Success all round.

Tomorrow is Community Shop day at our study centre so it was time to try out baking in my new oven. I was amazed how quickly it got to the right temperature and was very impressed at how evenly baked the cakes were.

It was definitely a success :-) 1 Victoria Sandwich Cake for refreshments as requested and 4 Fruit  Cakes for the Sale Table £2:50 each, I have trimmed the liners and wrapped them in counter wrap and labelled them. The 'buns' were a bit of left over mixture, hubby's treat with his cups of tea.  Not a crumb for me! 

It was another successful weigh in for me last night, I had lost another pound :-) slow and steady wins the race. We had a huge but delicious salad tonight for our tea, it took ages to eat and I was stuffed full when finished.

I had chilli chicken from Asda on mine and boy was it hot!! and very garlicky! 

I bought these in B&M the other day its quite a big jar for 89p, along with some sliced gherkins they add a bit of zing and heat to salads, I didnt need any tonight the chicken was hot enough on its own!  The fruit and quark were a nice sweet cooler to finish off with.

This afternoon while hubby was cutting the grass I popped into the greenhouse and potted the tomato plants up into big pots, tomorrow I need to sow cucumbers and salad leaves and do more weeding in the veg plot!  Looks like it will be another busy day.

Back soon

Take care

Karen xxx

Bunting and Baking.

Welcome to new followers, thank you for reading my chunterings. Thank you all for your comments on the last couple of posts, sorry I haven't answered them all but life is busy just now xx

Today 

I had a little spare time in between jobs and I made my lovely friend some Blue Bunting for their new campervan, I love making bunting from all the small bits of fabric that get stuffed into a scrap bag, these little flags were only 5 inches long so hardly took any fabric plus it only had to be 91 inches long, easy peasy :-)

I decided to make the centre flag from plain blue fabric and using the machine I embroidered their names onto it with a variegated thread.

It may not be perfect but its very personal and it was made with love xx

Saturday was our Study Centre Coffee Morning so I baked a couple of cakes

3 fruity ones and the usual Victoria Sandwich which always goes down well.  We arrived at the centre for just after 9am and set everything up, then packed it all away again at 12 noon.....nobody came!! There was just the 6 of us, all volunteers, we sat and had a lovely natter over tea and cake and put the world to rights! The fruit cakes went home with my daughter in law, quarter of the sandwich cake got eaten a quarter went home with my friend and the other half we took to our friends at teatime, it was the finishing touch to a delicious roast dinner cooked by my lovely friend Lesley.  Thank you Lesley, it was just what I needed xx

Todays weather has been mixed, it started with the sun shining then gradually the wind got up, tonight the rain has been lashing against the windows and its been blowing a hoolie.  The saying for March is....In like a lion and out like a lamb...... Its certainly been a lion day today!

Hope tomorrow is a better day

Take care

Karen xxx

Assorted Christmas makes

Yesterday was our Thimbles Christmas Tea Party and it was decided that we would all just make 1 card each and scatter them round the table so everyone got one each, it saved the problem of writing multiple cards and hoping they turned up to the party to receive them, a much better idea. This was mine, its a pattern I have used many times and its from Stitching Cards, if you fancy a go they have free downloads on their website.

This week I managed to get Willows cushion done to match the raggedy quilt I have made her for a Christmas present. The only bits of fabric I had left were scraps so I straightened them up joined them together and to add a bit of strength (because my seams were tiny), I backed it with wadding and a thin fabric, i did stitch in the ditch to quilt it and then made it into a cover with an envelope back in black fabric. I think its turned out better than I expected:-)

Today a spot of Christmas baking,  2 dozen mince pies, 1 dozen Lemon curd and a Cherry Pie, using canned filling from Aldi. I will do a bit more on Tuesday, I need to make hubby and my son a Cherry Cake and my Dad a Sugar free fruit cake.

Tomorrow is a day for delivering presents and having tea with our dear friends.

Time for a cuppa and to test those Mince Pies :-)

Back soon

Take care

Karen xxx

Pastry recipe for Twiggy.

250gm cold Butter cubed (because it's Christmas and I like the flavour. You could use block marg)

100gm cold Lard cubed

350gm SR Flour

350gm Plain Flour

100gm Caster Sugar.  Could use Icing sugar. I wanted a sweet pastry but you could miss this out.

Good pinch of salt

Enough cold water to make into a dough just soft enough to handle

Usual method of

Rub fats into flour until fine breadcrumbs, add sugar then add enough cold water to bring everything together, add just a tablespoon at a time.  Dont add too much or knead your pastry as this makes it tough. Rest for 10mins.  Roll out gently. Think opposite to making bread.  I baked mine at 180*c fan oven for 15-20 mins the pie about 40 -45 mins. Hope this helps xx

Busy Sunday and Low Spend September

Today we saw a change in the weather, it has been a lovely sunny day with a slight breeze, perfect for getting the washing dry so I took the opportunity to wash all the big towels. I'm hoping that tomorrow will be nice so I can get the bedding washed. I have also had a bit of a baking session, i wanted to stretch the last pack of minced steak into a couple of meals as part of my Low Spend September and as we hadn't had a pie for a while set to and made some pastry.

2x7" pies and a small individual one, I still had pastry leftover so found the last of the grated cheese in the freezer to make a deep quiche, meanwhile the breadmaker was busy making us a nice fresh loaf.

I added onion and diced carrots to the mince to give flavour and a bit of bulk. My son took one home and we had half of one for tea with carrots cauliflower and cabbage, we will have the same tomorrow night.

I was given some eating apples and conference pears on Friday so I made another huge Apple tray bake and them made the same mixture to use with the sliced and lightly poached pears, while it was still warm from the oven I spread the top with runny honey, it tastes delicious, we had some today with greek yogurt, the rest is in the freezer for another time.  The freezers are still groaning and apart from buying a few packs of meat we are good for October too, just lately we seem to be taking one thing out and putting five back in lol.  I am still doing well with no spend days, it helps to stay home and keep busy! 

Hubby has been busy too, repairing and painting the garden shelter.

Its been stripped down and some new bits made to replace any dodgy timber and the roof has had new felt, it should last another few years now.

The new series of Downtown Abbey starts tonight so after a quick read of the blogs I will be settling down to the tv.

Enjoy your evening 

Karen xxxx

Coffee Morning Baking with costings.

Firstly a big Hello to my lovely new followers, so good to have you on board, thank you for taking time to read my Chunterings. Xx

We braved the smog this morning to go shopping, I needed lots of ingredients for my baking session this afternoon. I usually bake on the Friday but in the morning I have to go to the cold store to collect all the veggies and call at my Mums, her neighbours are being evicted and I think she is worried there might be trouble.  As I said in my brief post yesterday I have to submit expenses for my ingredients and then give back the money as a donation so today I have costed out the cakes.

Victoria Sandwich

225 gm Margarine.     34p

225gm  Caster sugar. 35p

275gm. SR Flour.        10p

4 Eggs (lidl).                 36p

500gm Icing Sugar.      94p

100gm Margarine.        15p

Third jar Basic Jam.       10p

Total cost for an 8 inch basic sandwich cake is. £2:34

I used the same recipe for my Lemon Cake with Lemon Curd and a fresh Lemon adding another 30p

And for the Coffee Cake i used a couple of spoons of strong coffee disolved in hot water.

The buns were also this recipe with the decorations adding another 40p..the mini eggs were from Aldi at 59p for 90gm

                          Coffee Cake

                      Lemon Cake

Buns, all boxed in 4s to be sold for £1:20 a box.  These are going on my stall with some craft bits and my bags, I have to pay £5 for the stall and these buns will take care of that, just incase my craft doesnt sell :-). 

                        Alice's Fruit Cakes

This amount of mixture makes 5 one pound loaf cakes. 3 of these for my stall 2 for the Coffee Morning.

700gm  Dried Fruit.    £1:40

1pint Milk.                        25p  from a 2lt carton @ £1

450gm Margarine.            68p. Baking soft margarine 2kg tub

350 gm Sugar.                  54p

700gm. SRFlour.               34p

4 Eggs (lidl).                       36p

4 teaspoons mixed spice.   10p

2teaspoons Bicarb.               5p

Total cost for 5 Fruit Loaves ....£3:72 approx 75p each. I will sell 3 for £2 each

Total cost of all the above cakes is...£13:78 ...Coffee Morning Expenses £8:79 and at 50p a slice we should make a good profit.

If I sell the buns and 3 loaf cakes on my craft stall I should make myself a profit of £8:21 :-) that will easily cover stall costs.  My friend has just said she will share a stall and the costs :-) :-) 

Sorry if you have found this post boring, but blogging about the costings will help me in the future, oh and incidently I havent included cost of electricity or tin liners because I dont know how...lol 

I hope you all had a good day and wasn't too affected by this Sahara Smog.

Take care

Karen xxx

Black over Bills mothers!

Its bitter cold today and its raining again, it did start the day bright and breezy and I managed to get a couple of fleeces dry, then it clouded over and rained! Looking out if the window there are lotsof black   clouds, hence the blog title....Its black over Bills mothers....

Time for snuggling down with a bit of knitting.

Back onto the hats for the shoeboxes, its really an ongoing project at Thimbles, it was decided on last week that the funds could afford to buy some wool for us to knit and one of our ladies had spotted this wool for sale in bags of 20 x25gm for the bargain price of £2per bag at the Doncaster Keep Moat car boot sale.   Its not often you can pick up 500gms of wool for 2 quid! If you look at the label you will see that its the one they were giving free with a crochet magazine, its supposed to be double knitting but its quite thick so I am knitting it on size 7 needles and doing it striped makes it grow quicker lol

Family dinner day tomorrow for my DiL s birthday so I had to bake this morning, well you have you have cake dont you?

I also treated hubby to some fruity scones, it doesnt take much  to make him happy :-)

Oops look at the time....better get the tea going.....pizza and salad with some fresh cooked free organic beetroot :-) and maybe a slice of lurpak with a bit of scone!

Enjoy your evening

Karen xxx

Coffee Morning Baking.

Tomorrow it is our Coffee Morning at our local environmental study centre so this morning I set to and baked cakes for our refreshments. I baked a few buns and a Victoria Sandwich filled with butter cream and homemade Damson Jam.

Scones usually go down quite well so I made a dozen plus 2 from the last bit for my hubby. We usually get a few kids so I made a tray of chocolate brownie, just incase they didn't get enough chocolate over Christmas!

We also sell Organic Veg, given to us freely by a local Organics Farm. Pollybell. This is a really good fund raiser for us. We always make up a basket full for the raffle and include a jar of preserves or eggs. Its a simple prize thats always well received.

It looks and smells wonderful in my garage with all those lovely leeks, I will certainly be buying plenty veggies tomorrow...good for my healthy eating!....NO CAKES!!

This is the Golden Beetroot I got as a freebie the other day, cooked and peeled, doesn't it look fab, if a little weird! It was still warm when we tasted it and its lovely...really sweet...with a hint of roast chestnut...a cheeky little veg...  Some of it will find it's way onto my tuna salad tonight, at no ww points per serving it's a definite winner with me.

The healthy eating is going well, I am starting to feel less bloated...maybe thats because of less bread! I have actually been on the treadmill today too, after 10 minutes I was puffing away like an old fat carthorse, I knew I wasn't fit but thats BAD! I can only improve with effort. I think 2014 will be the year to stick at it and improve my health and fitness.

Thats all folk's....it's time to get the tea ready..

Take care

Karen xxx

Christmas Fair

Sunday the 1st December and Saturday 7th December my friend and I had a Craft stall at the Christmas Fair and the Coffee Morning at our local Environment Study Centre.  Unfortunately I wasnt able to attend the one on the 1st as we were down in Devon visiting our family but my lovely friend said she would manage on  her own and didn't mind a bit trying to sell my stuff too.  We had a corner table in quite a good position with a good selection of things to sell all reasonably priced, from 5op to £5 (large snowman with the green hat), when deciding to do it we agreed to split the takings regardless of who sold what.  The table cost £5 for the Christmas Fair and nothing for the Coffee morning.

 Here are a few photos of my share of the "stuff" for sale

 Christmas Cards and Gift Wallets  £1 each

 Sewing Kit in a jar with a handmade pin cushion £3 Bag Charms £3 and Christmas Pudding chocolates for the tree 75p and £1, made with Elizabeth Shaw Mints.

 Close up of the sewing kits, they had inside. a tape measure, ribbon, thread, needles, pins, buttons and saftey pins plus a pin cushion £3.  The jars were from Ikea.

 Snowman Soup. as described in a previous post. £2

 Felt Hearts, small £1 and large £2, these were joined by my friends Gingerbreadmen, Puddings, Trees and stockings.

 Handcrafted fancy boxes full of Cadburys Roses  chocolates £3

 Tiny boxes made from the offcuts of the ones above. They were just the right size for a glass Tea light holder and candle, the green are vanilla scented and the red are festive berry. £1 each

 These were very fiddly to make with the acetate in the lids.

 Bracelets and Notepads which were left over from the Summer Fair. 50p  75p and £1

And a selection of Birthday Cards  from 50p to £1.25

 We made the grand total of £6 each lol The Christmas Fair was heaving with people who just werent spending their dosh!!  never mind, everyone was the same and at least we could have another go at the Coffee Morning............ that did better with only a few people attending we made £14 each. So for only £20 it was a lot of effort...... we did have fun making stuff though!!

I also do the refreshments for the Coffee morning and this time we had scones, Victoria Sandwich and bought Mince Pies, another lady donated a Chocolate slab cake, again it was slow and we only took £14.30, about half the normal amount. 

 I think many people are just being very careful with money at the moment, what with Christmas and the price of the next energy bills cutbacks have to be made somewhere!  Lets hope we can get back to normal after the new year and boost our study centre funds.

Thank you for popping by
Take Care

It's c c c c Cold being a Snowman....

The Snowman Song  by Simon Mayor  click to listen to a clip

Snowman Soup is now on the menu for our Craft Stall next month.   I sat ages last night putting this little lot together, cutting bag toppers and embossing them with a snowflake folder and then making the labels, they're not perfect  but they go down a treat with the kids at school.

Things are coming along nicely, but I will probably be last minute for a few things.

I have had a really busy day today, its our Coffee Morning at The Austerfield Study Centre  tomorrow so lots of cakey things have been baked and are now ready to go. More about those tomorrow when I can take a decent piccie. We are being sponsored by a local organic veg producer  Pollybell Organics, they are supplying us with fresh local vegetables to sell with all monies going to the study centre funds and it was our job (daughter in law & me) to go and get them from the cold store.  It was pouring down with rain and the farm was well off the beaten track and very very muddy!! luckily the car park had gravel down so we didn't get dirty, just soaked!!   The veggies are fabulous we just hope they sell well, I have my camera in my bag so hopefully I will get some photographs to show you.

Until tomorrow, take care

Kitchen Capers

I noticed that the bread in the breadbin was looking a bit past it so I did what I would normally do and whizz it up in the food processor to make breadcrumbs.  I would usually freeze that for a later date but this morning I had plenty of time on my hands so I carried on and made stuffing balls, once they were cool I bagged them up in 2s and popped them into a box in the freezer.  I have some Pork steaks to use up during November so the stuffing balls will be a tasty addition to those meals. Much nicer than Auntie B's and so much cheaper.

 Next up we have some lovely golden syrupy Flapjack, I usually cut this into 16 but I have been thinking about making a tray to sell at the coffee morning on Saturday and it needed to be in bigger pieces so this was a trial, I'm thinking about charging 30p a square (3x3).  We love Flapjack, its so easy to make and very cheap, we kid ourselves its good for you as its made with oats lol

 Lastly we have some of the delicious organic beetroot I was given last week, I have just about run out of jars so I'm having to do it in small batches.  I have used my usual recipe for the sweet and spicy vinegar and this will be ready to eat in 2 weeks, but it will go to the back of the store as we have plenty and I like to keep them in order.

Our meal tonight was a quick and simple affair, I opened one of the packs of Cooking Bacon to find it was all lovely rashers, about 30p worth was fried in a tiny bit of oil, I popped 2 largish potatoes into the combi oven for 25 minutes and heated a can of baked beans, the total cost was just under £1. We were both stuffed and happy. A very pleasant end to a relaxing but productive Wednesday.

I hope you had a good day too.

Stretch it out September

With Sunday being the first day of my new challenge...Stretch it out September... we decided to go for a walk and scour the hedgerows for some blackberries to make some jam, my Mum had already given me some Jam Sugar a while ago so theoretically we have 4 lovely jars of free jam, thats a great start to my challenge.  Of course when you have homemade jam you need homemade bread!! I do love my breadmaker.

 We managed to scrump almost a kilo of blackberries a few apples and a couple of heads of elderberries, I need to go and get some more elderberries and find some sloes.

 These apples are from our tree and what you can see here is only about a tenth of this years crop, its been a good year, last year we had 2 apples!!

 I set too and peeled another load to stew down for the freezer ready for some more crumbles, incidently I made a crumble for tomorrows tea.

 Lovely fruit stained hands plus we both had a few nettle stings, why is it the best berries are right in the middle of the nettles? I was so glad I thought to take my walking stick, it came in handy for lifting the brambles up to get to the berries underneath as well as holding back nettles.

When making the jam I cooked the fruit  first then pushed it through the sieve to get rid of all the seeds, I guessed the amount of pulp and added an equal amount of sugar, brought to a steady boil it didn't take long to reach setting point. I poured it into hot jars and topped with a wax disc,  then I scraped out the pan and jug I had been using so we could have a taster on the fresh bread for our breakfast..  it was too good to waste .

 A nice thick slice of warm bread and jam....yum!!

 This afternoon I made a big pan of Beef Stew,( my menu for this week has already been moved round) I needed to freeze 2 lots of this for week 4 and have enough for tea tonight and tomorrow.

 It was really tasty and its ages since we had dumplings, they are hubby's and Willows favourites.

So, my September is off to a great start with the jam and a bit of batch cooking, Willow has been here today and she made Brownies from a Betty Crocker mix I bought from the market shop (2 for £1) and we baked a bag of tiny sausage rolls that have been in the freezer since Christmas! they will be taken on our picnic tomorrow.  Its the last day of the summer holiday for Willow so we are having a day out at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park which is just down the road from here.  More about that tomorrow....

Hope your September is off to a flying start too

Its getting late so its off to bed for me

Take Care