Autumn

It's been such a long time since I posted anything on here but it's been such a lovely autumn over the past few weeks I thought I'd finally get round to posting some pictures of what we've been up to lately....

We've been working on finishing off the patio area at the back of our house, helped abley here by George and ducky.

I tried to go courgettes from a plant my mum gave me. As far a I knew courgettes were supposed to be the most productive plants ever and I figured I would end up with a great glut, but no it wasn't to be, my courgette plant only managed one little courgette! Rather than stir fry it or whatever you do with just one courgette I decided it would be best off as a cake. It was yummy.

We had a lovely sunny day out in rowallane, far sunnier and warmer than most of the actual summer days!

There have been many pies and I have used my enamel dishes at every opportunity! The top one is pork and apple with a creamy calvados sauce and the bottom one is fig, pancetta and goats cheese. They were yummy too.

We had another sunny day out in castle espie looking at the ducks, and a wheel barrow of course.

We had nosy neighbours.

And occasionally Belfast city centre looked a bit like Paris.

We had fun exploring the newly cut field on yet another sunny day.

And inspected the new decking.

We crowned the winner of our first annual sunflower growing competition. (I came last)

I made a lot of jam and chutney!

(Some free downloadable labels will be up soon on the shop)

We had some froggy visitors when we put down the new stones at the back of the house.

I spent a couple of days in the autumny loveliness of stranmillis college for work.

And I treated myself to a new scarf which is as big as a blanket, but what with all the sunshine this autumn I have been roasting wearing it!

We also had a Halloween party but I'll save that for another post!

New printable seed packet....

In order to improve on the various crumpled envelopes I have seeds stored in I though I would make a printable seed packet to do the trick.  

Simply print out the image on A4 paper and cut round the edges.  Fold the flaps and use glue or doublesided tape to fix in place the bottom and side flap.  I’ve left the top flap unglued and simple folded it in but you could fix it with some fancy MT masking tape or a removable glue dot or something.

There are two to choose from the coloured version or a black and white version that you could use to print on to coloured paper - you could have coloured coded packets for flowers or vegetables or even for where they are from in your garden!

As well as making them for yourself you could print some and fill them with seeds to give as Christmas presents..

Anyway enjoy!  To get the downloadable files just head over to the Longshot Press main site here!

Free printables

The other day I finally ran out of all the chutney I had made last summer (mainly because I had given lots of jars away as presents, not just because I had eaten it all!)  Anyway I decided I would make some more but as I the vegetable garden is pretty bare at the moment I headed to the shops to see what vegetable bargains I could find.  In the end I ended up with two bags of carrots for the princely sum of 58p so carrot chutney it was!

After making the chutney I decided the jars deserved a lovely label to go with them and as I am such a lovely person I thought it would be nice to offer it as a free download to all you chutney makers out there.



Just head over to the longshot press site to download the printable file - if you don’t have label paper you could just print on normal paper and cut out and use double sided tape or pritt stick to attach the labels.

I got my labels here.

Some Carrot Chutney recipes…

This is the recipe I used via moneysavingexpert

1 lb—500gm carrots washed and chopped, for a fine chutney grate the carrot.
(I put mine through the food processor grater attachment)
3 oz—88gm brown sugar
3 oz-88gm sultanas
1 pint—510 ml vinegar, malt or white
1 teaspoon mixed spice1 teaspoon ground ginger
12 peppercorns
1 bay leaf
 (I left this out)

Method

Put all the ingredients in a pan. Bring to the boil. Simmer till all the ingredients are tender, stir occasionally. Do not overheat so that the chutney sticks to the pan. Do not put a lid on the pan when cooking the chutney. The chutney should be tender and the liquid syrupy.
Warm chutney jars, use a jug to put the chutney in the jars. Wipe clean, put on wax lids, top off with the cellophane lid and rubberband. Let the chutney cool, label and store.

Other recipes

Delia online

Nigella.com