Lunch time

And it very nearly is. Lunch for me usually comprises a couple of rolls with cheese, tuna or some such, followed by an apple all washed down with a couple of mugs of coffee. The rolls are home-made, as is all our bread since we bought a bread-maker some two years ago. I don't have the patience to fiddle around moulding the dough into roll-size lumps and then finishing them off in the oven like the Old Bat does, so since she has been hors de combat we have been eating slices of toast at lunch instead of rolls. I have become quite adept at measuring the ingredients, throwing them into the mixing bowl and switching the machine on and last week I excelled myself. I made a cheese and bacon loaf which we enjoyed very much. I spotted another recipe for a malt loaf but the OB said that she had been unable to find any malt extract, one of the essential ingredients. I remember that my mother used to give my brother and me a spoonful of malt extract - Virol, it was called - every day, presumably as a health supplement and I wondered if I might buy some at a chemist's. I tried looking along the shelves of vitamin supplements and the like at several supermarkets without success and then thought of trying a health-food shop. Having to go into town today to the butcher, I popped into a health-food shop almost next door. Eureka! So tomorrow I will make a malt loaf.