It's a Breech Birth.

Oh , blood, sweat and tears. Not really, sweat oh yes, a few bloody hell,s and lots and lots of tea.
I am almost there, the main quilting is done, I just have to quilt round all the blue bird squares, the binding is made and will be on later.

Here it is , see the stripy backing, a lucky find.

On a very happy note I have a new follower, Dreamer, I found her a few weeks ago and had to read her blog from the beginning, very inspirational, and am so glad that Hubby is home and mending.

Mrs Frantic had a giveaway and  I WON , I have had a quick buzz round my blog list and looked at my winnings, the wheels are turning, there is a little idea growing. It is such a good thing that I have 7 days off from Wednesday. I have set myself a new challenge, I will post about it tomorrow, I have a cushion to make and send to Miss Ipie (that is already cut out and pieced).and now this .I love being busy.

I had time to throw a bit of gammon in the slow cooker this morning, it was in the freezer from a few weeks before Christmas.  While looking at the bacon I saw a stack of these little joints reduced to £1.50. I checked to see if it was correct and bought all 8. Each one will be a hot meal , with enough left to go into a Chicken and Ham Pie and probably a sandwich or three.
We are having jacket potato and salad with it, I can almost taste it.
The potatoes will go in the oven with the experimental bread and use up all the oven space, I made enough dough for 4 loaves, 2 will be taken to work tonight.

That's it for now, I am off to my sewing, Michael is getting dinner organised and all is well with my world. I will show you the bread tomorrow. TTFN   Pam.

A Flimsy is Born and Bread

The flimsy for Marina waithing for a border.

Nearly there now, the borders are cut and ready to be attached. I decided to use white to make the colours zing and cut them to 6 inches to give a finished size of 72 inches by 84. 

It is going on a standard double bed and this size will give a nice drape at both sides and bottom.

I am still undecided about the reverse, I am going to piece together a scrappy back from all the remnants and see how I feel, otherwise it is down to my LA treasure trove . Maybe a trip to my local quilt shop in Wisbech is called for.

 

This morning I had to split and feed the new sourdough, I did not want to waste any plus I want to monitor the changing taste as it matures. Rather than follow a recipe I added 125g of starter to 350g of wholemeal flour tipped in a little Oyster stout and enough water to make a dough.
Magic happened , the bread has a nice crumb and no air pockets, the smell is amazing and it tastes pretty good.
The stout is there to make a dark rye bread tomorrow, I will add Caraway seeds to this and hope to replicate the heavy Eastern European breads.
This corner of my kitchen holds our collection of knives built up over several years, in our opinion they are the best on the market. The little shelf unit holds an assortment of mustards, olives and all the odds and sods that I like to have on hand.
That all for now, I am off to sew the borders on. TTFN  Pam 

Chaos and Cake

Chaos

This was my sewing at 14:30 yesterday, not a pretty sight, on the right are the center panels for Marina's quilt blocks, fairly OK small stacks ready for chain sewing. The rest are the fabrics waiting to be cut for the side panels. It was so bad that I had to have a coffee or 3. I am a tea drinker by preference but this needed some serious caffeine.

Once fortified I set to with my trusty rotary cutter, out came the iron and a bit of foot to the floor on the machine led to this

.A tidy stack of completed blocks and the remaining fabric ( you can see lots in the background) which will become the backing, maybe. The Jury is still out on that, I have to trawl through the L.A. treasure trove first. I plan hope to have this completed by Sunday. It is not Marina's birthday yet but I can see another quilt in my mind's eye and the fabric is there also.

Now to cake.

Here are the boiled fruit cakes from yesterday, I have been making this recipe as long as I have been cooking and I have never had a failure. I have even added a bit more fruit, a slosh of brandy and iced them for Christmas and Birthdays.

In a saucepan put 

1 cup of brown sugar

1 cup of water

450 gms mixed dried fruit, I use the basic range.

225 gms butter. It has to be butter but again use the basic range.

Bring this to the boil, remove from the heat and stir till the butter is melted.

Have a cup of tea while it cools.

Add 1 cup each of P.lain and Self Raising flour

Add 1 heaped tsp of mixed spice and 2 of cocoa powder

Add 2 beaten eggs and mix well to a dropping consistency.

Here is where I jazz it up sometimes with a handful of chopped glace cherries or the grated zest of an orange, some chopped nuts or even chocolate chips. Or you can leave it as is.

I cook mine in a 2lb loaf tin or a 7 inch round tin, I have some silicone liners that came from Poundland about 4 years ago and they are still like new but baking parchment is fine. I always line my tins, it is a life long habit.

In my oven they take 80 minutes for loaf tins and 90 minutes for round at 140 in my fan oven.

Mostly I make loaf shape because I can put 4 in and they cook quicker, less 'leccy.

Cool in the tins and turn out onto a wire rack until completely cold.

I then give 1 each to lovely neighbours , if I make 4 I take 1 to work and we have the other. 

This sometimes gets sliced, nuked in the "ding" oven and served with custard and maple syrup. 

Now I am hungry so Bran Flakes here I come, not forgetting the skimmed milk, deep deep joy.

I could be having fluffy pancakes with Bananas and Maple Syrup but the scales say " not on your nellie Podge)

TTFN   Pam

Whiling away the hours.

Junior AKA Woody for national book day.

Oh I had such a lazy restful day yesterday. I walked Ben while Bertie had a snooze on the sofa. Then I pottered around my potting shed and arranged and rearranged a few bits and bobs. Bertie kept me company While Ben just soaked up some rays.

I managed to assemble the centers of all the blocks for Marina's quilt and cut out the side pieces, these are now stacked up ready to sew.
I want to add a narrow border, 2 to 3 inches before quilting so I will be playing with going through my stash of fabric to find this, if all else fails I will have to bite the bullet and go to my local quilt shop and buy some, sighs deeply. I then have to think about backing, I have some very pretty Laura Ashley material that I got for a song when the Kings Lynn store closed, let me tell you that I was there 5 times watching the prices falling before I swooped in and spent "how bloody much) and bought (it will not fit in the car) amounts I think the end total was over 50mtrs, all at much less than half price. I did miss out on some fabric that sold out before it came down to my price but hey you have to set a limit and stick to it

I have 2 boiled fruit cakes in the oven, they are so quick and easy to make and we all love them. I will post a picture and the recipe tomorrow.
While we are talking about cake a few of the blogs that I follow are discussing weight issues. Let me 'fess up, I have some lovely clothes that no longer fit me. No they did not shrink I have expanded,  Last year was a no go gardening summer and it turned into an "every day is baking day" time for me. Add in the extra shifts that I worked because of illness and the fact that i broke my wrist so had several weeks when I could not dog walk. recipe for disaster. I got on the scales at work and oh dear! 70Kg that is wearing my very sexy steel toecapped safety boots and my Made to measure for a giant chiller suit plus my hard hat.

It is too much so I have to take action, next week when I finally start my 3 day week I am off to investigate the Slimming World group that meets in the nearest town. It is that or sew my mouth up!

News Flash. There is talk that we may be having a Post Office counter in our village shop, Icing On the Cake is what it will be.
Right I am off to smell the cakes, smelling is all I will be doing to them, sob sob. TTFN   Pam

The pic of Junior is just a bit of Grandmother Showing Off.

A New Loaf.

The first bake from a new sourdough starter

I had a request for the recipe for sourdough, my starter is years old and was a gift from a retiring master baker. It has served me well but I do not have the recipe to give.
I follow the "Simply Self Sufficiently" blog and new that she had a "fast" sourdough starter recipe.

 I made this up on 31st March and followed the method, yesterday morning at 4.30 when I got in from work I used a recipe from Paul's book and mixed the dough and put it to prove.

 At around mid day when I got up I knocked it back and shaped the loaves and put them to rise. They went into the oven for 40 minutes  at 190 c and look like this.The starter is very young and has not developed the typical beery earthy smell yet so I used a bottle of Bishop's Finger Ale for the liquid in the recipe.  When it came out if the oven the smell was fantastic.

I took one of the loaves to work and it was sliced, buttered and munched before you could say Jack Robinson ( why would you want to say that). The verdict was. Is there any more? I had a small piece and it was very good.

I baked them in loaf tins because I was taking one to work, normally I shape sourdough into a cob and would have made 3 loaves from that amount of dough.

It is a short and sweet post today, the sun is shining and I will take Ben and Bertie out for a little stroll and then have a potter in the garden,
I nearly forgot, I have a new to me potting shed it was given to me and put up exactly where I wanted it, win win. All I need now is warm weather so that I can use it.         TTFN    Pam

The Best Things in Life are Free, if you have the time to find them

Darling Grandson ignoring his baby sister.

This photo was taken some time ago, Junior had not decided yet how he felt about this intruder. Fast forward a little while and she is the center of his universe. More pics to later.

A big welcome to SFT and Rachelradiostar I hope you enjoy the ride. It is almost as good to have followers as it is to be a follower and get so much help and inspiration and entertainment from the various posts.

And the winner is.....Jen, Miss Ipie., I have left a message on your blog, email me your snail mail address and choice and I will be in touch.

I was enjoying my new sense of relaxation at work last night, my mind kept wandering of in all sorts of directions and finally this popped out.

I love you as the flowers love the embracing warmth of the sun as it kisses the unfurling petals
I love you as the leaves love the gentle breezes that send them shimmering and dancing on their branches
I love you as the earth loves the raindrops as they encourage new growth to emerge to begin the cycle of life
I love you as the ocean loves the gathering storm as the lightening bolts display the seething waters in all their glory

Who are you to command my unwavering love
You are Freedom of choice
You are honesty and Integrity
You are the Air that I breathe
You are Life itself

I used to do this all the time but over the last 10 years of stressful work it had left me, it is only now that  realise just how much stress I was under.
I do not claim to be a writer or a poet, I love words and my mind just minces away, grinding and forming them into a cohesive whole. Sometimes it is humour, sometimes rubbish, but today  it reflects my new work life balance.

My Norfolk upbringing tells me that it is all "a load of squit and nonsense" but at the same time us Norfolk folks have a little saying " We do Different"
 nuff said.  TTFN  Pam

Happy Easter Monday

Sunday Lamb oven ready.

A very Happy Easter Monday to all.

Today is the start of  my new life at work and the end of an era. I have worked for the company for nearly 10 years in my position and last night's shift was the last. Today I not only cut back to 3 shifts a week I have also taken a step down.

The short life prepared food industry is known for the stress levels it induces, working to a rigorous standard of food hygiene and quality against the clock does not make for a relaxed work place. The lorries work to a strict time frame and have to be loaded ready to leave on time, more pressure.
As from today this is no longer my headache, I will be taking a drop in income and I could not be happier
This is my gradual move to retirement, I enjoy being with my colleagues, I have known many of them for years and we have lots of shared memories and experiences.
My actual work will hardly alter it is just the stress and responsibility that I am losing. Happy happy days.
On  different note see the Lamb joint before it went into the oven, it is sitting in a little Spitfire beer, I covered it with foil and cooked it low and slow till the last 30 minutes when the temperature went up to crisp the garlicky roast potatoes and cook the Yorkshire Puddings ( we have them with every roast). There was no way on earth that I was going to get a photo once it came out of the oven, it had a rest while the gravy was made and all the veg finished and then it was Action Stations. Carve, Serve, Eat, Mmmmmmmmmm.
On that note I am off to the kitchen to get today's dinner sorted, Lazy Day Food, Chicken Curry from the freezer, Naan Bread from same freezer and Onion Bhaji,s which I will make later. TTFN Pam