Giving

I like giving, it makes me happy. I like giving things, I like giving love, I like giving time, I like giving help, I like giving sypmathy and support. I like giving when it is appreciated, when people are happy to receive what I give. I tend to give freely, and really and honestly expect nothing in return. Giving makes me happy.

Today I bought something for a friend of mine; something she had wanted for a while, and I happened to come across one in a charity shop that I thought would suit her. I bought it, and as we were in town, took it straight round to her.

The look on her face was ample reward for my small gesture, and has made me smile for the rest of the day.

Irish soda bread

This is one of my very favourites, so I thought I'd share my recipe with you. We're having this one tonight for supper with Irish stew.

1lb bread flour

1/2 teasp baking soda (bicarb)

1/2 teasp cream of tartar

1 teasp salt

buttermilk/milk to mix

Place dry ingredients in a bowl and stir well. Add enough buttermilk/milk to give a softish consistency, but not too soft. Form into a round, score the top into farls and bake in a hot oven for 30 - 40 minutes. Cool on a rack, or wrapped in a clean tea towel.

I like it next day, too when it has "mellowed" a bit, with freshly made butter on it.

Give it a go!

Ties in with the January campagin at Creative Living on bread:

http://creativeliving.10.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=4566

Spoons

The bottom photo shows a recent haul of mixed spoons etc from the tip - all gleaned from one old battered tin. I love interesting spoons! Nothing precious here, mainly EPNS, but they don't have to be. The top one is a tiny, tiny salt spoon I've put into my new glass salt cellar on the kitchen table. The second one is a spoon for a tea caddy - it bears the legend "tea revives you" - how very, very true LOL. It's in my caddy now.The two other objects in the last photo are juicers - you screw them into a lemon to get the juice out apparently; I need to have a go with them to see how they perform, could be interesting. I'm not sure what the other object is, sitting up between the juicers; it has a mesh filter over one end, so obviously strains something, but I'm not sure what.

Nice finds, I thought.

Braised pheasant with cranberry and apple

I used pheasant breasts for this, but you could slice/dice to make it go further, and include the legs if you like.

Slice some onions and place in casserole dish or heavy pan; peel and core two large apples, slice thickly and place on top of the onions. Add meat, then a good sploosh of cider or something similar, eg apple juice, white wine. Add 2 tbsp cranberry jelly or sauce (left over from Christmas, mine was), 1 tsp whole grain mustard, knob of butter mixed with flour to thicken and some stock. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Cover tightly and leave to cook slowly for two - three hours until everything is tender. Finish with a dash of cream.

We had ours with some rice that needed using, which was very good; otherwise, mashed potato would be lovely, and maybe a good dark green vegetabloe such as Savoy cabbage, Brussels sprouts etc.

My Sunday in pictures part I

Yesterday didn't really turn out out be one of my more restful Sundays after all. It was the intention to get on and finally put together the window quilt. However, I got hold of an amount of half price cream on Friday, so I made butter; then I made cheese; got some cottage cider into demi-johns, made another 1 1/2 gallons ( apple mountain is slowly going down LOL); prepared and cooked pheasants. Then my friend dropped round to sort out some knitting I'm doing for her daughter, who had bought the wrong type of wool for the pattern, so we had a cup of tea, etc etc etc, by which time it was time to get supper on the go, so the quilt bits are looking accusingly at me from the kitchen table this morning! Ah well, they're not going anywhere, so I hope to get to grips with it later today. It's a lot milder here today, so the window quilt urgency is postponed for a short time. Still needs to be done though.

My Sunday in pictures, part II

Bits and bobs for a Sunday morning

Not so cold here today, no thick white frost outside, but a decent enough breeze for some washing, I hope; how DOES that mountain get so big so quickly, eh?

I have some mistletoe berries to deal with imminently; I always save them and try getting them to take on one of the apples here, but no luck so far. Thye come from local mistletoe, but it's said they do best on the same tree they came from, and that I do not know. however, undaunted, I'll be havng another go! Wouldn't it be wonderful to have your own mistletoe in your garden?

today's main undertaking is making the window quilt for the back window int he kitchen. I have the blocks done, now needs sashing and putting together, with tab tops, then MrL will do the technical bits to make it go up and down. That's as far as my technical knowledge goes, I'm afraid, but the blocks are pretty LOL. I will need a major decluttering of the kitchen table before I can get to sew, though, so that's due in a minute.

I found some lovely wool very cheap in our local wool/fabric shop, so bought what they had of the light pink to make some mittens, which I made last night whilst watching the wonderful Neil Oliver in his programme on Scottish history -something worthwhile watching on a Saturday night fo rm - almost unheard of. LOL

Otherwise today, just need to get the cheese in the strainer, not sure what else, but I'm sure it will involve the teapot!!