Marmalade, free hot water and stools!

Pete had been hankering after making some marmalade and so last weekend he set to. It’s our first time and so we don’t really know which recipe works best and so we tried a quickie version – only it took an age before it made any attempt at setting. Still we got there in the end and managed to bottle around 12 jars in total. I have to say it’s really quite nice, at first taste I thought it wasn’t quite sweet enough for me but actually its just about right on toast.

Anthony set ME a challenge a week ago now with this lovely shot of a drop of water. Shame on me I still haven’t quite got around to getting one done myself. I desperately want to get making cushions etc with all the Laura Ashley material I acquired and I think my time and energy has gone on this instead. Not that I’ve actually made any yet but my ‘planning’ is coming along nicely. I’ve grabbed some new cushion inners and thought I’d start with some for our bed at home, just to dress it up a little. Hit a snag though with the continuous zips I bought, they’re too dark! Another online order coming on then lol.  

I also picked up a couple of stools from a local charity shop. My original intention was to make them both into bespoke bedside tables for the cottage but when I saw one sat alongside the table in the conservatory I realised that they were the perfect size for slotting under the table for extra seating. And so now they are awaiting a little bit of tlc to turn them into cute little additions to the eating area.

Last but not least I have been successful in getting a kettle to boil on the wood burner, woohoo I am so pleased. Gonna try starting some soup off on the cooker and transferring to the wood burner to cook slowly in a little while. I’ll let you know how I fare.

Thanks for dropping by.

  Wendy x

Mystery Veg & Photo Challenges

I’ve mentioned previously that we have deliveries of organic veggie boxes from Abel & Cole. The first was actually part of Pete’s Christmas present as I knew it was something he’d fancied trying for a while. They are very well organised but because of this you do always know what you will be receiving in each box. Also because of this you can opt to never receive particular items or skip an item for a box.  This week I’d chosen to skip yellow peppers as we’d already got some. This meant that there was going to be one item in the box I wasn’t expecting. Well, when I first looked I didn’t even recognise the blooming thing and so I emailed this piccie to Pete at work.

Mystery solved, it is Salsify. Now I look again I do recall seeing it used on Masterchef  by the great Monica to test one batch of professional chefs. Thankfully that meant that we remembered that once peeled the white flesh darkens very quickly if not placed into a bowl of slightly acidic water. We’d also added Wild Pheasant Breast to our order for this week and so you can guess what our main course consisted of last night. I can also report that my crumble was truly delicious. It went in the oven for approx 30 mins and was then served with a little dollop of farmhouse vanilla ice-cream – yummy. I also snuck in an order yesterday for this little beauty to store all my camera paraphernalia in. I didn’t order till yesterday afternoon and the Royal Mail man got me out of bed this morning to sign for it, how efficient is that?. All my stuff is now safe and sound, tucked way and protected so I am a happy bunny.

At home over Christmas Anthony took the plunge and purchased himself a DSLR. He’s lusted after one for a while and always has a play with my Canon when he’s home. After checking out the prices on line he treated himself to the Canon 550D from Jessops. Similar to mine but the next level up it really is a smashing camera. Now he’s home I thought I’d set him the occasional challenge to keep him on his toes.

The first challenge was to create a multiple exposure shot like this one of mine which I’d done for Pete on his birthday – more a Photoshop challenge than photography really but I knew Ant would enjoy it. I know that at least one shot of mine is out of focus but this really was a quick and dirty first attempt:

Ant rose to the challenge and although his creative process differed to mine (he used masks – note to self, I must get into these) he created a wonderful shot:

The latest challenge issued to him was to ‘make like M&S, this isn’t just any food’. I always seem to rush these things and consequently when I look back I spot things I perhaps should have done differently. In this shot, for example, the fruit on the saucer needs to be off centre slightly – too late now though, was eaten up last night lol

It will be interesting to see how he tackles this one, almost too easy really he may have too much choice and struggle to focus, we’ll see.

Thanks for dropping by.

  Wendy x

Do I want to be a DG?

That’s Domestic Goddess to the uninitiated. This came up in a text exchange yesterday with a very good friend of mine. She asked if I had any new year resolutions, I said no but I had just made some delish carrot and coriander soup. It was at this point the she referred to the DG business. Now all who know me know that I am anything but a DG, I’m more the ‘can cook but don’t’ brigade. I do, however, periodically have a go at being more inclined towards culinary pursuits. Last year did see a fair few cupcakes and flapjacks (note to self, really must get back into these) but as a general rule I don’t. Pete does the cooking, he enjoys it and is very good at it and unfortunately (without really meaning to) he can be a tad judgemental of any cooking I accidently find myself doing. Such was the case with my first batch of C&C soup last week – wrinkled nose and “too salty” were the initial response. He did redeem himself later by claiming he was wrong and merrily trotting off to work the next day with C&C for his lunch. I found the recipe here on the Good Food website. I made it with the organic carrots that we still had in one of weekly veggie boxes from Abel & Cole, these are going down well and because you suddenly find yourself left with something that you might not usually have it means you make a real effort to use it up. So I made more yesterday because I really liked it , and Pete has trotted off once again with his little tub for lunch.

Today I spotted the fruit from our first veggie box sitting forlornly on the dresser untouched. Pears, Kiwi fruit and Satsuma's – I needed inspiration. A quick look at the good food website again and I decided on a crumble. Couldn’t face the Kiwi so it’s the pears for me, I also grabbed some frozen cranberries and then decided on crunchy nut clusters for the topping instead of the usual crumble.

I had no idea if the combination would work but thought it worth a try and so, after eating my lovely soup for lunch, I peeled and cored the pears and added these with the cranberries to a saucepan with a little sugar.  I bought them slowly to the boil and let them simmer away for a few minutes. Meanwhile I crumbled the Crunchy Nut Clusters (cereal that Bex ‘really wanted’ a while ago but seems to have gone off now!) in preparation for the topping. The fruit was then spooned into two large tea cups and the topping added. All I need to do now is put them in the oven to warm through whilst we eat our main course and decide whether its to be ice cream or custard to accompany.

All in a good cause – using up leftovers. Trouble is Pete’s on a diet, oops.

Thanks for dropping by.

  Wendy x

Another year ……… Another bad start to the blog ………

One day I will get there, I will be organised, I will blog (I will have something interesting to blog about – but maybe that’s a step too far) and I will enjoy it.  Not today (aka THIS year) though by the looks of it.  It’s the 10th of January 2011 and this is my first entry since early last month.  No point wittering on about everything that has happened since my last post – too much there.  But perhaps I can manage to take stock on a couple of things to get myself up to date.

I thoroughly enjoyed CJ’s 12 days of Christmas and I was really quite pleased with some of the shots I contributed. It really got me fired up to use my camera again, to such an extent that I requested extra bits and pieces for Christmas and I have to say that I’m really pleased with all of them.  Last week we had one final challenge – To put together our favourite six shots, either from the course or taken over the Christmas period.  As always, I found myself rushing it and I think that I could have done better but hey ho! Our family shot is a tad too ‘au naturel’ for my liking but as I nearly forgot to get one done at all before Anthony disappeared back off to Manchester, I guess I should just be thankful. Talking of Anthony, he’s only gone and managed to get himself booked on a holiday in June to Tulum!! My most lusted after destination that I have still to achieve, aaaarrrrggghhh – how come a child of mine gets there before me.

Ok, rant over, what else have we/I been up to. We did have a wonderful Christmas and over this last weekend Pete has also celebrated his birthday (at the cottage). So there seems to have been lots of present buying and wrapping for well over a month now (we started with my birthday on the 6th December).  Lots of gadgets, books, magazines etc etc to get stuck into still. Just before Christmas stove man did manage to get to the cottage (the snow thawed for a little while) long enough to install our multi fuel stove. However, with one thing and another it has taken us until this weekend just gone to get there and see it for ourselves. It is wonderful, I really can’t say more than that. We managed to get the cottage warmer than its ever been and I think that is just the start.

For his birthday, Pete wanted to walk Maisy along the beach at Barmouth. It was touch and go as to whether the weather would play ball or not but eventually as we neared our destination the rain stopped and the skies cleared.  It was so cold along that beach though, even Maisy stayed out of the sea more that she’d normally do. After our walk we deposited our backsides on the benches outside Dave’s Locker for a bite to eat before a quick shop at The Co-Op and then back to the cottage.

Back a the cottage we had a delicious two course meal, that Pete insisted upon cooking, followed by a lovely cosy evening. Pete’s asthma did flare up again – that’s almost every visit to the cottage I think – but it didn’t detract from a rather pleasant weekend. I took loads of photos of each room so that I can get down to some serious planning on how to decorate and move us forward.

Thanks for dropping by.
  Wendy x