Waste Not Want Not

A new countdown is beginning for me and Mr Milly,  I will tell tomorrow!

Today I have been rummaging around in the fridge to see what needs to be using up,  I found;-

Beefsteak tomatoes
Garlic
Round courgettes
Onions
Garlics
Basil

Everything was chopped into pieces, the last of the cherry tomatoes from the garden picked and thrown in for good measure.  A good glug of olive oil and into the oven it all went,  slow roasted  at the bottom of the oven on a very very low heat for a couple of hours, then blitzed in the food processor which our friend Chris very kindly gave to us and 4 jars of lovely sauce are now sitting in the larder.   Pasta sauce to be,   4 meals from the bits and pieces sitting in the fridge.

I took advantage of the oven being on and sterilised the jars for the pasta sauce and a couple of others  and using some of the apples from the lottie chilli jam was made tonight.   This jam is definately not for me - I don't like anything hot or spicy,  but I am sure Mr Milly will enjoy the chilli concoction with some cold meat or cheese.

The chilli jam has passed the taste test!  Mr Milly wanted to try some with  bread - a very big spoonful it was too!!  After getting a bit red in the face and wiping his eyes - Mr Milly tells me it is HOT  but good!  Maybe a smaller spoonful next time LOL!

Naughty Dog!

She ate my cake!  

It was a sponge cake - two sponges sitting on a wire rake cooling down and waiting to become a Victoria Sponge - one sponge cake never made it..........  I turned my back for a nano second,  well actually I went out of the kitchen without shutting the door.  I heard Mr Milly shout at the dog and there is was,  one sponge cake with a dog size bite!  How annoying,  I wasn't happy!!!   So out with the flour, sugar, butter, eggs, mixer, pans etc and another sponge made.   The chickens enjoyed the ruined cake though!

Star on pidgeon patrol.   She will chase them away if they land in the garden!

Star is a weimaraner and she is tall,  so it's very easy for her to reach the kitchen worktops.   This is not the first time she has eaten a cake.  Last year I was making a giant cupcake birthday cake for my Sisiter-in-Law,  it was disatrous - the first cake was overcooked and went in the bin and in the chickens,  the second cake the dog ate,  the third cake was OK,  but these cakes take an age to cool down and with all the messing about it was iced when very slightly warm - this doesn't work well with butter icing.  It tasted OK - but the look wasn't upto standard!

It was hot yesterday - too hot to be digging,  so a quick visit to the Lottie a little foraging around the site, some picking on my Lottie plot and a little more clearing.  And look at all the goodies;-

The apples from behind my Lottie,  the pears and plums from a neighbour, runner beans, french beans and courgettes from the lottie,  eggs from my chicks, tomatoes from home and my latest loaf of bread.  It kept me busy for a while, all nicely arranged for a photo moment and then the eggs for the cake  -eaten by the dog,  all the beans blanched and frozen,  apples, pears and plums are now mixed fruit jam.  The rest in the fridge until needed. 

I had fun trying to photograph the jam on a rolling boiling - the camera kept steaming up everytime it was over the pan,  I think I took about 10 pictures before I had one decent one!  That's blogging for you - everything has to be photographed!

Rolling boil

Steamed up camera!

Rolling boil after the magic knob of butter had been added.  
The jam becomes clear  and the fruit scum on the top vanishes!

All done!

Flowering Cushion

The cushion is finished and it was fun to do!  Lots of rounds and lots of different colours,  I like crocheting bigger things with different colours,  it keeps me interested seeing the colours work together (or not as can sometimes happen).   I found a lovely button in my local wool shop and it matched the shape of the rounds perfectly - so this now happily sits in the middle of the cushion.   The back has been crocheted with matching rows of colour to mirror the front.

A slight dilemma yesterday - there isn't anywhere local to me stocking round cushion pads.  Fortunately I found some calico in my fabric stash so out with the sewing machine and a bag of stuffing and custom made cushion pad created.

Unfortunately the cushion can't live here - its a bit too pink and girlie for Mr Milly!

Me and Mr Milly spent sometime at the Lottie yesterday and again today.   The Sunflowers have been staked,  more strawberry runners planted,  lettuced thinned out and the latest waterbutt (from Freecyle) installed.  They were the fun bits!   The front quarter (ish) section of the Lottie is still to be sorted - had you noticed my tactical photos recently??  LOL!   This bit is now quite overgrown,  so this weekend I made a start on it.   A section about 8 foot by 3 foot marked out,  roots and grass removed and then dug over.   It was hard work,  but very satisfying when finished.  This section has now been covered to stop the weeds and will probably stay that way until next year.

Hedgerow harvest around the Lottie today - Greengages and apples which are growing wild behind the plot.  So tonight there are 4 lovely jars of greengage jam,  2 yummy jars of apple sauce and 2 bags of  not particularly interesting, but probably tasty stewed apples waiting to be frozen.

Waiting for the jars to cool down before labelling.

Greengage jam recipe was from here Greengage Jam   I made it without the vanilla pods and with a little less sugar than the recipe states as I like to taste the fruit and not the sugar!  Jam making is a joint effort in our house as Mr Milly is the setter tester - when I think the jam is ready Mr Milly checks the jam on a frozen saucer for wrinkling - he then decides if it is ready or not.   What he doesn't know is that it will be his fault if there is batch which doesn't set as he is the setter tester  :) 

Grumpy, Grumpy, Grumpy

That is me today - GRUMPY!  There is no particular reason for it - maybe its the terrible weather - I don't know, but I do know that early to bed is definitely in order today.

My Girl has now had the offer a boat from Freecyle - she is not really sure where it is going to be kept, but I suspect our driveway will be housing it for a while.   She is now on the lookout for an outboard motor - I have no doubt that she will find one!  There is a bit of dilemma in the house at the moment - how is she going to collect the boat????  I am leaving that decision with Mr Milly, My Girl and My Boy to work out!

I did manage to pop to the Lottie today - nothing really to be done there at the moment, but I just wanted to check that all was OK.  I did pick some more blackberries so more bramble jelly on its way. 

As I was leaving a flash of red caught my eye -so I went to investigate and found this little Lottie - completely covered in all sorts of flowers

I think it is really pretty.