Nigella's breakfast bars with a little extra.

Paddy wanted a filling snack bar for his morning tea at work. The wheat free bars available in the supermarkets are very expensive and not very substantial. Nigella's breakfast bars seem to be the answer, filling and I know exactly what's in them. The original recipe can be found on Nigella's website. 

    

The Recipe is flexible and I can add this and that to keep the bars from getting boring.

1 large tin of condensed milk.

Rolled oats.

Warm the condensed milk and add the rolled oats and mix well. Shredded coconut, chopped nuts, whole peanuts, dried fruits of any kind and chocolate drops are all good to add. Peanut butter or chocolate spread can be substituted for some of the condensed milk. I haven't tried spices but I suspect cinnamon and apple would be good. 

When your chosen ingredient are mixed well together, press the mix into a lined tray. Push down well with the back of a spoon. Bake in a warm oven 130c for 1hr. When cooked mark into bars while still warm. Store in a airtight tin. 

They got the thumbs up from Paddy 

 

New Challenge.

Hello dear friends, I haven't been here in a very long while, I didn't feel I had anything different to blog about. Not much has changed with me, I am still here in Cornwall, still with Pampa, still growing, knitting, sewing, cooking. I do have one new big challenge, my youngest son had developed a wheat allergy and I am learning to cook 'wheat free'. I want to keep a record on how I'm doing with this. So as well as what happening on the 'Lottie' and here at home,I will be writing about all things 'wheat free'. 

To start with, Is this Horse Radish?

Off for the day.

Last Thursday I had a little day out. An unexpected day out but never the less very enjoyable. A trip to a yarn shop to take part in a wooly workshop. Not very frugal I know but a girl can't live to knit dishcloths all the time. This is what we knitted, a fluffy cuff with beads and sequins. Only I didn't add the sequins, the beads were enough bling for me. The yarn is one of my favourite, Rowan Kid Silk Haze, so soft but so impractical. The photo is not good and doesn't show the colours at all well. They are two beautiful greens not grey as looks.
The yarn shop 'spin-a-yarn' is in Bovey Tracy, a small town just outside Exeter, in the beautiful Devon countryside. Small in size but crammed full of the most marvellous yarns and notions. I did spend some of my pocket money on a couple of pairs of new knitting needles, including a rather nice set of sock needles. A enough Rowan yarn to knit a pair of fingerless mittens and another pair of fluffy cuff, both as Christmas presents. Also two lots of sock yarn both in multi shades of blue, both destine for more Christmas presents.
Lunch was part of the package, quiche, salad and potato salad, all homemade and very tasty.

Not loopy just learning.

I'm not going loopy I'm just learning how to blog using this iPad thing!

Bits and pieces.

I've been enjoying a couple of weeks of gentle homemaking, staying within my home and garden with the daily trip to the lottie for watering and harvesting and other horticultural activities. There has been some baking, I was given this magazine, it's a BBC Good Food special edition called 'Baking', it was well worth the £3.50. 

I made this for myself for my birthday, it doesn't look much but it was very good, cinnamon and chocolate. Since I have been on my diet I've lost my overly sweet tooth and a small slice was more than enough, but the boys polished it off no problems.

 Rhonda over at D2E has been blogging about using loose tea in a tea pot instead of all those 'disposable' tea bags. Here's my little pot for my daytime cups of tea, only me in the daytime. I like English Breakfast for my morning tea and Earl Grey for later in the day. 

I've been sorting out a few vintage pillowcases (bought in the Op shops of NSW) to make another quilt, this time for our bed. I've opted for smaller squares this time, 6inch. Well they are all cut and sorted into some sort of colour order, all I need to do now is start sewing. 

Something new from the lottie, egg plant or aubergine. I've not grown these before, didn't I do well, these a little beauties. I turned them into a Moussaka, something else I haven't made before. It was good, I noticed Pampa had seconds.

Potting up a few more strawberry plants, I might actually get some berries next year if I can keep the mice off them.

Also been learning how to work this new piece of technology. I think this Ipad will be easy for me to carry on my travels. It's certainly easy to use and I can use it like a Kindle as well.

Last but not least there has been lots of this going on. My blankie is quite large now, it takes a while to complete a round and a whole ball of yarn. 

There has been an awful lot of housework done as well, the house is sparkling. I might not feel like it next week so I'm getting as much done while I'm in the mood.

Shutting the door and barricading against the Zombie Hordes.

I'm shutting the door for the next couple of weeks as my town is being turned into a film location set and all the teenagers and some of the not so teenagers are all of a dither.

As this young man is coming to Falmouth to shoot part of his next film, 'World War Z' and 500 of the local youngsters have become extras. I'm not complaining really as the revenue this will bring to the area is huge but I not sure I want to get caught up in it. Oh!! but he does have a very nice smile.  :-)

What's on my table this morning?

What's on my table this morning?

First at this time is a cup of tea, milk no sugar or sometimes lemon. This is my one of my new mugs, I like nice china to drink out of. It is part of the V&A fine bone china collection and  was a buy one get one free deal. 

A little reading, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, I haven't started yet but will this weekend. Underneath I have the BBC GoodFood magazine, past on to me by a friend and a recipe 'George's Minestrone with spaetzle' I downloaded from D2E forum. 

Now this little book is important to me and I'm sure there are some of you that think I'm mad to write this  information down BUT I need too. It is 'Mum's Book of Important Little Things. Passwords and the like!!!!   As time passes so does the memory and like a lot of other 'older' people I have senior moments. Don't tell me off, I keep it safe.

A wooden bowl, Benjy brought this back from one of his trips, I think it might have been Dominican Republic. Inside are a set of coasters I made from scraps of fabric and quilt batting. 

Nice smell, we are inundated with sweetpeas at the moment, I have jars of them everywhere. I just love to see flowers in jam jars, it reminds me of my school days. We had a large garden at school, filled with flowers, fruit and vegetables. We always had jars of flowers on the windowsills and cupboard tops. 

Always a little craft work, here I have a green wrap I am knitting as a Christmas present, a dishcloth of course and my new project a crochet granny square blanket. I had rather a large bag of odd balls of yarn and I bought a bag from the charity shop, it all needed using up. 

It's been very warm here for the last two or three days but today the sky is overcast and there has been a few spots of rain. I don't think it's going to be much as I can see the blue sky peeping through. Where I sit in my chair I can see out over the valley to the hills, I can see the windmills on the Lizard Peninsular and one of the satellite dishes of Goonhilly radio station. I'm not sure which one, they have such wonderful names from Arthurian Legend. I like to think it might be Arthur himself.

Have a good day/night everyone.  x

A woodburner, casserole and preserving.

I didn't go to the lottie yesterday as we were off looking for a wood burner for our lounge room, it took us all day. I was amazed at the vast selection on offer, all very confusing but I think we have made a choice. This one   ..........      we can put a kettle on the top and make our tea, the glass doesn't soot up and it gives out a goodly amount of heat. It burns wood and is exactly what I want. We will have to have  the fireplace altered slightly to make it fit and the hearth needs extending so we don't burn lumps out of the carpet but all very doable. 

Today when I went to water the tomatoes I found a whole heap of produce needed harvesting, how does it grow so fast? Beetroot, runner beans, cabbage, kale, purple sprouting, calabrase and a whole heap of herbs. Oh and yes the last load of gherkins and I do mean load.  I also brought home some garlic, I'm going to make Jamie's pasta sauce (saw this on Facebook this morning) tomorrow.  

I pickled the beetroot and gherkins and the rest is safely tucked away in the freezer. Oh apart from the herbs, I've hung those in the conservatory to dry. 

Casserole in the slow cooker and stewed rhubarb for supper. Enough left overs for my lunch tomorrow.

The sun shone and I did get to sit in the garden and drink my tea. My £5 car boot sale table has been rubbed down and painted with a coat of preserver. I'm really pleased with it, just right for holding our afternoon tea.

More allotment work.

 Lots of work going on at the allotment this week. We dug the last of the early potatoes and pop in the leek seedlings. Poor things have been waiting a little too long and took some splitting up. More rain had been forecast for this weekend and I hope this will settle them in. Do you notice my nice straight rows? Benjy tells me off if I'm not neat and tidy when gardening. :-)

I had a little space at the end of the plot and as luck would have it, a few lettuce seedlings needing a spot of their own. 

The marrows are doing really well this year. We ate this one at lunch today, it was yummy.

 The 'hoop house' is bursting at the seals now. Chillies, these are Hungarian Hot Wax, are not ready yet, Benjy tried one this week and he was able to eat it raw.

 Millions of tomatoes of all shapes and sizes, I love these little Tiny Toms

                                                                                     and these huge  Giant Tree Tomatoes .

 There are a few melons, I think this one is a sweetheart but can't see a watermelon, as yet.

The cucumbers.

Now what else have we producing, runner beans, broad beans, broccoli, beetroot, swede and cabbages. No it's not a bad photo, that's insect netting, the best thing we invested in this year.

The sweetcorn is doing much better than I expected. We have had such a dry start to the season but now it's started to rain everything is catching up,

including the onions, shallots and garlic. 

These poor peas are the only ones I have been able grow. They were eaten by mice while still in the ground and the few that did manage to show a shoot or two were pulled apart by the pigeons. 

Pampa's socks.

I've been working hard today trying to finish up a lot of things. Pampa's socks were the first thing off the needles, I've only been working on these since February. Oh dear! They are a good fit and Pampa says they are lovely and soft. 

Also out of the unfinished basket, two cushion covers, a tablecloth, a set of coasters, a pair of Benjy's chef trousers and a new bag for the bread. Didn't I do well. 

An outing.

Pampa and I have been out for the day, we have been to the local agricultural show. The weather was perfect and there were no long queues to get in even though there were 20,000 people there, it is very well organised.  We started with the cattle all so beautifully turned out.

Look at this ram, he was enormous, think of all the socks I could knit with his fleece. They would keep Pampa's feet warm for a few years.

There were goats by the cart load both big ones and littles. People take the showing very seriously and are just so pleased when they win.

I loved this little fellow, he was only knee high to a grasshopper but so confident and he had a cute little bleat, if that is what you call a goats call.

I had a long talk with several ladies from the Spinners and Weaver group. I would really like to have a go at spinning my own yarn. Perhaps even the wool of something like these beautiful Llamas, they were for sale as well but Pampa put his foot down. "No we can't keep a Llama in the back garden."

The show jumping was pretty exciting, this gentleman did his round with no faults at all and his horse was so gorgeous. I haven't ridden since I was a child but I do enjoy watching.

The vintage vehicle enthusiasts were there in force, this lovely car was being admired by so many. Not only cars but tractors, lorries, motor bikes and steam engines.

Pampa was particularly taken with this Morris Pickup. His first car was a Morris Minor, he learnt to drive in her. 

The steam engines were pretty impressive, I love the sound and the smell. When I was a child, a large steam engine and thresher would come to the farm to thresh the grain harvest. All the neighbours would come along to help and mother and I would carry the harvest tea out to the workers. My nephew and I would get to stand on the footplate. No Health and Safety in those days. We rode on the back of the tractor, played in the farm yard and climbed the haystack, no one told us not too.

I loved this little lad, he was so professional about it all and his smile when he received his rosette was as wide as the showground. 

There were loads of other things to see, the fruit and veg show, all the preserves, craft displays, spinning and woodworking demos. How to keep bees, chickens, ducks, lots of rare breeds and of course stalls selling all manner of items to use on your farm or smallholding. I could have even bough a cement mixer if I had wanted one. 

Lunch was eaten on the grass in front of the band stand while the local brass band played 'The Helston Floral Dance" or as we would call it 'The Furrey Dance.' After lunch we looked at some of the trade stalls, sat on the ride on mowers, coveted the water storage tanks, were amazed at the size of the tractors and how much they cost and generally had an enjoyable time. 

I did speak to the ladies in the WI tent ( CWA for those of you in Australia) and was persuaded to join a new group that was being set up in my area. The list of super courses that are available for WI members was a big incentive but it is something I have though about for a while. 

Oh I forgot about the dog show and the chickens, I didn't know so much went into showing a chicken but they were beautiful.

Celebrations.

These last two weeks have been filled with celebration in our family. When the children were young we always had just one big party and one big cake. Everyone would meet together on the middle Sunday and we would have a picnic bbq or cram into one of our houses if it was raining. Now a days the pace is more leisurely and some of us meet for afternoon tea and cake of course. 

This is Pampa's older brother who is celebrating his 65th birthday today.

Happy Birthday Petie Weets.