Cider making

One of the great things about growing your own is...well, frankly...eating your own and turning your own into something particularly yummy.

Throughout the year we've happily made chutney and jams and jellies, however, our huge supply of apples this year had us a little stumped for over wintering until I had a brainwave for Mr Beehive's early birthday present...

A cider press!

It's a little gem that will squeeze the juice out of our apples so we can either store it as the most delicious juice we've ever tasted, or...better still...cider.

So Mr Beehive has doned his lumberjack shirt, not trimmed his beard and embraced the local knowledge in a neighbouring village as to the skills required to make 'zyder'. He quickly came to the conclusion, having noted the swift and happy consumption of last year's cider, commencing at 10am in the morning, that you're likely be pretty hammered whilst making cider, thus it can't be 'that hard' a task.

Having presented the 'apple day gang' with 20lbs of our own apples for a nominal fee (which probably would have been waived as the day progressed and the cider flowed), we came back home with 6 gallons of juice!

So he has spent much of the weekend turning my kitchen into a scrumping and scratting zone. We now have 3 demi johns fermenting away for next spring and a gallon and a half of juice, half is in the freezer and quarter in the fridge and the remaining quarter...well, let's just say, I always choose the job of 'quality control' I swear it's a freakin' steal!

As one of the jolly cider gang said - it's always a nice day on cider making day and belive you and me...it's been beautifully sunny. Let's hope next year yields a good quality 'Thornhill Scrumpy'.

Start with your chopped apples

Use your Black and Decker Drill to scrat the apples!

Scratting! Creates a pulp that makes the press happy!

Juicing the scratted apples and in the bucket on the left is the remaining Pomace.

Pomace leftover skin

Cider in the making - yeast to go in two and one we're experimenting to see if our apples are good for natural yeast. 

As for the rest of the weekend;

I have been on an adventure of my own up to Leicester to discover The Fabric Guild - say no more.
Master Beehive the elder and I went to Chippy to the Autumn fayre and learned how to weave...and bought a small loom...say even less
Then we went to A & E as Master Beehive hurt his finger playing in goal on Thursday and it got progressively more swollen over Friday, so by Saturday afternoon we decided to just get it checked out. I didn't think it was broken due to the fact he could move it, but a hairline fracture could have been on the cards. So, four hours later *yawn* and we went home with the same bruised finger as we went in with but my conscience duly clear.
Finally the Little Miss wanted to go to Canal Day, so we took a swift visit there over lunchtime today.
Now we could do with a weekend to recover lol! I love weekends like this!

Winter stars

Today I am at peace with the snow!
It's so quiet outside and, yes, it takes a lot more planning and organisation in the day to go anywhere or do anything and yes, we've done a lot of back breaking snow clearing and rucksack carrying, but the joy over these last few days of not having to be anywhere and the slowing down of life, has been idyllic.

We've all been able to share lunchtime and dinner together, which has been incredibly precious. We have eaten well as I've had time to really cook everything from scratch as there have been no after school activities to rush to, no school pick up to do, no work to fly out of the door to, we've laughed together, danced together, crafted, written stories and drawn. Of course, it's not all been happy families, there have been moments of intense cabin fever for the boys in particular, who also share a room, where there has been the desire for a moment of privacy or solitude and there is nowhere to go.

Tomorrow, for half a day (go figure!) life will resume it's normal status. Mr Beehive will be attempting to go into the office, all three Beehives are in school and I will be back with my head in a text book, but, I just want to say out loud, how blessed I've felt for this week in many respects.

I just wanted to share with you a tutorial for the Waldorf inspired winter stars that we do each year and put on our windows. They are so easy to do and can be made more complicated depending on folding, but they look so effective and pretty and anyone can do them, from the littlest hobo to the biggest boho.
I make them out of a kind of greased tissue paper - known commonly as "kite paper" in the US which comes in packs of squares. You could also use regular tissue paper, but one of the beauties of the wax effect is that the paper is sturdier. The link takes you to a shop that sells it online.

So I'll leave you with this, and also some more pictures of my stunning gallery of icicles!

"Picnik Show"

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One of those women...

I would forgive you for thinking that over the last ten years and the amount of moving and travel we've done, I ought to be a dab hand at packing.

Sadly, it's something that I'm desperately inept at and it all stems down to fashion. Yes, vanity is my nemesis, I want to look my best!

I'd love to be one of those women who can see an outfit, complete with accessories, before she puts it on, then she knows exactly what part of her wardrobe goes with what and always looks imaculate or very put together, rather than one of those women who sees a chunky necklace that just screams to be bought, then realises on getting it home that it doesn't go with anything and rather than making her look like the model in the magazine, makes her look like Lady Gaga after a makeover from The Wiggles!

I'd love to be one of those women who has her own individual "style" or can just see things and throw them together in a quirky but fantastic way, rather than one of those women who has her own individual style but rather than quirky, fits more into the "odd bag lady" category.

Yes, that is Whoopi - or should that be Whoops - i - did it again?

I'd love to be one of those women who can say exactly what they're going to wear for what occasion, rather than being one of those women who gets through about six or seven rounds before finally deciding that something will "do".

...and this is Sigourney, although I'm not sure that this will do at all, even in MY book, maybe she just forgot the chef hat to complete the outfit!

I tend to pack as I shop - impulsively and randomly. I pack what I like, like what I see but then get pissed off the other end when I feel I have "nothing" to wear together, I then, ultimately, end up wearing the same few items over and over just because I feel comfortable and safe in them!


Ultimately, it might be nice to be one of those women who just doesn't give a flying fig!

...finally, yes, that is me, circa 1984 and obviously the only one who didn't give a flying fig was my mother and those bloody awful antimaccassars because, judging by my expression, indoor scarf adornment and plastic matching earrings I was too sexy for my shirt, so sexy it huuuuuurt!

We're very restricted by weight this holiday - for me that is a major crisis - normally to get over the "nothing to wear" syndrome, I pack just about everything I own. That way, there is bound to be one outfit that will work and tide me over other than my usual jeans and t-shirt combo. But weight restriction -Qu'un désastre !

Still, I'm working hard at this and have managed to reduce the children's luggage down to the bare minimum because they'll only wear their swimsuits, a couple of pairs of shorts and the same piece of underwear over the fortnight, no matter how much nice stuff I put in or how much I try to coerce them otherwise.

It'd be such a shame to waste their allowance don'tcha think?

Back in daily life,  here are a few pictures of what we've been up to so far this holiday:


 Watching the world cup final!

!

New bag - but never again!!!!!!!!!!!

Strawberry fields

So they're back, all safe and accounted for!

Look what I did with myself!

Went to the farmer's market, made a ton of jam and some pickles, ate some homegrown strawberries, which inspired my picnic rug upcycled from a woolen rug that I then apliqued the strawberries and apples on and backed it with a polka dot oilcloth.... which then obviously inspired the friggin' rain.

Oh and a picture of the author by the author's daughter! She's not bad!

The photographer! Not the model!

Hotchpotch dress

This was a pattern from a crafting magazine that mum sent up to me. It's made up using several panels of material. It's been challenging just because the directions were far from clear and there is an excess of material - more than was really needed.
However, with some adaptation of straps and taking in a few darts, I honed it to something LMB will be able to wear with or without a t-shirt.

Life's a cabaret!

Another weekend and what a cabaret!




LMB had her dancing show on Friday night! This time last year she was in pre-school ballet. When it came to her time to get into the line, one of the other girls had "taken her spot", so, as a wee four year old, she proceeded to stand there, with the other girls continuing to "dance" around, and put her hand up:

"Miss Balletteacher, Miss Balletteacher, so and so has taken my space"

This was followed with her wandering off to the wings to report this atrocity!

Of course to the hilarity of the audience, lots of "aww's" and "cuuuuuute".

Fortunately this year, she proved to be "able to cope" with minor discrepancies from the usual routine, allowing the pre-schoolers to take this all on themselves, and was a lovely Dutch girl bringing a real tear to my eye.



Her final routine was Toni Basil's "Hey Mickey" which coincedentally was the first single (vinyl - yes sir - how old be I?) I ever bought!




Then this morning, the music school did their end of year concert, so LMB shook her eggs to Down in the Jungle.




And the Messers Beehive both played their geeeetars!



Finally I just wanted to put my current WIP up for you to see. I'm so chuffed with how this is progressing, but, in hindsight, I probably should have used a blue fabric for the underskirt. I'm not convinced the pink is the best choice. Anyway, see what you think.







Now with all the classes and clubs done and dusted for the next six weeks, it's time to kick off our shoes and enjoy the summer - and wait for it to start raining!
x

Mmmm, my kitchen smells lush today!




I was meant to be working down my list of things to do today, which included going to John Lewis fabric department after I'd been to a meeting I'd got scheduled. However, best laid plans and all, and let's be honest, a visit to JL, would have only increased my increasing stash of fabric for which I never have enough time to do all the projects I want to do anyway!

Master Beehive the younger came out of school yesterday looking a whiter shade of pale, which for us in the Beehive before we've seen much sun tends to make him look rather like a translucent zombie with all his veins and black shadows leaping off his face!

So he's now pee'd in his bottle to go to the lab as it looks like he might have a UTI! Hurrah!

We're now making banana muffins and banana, ginger and walnut loaf and some beanburgers for dinner tonight.
Sometimes the bananas in my house are eaten as if I've birthed three chimpanzees, other times they are apparently the spawn of the devil - the bananas, not the chimps btw!
So, with an excess or rapidly browning bananas and a houseful of hungry boys, teenagers (I always seem to have an extra teen at the moment!) and a small rugrat that just is "hungreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" all the time - Banana muffins will go down better than a browning fruit that I'm desperately trying to sell as apetising!


I think when this time of year comes around I seem to pull out all the books on preserving, pickling and making the most of gluts of fruit and veg, so the house turns into a small cottage industry.

This week I've made my dress and a fleece for LMB, although the sleeves need removing and wider ones need making as for some reason the sleeves came up ridiculously narrow!

I've made some strawberry icecream and four jars of jam, one of which will be for my friend's birthday next week along with a loaf of sour dough bread from the starter that is just started on the windowsill (of course, this is if it all works!) and a raw cheesecake from the gazillion strawberries that LMB and I picked on Saturday after the beach.

So here are some photos and some recipes for you:

Enjoy:Dress!


Hooded fleece for LMB that needs a bit of a re-touch!

Pretty buttons that asked me to buy them the other day along with some fun fabric that I might line some cord trousers with for a baby boy - who's baby boy is another question though.

RECIPES:

Banana, ginger and walnut bread:

8 oz SR flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs (large)
4 oz soft brown sugar
dash of milk
4 oz butter and a dash of oil
3 mashed bananas
1 handful of walnut pieces
1 tsp ginger

Cream the sugar and fat
Add the eggs
Sieve and add the flour, ginger and baking powder
add the banana and stir in the walnuts

Greased loaf tin - I line mine, but it's up to you.
Oven at 185, pour the batter into the loaf tin and let it bake for around 40 minutes.
You know I am the "throw it in and hope" cook, so watch it go brown (if you smell it then you're nearly done) and bring it out and check with a knife or skewer for it to be clean when you draw it out.

Raw Strawberry Cheesecake

Dead easy this one:
Base:
1 pack of hobnobs (or digestives - but hob nobs are nicer!)
Around 4oz butter

Topping:
1 large tub of marscarpone cheese
Around 600g strawberries - leave two or three to decorate the top
Icing sugar to taste

Melt your butter in a pan
Bash the hob nobs in a bag using a rolling pin so they become weeny crumbs.
Once the butter is melted pour the crumbs into the butter and ensure all the crumbs get coated with the butter.
Tip this buttered base into a shallow dish and press down hard - you have to do this with your hands really as it just sticks to spoons. Then refridgerate it for around 2 hours.

For the topping:
Puree the strawberries in the blender, then I add the icing sugar and whizz up with that in the blender. You can then taste it and add more icing sugar if you want.

Then you're going to pour the puree in with the cheese and stir it up well with a wooden spoon.

Bring your now solid and cooled base out of the fridge and spread the topping on, decorate with your strawberries and put it back in the fridge!

Yum!