lens, and I was pleased to find it noticeably crisper than anything else I have. Until today, I've only really used it for very close-up shots, which tend to suffer from my unsteady hands. While outside, I also harvested more veg, shown in the extra. We're currently living on corn cobs, broccoli, courgettes, raspberries (not shown) and lots of creative variations on cucumber. Next week, we will be living on cauliflower (and more courgettes!) The rhubarb looks a bit scruffy, it's at the end of its season, but should be fine in rhubarb and ginger jam, which will be tomorrow's task.

Today's project was to attempt to make eclairs with J. We have stopped buying any cake or biscuits in the supermarket order, and are baking a batch of something every two or three weeks. We have challenged ourselves to try some new recipes, and eclairs and profiteroles are J's favourite cakes. It was my first attempt at choux pastry, and although I followed the recipe from my trusty forty year old Be-Ro book, it was an utter failure. Once I'd added the three eggs, it was so runny that there was no chance of piping it into sausage shapes on the tray. I did a lot of beating, threw in a bit more flour, and managed to achieve a reasonably smooth but still very wet consistency, so I spooned it into a mini-muffin tray. The mufferoles puffed up nicely, but the choux is more rubbery than fluffy; however, even tough choux tastes nice with whipped cream and warm chocolate ganache. We will try again, but first I will consult more books and perhaps even follow J's advice to watch YouTube videos.