Brian, Bring On Winter!

Hi!

With Brian on the prowl we are not too bad here just now but weather warnings for Aber have been put out to encourage people not to be near the sea front at high tide, winds are forecast for later, Alfie's football was cancelled this morning, and......

we have lift off. The Rayburn is lit!

 
We were fully operational at breakfast and I love it!

I have also been getting used to baking in it and made, using up yet more apples, another Dorset Apple cake.The boys have their Thanksgiving Service, even though I'm not a church goer I would have preferred it to be called the harvest festival as that title is a bit US of A for my liking. Anyhow after the event we are having a Macmillan Coffee do so taking donations as requested.

Lunch consisted of chicken and fridge left overs soup. Mmmm.

So I am more than happy now and cannot wait until I see that energy bill go down shortly.

Right, I'm off to have my soup and look for a Columbo to watch this afternoon and prepare myself for Sequin Central! Go Strictly!

Oh, one last thing I thought of the other day. I don't think I have shared this with you but when I had my previous blog I was lucky enough to have Ruth Clemens, one of the first The Great British Bake Off series finalists, do a little interview for me - here it is.(Have to say still loving the show even with the changes - it's all about the baking!)

Interview with Ruth Clemens.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Autumn All Around.

Yesterday I really began to feel that Autumn is properly here. The leaves are changing everywhere and the feel of life is changing, too.

I decided to take some photos which showed the season.

The Rayburn is lit daily now, and will soon be doing its thing 24/7, so the log basket is always full and the chopping of the logs is the boys job to do each day after school.

I always have a warm pan on the top of the stove at Christmas time which evokes the festive season and this has cranberries, cinnamon stick, orange, cloves in it and makes the kitchen and downstairs smell wonderful whilst I am busy doing all my Christmas preparation. Well, I did the same thing for Autumn yesterday; orange, apple, dried peach, star anise and cinnamon and it worked really well. Mmmm.

I roasted a butternut squash yesterday, too, and I just love the colour of the skin and the flesh. This will be made into a b.n.squash and lentil soup today.

The gifts of apples keep coming so some of these will go into a pudding for the weekend but I must get on with some apples sauce soon - but I just love the basket full sitting there!

Now we are fully paid up members of the Grow Your Own club a little time of the season is put aside for planning the the next year....

and some more new seeds arived yesterday, but more of that in another post.

In other news, I bought my new diary which I keep in my handbag. I have my household planner and my big calendar but my diary means I always have somewhere to scribble down a note or two. I normally buy a plain diary and then add my own style to it by covering it but I may keeo this pink one for a change.

Yet another baking request was Millionnaires Shortbread so I went ahead and gave it a go on Monday. Turned out quite well and Jon's eyes lit up when he saw it - not sure there will be any left when the boys get back.

On Tuesday Jon finished some re-jigging of Alfie's bedroom and so I took the opportunity to give it a complete top to bottom clean - it took me three hours and all there is left to do is go through toy boxes and DVD's he no longer wants. Of course I have to do Harry's room, too, but we are just giving his a move round and then it will get a big clean, too.

Oh the last thing I think is Bake Off. Really quite sad that tonight it will end as we know it, but as Mary Berry said this morning it has been seven fantastic series. At least to the very end it had the most viewers of any programme on the BBC and goes out being just fab. Can't wait for tonight!

Ramblings done!

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Bits And Bobs And Corn Cobs

Hi!

Today is a lovely blustery Autumn morning but not that cold for the end of September.

Jon and I were sitting at breakfast longing for when it will be properly Autumn - I can hear somebody saying "careful what you wish for".

These are the two other birthday gifts I hadn't got round to photographing.

Last week we had a really good week for eggs so made a quiche for Jon's lunches.

After last weekend being so hectic I have had a quiet-ish time this week, but the usual bread baking and cake making and managed to fit in a quick visit to my elderly neighbour - I haven't seen her since the boys went back to school. 

This morning I got the boys off and then vacuumed all downstairs and finished wiping down the kitchen shelves as still dusty after moving the boiler out and some other jobs over the weekend! Then I headed outside to the Poly House; temperature still good in there. 

A quick look round at the few things going on. The beans are growing very well but hope they live with the canes I put in at the beginning. 

My trays of sowing are coming through. These are the caulis, salad leaves and turnips. (I'm taking a punt on the last ones).

Other bits and pieces are spring onions I have growing which I think I'll pick soon. Realised a little too late that I have been mollycoddling them (sorry Dawn) and should just be growing them outside like leeks! 

I collected the eggs and anything else that was being offered up. 

You can see that I have the very last three corn cobs; they are really not the most fantastic but I grew them! I can boil them and use the kernels in something for tea tonight and the few we have had have been so delicious. This is how the bed looks now, it has been such a feature outside of the Poly House.

The girls are enjoying chowing down on some of the stems and have the others put to one side to drip feed to them. 

I have some work to so on the bed as this is going to be my brasicas bed! There are some big juicy worms in it so that is a bonus. 

Still taking up yummy turnips and the latest tomatoes plus a few to turn yet.

I have ordered some things from Thompson & Morgan using my gift vouchers and already I have received some seeds for Pak Choi and tomatoes called Capriccio which look a lovely shape and size for bottling so that is my plan for those next year.

I also bought some daff bulbs. I wanted to buy a couple of packets as I am sure I lost quite a few of the ones we had last Spring when we had the garden scraped down. I so loved being able to pick flowers straight from the garden.

These I got from Charlie's whilst asking, again, if they had their Christmas seed potatoes in yet! The answer was no last weeken - nearly out of time!

Right, I think I'm going to bake a ginger cake - first go at one of those but on Jon and the boys' list for new bakes. Oh, didn't some of the citrus meringue pies look yummy on the Bake Off last night? If the weather remains dry I think I'll try and forage another lot of balckberries for the freezer after lunch. I have the guest room to vacuum and bed to change so that is another job to be done before lunch.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Foody Fotos!

I don't generally do posts only about making and baking but this one is just that.

On Saturday when our guests were here we went for a mooch around Craft and I picked one of these up for 50p. Cool huh?



I forgot to take a picture of mine but you get the idea. Anyhow, yesterday I was seeing what was ready to pick in the garden etc and looked at the apples, established they are cookers -yay! so picked a few amongst other bits and pieces.

I came round to thinking that the balckberries on the cycle path MUST be ready now so me and Jake headed out, basket in hand, to do some foraging.

Soooo chuffed I came home with this little lot.

As you can see they weighed in at a goodly amount and I only needed 200g for my planned recipe.

Then I set about making some pastry, I used the pastry from this recipe which is almost the same as the one of hers I use for my mince pies.

Here is the recipe itself but it is quite a simple process, just follow the pictures a bit!

Apples in the pan with sugar until soft then leave to cool.

Add the blackberries and coat in the syrup.

Put a good dollop on each recrangle leaving a bit of a gap all round.

Make your lattice tops, egg wash the edges, pop the tops on, seal and then wash again and sprinkly with sugar. Just had a thought, you could make these with cranberries at Christmas and they would be soooo good. Pop them in the oven until they are...

golden brown and tasty looking!

The recipe asks for puff pastry but I only buy puff at Christmas (have I just mentioned the C word again?) and prefer to make my own anyhow. Our apples, free food in the form of the blackberries and made by me. Get in!

For my lunch yesterday I used up some veg from tea the night before and made a bit of a grow your own soup. I added to it some of our tomatoes, one of our courgettes, the few beans I have managed to harvest just recently, an onion and some of our own dried oregano with a veg stock cube, seasoning, water and boiled; thickened with cornflour it was just yummy. Sorry, no after picture - too hungry!

Now, this isn't food but I just need to do it so I can get rid of the phot that has been hanging around in my To Use folder! A good while ago I shared a photo of some fabric I bought and said I had plans for it. 

Well, finally it has been put to its intended use. As you go down our cellar steps there is a ledge that we keep suitcases on. I have wanted to find something to cover it up and so this is what we have now after I'd nipped and tucked and did the best I could with both curtains.

It is a bit wonky at the bottom but I'm not too bothered - does the trick.

Last thing, this morning as part of my breakfast I had almost the last of the blackberries on toast. Nom nom!!!!

Right, after having spent the whole time talling about food it is time to get my lunch and watch the first TGBBO from last night. (I should point out that I have made efforts this week to start running for fitness and with all I have just posted I flippin' sound as if I need it!)

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Weekend Round-up.

Good afternoon.

I am currently watching/listening to the ladies marathon. The last couple of days have been just amazing with the rowing, cycling, heptathalon, swimming - need I go on?

However, I have managed to do a few other things, but not much! Jon made a lovely chicken and mushroom pie for tea one night this week and we had extra pastry so I baked a yummy apple and plum pie for our puddings. Oh, talking of baking The Great British Bake Off (TGBBO) begins on August 24. Yay!!

When I collected eggs one day we had this very strange looking one. I was a little unsure about the quality of it so decided not to keep it. Egg yield has been a little disappointing this last week so hope the girls buck up their ideas from tomorrow.

Now, please could somebody confirm what this is for me and can it be eaten or consumed in any way?  The tree is in the garden and there are lots of these on it.

The boys were due back yesterday so we headed into Aber first thing in the morning to do the food shopping and run a couple of errands. On our return I put away the shopping in almost Olympic time in order to sit down and enjoy Super Saturday. I celebrated with a Chelsea bun and a cup of coffee - and what a day it was!

The boys indeed did come home yesterday and it was lovely to have them back. We went out to eat tea as the Gramps were staying a little way from the house so joined them up there. 

Now, I think I mentioned that last weekend we secured a sale on a well know auction site. Well, we paid £26 for this Rayburn.

It is in cracking shape, including the doors....

and the hot plates are in fantastic condition, too.

It was inherited when the new owners of a house moved in but they did not want it. It needs a bit of TLC, a good clean and the top needs to be re-enamled but nothing Jon can't handle. I was very unsure of the colour as I SOOO love our blue Rayburn but it really isn't that bad. It will take a little time to get used to as it will be fuelled by wood not oil but we'll get there. We plan on it being in by some time in October after we have used up the oil we still have in the tank.

Jon has continued working on the end room and we bought some super funky lino for the bathroom yesterday. I can't wait to show you the photots when finished; it will be done and dusted for our visitor on Friday so will do so sometimes then. Our visitor is a good friend who I have not seen since Alfie's first birthday party! We used to live opposite each other in London and since then and now she has worked in New York on and off for around 10 years and I have moved around and got married (she was a witness at our wedding in Cyprus). She is amazing because even though in the US she is alwasy early sending cards and presents to us and the boys for whatever celebrations; we are all sooooo excited about her arriving on Friday evenning!

Well, not much to report here really, only that the sun is expected to shine on us on tomorrow and Tuesday so we are planning a BBQ on one day or the other and I hope to make the best of the weather in the garden with a few jobs.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx