Boot sale bounty

Well, I had a stroke of luck at the boot sale yesterday. I've been looking for some larger cloches for a while, and just as it started to rain yesterday at the fair, I spied these!

They are just over a metre long, and half a metre wide. 

I shall now get to, and make two long planters from some decking so that I can have a couple of raised beds next year.

I'm so looking forward to that.

Have a great bank holiday Monday. I'm off to another boot fair this morning, and the sun is shining!

Rw

Bread

Well, my bread has been made. In fact I have made three loaves since i last blogged.

The first one was wholemeal.

A large loaf. (I have the three settings of small, large and extra large -not sure where medium went lol)

Medium crust.

My last bread maker was a Swan make, and the hook always left a humongous hole in the bottom and middle of the loaf. But my new Panasonic 2500 leaves a very small hole in comparison.

The texture and taste were perfect. Mmmmm.... So much for me losing a few stone before Christmas when I have all these tasty carbs to eat!

I also made two white loaves. Despite the crust looking a very pale, the loaf was perfect too!

I can't wait to see what else I can do in my breadmaker!

I'll be back tomorrow with the details of the challenge I'm joining in for September!

Have a great day everyone.

Rw

Chutney and bread

Well, managed to produce 6 jars of red tomato chutney. I seriously under estimated how much juice comes out of 4lb of tomatoes though, and it took forever to reduce down!

I think I've managed to work out how to reduce the size of the photos on my iPad now, so hopefully they won't be as large as the last photos!

Today I've made a loaf in my new bread maker. It's a Panasonic 2500 in case anyone wants to give me any hints and tips on how to use it. 

The wholemeal loaf is just on the rise part of the program, so as soon as it cooks, I shall edit this post with a photo.

I've been out this morning and bought quite a bit of sugar and bread flour for making my preserves and bread with. Now I just need to get round to making them.  I have rhubarb chutney and jam in the front of my mind, as I haven't picked any rhubarb in a while, and its looking good.

Have a good day everyone, and I'll pop the bread photos on here in a bit.

Rw. 

Chutney on a Sunday afternoon.

Well, I'm sitting here with rain outside and the strong whiff of red tomato chutney filling the house!

The only reason I can tell it isn't yet autumn is because I'm still wearing shorts and tea shirt, albeit with Wellington boots! 

This is how the chutney started off. 4lbs of overripe little orange tomatoes, 2lb of onions, 3lb of bramleys cooking apples (all amounts are approximate) 2pints of pickling vinegar (any vinegar will do) several teaspoons of mustard powder, mixed spice, ground ginger, 2lb sugar. Simmer the whole lot.

This is at the stage where it has been simmering for an hour. Still a way to go. I think I've put too much vinegar in it, as I normally make apple chutney and didn't allow for the juiciness of the tomatoes, but hey, I'll know for next time, and all I have to do is simmer longer... :)

I'll post pictures of the finished product tomorrow. 

Happy Sunday everyone. 

Rw x

This and that

Well, I just thought I'd show a few of the things that I've been up to over the past week.
Below is a gorgeous kohl rabi that was grown in the garden. I gave half to the children raw, and roasted the other half with home grown courgettes and a shop bought acorn squash. It was delicious.
We've never eaten kohl rabi before as they always seem so expensive in the shops.
I do love the plants though. I think that look amazingly retro - they sort of remind me of Sputnik !

I've been out doing a bit of thrifty shopping too.
I found two beautiful pictures on wood.
This wren one (which I obviously had to buy)

And this gorgeous spaniel one which I just couldn't leave there!

The artist is Dick Twinney. If you click on the picture, it tells you more about him.

I've also actually started rag crocheting again. I know, about time! 

It's actually taken me all the time from when I wrote my last log post until now to work out how to use blogger properly on my iPad ! 

I've tried to post this post numerous times, but alas I just couldn't work it out..Doh!

So hopefully now I can get around to posting more often!

Well, that'll do for now. Have a great weekend. 

A new start :)

Well, it's a long time since I've made a blog.

I must say though, it's good to be back :)

I hope to record my new little world on here for all to see. If you want to have a read that's fine, but it would be good if you'd maybe leave a comment too. Nice ones of course :)

It's been another hot sunny day here in the UK. So far we've had a beautiful summer. The runner beans have really started to take off in the garden, and in the garden that I 'borrow' to garden in, we've already had a lovely kohl rabi plant, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, spring onions (scallions), potatoes, beet root, courgette (zucchini), lemon balm and radish.

My journey for saving and making money is all the more important now that I'm a single mum, so I shall be charting that journey on here too.

I've yet to work out how to get all the photos I've taken off my iPad and onto my blog, I think I'll have to upload them to Picasso or something, but I'll try and sort that out tomorrow.

For now I'll have to finish this post photo-less I'm afraid, but at least I got on here at last!

Happy evening all. Take care. X