Thursday 14 November 2013

A new picture? and a few tasks



Another bloggy question - Why is my picture not showing when I follow? Mind you some might think it a blessing !
I think I might change my picture, as the one I have been using is several years old. I still use it on Facebook too. So maybe time for a change. I guess it would be kinder all round if it wasn't a picture of me this time.  mmmmm what to choose  A Goat maybe? or a Chicken? or perhaps some kind of vegetable ?? perhaps I should ask you dear frugellers. But which vegetable springs (onion, cabbage) to mind when you read my blog? Heck I don't know, I'll give it some thought...watch this space.
 Today, I have had to throw away one of my slow cookers. I realised that it was not cooking stuff yesterday, after a few days of stuff not being quite right. So towards the door it went. You need to understand that, as yet, D. hadn't given it the once over and declared it officially un-saveable. So while I'm waiting for the king of make do and mend, otherwise known as makedo and bodgit to give his verdict I prepared a leek and potato soup to go in the other one. As I stirred the stock into the veg, there was a familiar sound. So I emptied out the contents, had a good look at the pot and confirmed that the sound was of a cracked pot! You know what I am going to say next don't you ? I put the pot from the electrically suspect cooker into the electrically sound cooker. At least I have One decent cooker now.
 I finally managed to get my garlic in today. I usually plant it on bonfire night, but what with all that has been going on I slipped behind with this. So job done - 50 cloves in.
 It looks as though there will be another, harder, frost tonight. I managed to take in the last of the dahlias and put them into the greenhouse, along with the spray chrysanthemums. There  is also one pumpkin and two marrows in the shed, which might be affected by frost, so they came into the kitchen. The marrows looked as though they might be going soft so I looked up Frugal in Suffolk's recipe for marrow and Ginger Jam.
YGD turned up to make the preserves we shopped for the other day and we added the marrow jam to our repertoire. And very nice it looks too, a lovely colour. (Can't tell you what else we made as it is a Christmas surprise )
 I have recently started following the Iowa Housewife. Yesterday she commented on my meringue post, with a method of making pastry cases that I haven't thought of before. Have a look at her comment two posts before this one on my blog (hope that makes sense)
 It might be cold outside, but I'm BOILING here! with (one) slow cooker on, three preserving pans bubbling, the oven on cooking a sausage pie and a quiche, while heating jars. it's pretty hot in here.
As soon as it is cleared away I shall go to the considerably cooler, sewing room and do a few lines of a present I'm making.
 Not too sure about last night's TV viewing. Hercule Poirot had a  couple of weak points I thought and I'm not too sure about the Tudor Monastery Farm yet. I've really been looking forward to it, but did find that D. and I shouted at the screen a couple of times!
 Lots of blogs to read tonight. Shall I read them before I retire to the sewing room ? yes of course I will!
Welcome Julie and Helen, I am so pleased to see you here.
See you soon
take care
Gillx

4 comments:

  1. Good work on your patchwork slowcooker :)
    Sitting in my loft is the bowl and lid from my defunct big slowcooker that I wore out a couple of years ago. I replaced it with a new one at the time but kept the parts as over the years I have also cracked the bowl on one slow cooker, and worn out the electrics on a second one. Hopefully if and when I kill another it will be the bowl or lid that needs replacing. Of all my kitchen gadgets I think I love my slowcookers the most and have one large and one small one in use regularly.
    I was also thinking of doing a small batch of the marrow and ginger jam as I have just one marrow sized courgette left to use up, and I love anything with ginger in it.

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  2. Oh I think you will have to have a pic of a chicken ... who doesn't love a chicken.
    The Marrow and Ginger jam is just fab .. I love ginger-y things ... so good for the digestion .. almost a 'health food'! ... you just must eat lots!

    Vicky x

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  3. Another gingery fan here, I had 2 large courgettes still on a plant in the garden but I bet they are mushy now after the frost.....naughty to waste...slapped hand! I'm going to use the Pear Chutney recipe and use eating apples instead, hopefully it will work ok. I don't know the variety as they are freebies but they do cook nice and soft but keep a shape.

    Tudor Farm... mmm.. I'm waiting to see if it gets going a bit, the Wartime one didn't!
    Must check out that pastry recipe. Karen x

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  4. What did you shout at the screen about on Monastery Farm? we smiled when we saw the field had been ploughed and cultivated by a tractor before the oxen moved in to plough it!

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