Having first sup of elderflower homebrew. Oh yes, this has worked.
Steve’s conclusion is that it coulddo with another couple of weeks. Probably, and I’m willing to wait. But it *is* very lovely.
Before we went away, I made this.
It’s home made ice magic, made from melted chocolate and pure coconut oil. The recipe I found specified refined coconut oil but it took me long enough to track down coconut oil of any derivation, so we’ve gone with additional coconuttiness.
It’s fair to say that when making it, I said out loud that the combo is so tasty, I don’t care if it works. And here’s the killer - IT WORKS!! You pour it on ice cream, and it goes hard. Within seconds. And it’s tasty. Really tasty. Fortunately I have about 3 tonnes of coconut oil, so we’re good for a few more batches.
We started making some elderflower champagne 2 weeks ago, and due to our busy-busy schedules, have ended up leaving it to stew in the bucket for (so far) 3 days longer than it should have. If Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall were dead, he’d be spinning in his grave, as we appear to be “butchering” his recipe. Having said that, the comments show that we aren’t the first people to take liberties with his (lets face it, pretty clear) instructions.
I brought the recipe home (from printing it at work, so we didn’t have to cook with an open laptop in the way) annotated with stuff from the comments questioning the quantities. Steve had another look and said “yeah, that’s just because there are stupid people. The recipe says it makes 24 bottles, but doesn’t say what size bottles. It makes 6 litres, so if you’re using 2 litre bottles (as we will be (heaven help us - the house will collapse when they explode)) it only makes 3 bottles.”
The bottling would have occurred by now, only Steve implied that my plan of sterilising with boiling water probably wasn’t good enough, so I’ve stepped back to allow the beer-making expert to step in.
And he’s crazy-busy with work.
So, on Saturday, I went ahead and bottled. I used the boiling-water sterilising technique which, it turns out, partially melts bottles originally intended to hold Tesco smart-price fizzy water (from Mum’s collection). So we have nearly 5 almost-2-litre bottles of syrupy fizz, which hopefully we’ll get to drink before they explode all over the coal-shed. The straining and bottling went well, although some at the end had to be double-strained as I dropped the sieve into the bowl of strained juice. Joel liked the taste, Lily didn’t - really no surprise there, as Joel is a big fan of elderberry cordial (overberry cordian) and Lily doesn’t like new stuff.
It should be ready to drink when we get back from Glasto. Let’s hope we make it that far!
If interns at my MP’s office (allegedly) get free (to them) mars bars (I’m told, by rumour & supposition), paid for by HOP, surely I, as paper-folder and leaflet-deliverer extra-ordinaire (on Mothering Sunday, no less, among other dates), should get at least a twix? There’s a whole exchange rate/currency system to be worked out here
We got a letter today from Homeserve/United Utilities. I blogged briefly (OK, then, not *very* briefly) about our loft pipe leak woes at Easter. Steve has pursued a complaint with H/UU maintaining that they should cover the cost of the repair, what with us having insurance with them & all.
Today’s letter said that they hadn’t got back to us yet because their investigations were still ongoing. They added that they hoped we understood the reason for the delay. They delay is because there’s a delay. Not really sure what’s to understand. Maybe they’re hoping with the passage of time we’ll forget about the incident and stop pestering them.
Those in the know, know we are not short of space in our garden. It’s 150 yards long & we have 2 fairly large vegetable patches. And yet, I have no space left in either veggie patch that will fit these yellow tomatoes, and a similar-sized cluster which is in the sitting room. Also, 3 courgette plants which have buds on them are keen to feel the (frickin freezing so far) summer breeze on their… leaves.
I’ve already put 2 courgettes round the side of the house in a previously fallow bed. (an aside - while I was round there, the kids joined me. I had a wheelbarrow with an open compost bag in it on the narrow path. Joel climbed into the barrow while I wasn’t looking. First I heard was a “crump” as the barrow tipped over, and Joel fell under the hawthorn hedge almost into next door’s garden. I don’t think he was very impressed at the level of sympathy I showed, given that I could hardly help him up for laughing. I’m laughing again now, thinking about it) I can check on them from the spare room without having to set a foot outside (unless something is clearly up with them. I can’t open the windows there or the flat roof sinks a bit & you can’t shut them, also they’re top-lights so if I watered the plants through the window it’d be about as hit & miss as it gets).
So, I’m thinking either the fallow bit on the other side of the roses at the side of the house, although I can’t check on them from indoors so clearly not an ideal option. Or grow-bags on the patio or somewher in the yard - the downside with the yard is that although one side of it is fairly sunny, it’s also where we park the cars, so Steve would almost certainly run over them at some point, because YELLOW MOONSQUIRTERS neither squeak nor run.
Speaking of which, I’ve just realised I haven’t booked the cat in anywhere for when we’re away. Best get on that, eh.
ps. I’ve added a new category. aga-tastic and eco-jude just don’t seem to cover a lot of what I’m doing at the moment. “Felicity Kendall eat your heart out” is a nod of the hat and tip of the wink to a popular 70s sit-com. If I’m as sexy as Barbara Goode, I’ll be doing well.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
…is a lump of blu-tak called “Mr Sticky-Man”. This on the day when she assured me she needed a new scooter because people “just get new things”. I’d say her Fif & the Flower Tots scooter is just fine. Especially as she also has a bike. Anyway, Mr Sticky Man kept me company while Lily was at school, and it seems Boo-boo loves ghosts and is keen to watch Ghostbusters with us. He seems to be unmoved so far. I’m sure he’ll get more excited when the marshmallow man comes along.
we recently re-discovered “They Might Be Giants” album “No!” which is aimed at “all the family”. It’s been so successful, we all have favourite tunes. This morning I felt the need to introduce turn-taking in who gets to choose what’s on next. We were listening to my choice (where do they make balloons?)when this conversation occurred:
Joel: “I want Robot Parade next.”
Me: “No, sweetie, it’s Lily’s turn next, then yours.”
Joel: “But I want to choose Robot Parade!”
Lily: “I choose Robot Parade.”
Joel (v angry) “NO! I WANT TO CHOOSE ROBOT PARADE!!”
Conversation degenerates into shouting while mummy quietly bangs head against steering wheel.
It’s worth noting that this post has been written while waiting for BT.com to refresh to a login page so I can pay their bill. I think they may be trying to force me to pay by direct debit.
We got this from the op shop a few weeks ago - it’s Joel’s Favourite New Thing. It’s seen here, being modelled in a play-tent made from Lily’s “big cushions” and a spare bedsheet, very safely located at the top of the big stairs.
Me, I’m loving the cheesey grin.
These are nearly finished. An interesting point - I borrowed the DPNs to knit it from mum, but failed to ask if she had a cable needle when borrowing the DPNs. A while later I remembered to ask mum if she had a cable needle I could borrow, got it home, and realised that by that time, I had done all of the cabling.
*sigh*
Just waiting on me to remember to take the mitts to a button shop so I can get some buttons.
