It's beginning to smell like Christmas round here.

The first mince pies with this years mincemeat have come out of the oven.

These are destined for the CS tomorrow morning, it is market day and they won't have time to pop out to the bakery , while I was rolling pastry I made a few sausage rolls as well, the pastry ran out before the sausage meat so I wound a cut of strip around the last one. I don't like to re roll shortcrust pastry, it makes it a little tough. I don't waste any, I cook the off cuts and just pop them on some cooked fruit for instant pie, it,s a cheat but that's what you get in many a restaurant. 

I caught the lovely Nigel cooking Christmas leftovers on TV last night and tonight I copied one of his dishes.

Bubble and Squeak cakes, Nigel made his with roast parsnips and sprouts and put a little bit of cheese in the middle. Fine, I had parsnips but no sprouts. What I did have was cabbage, broccoli and some carrot and swede mash so that's what I used, I also had a piece of RTC Cambozola and used that, a dusting of flour and a rest in the fridge to firm up.

I browned them in a dab of butter and a slug of oil and popped them in the oven with the baking for 15 minutes, too good, much too good.

Another batch of Delia's mincemeat, I wasn't drunk just suffering from a slight list to starboard. These are all for gifting.

Apart from that I have been clearing my dresser and I have a box of stuff for the CS, I am also emptying my bookcase. I now have enough space in one of the built in cupboards to hold everything so the bookcase is going.

I have a big mirror hanging over the fireplace, I want to move it opposite the window to help the low light levels. I am thinking of making a wall hanging to replace it.

Reasons to be grateful.

1. The sweet smell of mince pies drifting round the cottage.

2. 5 jars of lusciousness sitting in the kitchen.

3. More floor space coming my way soon, very soon.

4. Ben running around with Greg, the dog next door, ears flapping, tail going round in circles.

5. A meeting with an old friend this morning, a gossip and a good catch up.

All in all it has been a good day, it has been cold and windy, there was a flurry of rain but the wind was so strong it blew the clouds away.

Tomorrow I will finish clearing the bookcase and claim that floor space. No sewing for me before Monday, it will be brush and gloss or emulsion, lovely, pray for a dry day the windows will be open.

                   TTFN                               Pam

If You Can't Take the Heat........

Phew, it was hot in the kitchen this morning, I had some Shepherds Pie base left over so made a couple of Oggies  for Nev. I made a Coffee and Walnut Cake for the freezer and had the Date, Apricot and Orange Chutney on the go as well. Oh I had the ironing board set up to press a stack of fabric scraps ready to cut up into 2 1/2" squares, I have seen a quilt pattern that I like. I will need 714 of these, the pattern calls for 14 fat quarters at £ 2.50 -£3.50 each, that's not going to happen. Doh!

Any way the chutney recipe is:-
500g stoned dates chopped, I snip them up with scissors.
400g ready to eat Apricots, chopped, I get them ready diced from a friend.
2 large onions diced quite fine.
30g root ginger, peeled and grated.
Zest and juice of a large orange, I grate the zest from 2 as we like the extra zing.
500ml cider vinegar, if I can not get it I use white wine vin.
400g soft brown sugar.
1/2tsp Cayenne.
1tsp Coriander.
1 tbs salt.

Put the whole lot in a big pan, bring to the boil slowly, then simmer till thick stirring every now and then.
This makes 4lb or thereabout, I double up the quantities and make use of my maslin pan.
I ran out of dates 2 years ago and made the last batch with a mixture of dates,  figs and cranberries. I was delicious, I now make a batch just the same each year.
This year I have adapted the recipe to match my store cupboard. 
I was 150g short of Apricots so I used 250g apple, as the apple breaks down more I increased the quantity, I only had half the Cider vinegar and no White Wine vinegar so used white distilled to make it up, My root ginger is buried at the bottom of my chest freezer and of course I do not have ground so I used 2 heaped tsp Allspice. Oops nearly forgot, I have a stock of demarara sugar so used half and half with soft brown sugar.
10 jars and a taster, not bad at all. Stand by for  photos.

Here are the raw ingredients, I hope you can see that I did not cut the dates very small, most of them were straight in half. I do cut even the small ones as I do find the odd stone. 3 today.

The sugar has dissolved and you can see that the liquid is nearly to the top.

Nearly ready, I have drawn a channel with the wooden spoon and it has got some free flowing liquid in.

Bingo, the channel now has a little viscous liquid but is almost empty. Time to get the clean jars, lids and funnel out of the oven, they have been at 150 c for 20 minutes.

The reward, this only needs 6 weeks before it is ready to eat, once opened I recommend keeping in the fridge and using within 6 weeks. In this house it is lucky to make 6 hours.

My scrap fabrics are looking good, several new colours and only 6 that I can not use in this project. There are 2 pieces of Batik, if I can bare to use it I will otherwise it will be shredded for stuffing.

I bought this lot from an Ebay seller for £6 including postage, a big bargain. There are 3 fat quarters and 5 WOF strips over 10" long. I am well chuffed.

I will show my baking tomorrow, I need to get the kitchen cleared, while I am in the mood I will give it a good fettling. All that steam shows up a few icky marks here and there. The smell is amazing, a cross between Christmas pudding and Spiced wine.

Reasons to be grateful.

1. A productive morning with no pressure.

2. A big stack of new fabrics to play with.

3. A good long walk with Ben first thing.

4. 2 pet beds finished last night ready to gift.

5. My lovely neighbour Nev brought me some field mushrooms as big as my hands put together.

6.  ( I know an extra today) I have a new follower, Janet.

Welcome aboard Janet, enjoy the ride.

The HR department rang a little while ago, to jog me into feeling guilty, didn't work! Once I told them that the heavy lifting was the cause, new procedures have caused this, she became very solicitous as to my welfare.
I did not share with her the fact that I will probably not be returning, in the fullness of time when it is necessary, and not a moment before, they will know.

             TTFN                                             Pam.

Sunday High Tea

Hello, come on in and sit down, the table is set and the kettle is singing. I've put the teapot to warm and Fran put the coffee on just in case.
It is ages since I saw you, now let me think, oh yes when we had the garden party. Do you remember my firework tree, he he. What about all the apple blossom, that has fruited wonderfully and I have made stacks of jams and jellies and masses of apple sauce. Yes of course I will find you a jar or three to take home, I might be persuaded to rootle out a jar of mincemeat as well, it wont be long you know before we will be up to our armpits in mince pies and sausage rolls.

Here it is, oops I have chopped the top off the sponge cake, let me have another try.

 There that is better, you need a slice of sponge at a tea party. I used the Silver Maple china, it has the biggest pot, oh dear I haven't put the sugar in the bowl yet, it will only take a minute. I always forget the sugar, we don't use it.

Mini quiches, so much easier than a slice to handle, no forks needed.

Cinnamon and Apple Cake, just the job for a chilly afternoon, I may warm a slice up and have some cream with it, naughty but nice.

Norfolk Shortcakes, Grannies recipe, just for old times sake.

Yes there are plenty of scones with butter and jam, and the cream is in the fridge.

A single crust apple pie, I could not just bin the extra pastry and I've plenty of apples, you can take that home if you want.

I hope that you have had enough to eat, if not there is plenty more where that came from, I always bake too much. It takes me back to when I was a little girl, Sunday morning in the kitchen with Granny baking up a storm. We would start early and finish just in time for dinner at 12.00 on the dot.

Any way I better see you on your way, you have a drive home and the weather report is for high winds, watch out for tree branches and dustbin lids.

Don't worry about the washing up, Fran and I will get through that in no time.

Thank you for coming, don't be a stranger drop in when ever you like.               TTFN                       Pam

Lazing on Tuesday Afternoon

Another wet dreary day. I have blanked it out and had some playtime with Little Gem. I have a 12 1/2" blue and white patchwork block to make for a swap. I have seen a pattern that I like but it is far too big, my maths are not used to scaling blocks so I had a little play with measurements.

By this stage I knew it was too big, and the strips at 2 1/2" looked "clunky" and out of place. I am using the Aqua, Orange and Grey fabrics that I used earlier in the year. I have grown to like the combination and all these "experiments" will end up in a quilt.

The strips are now 2" and much better, I want to make the center square 1/2" bigger for the swap block and I will make the rounds 1 pattern. This will make the snowballed corners look like flying geese.

I like this combination as well but the center square ought to be  bolder. Another pile of scraps being used up and I gathered a stack of little bonus squares by saving all the corner trimmings win win.

Last nights dinner, the chicken madras went really well with a jacket potato.

Pudding, just like the little one that I gave to Nev, we were so full that it was not touched so will have it tonight.

Hot chilli onions will be ready for "you know when"

Not a mini mixer, a timer from Francesca, it is so cute but a bit on the quiet side so I have to carry it around with me.

That is my day so far, work tonight. I have to drive to the Bridge, park up and walk to work as the Bridge is under repair, It will not be fully operational until Friday. Oh Well the exercise will do me good.

Ben is under the weather today , he was leaping around like a monkey last night and hurt himself. He is moving about but slowly and is asking to be cuddled all the time, he is so glad that Fran is at home. If he is no better tomorrow I will take him to see the Vet, in the meantime it is no walks and lots of cuddles.

Reasons to be grateful.

1. A steady supply of tea, courtesy of Fran.

2. Happy time sewing.

3. An hour spent blog hopping with 2 cups of tea this morning.

4. Easy Peasy dinner tonight of Paprika Pork with Pasta.

5. A packet of Peanut Butter Oreos to help the tea down. I do not eat many shop bought biscuits but these are very moreish, I do not like the other flavours at all.

I think that it may be my turn to make tea so.    

          

                                             TTFN      Pam