More homemade stuff

The sun is out and finally people and plants are getting some much needed vitamin D!  Amazing how a bright day can change everyone's mood - there are lots of smiles around at the moment...long may it continue! It's been a busy few days but productive ones at that!  There is nothing quite like making something from scratch and my pet project this week was bath bombs.  

Lavender bath bombs...

I have wanted to make those ever since watching a program on TV which made it look so easy to do - and it really is!  Mix together bicarb, citric acid, essential oil and carrier oil, press into mould (in this case a biscuit cutter), leave to dry and ta dah - bath bombs!  I made lavender ones, adding dried flowers and using lavender essential oil which should make for a relaxing bath...I will try them out today before making a bigger batch.  To keep them dry before use they will have to be wrapped in foil - I will try and get my hands on some chocolate wrapping foil which will be thinner than normal alu foil and easier to wrap around.

My other project was chutney!  As we don't yet have a glut of anything in the garden, I made spiced apricot chutney (Delia's recipe) which is made out of dried apricots and other bits and pieces.  I hope it will taste nice once it has matured a bit - we will have to wait for at least 4 weeks before trying...

Peppers anyone?

First peppers appearing...

Very exciting news: the pepper plants which have grown indoors on the window sill for the last few weeks have started growing tiny little peppers!  At the moment, there are just a couple but I can already see some of the flowers making place to some more.  I grew these plants from seed and not having done this before, I am especially proud! :-)  They are a dwarf variety but I do sincerely hope they'll grow slightly larger than they are right now :-)

With the sunshine we have been having these last couple of days the tomatoes have started turning colour - I can't wait to try one of these little fellas!  Patience....

Tomatoes ripening...

Plastic bag

Small plastic bag/purse with cork buttons

Stripey back...

Ok - I don't like plastic bags!  When we go shopping we try and always bring fabric bags to avoid having to get the plastic ones.  And yet, in the kitchen drawer and larder, hidden away in the corners lurk some plastic bags...and as a project on a rainy day, I thought I'd try and convert those into well, a plastic bag...It's probably more like a purse but could be used for cosmetics or similar. It's knitted it out of strands of plastic and has a couple of cork discs as buttons.  Quite sweet really....

What to do on a rainy day...

Well, what not to do is take the dog out before 8am and get absolutely soaked!  You know that the weather is bad when not even your 9 month old puppy is keen to go out!

Old bananas = banana bread...ta dah!

Instead, a much better thing to do is to use up the squishy old bananas that have been lurking in the fruit bowl to make banana bread...mhhhhm! I can see a slice of this with a hot mug of tea in my near future...The funny thing about this weather is that instead of wanting summer foods like salads, I am now craving casseroles and looking forward to making Christmas cake...that is just wrong in July, isn't it?

Gooseberry growing

Gooseberry & kiwi jam...

Last year our gooseberry bush had a total of 2 (yes, two) gooseberries on it and we decided to cut the bush right down to ground level.  It was either grow back better or we'll chuck you out completely...Well, fast forward to this year and I am pleased to say that I harvested 150g worth (a small bowl full). To get the most out of the crop, we decided to make jam - gooseberry & kiwi jam, in fact!  Not a huge amount came out but enough to fill a couple of small jars, so I am very pleased!  Let's hope next year's crop will be even bigger!

As can be seen from the photo, the sun is out today!  How lovely!  We still don't exactly have summer temperatures but at least it is dry today.  Quite worrying just how many floods and flood alerts are occurring throughout the UK - we are quite lucky that we have not been affected by those and just had some miserable wet days. 

Produce....

First spuds 2012

Time for another post, I dare say!  As mentioned before, the weather has been shocking lately, so we couldn't do much in the garden.  With all the wet weather it now looks as if my potato plants have succumbed to blight (although I am not 100% sure).  The plants started to look very odd with dots on the leaves and then they just died...sounds like blight to me.  I did a bit of research and found that the plants should be cut down, so that's what I did today.  I also emptied one of the containers to see if the blight had reached the actual tubers and am pleased to say that whilst small, the spuds look pretty healthy.  We planted King Edward potatoes which will be great for roasting if they reach a decent size.  These little ones will be great just boiled with their skins on- might have to incorporate these into my supper tonight!

First blueberries 2012

The other exciting thing that has happened whilst we were away for the weekend is that the blueberries are now changing colour!  They look really fat and juicy but need a bit more sunshine to ripen properly.  Last year's experience told us that even if they are blue, it doesn't automatically mean they are ripe.  Patience is required!  Not one of my stronger points but I know it'll be worth it.

The pepper plants indoors are now coming into flower which is great!  Hopefully that means that there will be peppers growing on them!  We'll see!  I will have to check if they need a hand with pollination...would be a shame to have lots of flowers but then no actual fruits.

Tasty...

Butternut squash soup

Rainy weather is actually quite useful...I've been getting lots done indoors including all the chores!  And I have prepared a bit of food as well.. some.photos below...

Houmous

I love trying new recipes and these were all previously untested - I have made houmous before but this was by far the best recipe.  Served with toasted pitta bread and vegetable crudites will make a good lunch and I can't wait to tuck in :-)  

Tomorrow morning I will make a small batch of scones to have with homemade strawberry jam...I'd better do some more running soon, given all this food around!  For that I would quite like for the weather to improve a little - I don't mind running in the rain every once in a while but when it is too often, it gets a bit tedious.

Tatendrang

I love this word - it means being full of energy and determination to do stuff and that's exactly what I was like today :-)  I made a batch of strawberry jam...see photo
.  

I  also baked a pineapple cake, prepared frozen yogurt (berry vanilla flavour) and cooked a pork casserole for dinner.  Next thing on the list is a butternut squash soup as I bought a couple of those to have for dinner when my friend arrives on Wednesday but they are so enormous that we can easily share one, leaving one to make said soup.  Whether I can actually peel it now, remains to be seen...never name your vegetables or draw faces on them! :-))  Cooking doesn't get tougher than this :-)

Early bird catches the...cake

Chocolate cake...

We got up early this morning and by 8am I had already changed the bed linen, fed the dog & myself and baked & decorated a chocolate cake - not bad!  It's one of those fool-proof recipes that is just so easy to make but tastes yummy at the same time - very moist and chocolatey with a hint of coffee.  Given the occasion (a friend's baby party tomorrow), I put some pink and blue sugar pearls on top of the icing.  And although it was so early in the day, I had to try a little piece - would have been rude not to :-)

I fear today will be a day for indoor chores as it is really windy and rainy again.  Probably just as well as I do have a few things to do - more washing, tidying up, cleaning, ... It never ceases to amaze me how much time can be spend keeping a house in order.  And that's with all the time/labour-saving devices we nowadays have - God knows how long it would take otherwise if we had to wash the clothes by hand, scrub the floors etc.  So here's a big hooray for irons, hoovers etc!

Summer

Summer in a bowl...

The last few days have been really sunny and we have been trying to make the most of it by doing gardening, drying washing outside, running, walking the dog... Sheets dried by the sun just smell soooo lovely!  Another one of life's little pleasures!  Talking of which, I had some delicious strawberries yesterday - don't they look beautiful?  I love the neat little rows of green seeds on them :-)  If I had to choose a favourite food, then I would definitely have to say it is fruit for me.  So many exciting flavours and all come in their only neat little packages - simply perfect!

The sunshine has definitely helped the blueberries in the garden along as well and I hope there will be more to come, so that they can ripen nicely.  The same goes for the tomatoes!  Following my last post I noticed that there are actually lots of tiny tomatoes on all of my plants - how I did not spot these earlier is a mystery to me :-)  I have now started feeding the plants with an organic tomato feed and will report on their progress.

I can't sign off today without posting this beach photo that I took on my way to the shops yesterday -looking at it reminds me just how lucky I am!