Maybe wait until I get home and we can book it together.
His words trailed behind him as he ran out the door. I stopped, frowned, and wondered why he wouldn’t have wanted me to go ahead and book the flights. Hmm, I’m a big girl. Surely I could do this?
It didn’t take long for me to stop frowning.
Maybe it was because the last flights I had booked for his parents, had needed a little tweaking of their itinerary. It had been the parents-in-law once every 5 years break and they had asked me to sort out a weeks holiday for them. Sure. No problem, I’d love to. Three days in and I had it well and truly covered. Itinerary researched, places of interest taken down, accommodation scrutinized and everything just needing to be booked. I started with the flights, the logical first choice. With mother- in- law’s trusty credit card in hand, I paid. Confirmation email confirmed everything, along with the fact that I had just made a huge mistake. I had just flown them into the wrong city.
Excellent. Well there’s a good start. I swore, bit my nails, ranted to a friend, and then made a crazed phone call to Mr Chocolate to tell him what I had done. He laughed and said he couldn’t talk at the moment (he was at work).
So, I had two choices. One to try to change all the flights, or two change their holiday… rather a lot. I chose two, (and just between you and me, I think I actually gave them a better itinerary the second time around.) When we met up and I gave them their holiday details. I did toy with the idea of telling them some extraordinary story of how it was all booked out due to an alien space craft having just crashed into the area and all the local spok watchers were coming in from near and far to try and take a look at the big shiny aircraft. I wasn’t sure they would buy that one, so I… a little nervously, told them the truth. I had oops-ed the flight details, BUT had a lovely replacement holiday all booked for them now. They laughed, and said it didn’t matter. I laughed too, while carefully scrutinising their faces to see if it really DID matter… (I don’t think it really did.)
So it could have been for that reason that Mr Chocolate had asked for me to wait for him to book the flights…. OR it could have been referring to the time I booked some accommodation into the wrong town for ourselves and my mum coming back from a holiday. An innocent mistake that I had luckily picked up on just a few hours before we were supposed to arrive. How we all laughed and made funny jokes at my little mistake, (right after I had sworn, bit my nails and ranted to anyone that would stand still.) Thanks to a well organised international booking system, this little problem too was again righted.
As neither (minor) incidents had happened a long time ago, Mr Chocolate was clearly thinking of one or both of them and obviously thought the booking process should be monitored by someone other than myself.
Fair call I say. So I waited.
Flicking through my CWA Preserves book I did think vaguely about waiting until I had all the ingredients to one of these recipes. However, seeing as though there wasn’t a lot riding on the chutney. No flights needed to be caught, no accommodation needed to be checked in to and the chutney wouldn’t be going anywhere except the table. I didn’t. I had a bag of tomatoes waiting to be used and I had chutney on my mind. I just couldn’t decide what flavours to play with. Which recipe would I like? Actually none of them were grabbing me. They all sounded good, but they weren’t quite the flavours I had in mind. They weren’t my flavours. So with a close of the book, a little pause and a think, I got cracking.
Tomato Chutney
5 cloves garlic
2 onions quartered
2 apples quartered
1 inch peeled fresh ginger
all in the blender and give a quick wizz. Then all into a pot, also adding
3 tps cumin
3 tps coriander
and cook off for a few minutes. Back to the blender add
1 kilo of firm ripe tomatoes
pop that in the pot as well, and bring to a simmer, then add
2 1/2 cups brown sugar (loose, not firmly packed)
2 cups white vinegar
zest of 1 lime*
Cook at a simmer for about 35 minutes or until darker in colour and thicker. Then bottle.
* Don’t forget that lime. It was definitely the clincher.
Your flight and accommodation booking errors made me laugh 🙂 I can see how it would happen though! I always obsessively check details before hitting ‘confirm’ because it would be so easy to click on the wrong date / place / flight in the lead up to that final screen.
That chutney should also be enough to make up for any past booking dramas – it looks great!
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The worrying thing Kari, is that I did check both of them. Obviously I need to check 10 times and not twice!
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Didn’t you do a travel agents course?! 😉
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I knew there was a reason I never worked in that industry.
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I’ve made the odd mistake when booking travel. I now triple check everything and use my very good travel agent for anything too complicated. That chutney looks mighty fine.
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Travel agents, bless their little cotton socks. Passing the responsibility over.
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I love tomato chutney and our recipe sounds incredible.
🙂 Mandy
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Thanks Mandy
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man you shouldn’t be let loose!! funny story, thanks for sharing.
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Thankfully ‘oops’ moments turn into funny ones down the track.
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Funny story Brydie and I can certainly relate (it’s even worse when you do it at work)!!!
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Ah now work, surely you can lay the blame entirely on a ‘technical glitch’?
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Lovely chutney – perfect colour and consistency – and I bet the flavours leap out of the jar and onto the cheese sarnie in an instant – who says you have to be perfect at everyting? xx
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That little old chutney is finding itself on a lot of different things. Teamed with a cheese sandwich especially so though.
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Hats off to you for delving into internet holiday bookings in the first place! I am terrified of this domain and leave it to hubby. May your plans be correct and your travels be happy, whenever they are scheduled to take place. Love a good chutney 😉
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Thanks Christine. I’m looking forward to it 🙂
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Hehe that’s a very cute story! And the funniest part was that it sounds exactly like what I may have done too! 😛 Gorgeous looking chutney Brydie 😀
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Always good to know there are other people who might make ‘minor’ (ahem) technical glitchs.
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Soo many fantastic recipes, I can hardly keep up! This one will have to wait until the fall when I have more tomatoes than I know what to do with!
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Dead easy one to do when you get those tomatoes Margot.
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I love your writing – I’m betting you do short stories on the side. And your chutney looks just different enough to be added to my short list of summer preserves – Thanks.
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Thanks Doc. That’s really kind. I do play around with short stories, just wish there was more time…
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Too funny girl – you made me laugh. Now I’m all big ears about where you guys are heading off too – another holiday in the wind 🙂 I love how our ooops moments do turn out to be funny stories (ones you can’t live down sometimes) huh. Chutney looks great, I need to stock up on some chutneys, love em 🙂
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Anna I seem to have faaarr to many oops moments lately!
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Oh no! Good save anyway. I have a friend who doesn’t do her travel arrangements as she tends to mix them up frequently. I have to admit, booking flights makes me nervous, especially filling out the name and info – if you enter it incorrectly, that’s it!
Love the chutney, I’ve never had a tomato version before.
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Hopefully I’ve done my dash for a bit regarding the ‘little mistakes.’
The tomato chutney was really easy. Bottle it or it keeps well in the fridge as well.
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Hahah this is classic!! Actually though I had booked my mum in to a sydney hotel for the week before she arrived. They called her asking if she intended to be late…woops!
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Oh dear!
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Oh Brydie! Your travel snafu confessions sound so familiar!
I have my son’s do all the booking of flights for me- I don’t trust myself- I don’t care how many times I check, I still goof up something!
Looking at your recipe made me smile- you love the same spices and flavors that I do- ginger and coriander and cumin- I was surprised to see that you hadn’t snuck a little cardamom into the chutney, as well!
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Actually me too. Cardamom finds itself in a whole lot of my other things. I feel a cardamom cook off coming up Heidi 🙂
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What a tale! I’m sure it will be the stuff of family legends in years to come :-). Your chutney sounds delicious. I hope you have a great day. Blessings…Mary
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Thanks Mary.
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Booking travel online is a minefield – plenty of travel agents get it wrong. Chutney sounds good and those bready biscuity things look good too.
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Those bready things were a last minute decision to do, but they worked out well…just wish I had written down how I did them!
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I have to agree with Christine, I’m not game to try and sort it out myself on the internet either. I’m always worried something won’t connect, or we’d arrive somewhere and have nowhere to sleep. Chutney is a much better idea. 🙂
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I agree. Chutney is a much safer option! 🙂
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