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Making enough mince pies for the country – with home-made mincemeat!
I do enjoy a mince pie at Christmas so this year, for the first time I thought I’d have a go at making my own mincemeat, using Delia Smith’s recipe. I have usually used jars of the stuff so I was looking forward to filling the kitchen with the wonderful aroma of herbs and fruits.…
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Do your mince pies stick to the trays?
If you just answered ‘yes’ to that question, this short video might help!
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How many ways can you use a pumpkin?
So, the saga continues. I wrote in the last post about finally getting round to cutting up and starting to use ‘The Beast’, aka ‘Mr Beast’ (not that one), aka 53 lbs of pumpkin, (aka ‘if I trip over that b****y pumpkin one more time…..). I started with a chutney as I thought that would…
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I finally did it!
If you’ve been a regular visitor around here, first of all, thank you and have a seat, you’ve earned it. Secondly, you may remember I had a pumpkin growing competition with dearest son, which he won with “The Beast”. (If you missed it, more details about size and weight can be found in the post ‘PUMPKINS!’).…
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Getting the kitchen ready for Christmas
I know I can’t be the only person who goes cleaning crazy at this time of the year. I need my kitchen to be good enough for Santa to come in and be happy to eat what I’ve left out for him. As I have been working my way around cupboard tops and shelving this…
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(Herbal) Lotions and Potions
I am a happy novice when it comes to making my own creams, balms, lotions and salves but I do like to give it a go. I have made a few in the past and they turned out ok albeit with some room for improvement! Many lessons have already been learned such as comfrey might…
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Think you don’t like porridge? This might change your mind!
If you look on the back of a lot of porridge oats packets you’ll see instructions telling you to use water or milk or even half and half and to cook for 3-4 minutes on high. Don’t. What I have been doing lately will take your porridge and your taste buds to new heights! First…
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Crafting for the garden birds again!
I had a lot to do the other day, so naturally, I looked for the biggest distraction I could find instead of doing the work that was waiting for me. Making a bird feeder seemed the obvious choice instead of washing the dishes, emptying the hoover or doing the ironing. We have noticed the starlings…
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Bird Cakes
Despite the title, I’m talking about making cakes for birds, not cakes made out of birds! Our garden has been very busy lately as the temperature starts to plummet – the temperature for the previous post about the allotment was around 4 C (39.2 F) – and the birds are becoming quite demanding! So, I…
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Trouble in the Kitchen
I thought I’d do some baking – a bread with cheese and chilli. I didn’t wear my gloves, I’ve touched my eye, now that was silly. Everythings gone blurry, It’s painful and I’m crying, I’ve walked into a door and tripped on shoes that were left lying. I hope that bread is tasty, be worth…
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Baking our own goodies!
Our holiday week continues and we decided we would take some time to bake a little something. After a brief discussion with Dearest Son, who is the main baking taster in the house, we decided to make the sourdough snickerdoodles which I’ve done a couple of times in the past. I use the recipe from…
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What do ‘normal’ people do?
This question popped into my head today as I was standing in my kitchen, blitzing cooked, home-grown pumpkin to a puree. It crossed my mind that the average person in this town doesn’t grow their own pumpkin, and doesn’t therefore, cook the flesh and make puree with it. They certainly don’t do through the process…
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