All done!

 

Just popping into say hello. I didn’t post yesterday as, to be quite honest, very little happened. I spent a lot of time at my dining room table writing Christmas cards and also feeding the family! The weather was diabolical, so I was happy to get on with things. 

Today, I finished writing the cards, well the shop bought ones. Everything is packed way in my storage container until the beginning of December when I’ll post them. Hubby has a few to write, but it’s far to early for him to get his head around Christmas cards, haha. 

I popped up to the top of the garden to feed the birds and realised that the black garden membrane that the feeding station sits on, was really disgusting and smelly from the residue of seeds etc. So the feeding station was moved, the membrane taken up, fresh put down and feeding station put back in place. All the time the black clouds were rolling in and I could feel the birds watching my every move. By the time I was making my way down the path, the sparrows and blue tits were already snacking. 

The garden is looking pretty awful at the moment with all the rain we’ve had, but our ornamental cherry tree is lovely in its autumnal hues. It won’t be long before the leaves have all dropped, but it’s not all bad news, as the tree flowers twice a year. There are buds already forming for a bit of winter blooms. 

I made a huge chilli and rice for our evening meal, which was eagerly devoured and I’m now going curl up to read some magazines. Hope you have all had as nice a weekend that lockdown allows. Cheerio for now, Ann x

Getting started on Christmas

 

Well, I started writing my Christmas cards this afternoon, after saying for a couple of days about getting round to it! I get my shop bought cards written and out of the way, so that I have plenty of time to enjoy making my special family and friends ones. Too many times have I left myself short of time and then I’ve felt so stressed. So this year I will enjoy myself. I do love writing Christmas cards, stamping a ‘Merry Christmas ’ on the front of the envelope and using a festive sticker for an envelope seal. The silver A4 notebook is my sending list, each entry is duly ticked off once I’ve written the card. I’ve stopped now for the day, but will resume tomorrow morning. 

I’m now going to curl up in my chair and relax. I’m aching slightly from the PE with Joe Wicks workout this morning. It was the finish to his 24 hour workout for Children in Need and unsurprisingly, he looked absolutely worn out! But through donations etc. during his workout, he raised a whopping £2.1m! So well done Joe! 

Apart from Christmas card writing, I’m not sure what else I’m up to tomorrow. Bad weather is coming in later I think, so I might have to hunker down. So until then, cheerio for now, Ann x

Sorting the kitchen out and a wallaby!

 Thursday is Dart Fresh food delivery, followed by a quick trip to the farm shop for other bits needed. I had time to clear my ironing mountain before the delivery arrived. My ironing programme of choice was Midsomer Murders today. 

After packing away all the fruit, veg and meat, it was off to the farm shop for me and my son, who had the day off today. His girlfriend was busy working in spare room/office, so with nothing better to do, he accompanied me! As you may have read on a previous post about Oscar the Ostrich, this farm shop has several animals on its many acres of land. But whenever my son comes with me, we have to say hi to the wallabies. Why, I don’t know, he was never a great fan of  them when he little! The farm shop has two, unnamed as far as I know, in a large enclosure. We were lucky that they were out, as sometimes they are tucked up in their little houses.....

 Once the obligatory ‘chat’ with them was over ( it was very one sided!), I actually got to do the shopping I had gone there to do. All the Christmas goodies are on the shelves, looking very inviting, but I resisted this time and stuck to my list. 

My afternoon was spent sorting out my very tiny kitchen, rearranging things to find space for my new slow cooker which is considerably bigger than the last one. Also, the small area of worktop above the fridge had become a bit of a dumping ground for things that didn’t have a home. So, after throwing out/recycling several larger items in the top of my larder cupboard, my food processor and my food mixer have new homes. Hence my shiny new slow cooker now has pride of place on my worktop. I can’t wait to use it! I felt very pleased with myself, but also very weary, it seemed to all take an age! Fortunately my lovely son had offered to cook dinner for us all which was very welcome. Homemade Lamb Kebab in pittas with homemade spicy potato wedges was on the menu.  This evening I’ve relaxed with some magazines, while hubby has been watching the Masters golf on tv. 

Tomorrow I’ll definitely be tackling my Christmas card list, as I haven’t got round to it, despite best intentions. So I’ll bid you goodnight and say cheerio for now, Ann x

A disaaaaaster!........and the final results

 Hello everyone, two days in one here, as the final scores for the millionaires shortcake came in late last night, along with the Swiss Roll scores. The winner of the Millionaires Shortcake was our daughter, much to the disgust of her partner (he did have an issue with the chocolate layer, so our daughter said) 

Speaking of Swiss rolls........I now know why I haven’t made one since high school ( good old domestic science lessons) and buy M&S ones when they’re on offer! Once I took it out of the oven and started to ‘roll’, it was a disaster! It completely cracked and became a rectangular roll. The actual sponge looked fine, albeit to deep.  Anyway I very quickly put it on a plate, covered it with clean tea towel and it was hubby’s turn. His bake also cracked, although as his sponge was thinner, it appeared to have more of a roll. So here are our offerings, mine is ‘B’ , please don’t laugh, haha...........

Anyway, the scores came in relatively quickly for ours........and I won!! Although it looked bloomin’ awful, it did taste really nice and the sponge was very light. Hubby’s sponge was very close, so I just goes to show even though two people use the same recipe, the results can be very different. 

So all the girls won and of course we didn’t go on about it........much :))

Today I met our daughter at Exmouth for a beach walk with a Blue Cross dog she was introducing to different environments. To say it was a bit windy would be an understatement! But it blew the cobwebs away for an hour or so and Ari, the dog enjoyed himself. He probably slept all the way back to the centre, with all the sea air! 

Tonight I’m going through my Christmas cards and sending list, to see how many special ones I have to make. The rain is lashing against the window now, so it will be a nice way to spend the evening. Thank you for popping by, cheerio for now, Ann x

Bake Off 1 and 2

 Evening everyone! I’ve eaten so much cheesecake and millionaires shortcake, I can barely move!

Firstly the New York cheesecake. They both turned out very well and were absolutely delicious. They were judged out of 5 for appearance and out of 10 for taste by 6 of us (me, hubby, daughter, her partner and two independent judges down the road) Our son scored 73 and his girlfriend 76.5, so she is Star Baker  on round one. We had a lot of cheesecake left, so various neighbours have been grateful recipients and dear son is licking his wounds after losing, haha.

Now the Millionaires Shortcake. Our daughter had to drive over to us to swap cheesecake and Millionaires. Bumble came along too for a visit. As we stood outside in the road, she couldn’t understand why she couldn’t go into our house, bless her. But she enjoyed her treat of a carrot nonetheless. The scores for this bake are not all in yet, as the judges down the road haven’t submitted them yet, so you’ll have to wait until tomorrow........the suspense! 

Hubby and I will be baking our Swiss Rolls tomorrow, not a spectacular looking item to bake, perhaps more of a technical one, I really don’t want to crack mine! I’ve got my pinny at the ready, so cheerio for now, Ann x

A visitor in the house........

 I had internet problems yesterday, so it’s late again.

For those of you who don’t watch Great British Bake Off, it’s hosted by Matt Lucas, a little chubby bald guy and Noel Fielding, lots of hair and a penchant for huge jumper. 

Yesterday, it was our son and his girlfriend’s turn to do their cheesecakes. The kitchen was taken over first by our son and as he was just starting using his culinary skills, I remembered I had a dark wig in the fancy dress box. That, along with my ancient, very long, gardening jumper and some bristles painted on with mascara, turned me into Noel Fielding......sort off! Hubby and son’s girlfriend thought it was really funny, our son? not so much, especially when I was trying to interview him about his cheesecake base, haha! This is the real Noel Fielding.......

and are local Noel Fielding........

Post interview, I raced upstairs to get back to being me. I was bloomin’ baking ( sorry for the pun!) in the big jumper and wig. Also, I didn’t want to keep the mascara ‘bristles’ on my face any longer than I had to. Thankfully, a normal Ann, came down the stairs minutes later. 

Anyway, cheesecakes are in the fridge and we will be judging tonight. My daughter and her partner are making their Millionaires Shortcake today, so she will drive over to ours later ( a 5 min journey) to swap the samples over, on our doorstep of course. We’ve also got two independent judges (neighbours) who jumped at the chance of sampling everything. Photos of cheesecakes and millionaires shortcake will hopefully be on tonight’s post. Hubby and I are baking tomorrow.

Other than the Bake Off excitement, it was a normal quiet Sunday for me. I did roast pork for lunch and made an apple crumble for Sunday tea. Hope you all had a lovely weekend, cheerio for now, Ann x

Lockdown Bake Off

 

Our daughter rang late last night with a challenge to the household, or rather each couple. Our son and his girlfriend are to bake a New York Cheesecake each and we will judge them. Our daughter and her partner are going to bake Millionaires Shortcake, which I think, all four of us here are going to judge. (She will have to drop some over to us enroute to work or on the way home) Hubby and I are baking a Swiss Roll each. It’s years since I made one of those and I don’t think hubby has ever baked one! So it’s going to be very interesting and perhaps a little stressful, particularly when there are others in MY kitchen. But it’s also going to be a bit of fun and something a bit different. I’m not sure if there’s a round two, but I have to get through round one first. The first bake is the New York cheesecake, taking place tomorrow, so watch this space for an update! 

In other news today, I’ve done some Christmas shopping online from a Cornish craftsperson, https://www.cornishfusedglassbykirstynsmith.com/  and I’m really looking forward to receiving the goodies in the post. There’s a virtual craft market I’ll be going to soon, so perhaps I’ll be supporting another small business and it’s a good feeling. 

Now, I’m going to settle down to watch an episode of Midsomer Murders and wait for hubby to get home. Thanks for popping by, cheerio for now, Ann x