mincemeat and wine

Last week I bottled some wine. This was the Elderberry that I had made from a tin, it is very quick, takes just 4 weeks and then a couple of weeks after that it is ready to drink.

This one is the peapod wine that I made in the summer from the peas that we grew. It is not ready to drink yet, I have put it away in the shed for a few months

I also started off some more larger. My bucket is not big enough to use a whole tin, so I make half at a time and store the other half in the fridge. First you add the contents of the tin to some sugar and boiling water and then top up to 20 pints with cold water.

Then add the yeast.

Cover with cling film and put in a warm place. Mine goes in the airing cupboard for about 6 days and then it is ready to bottle. This I will do tomorrow and it will be ready to drink at Christmas.

I also made some mincemeat ready for the mince pies. I always make it as Lukey does not like peel or nuts, I adjust the recipe to take them out and add other things.

I used the recipe from last years "Good Food" magazine, vegetarian special, for Blitz and Blend mincemeat. You have to chop everything up in the food processor, which means you don't have great big raisins in the mix. This is especially good for making mini pies.

I used an apple, stem Ginger, glace cherries, dried pineapple, sultanas, raisins and currents, vegetarian shredded suet, light muscodavo sugar, ground ginger, mixed spice, nutmeg, orange juice and zest, and dark rum.

This is all blended together and then put in jars and left to mature for a few weeks. Mmmmmm...

Only 11 days until I go to Hamburg to see Alice and visit the Christmas markets.....

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COW POO!

Who could eat this beautiful cow? Someone will, he is being fattened up - poor thing. Moooo


Had a lovely weekend, Alice was home from Hamburg after 12 weeks away. Went out for dinner on Saturday night with her and John, her boyfriend and Jared and his girlfriend Ashleigh. Which was fun.

And on Sunday morning we went to John's cow shed to get some cow poo for the allotment. The cows are beautiful and have become very friendly and nosey. They were very interested in what we were doing and kept putting their noses in the bags and getting in the way. They will also eat hay from your hand and have very rough tongues. When you walk away from them they moo "where are you going?" mooo

I was also allowed to feed them by pouring their pellet food into the trough!!!



If this doesn't get things growing on the plot I don't know what will?

Soap

I have not posted for over a week, as I have not been well. I am not sure what I had, but I certainly did not feel too good. Not flu or a cold, but just not feeling well. Tired all the time, no energy, could not concentrate on anything, ached all over and had a dreadful cough. I stayed in bed for 5 days. But I am on the mend, the energy is coming back and I have started to make things again!!

Yesterday I made soap - my first ever batch and I am so pleased with it. It contains poppy seeds, coffee and cinnamon leaf oil. Took nearly all day to make. It is just beginning to set.



I have cut it into squares and put it on the shelf to cure. It should be ready in about 4 weeks.
Today I went to pick some sloes from the hedgerows, I got about 5 lb.
I put some into jars with gin to make sloe gin and the rest will make wine, which I hope to start tomorrow.

OUR NEW ALLOTMENT

We have an allotment!!! So excited.

BUT it is just a field and we have so much work to do>

The field has been used for grazing horses for sometime, it is also very dry, therefore the ground is rock hard.

After spending some time planning out how we wanted it to be on paper. We marked out some beds and took off the top layer of grass.

Then we poured loads of water on, went home and had lunch and went back to try to dig.

The water had soaked into the top layer, so Lukey dug it out and then we put more water in and left it.

We made friends with the geese in the adjoining field.

The first area that we are preparing will be for fruit. I hope to grow some raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and rhubarb, these are all things that I use to make either wine or jam or just to eat! The rest of the plot will be for vegetable- as many as we can fit in.

There are 6 new plots on this field. One already has a shed and some beds dug, another has a compost bin and they have started to dig. Another has a very detailed plan on paper and marked out some areas with string, but done anything else yet. I think that it is going to be very interesting watching it all take shape!!

tomato soup

I had lots of tomatos turning red on the plants in the garden so decided to make some more soup.

I took some vegetables; onions, carrots and celery.


Chopped them up and then put in a pan with a little oil, over a low heat for about 1/2 hour, stirring every now and then.

While they were cooking I went outside and picked the tomatos.

There were loads - a whole colander full. I kept the cherry ones to put in the lunch boxes in the week. Some I saved for lunch - we had greek salad again with garlic and herb foccocia. This has been our Sunday lunch for weeks now, but we love it

I wash the tomatos and cover them with boiling water for a couple of minutes and then skin them.

And chop them up and add to the vegetables. I add some vegetable stock, some herbs and pepper. This is then simmered for about 1/2 an hour.

When it is cooked I blend it with the stick blender until smooth. Sometimes I add a bit of yoghurt to this. Oh and check the flavour.

I then put some in a bowl for lunch the next day. The rest I freeze in these little one portion pots. I made about 14 portions, which is good.

September Sunday

After a very hectic couple of weeks, I had a day off on Sunday and did lots of cooking, but I was so busy taking pictures and cooking that I didn't have time to write the blog, so here goes:

There was a new farmers market at the village hall in the morning so we walked up to have a look. There were only a few stalls, but hopefully there will be more next time. There wasn't really much I wanted as there were two cake stalls and one selling soda bread, one with vegetables and that was about it. So I just bought some eggs and some honey from Clacton-on-sea.


I had wanted to try out a new flapjack recipie that I had found in the BBC Good Food magazine, but found that I didn't have any bananas, so I biked, yes biked to Manningtree to get some and biked most the way home - had to walk up the steep bit of hill.




The flapjacks were lovely very soft and tasty, here is the recipie:

150 g butter, 150 ml maple syrup, 125 g dried cranberries, 2 large mashed bananas, 375 g porridge oats.
Melt the butter with the syrup and then stir in everything else, put in baking tray and cook for about 10 mins or until golden (190 c or 170 c fan oven gas 5).

Oh I forgot I added a handfull of dessicated coconut!

Sat nav bags

Oh dear I haven't written anyting for two weeks, have been a little busy, doing lots of knitting and scrapbooking. I am working on a wedding album for my sister, so can't post any pictures of the pages yet, just in case she sees them before I have finished.



We have a sat nav and Lukey has one for work but they didn't come with cases. When we first got them they had little plastic bags which have now worn out. We didn't want to scratch the screens when they are put in a bag or pocket so needed a case or cover for them. I had looked on the official site and seen the price of them, so decided to knit them! I used the wool left over from my socks for my one and sewed on some sequins and beads that are in my bead box. The other one was made with some cotton left from making a dishcloth, this one had a draw string and embroidered name on the front. I didn't have a pattern for these, just modified a sock pattern and knitted them on 4 double pointed needles - just like a sock! Easy!