Tuesday 18 December 2012

One a Day 18th Dec 12 Tuesdays Tallies

Oh my goodness, what a week! Somewhere in the middle I have finished my Vintage Granny Blanket for my mum, but mostly I have more tallying to do in trips to the dump, the charity shop and cleaning. We finally had confirmation that our house was sold last Wednesday, with completion on the sale this Friday. The removal men came yesterday and the rest of our "stuff" has gone into storage for a month or so until a new purchase goes through the motions. I will do a proper "Done" post at some point, but not today.

I have been running up something else in spare moments, mainly in the car travelling up and down the hour each way, but that can't go on here.

I have to start Christmas preps now! How is everyone else doing, have you finished all your Christmas Makes or will it be a frantic middle of the night job on Christmas Eve? The latter is normal for me.

Please join in Tuesdays Tallies, I suspect we all have brand new projects we are planning for a New Year and a New Start!

If you want to join in with Link Party add your details below. Copy the One a Day header and put that in your post too with a link back too if you wish so we can all find each other! Lots of chance to chatter on the One a Day group on Ravelry here Ignore the Tackle it Tuesday bit...I can't get a Tuesday's Tallies header but it is one and the same!

Friday 14 December 2012

Red Onion Marmalade

I am finally getting a few things prepared for Christmas, it has been a bit of a roller coaster week. Finally we exchanged on our much loved family house of 15 years in gorgeous Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, where our girls grew up and went to school. We have already moved to Somerset, in October, but it has felt very transitory as we can only be in this house for 4 months. At least now we are certain ours is sold and we can buy somewhere to call home again. I put some jars in the oven with an inch of water in each for half an hour.
However home is where your family are, and everyone arrives "home" next Friday for 2 weeks, so we are a complete roost again. We go from 3 to 6 adults in this house, it is quite small but it is home, for now. I can finally get my head around cooking and preparing for Christmas, well after the small matter of packing up the rest of our belongings this weekend to go into storage on Monday, and cleaning our "old" house. I detest the selling system here in England, nobody has any comeback on a sale as it is not binding until about a week before the move happens, so you can't plan. Thankfully, as we just need our things to go into storage sometime next week, and not a coordinated move on a particular day, I could nab the one free slot with the removal company not charging a king's ransom! We were thinking we were going to have to do all of it ourselves at one point, a steep drive and a piano...hummmmmm!
We had been assured the exchange was happening every day for the last 2 weeks, no chain was involved, and every couple of days there was another excuse, but on Wednesday I was assured for the nth time it was happening today so I set about making red onion marmalade as distraction therapy. It is a good job it takes a while....on a freezing frosty day it is a good way of warming the house up by having a comforting pot bubbling on the stove. Lots of red Christmassy colours; gingham jars, red onions, red wine, balsamic vinegar and chillis.
It was a mish mash of several recipes including Sarah Raven's in her garden cook book and a Good Food magazine one online. I peeled and finely choppped a good kilo or so of red onions, almost filling my largest Le Creuset casserole. A very good glug of sunflower and olive oils went in first.
I then sweated the onions for about 40 minutes, stirring regularly. I added about 150g brown sugar, choppped garlic, a shake of chilli flakes, seasoning, some whole cloves and thyme and sweated a bit more, what a lovely phrase! Then about 6 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar went in and half a bottle of the cheapest red wine you can find. In my case I always make sure I bring lots back from France as cooking with wine that cost €1 a bottle is not as extravagant. Then you bubble and bubble and stir and it is not too much trouble at all for another 30-40 minutes or so until very soft and thikened. Jars out of the oven and empty the water and then in goes ladlefuls of your red onion marmalade. Well it would if the ladle was smaller than the jar, it goes everywhere. The solicitor rang at this point to say that we were exchanging in five minutes if that was OK with us, ohh heck! I put the tops on tightly straight away, I don't bother with wax discs (shock horror 'elf and safety) and try and wipe the sticky gloop up off the jars as well as I can. When cold I put on my labels, I found some clip art last year and just print them off on Avery labels, replace the clip art for whatever it is you are making. That should be enough for all the lovely cold gammon and turkey for the next few weeks! Pity, our new house wont have a pantry either, I've always fancied having a pantry or a cellar. in reality it won't last that long anyway.
..and crochet has also been my distraction therapy. I finished my Vintage Granny last night, more about that soon.

Tuesday 11 December 2012

One-a-Day Vintage Solid Granny Blanket - Week 6 - Tuesday's Tallies

One a Day Project
The lovely Carole of Gingerbread Girl fame had the wonderful idea of the One a Day project to inspire us all to pick up our yarn every day and crochet or knit something, one square, one row or one stitch is better than nothing! Anyone can join in, it is not competitive just a place to keep in touch with fellow yarn enthusiasts and keep on top of your projects at the same time at a pace you dictate. Carole hosted a Mr Linky and whilst life is a tad busy for Carole I have volunteered in to "babysit" One a Day for a while and the Mr Linky link stuff is below so we can all admire each others progress and offer encouragement when it has been "one of those" weeks!

I was hoping to have a "DONE" post for you today...but um...I have not quite.... sort of...like.....finished my Vintage Solid Granny Blanket! I have completed all the dc joining and 6 1/2 rounds of border...the plan is 8 rounds, well it has evolved to 8 rounds. Initially one round of plain treble in Teal (RS), then double crochet worked the other way round to keep the border flat in Pale Rose (WS), then a treble chain space round in teal (RS), another dc round in Mint (WS), then a teal treble chain space round (RS) then a dc round in Grape (WS), a round in solid treble in teal (RS) and the final round will be....watch this space!
The border is growing!
crochet border
It will be "done" in time to be mum's Christmas present.

If you want to join in with Link Party add your details below. Copy the One a Day header and put that in your post too with a link back too if you wish so we can all find each other! Lots of chance to chatter on the One a Day group on Ravelry here Ignore the Tackle it Tuesday bit...I can't get a Tuesday's Tallies header but it is one and the same!

Friday 7 December 2012

Oaty Banana Nutella Muffins

I picked up various recipe cards at the checkout last week. They were on the table and when my 16 yo came in from school she looked hopeful that I had made the muffins. Never mind, I have now managed to procure all the ingredients and planned to make them for after school today, warm out of the oven, but could I find the recipe card anywhere? Of course not! I went back to Waitrose and they had changed the displays so no oaty banana muffins it seemed.. Thank goodness for google, here is the original recipe but I changed it a little so this is my version:

Oaty Banana Nutella Muffins


Makes 12 - 15
Prepare 10 mins
Cook 20 mins

Ingredients:

300g self-raising flour (or plain + 2tsp of baking powder)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g light brown soft sugar
50g porridge oats
2 ripe bananas
285ml low fat plain yogurt
75ml sunflower oil
2 medium eggs, beaten
100g Nutella or similar Hazelnut Spread


1 Preheat the oven to 180ºC, gas mark 4. In a large bowl, sieve together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and sugar, stir in the oats.

2 Using a fork, mash the bananas until puréed in a bowl. In a pyrex jug measure the oil, spoon in the yogurt to the 350ml mark making sure it is level. Beat in the eggs with a fork. Add the banana and oil/yogurt/egg to the flour bowl and stir lightly to mix — don’t worry if it looks a little lumpy.

3 Divide half of the mixture between 12-15 paper muffin cases then drop a teaspoon of Nutella into each one. Top with the remaining muffin mixture then bake for 20 minutes until risen and golden. 

Speed is of the essence for good muffins, both mixing and getting into the oven! Best eaten on the day of making, preferably warm and they freeze well too (ha ha does anyone ever have any left to freeze?)

Very scrum-dilly-umptious....we are now trying to decorate the tree but of six strings of lights only 2 work, disaster! A light party has been dispatched out to buy some more, well fuelled.
A Baker's Dozen of Banana Oaty muffins with Nutella surprise in the middle

Wednesday 5 December 2012

Vintage Solid Granny Blanket - Week 5 - Tuesday's Tallies

Still joining the squares. They are looking neater now I am joining crosswise too. Next week I will be on the border...I will!
Apologies for the quick rumpled snaps...it's gone midnight time to go and put the bread machine on!
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...