Sunday 23 September 2018

Another speedy weekend!


Maybe it's because I'm trying to pack in lots of stuff but weekends speed by so quickly!!

As well as painting the final coat of white satinwood (HOORAY!!!) in my utility room I had a wee bit of retail therapy too. I discovered that my local TK Maxx has an upstairs with tons more home items!! No idea how I missed that!  They do have some things downstairs but more than half the floor space upstairs is home stuff!  Luckily I only had loose change in my purse or I could have spent so much more.  I've been on the lookout for a white fruit bowl and they had a choice of 4 different ones.  This one was £7.99.  I also picked up a purple candle for my bedroom reduced to £2.  So less than a tenner was spent!


I collected a wee embroidered bee cushion from M&S for my living room I had on order.  


I managed to spend some more time tidying up the garden.  On Gardeners World Monty Don recommended pruning pumpkin/squash vines to encourage them to put their energy into growing fruits instead of more flowers.  My butternut squash is now the size of a pear.


And I found another one hidden under all the leaves! I doubt it has time to mature now but we'll see.


The mystery green squash is now the size and shape of a rugby ball.  Despite this week's high winds it's survived.  Now that I've successfully (albeit accidentally!) grown some pumpkin/squashes I'll put more effort into them next year.  And remember the varieties!!


Another lovely colleague at school gave me some apples.  Over 13lbs to be precise plus some windfalls.  She doesn't know what varieties they are but they were a mixture of cooking and eating.


I've cooked some of them into chunky applesauce.  Then I froze them in 1 cup portions for making baked apple oat cups (if they're good I'll share photos and recipe) and made an apple sponge pudding.


I've also made 6lbs of apple and beetroot chutney.  Lidl had loads of reduced bunches of beetroot.  It's a lovely red colour although you can't see it in this photo.  And there are still more apples to use!!  I'm planning to make some spiced apple jelly.

And so it's back to work tomorrow.  There are 3 weeks of term left until the October break.  I have big plans for my week's break so must get all the wee niggly jobs in the utility room and living room finished off by then. 

8 comments:

  1. I have millions of delicious eating apples I picked from our tree during the week and I've no idea how to keep them all. Everything I keep reading says that to 'can' them I have to use a water canner to ensure they don't grow any mould etc. Do you happen to know if I could just cook them and put them in sterilised jars like jam? I have no more room in the freezer for the amount I've got. You're certainly more productive than I am, although that said, I've sold a few things on ebay this week in an effort to get some stuff out of here once and for all! Well done on the squashes, I didn't manage any this year, they grew and got flowers then nothing :(

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    1. I think if you want them to last longer than a week you need to water bath them. Maybe you could dry them in the oven? That's what I would do.

      Sheer dumb luck on the squash front!!

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    2. They must be done in a water bath; strong jars with good lids, 30 minutes. For a water bath, I just use a large saucepan, with the water coming up to the shoulders of the jars, heat to a simmering boil and process for 30 minutes. Lift out carefully and leave to cool on a wooden surface, Check seals , label and store. HTH

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    3. Thanks Sarah, knew you'd know what to do!

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  2. Been a budy week here on sewing tasks and tidying fabric. Ashamed to say I found stuff that I thought I had already used. Sent four bags to the recycler and now have a clearer head. You’ve done well with the decorating especially as the weather had made it dark quite early. DH is waxing our joint effort clock to let it dry overnight. Then the buttons will go on.

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    1. Still trying to declutter here so well done on your 4 bags. I just wanted the white painting done asap!

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  3. Replies
    1. Photo doesn't do it justice. It's well made, definitely worth £12 :-)

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