Wet and windy Cornwall

We had our week in Looe in Cornwall last week, it was nice to get away  but the weather was awful. First time I've ever been in September where the weather hasn't been warm and sunny, but we made the best of it, we came home a day early though. As I mentioned in my last post we haven't been to this part of Cornwall before so it was fun exploring new places.

Boat trip

Walk down to Polperro harbour

Polperro harbour

Lovely shop in Fowey

Cream tea

Yay! the sun came out!

Best pasty shop in Looe

I made my Chilli jam and  onion chutney at the weekend,  and tastes good too!

Other than that , I  have been  tidying garden, autumn cleaning, general pottering, and helping Sadie with her new puzzles most of the weekend, she has now gone on to 200 piece !!

 Sadie started school full time today bless her she was so excited this morning! I will miss her chatter, but will also enjoy the quiet....  New painting projects will be commencing soon! Watch this space.

Projects and preserving

I'm loving these last days of summer, the weather is just perfect,warm sun, lovely cool mornings, with the smell of Autumn in the air, and the relief of of cooler evenings and nights,I've had my fan on full every night for months! I like it when it gets dark earlier too, the garden looks really pretty with there fairy lights on.

 I'm already preparing for winter, making Jam's, and chutneys and  pickles, I really enjoy this, and find it very satisfying looking at a stash of homemade jars in my dresser. The market was selling strawberries and raspberries cheap today, they needed to be eaten straight away, but I made jam , delish it was too. Will make some nice Xmas gifts!

I still have more pickles and chutneys to make, I'm just waiting for all my chilli plants to turn red , the ones that have fallen off the plant I have put into the banana bowl, and they are ripening quickly, I'm storing them all in a sandwich bag in my fridge and once I have enough I'm going to make a massive batch of chilli jam or 'Chelly' we get through a lot in this house, very yummy with cheeses, and very versatile for use in cooking and dipping sauces, mixing in with mayo, endless uses...Another favourite chutney of mine is caramelised  onion, so will be making that soon too , I will post up pics and recipe.

Chilli plant

Those bananas have seen better days, banana cake tomorrow me thinks.

I have also been  painting some old pieces of furniture, and picture frames, still have a few more to go.
It's very therapeutic, transforming junk into something special. This old table used to sit in my nan's hall, I think it's one of her oldest pieces of furniture originally purchased in the1950's, from where I have no idea, I have been after a table for a while, but thought I would have this from my nans house clearance, It's nice to keep something of hers in the family, and it was made to fit! but No matter how old or frumpy a piece may look, a lick of ivory paint transforms it into something elegant and beautiful.

Before at Nan's house

After!

Boot sale frame 15p

Revived

We are off to our beloved Cornwall on Monday morning, just for a few days, and I can't wait! We are staying in Looe, we haven't been to this part before, as always go to St Ives,  I'm excited about exploring new places, such as Polperro, and Fowey, think we will still have to spend at least one day in St Ives though, need my fix, can't resist the shops! So will take a drive down just before we come home, buckets, spades nets at the ready!

My little one starts school full time, when we get back, don't know where the time has gone... :(

On the up side this means I have many hours of total peace and quiet during the day, and can now resume with my oil panting, I'm bursting with ideas and can't wait to get started! My aim is to be doing this for a living so I don't have to go to work, and can be at home with my child, I want to be my own boss, It's just a case of building up my portfolio, and good marketing, networking.  Fingers crossed...

My eldest starts college, and and am hoping he settles in well and gets stuck into his studies as he's had a bit too much relaxation and free reign this summer!

Purchasing roses was most definitely a good decision this year, I got so fed up with slugs eating everything I planted, they don't touch these they have flowered all summer and are still doing so.

Warm wishes

Twice in a blue moon

Ena Harkness

I took cuttings from my nan's pink blush roses and yippee they have taken!

My garden is a mix of all styles, people had said you can't have cottage garden mixed in with contemporary plants such as the bamboos and maples, I don't care and don't conform to me it all works fine, roses are my fave thing of all, great to cut and bring in they add cheer.

Enjoy the last days of summer everybody. xx

Sunday blackberry picking = Jam!

We all decided to go blackberry picking  yesterday afternoon, as I have noticed everything is fruiting early this year, and we were pleasantly suprised, We got 4lb of fruit in just under 1 1/2 hrs, not bad! I shall be back in a couple of weeks to pick more as there were stashes that are red and ripening. I noticed there were also lots of elderberries and sloe berries, has anyone made jam out of these before?

I  thoroughly washed all the fruits and de- thorned as soon as I got home yesterday, and stored in the fridge overnight.

I bought my sugar this morning and got to work on making jam.

You will need:

A big heavy bottomed preserving pan
Sugar thermometer (optional)
Saucer placed in the fridge

Its an equal ratio of sugar to fruit so I had:

4lbs blackberries
2 kg Jam sugar (or preserving sugar-both have pectin)
1/2 pint water.

Tip all the blackberries in the pan, pour the water over and bring up to a simmer and cook gently for 10 mins, then add all the sugar, and bring up to a rolling boil on maximum heat, it should still be boiling high up in the pan even when you stir it, it should look like this:

 Do this for 10 mins, then test for setting point,  spoon a little jam onto the cold saucer and push your finger through it , if it wrinkles or doesn't run back in then it's ready, or take off the heat when your thermometer reaches 220 F jam stage.

I got 8 jars out of this, so 8 jars of quality jam for the cost of £3.50, so am I am best pleased, the only down side was getting stung badly in the nettles , thank god that dock leaves are always in abundance to relieve the stinging, I also had loads of minute thorns embedded in my fingers, had to tweezer them out so a little sore today, but was worth it!

Go raid your hedgerows, and make jam, it's easy free and delicious!

These roses are gorgeous are they not?

They are a two tone pink blush, I cut them from my mums garden, they originally came from  my nan's garden, so I have now taken some cuttings and poked them into some soil, hope they take, great to have free roses for the jug, £10 for 6 in supermarket yesterday, Rip Off!!

Hope you had a happy productive weekend. :)

A week in North Wales

We had a lovely week last week in North Wales, the scenery was just beautiful, and we had hot weather every single day, which I've never experienced any other time I have been there, no horrid humidity though, like you get in Essex.

Old watermill half way up to the cottage

My paternal grandmother, who passed away 13 years ago used to live in Blaenau Ffestiniog on a mountain, with waterfalls and streams, and at the top of her road  there are massive slate mountains which we would climb over and play beyond, in the ruins, the sheep were tame too, and we loved stroking them.

Stream on the hill

Dylan trying to find  a spot to fill water

There was a horse called Lona in the field directly opposite my nan's cottage, who was largely neglected by her owner, but my nan took care of her, made sure she had plenty of hay, and food, even though she was quite poor herself. I  adored that horse, and would stand out in the rain just being close to her , stroking her mane, if I couldn't see her I would call her and she would come galloping down from the hills, those were the days....I would have taken her home if I could.

Nan's old cottage

 Everything is the same there, but very overgrown, and neglected like no one cares about it anymore, the stream outside the cottage was so overgrown it was difficult to get a bottle down there to sample the fresh water.
 It seemed very strange doing the walk up the long road to the cottage with my children, I felt strangely possessive of it, as if it was my territory only, my childhood secret place, my  boys didn't seem too think it was anything special, this saddened me quite a bit, but teenagers these days have so much that just having somewhere to explore and play like that just isn't that 'Special' when you consider all the games on computer and all other gadgets etc. My little girl loved it though!

Boys climbing the slate mountain

We visited the harbour of Portmadog whish was nice, had some lovely shops with lots of the local Portmerion pottery.

My kind of shopping!

Snowman heaven! there was a Gruffalo section too...

Betws-y-Coed

The most beautiful place however was Betws-y- Coed, it's like a picture postcard, the kids played in the streams climbing the rocks, and we visited the little railway.

We stayed in Prestatyn, which was nothing special, but was a good site with fantastic swimming pools for the kids, and a lovely beach, our caravan was right beside the dunes, so nice views and sunsets. I didn't venture to the clubhouse ever, I don't do clubhouses. Vile. We had our I pod, and a fridge stocked up with booze, NICE.

Path outside the caravan to the dunes

Sand angel

I won't be venturing to Wales anytime soon though, it takes forever to get anywhere, and I don't like long car journeys, but always make exception when it's Cornwall, we are having a weeks break in September, can't wait!

Onion Bhajees and Mint sauce

These bhajees are so delicious and authentic, and very simple to make, I make these often.. and thought I would share.

For the bahjees you will need:

2-3  med onions
1 Tbsp red lentils pre soaked in water for 10 mins
11/2 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp methi leaves
1 Tbsp med curry powder
1tsp yellow colour(powder) not essential
1tsp garlic paste
1 tsp ginger paste
1 Tbsp Pataks kashmiri paste
1large  egg
Handful chopped fresh coriander
Good pinch salt
Gram flour- 500g bag (you will need 1/4 of this)

Most Indian stores will stock all of the above ingredients very cheaply, you get a lot more for your money than in the supermarkets, just keep your bags of spices sealed in an airtight container, and they will keep for months.

You will need a deep fat fryer or a deep saucepan to cook the bhajees, and  a big bowl to mix all the ingredients.

First pre heat your fryer to 180.

Finely slice all the onion, then add all the other ingredients on top of the onions, minus the gram flour.

Mix everything together gently with your hand in a claw shape, being careful not to squeeze the onions, as it will make the mixture watery. ( The Chef from the restaurant told me this!)
Add 1/4  of the bag of the gram flour and combine in with your hands until it coats everything, your mix should feel thick and sticky.

 Pick up a small amount of mix into one hand and sit in the basket of the fryer, DO NOT squash them flat or they won't cook properly, they need air circulating inside. I can usually fit 3 in at a time, lower in and cook for a couple of minutes, then take out and place into a kitchen paper lined colander, repeat  again then drain.
Now go back to the first 3 that you cooked squash down into a slightly flatter shape and pop back into the fryer for 1 minute then drain again onto kitchen paper, and set aside into a flat baking tin lined with kitchen roll.

Slighty flattened into patty shape

Keep going until you have no mixture left.
You will be picking at them as you wait for the others to cook, they are very moreish!

These are really nice served with mint sauce, to make this you will need:

1/2 pot Natural yoghurt 500g ( I just use cheap lo fat brand)
2 tsp smooth mango chutney
 2 tsp jar mint sauce
2 tsp caster sugar or to taste
Pinch of yellow colour
Splash of milk

I usually make up a big bowl of this and freeze some that is remaining in little plastic pots or ramekins.
 Pour the yoghurt  into a biggish bowl and add all remaining ingredients, mix well with a fork, taste...you can add a bit more sugar if you prefer it on the sweet side. Lastly thin down with a splash of milk, the sauce should have the consistency of single cream.

Everybody I have made these for absolutely love them!

Enjoy!