Stir It Up Sunday And Practice Christmas.

Good morning.

Yesterday was Stir It Up Sunday when traditionally puddings etc are made. Well I have already made my cake but I did make my mincemeat. I made it with a base of three packets of suet and for a change I added some dried figs - my new fav fresh fruit so thought why not.

I've made extra to use up some of my suet surplus so this is how it worked out.

I have never cooked my mincemeat but did do this time and i have to admit that as the suet melted and coated the dried fruit it made it plump up and the cooking definitely added to the flavour of the mix. 

Not sure how much I made but it was a lot - some jars are big! I was one jar short so there is some in the plastic container in the fridge which might get use in the next couple of days.

It looks a bit funny where the the suet is showing white but I am assured that is ok.

In the last week or so you know I have been getting round to some Christmas papercrafting. Well, I have begun two little projects which is some mini bunting/Christmas garlands. 

These are about an inch and a little more square in size and are taken from the cover of the 12" x 12" papers I bought - waste not want not! 

The second lot are toppers from cards we have received, stickers put onto card and anything else I had in stock that was the right size. I'll string them together but I haven't decided where to put them yet.

I am starting to feel ridiculously Christmassy and I blame Tracy to be honest - but for that I am grateful! Also this weekend we had a kind of pre-Christmas Christmas when Jon's cousin and her fella came to stay. We were presented with gifts to play and eat in this wonderful case/box - I LOVE it! 

We opened it on Friday night/Christmas Eve playing Quizoo, where you have to guess tunes each of you are playing in a kazoo. On Saturday evening we had turkey dinner, well chicken Thai curry, and crackers then played Pictionary. Sunday was out for coffee and a mince pie on Sunday/Boxing day. Just a fabulously, lovely relaxed time and our ideal kind of Christmas.

We've ordered a three-pack of Christmas DVDs and can't wait to start watching those on Sunday afternoon. Friday,1st December, is D Day, Decoration Day, but I think I'll be sneaking a few out tomorrow as the weekend present box came complete with some lovely silver and blue tinsel and lights.

This week I'm starting niggly little cleaning jobs before the main decorations go up. This includes paintwork behind sofas and tables plus bookshelves needing a proper dusting and tidied out in readiness for greenery to be brought in and placed on top of the cupboards etc.

Since I began writing this a few other things have happened. My eldest has come down with a cracking cough so we are off the doctor shortly, therefore the other is suffering with a bit of lacking in attention issue but have that sorted now I think. Also, my mum has managed to fall over and banged her head and broke a bone in her thigh; she will be flat on her back in hospital for some time I think and her dementia will be a challenge for the nurses... We are also visiting Jon's dad who is due to have a heart valve replacement op today so Jon is off to Nantwich on Saturday morning and I will be staying home as we have an Airbnb booking that night! It never rains, however that is exactly what it has been doing A LOT lately, thought not just now!

**********UPDATE, MUM HASN'T BROKEN ANYTHING SO THAT'S A POSITIVE**********

Hate ending a post on doom n gloom but I'm determined not to let it put a downer on things.

Hope you all had a good weekend and look forward to seeing what you have been getting up to.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

It's Beginning.......

I know not everybody is getting ready for the festive season just yet but I am beginning to feel it, I have to be honest, hence the red text so I am pretty much going for it from now!

The odd thing has been collected/bought/made recently to give me a little Christmas spring in my step. In Aber on Sunday I saw this in one of the charity shops and thought it could be used as part of a display or to contain a present, though probably the former as we don't do that many presents.

I had to buy a new Christmas flower, Poinsettia, as last year's did not last like I normally get to do. This was £1.99 from Lidl and is a nice size which fitted in this green pot cover - just needs a bit of ribbon to brighten it up. 

I'm going to leave this with you for now and come back to it at a later date...

I had three Ikea milk bottles on one of the kitchen shelves that looked like this....

and here they are with a few crafting embellishments; I'm really happy with them.

The cakes have been fed again, although I might give it a miss next week as they are very moist so won't matter if they sit for a bit longer. This week I'll be buying the ingredients for my mincemeat which I'll be making after the weekend; this is a task which really makes be feel properly Christmassy! 

I'll also be checking I have all the things I need for this...



I have a pot of this on the side of the Rayburn practically all the way through the festive period. I don't necessarily smell it all the time I am in the kitchen, but when I go out of the room or somebody comes into the kitchen for the first time you can really enjoy the yummy fragrance. It really gets me in the mood when I have my Christmas music on whilst making my mince pies and just getting things ready. Eeeek!

Right, better get on.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Cellar Store Room - One Year On.

Afternoon.

Just a super quick post showing how I'm using my Doomsday Prep cellar store room.

Just a year ago I was so excited that it was finished and couldn't wait to actually use it. Bovey Belle said that in a year I would be running out of space for things so that is why I decided to do a little before and after post.

Here is how the main part of the space looked on completion...

and here is how it looks now. Eeek!

I'm not exactly running out of space but it is definitely VERY useful. The shelves are now home to my spare preserving things along with the goodies I've managed to make this past year. Also I keep coffee/tea etc. supplies for the Airbnb room there as well as spare non-perishable items; I have a few things in stock for Christmas housed on the shelves and I still get a buzz out of going in there!

I've just sorted out a couple of cardboard boxes that were underneath the gingham curtains. They were a little damp, after all it is still a cellar, so as long as non-plastic things are kept off the floor then all is well. I'll soon be bringing up the Christmas decorations as they quite happily live down there now keeping dry in proper boxes.

Such a useful room as I also keep my recycling bags down there in between collections. After Christmas I will give it a good sweep and wash the curtains; I might even take them up a little as they drag on the floor a touch.

Ok, going on about this JUST a bit too much.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Cake and Christmas. Eeek!

Good morning!

We awoke to a temperature of -4 - ooh nippy chippy as we say in our house. The boys went off to school after having warmed their gloves, hat and scarf on the top of the Rayburn. However I myself was kept warm by listening to the beginning of the BBC Radio 2 auctions with Chris Evans for Children In Need and the kindness of those giving money. There was a Christmas feel to the items being bid for along with some early festive music but I more than forgave them. This morning already £809K has been raised for Pudsey's piggy bank! Wow! Last year the total was £5.7 million

In other news I've been baking and creating. It was Jon's birthday at the weekend so I baked for him, and for the first time for me, a coffee and walnut cake.

I've been getting down to some crafting recently by making use of the fab value Christmas papers I bought recently. I love making tags which are big enough to give as a little gift or to use as a decorations around the house; the ones I currently have I think I made about five years ago so I now have a couple of those in stock and also started on a couple of cards. Jon and I don't send each other cards and I don't give them in general; I do like to give them to neighbours who have been helpful and kind over the year.

I also fed the Christmas cakes yesterday for the first time; here they were very well packed up after the mishap last year.

They are now packed away again until next week.

Right, I think that is it for me just now. Regular chores to do today but loving catching up with blogs to see how people are preparing for Christmas. Had a thought the other day to use the sugar syrup left over from preserving the apples to use for making apple vodka. Has anybody ever made apple vodka? I lots of people make flavoured drinks, especially 
Dawn and Tracey.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Winding Down for Winter

I am definitely in wind down mode regarding the garden as it is very much going to sleep just now - oh you lucky people with poly tunnels or greenhouses that survived the recent spate of storms. I am fairly happily resigned to having completed any overwintering jobs, namely my ever present Pak Choi plus the garlic and onions, and that any other outside jobs will be completed soon with Jon's help.

So to the indoors. I absolutely love this time of the year; being cozy inside, only going outside when absolutely necessary and hunkering down with the curtains shut. I have my seasonal planner at the ready and am adding to it daily to ensure we simply have a wonderful Christmas time. 


There'll only be a few mentions of the C word just now but come December 1st I will, as usual, make no apologies for enthusiasm and festive frolics.🎄🎅

Some time ago Jon went to Bookers, the wholesalers, and on the same trip I asked him to bring me some Atora suet (not sure if other suet brands are available?!) He came home with a catering size box of the stuff! Well, this was last Christmas (oops) so some was used for mincemeat last year and dumplings plus more will be used at the end of the month but in the meantime I've made a batch of dumplings for the freezer ready for winter stews. For the size we like a 200g box of suet made 30 of the little delights so that is a good job done.

Love having things put by in the freezer.

I made my Christmas cakes at the beginning of the month but managed to stupidly delete my photos of them; I am due to start feeding them with a bit of alcofrol, hic, next week so will show and tell then. 

Whist ironing this morning I had the TV on in the bedroom just so I could hear something from where I was. I LOVE the Food Channel, especially at certain times of the year, and there were some Christmas,sorry!, adverts on so started thinking of a few ideas for foody delights; I plan on making a luxurious granola come muesli mix containing tasty nuts and fruit etc. I had listed some things I wanted to include and then I found this recipe - 

Christmas Spice Granola.

I have also been trying to use up the ends of bread loaves but wanted something different to savoury croutons. I decided on cinnamon and sugared ones to freeze for use on the top of puddings.

I cut the bread to the right size, melted some butter then sprinkled the bread with some cinnamon sugar I had made previously plus a little extra. I then popped them in the oven, keeping a close eye, until they were a lovely rich colour. 

Yum, and straight in the freezer before I ate the lot!

Talking of croutons I just remembered I made a lovely dish for the boys. I had some leftover chorizo, combined this with the croutons, some frozen peas then melted cheese on the top.

Ok, better crack on.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Finally!

Finally I dragged my bum outside and got some jobs done yesterday. I have to acknowledge the return of Tracey from Our Smallholding Adventure who shamed me into it after being so flippin' active on her return from hols! I admit to having found it hard to get outside recently and I also am not keen on the way the garden is looking at the moment but such is nature.

I dug over the area where the beetroot had been, gave the failed ones to the chickens then as I knew there was a good chance of frost my Spring cabbage is now out. Due to the state of the Poly House I think I can say they have been hardened off recently! I also covered them with a couple of cloches I had so was pleased to get them in the ground.

I also took up the courgette plant as it had come to the end of its natural, dug over the bed and covered it, using some of the polythene off the Poly House😊 I hope to grow cauliflower here next year. I had covered up the turnips here but took it off later for the cabbage as the turnips were well established; I just hope I get something out of them for a few stews. 

Oh, something I did when we lit the Rayburn; I moved the coffee and tea things from the top kitchen and I really quite like them here. I've swapped the microwave up to the top as I'm doing my best to use the Rayburn for little things like defrosting meat and warming beans for breakfast instead so I don't use the gas and this way the microwave is out of sight!

Now All Hallows is almost upon us we have a few decorations up. These tags come out every year; I made them in 2011 using on this one the orange foil wrapping from a Smarties sweet amongst other bits and pieces. 

This simple candle will dress these cones for a little while until it is turned into a decoration for December.

Here is Alfie carving these two pumpkins all by himself and was very chuffed with the results.

I took the boys to Aber to catch a coach for a trip to Swansea today with Urdd and they won't be back to Aber until 5.45pm; I'm making sausage casserole tonight slow in the Rayburn as I can do other stuff whilst it is doing its thing.

This is not a very interesting post, more of a bit of a record of the time of the year. Jon is doing amazingly well on the second room; bathroom is painted and we have a special backing for the sink which looks stunning so will share some photos when the floor goes down and a few other bits are finished.

I've done a lot this morning, upstairs and down - bread proving, bed changed, kitchen swept and mopped, washer on etc. so once I have the casserole in the oven after lunch I'm not sure how I will spend the rest of the day. Feel like playing hooky with the boys being out during half-term and me being on my own!!

That's it I think.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Oh What A Beautiful Morning!

Oh my what a morning! 

Glorious compared to what we've had, and the day continues to be fab. I love it here!

The above photo is the field on the other side of the road which runs parallel to our back garden and below is the lovely view to the hills about our neighbours house. I went to ask him if he wanted some of my spare onion bulbs and stayed a while for a brew and to pet his sheep dog, Meg. Lovely, really lovely to be able to do that.

I have soooo struggled to get outside and do some necessary jobs due to the weather and procrastinating a bit to be honest. However today I have achieved some good things.

I planted my onions; I have two varieties which are:

red onion Electric - 

An overwintering variety producing shiny red skinned, semi globe shaped bulbs with crisp, pink-tinged flesh. Onion 'Electric' makes a lovely addition to salads and stir fries.

white onion Radar - 

Plant these top performing onion sets from September for harvesting in May next season. Onion Radar is a long standing favourite, chosen for its reliable cropping, bolt resistance and winter hardiness. The short, wide bulbs produce rich straw coloured skins with crisp white flesh. 

and garlic, too - Lautrec Wight.

this is a classic 'hardneck' variety named for its place of origin in South West France. Garlic 'Lautrec Wight' is widely regarded as France's finest garlic producing very pretty bulbs with white outer skins and deep pink cloves.

Really chuffed I've got this done. I have one tyre left to sort out and cover. No photos as I think you can picture these jobs!

I have, after the storms, finally got round to covering the main veg patch, properly!! The only area left open is where the beetroot is; that is going to the chooks as it has not grown well then I will dig that over and plant my Spring Cabbage - that should have gone in a bit ago but what with the weather....hope it isn't too late?

Just a little update.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

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

Apples Coming Out Of My Ears!

Morning!

I have been gifted yet more cooking apples since the ones I bottled! I was trying to think of different things to make from them; I already have some stewed, blanched and syrup all in the freezer and we have had crumbles and pies along with the ones I bottled.

I was reading one of BB's posts on Codlinsandcream2 and she had some great ideas for using up gluts of apples. I took some inspiration and made a Dorset Apple cake and this has gone in the freezer for another day. I then had a look online and there was a recipe for  apple turnovers. As luck would have it I had some puff pastry in the freezer, I normally do for quickness sometimes; I set about making these, first time for me and relatively easy.

You just chop or slice your apples, put a good amount of cinnamon over them and cook them in butter for a few minutes,

then add a slack handful of sugar, well anything from half a cup depending on how sweet your tooth is.

When the juice starts to form thicken it with a little cornflour and water

and mine are ready to go in the freezer as pie filling or other uses.

Here are the finished results of the cake and turnovers.

I have to say I was ridiculously pleased with how the turn overs turned "out"! -  Jon and the boys loved them, too, so that was an extra bonus.

I STILL have quite a big box of apples left but am getting apple phobia or something from cooking with them so might put a couple of bags out front with the eggs.

All from me; have a great weekend and I look forward, as usual, to seeing what everybody gets up to.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Not Quite Blown Away

Morning!

After Ophelia the weather has calmed down a great deal and isn't even that cold just now. She did a bit more damage to the Poly House but we have had an idea to use the plastic roofing from the conservatory to recover it when it is refurbished some time after Christmas, probably. She also knocked down a big branch which, luckily, fell the opposite way to the pond area. Part of the fence came away but that's now been mended;I think we got off quite lightly as it really was blowing some. Hope everybody survived minus too much damage.

I've just had breakfast after cleaning out the chooks and collecting the eggs. I also turned over the tyres where my blight-affected spuds had been. I read about what to do with the soil so I've taken a good few inches off the top, dug it through and weeded then the next job is to add some new compost; I'm going to plant the onion sets there as I cannot use them for spuds for a couple of years at least; I think the onions will do ok there.

I still have the huge job of taking up the sweetcorn and clearing that patch; want to get it started at least by the end of the weekend. I am NOT looking forward to it but we may be going to the tip at the weekend so I can take all of that there as have nowhere to burn things just now. Jon is going to make me an incinerator from an oil drum he got from work, did I already tell you that?

I admit to having found it really hard to get outside to do any jobs recently; the damage to the Poly House seems to have hit me, too! Anyhow this week I emptied all the tomato containers and put the compost into the compost bin. I cleaned out the lettuce and spring onion sink and have put the strawberry plants in that, lifted off the base so they don't get waterlogged by any rain. The failed squash and climbing beans have been given to the chooks and that tyre still needs a bit of work before being treated to some new compost and covering until I decide what to use it for.

The pak choi are looking good in the, damaged, cold frame but have a way to go yet.

The turnips I planted a little while ago seem to be doing ok and haven't need to cloche them as yet... 

as with the courgettes which are still giving a few to us which I love at this time of the year. I so know that I can grow them well outside again next year.

I've ordered and received some Christmas stickers and embellishments for projects for the festive season. I don't plan on making many things but just to tart things up, too.

I bought the same stickers last year and thought the buttons etc were lovely too. I have a thing about a few US craft companies including Jelly Bean Soup, Echo Park, Cosmo Cricket and In My Minds Eye. My Christmas always consists of either red, white and green or some vintage touches. I also have my new calendar; last night, whilst putting next year's dentist appointments on it, it occurred to me I  hadn't applied for Harry's senior school place yet! A quick internet search let me know I have until December 22 to get the application in so that has now been done and I will call the school to arrange a visit after half-term. It is making it all the more real that my boy is really growing up.

Last week I had my first go at bottling some fruit; this is a method of preserving I had not tried and I had some cooking apples I was storing in the cellar; they were keeping very well however I have always wanted to have a go at this so away I went.

I used up about two a half kgs of apples...

made the syrup without too much trouble...

and ended up with 4 of these jars for the cellar and one to put in the fridge.

I also had some syrup left over and I've put this into an ice cube tray to use for whatever.

Little update on the second Airbnb room; plastering is all done and the floor is going down next.

Last week I also made use of my new meatball gadget again. We had a slab of minced beef which came in a pack of meat products. I made a dozen regular meatballs and then six filled with cheese as Alfie loves those and then popped them in the freezer for future use.

Right, I think I'm up to date.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx