A little taste of sunshine...

Last bakeup of the holidays today and a taste of somewhere sunny was definitely needed. We've been surrounded by rain and wind all day, rattling the windows and blowing the wheelie bins down the garden so i wanted something light and zesty to take away the winter blues ( and to use up some the leftover lemons sitting in the fruitbowl!)

These lovely lemon bars come from a favourite cookbook of mine The Dairy HollowHouse Cookbook by Crescent Dragonwagon - fab name I know! Every recipe has a great anecdote with it so if you ever see a copy snap it up.

Here it is...



And here's the recipe

Mix and press into the bottom of a baking tin

Half cup of butter
1 cup plain White flour
Quarter cup icing sugar

Beat

2 eggs
1 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons flour
Half teaspoon baking powder
Juice and rind of 2 lemons ( I added 1 more to the original recipe)

This mixture will be thin. Pour it over the first layer. Bake for 30 - 35 mins. Let cool slightly then sit with icing sugar.

Okay so they won't help with any diet resolutions but they are lush and brighten up the idea of tomorrow's back to work packed lunch.

I did think that a good walk with the dogs would make me feel less guilty about eating cake...I shook the lead, I put my coat on but these two are having none of it!






Oh well i tried!

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Stilton crazy...

Today signals the start of cheese week at our house, when the five tons of Stilton that we bought, received and somehow acquired must be eaten up or rendered somehow useful as part of our war on waste.

First up was the thanks to the mega talented Shaheen at Allotment2kitchen. I saw these cheese, potato and kale pasties on her site and new we had just the leftovers to make them...


Then using the same mixture with addition of cranberry sauce I made smaller puff parcels...



These started off bite size but grew... Or maybe that says something about the size of my mouth!

Then I moved on to cheese scones.




Never having made these before I went to Internet for inspiration and followed the recipe from the Stilton website- where else?! They turned out pretty well, they're bound for the freezer so i'll have to see how they fare there.

And to finish, blue cheese pasta, nice and simple after the afternoons bakeathon...



Okay so that's a blue cheese dressing too! Phew - at least the Stilton is all gone now...until next year that is. Now does anyone know what I can do with a wheelbarrow full of Brie?

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Happy New Year!!!

What a year it's been here at the freerange homestead - not much blogging done, not much gardening or cooking, but plenty of building, hence the lack of anything else. When we started out on this year we had plans to do all sorts but as those of you who've ever built a large project yourselves will know, once foundations are dug and the plans are accepted you can forget any idea of social or recreational life full stop until the work is done.

Well we're not there yet but we are much closer. The roof is on, the windows are in, the floors are concreted and most of the plasterboard is up. We await a visit from an electrician on the fifth before we can have the final sign off from the planning office and then it's onto the last leg - curtains and cushions still seem an awful long way off though!

Writing about the project is partly what retains our sanity about it and I am very wary of making it all sound like roaringly good fun - oh those halcyon days of cement dust and climbing over wet floors covered with pallets to get to the washing machine - what japes! BH conquering his fear of height (albeit temporarily) to tile the roof in the wind is not an experience either of us would want to repeat, nor is eating our breakfast in our coats as we had to before the blessed insulation arrived. But were almost there now, I won't start ordering wallpaper samples yet, but I might just start looking...

Apologies to those of you who have been kind enough to keep reading during these lean times, I promise to write more in 2012 and to be a much much more frequent visitor to all of you and your sites that I love to read so much, and finally Happy New Year - keep blogging x

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The Barcelona Skirt is finished - at last...

At last - a finished item! My Barcelona Skirt was in danger of taking root in the project basket until Freerangenan threw me a helpline and took her favourite grandchildren to a magic show this afternoon. This left me free to ignore the ironing and get sewing! I'm so proud (or should that be sew proud!) of the completed item - not least because I've never read a pattern before making this - or put in a zip! I doubt I'll be offering the zip up for close scrutiny but it works, and that will do just fine...

Part of the reason I hadn't got any further with this until today is due to the upcoming craft fair in our village. I was asked to contribute something and had nervously offered up my own handmade decorations...

...expecting to be turned down or at best be asked for half a dozen, instead Ive had preorders for twenty six and then Ive got to create enough for the stall - yikes!!! It looks like Christmas has come very early in the freerangehouse - The living room has started to look like Santa's workshop with felt cutouts resting on every surface and I'm virtually stitching in my sleep...I'm sure I am completely confusing the kids sense of the seasons, they're wondering when the tree is going up...

So if your in the Rudston area on the 20th of November come and see if they did get made - or if I've thrown in the towel and moved onto the mulled wine...I'll keep you updated!

How we're getting on...

We not only have a roof - we have windows too!


The big build is getting there at last! After months of scaffolding and cement we have a building that looks like we might one day be using!



The windows and the paint have made all the difference and thankfully they were done before the weather turned - hurrah! The glass is now in all of the doors and concrete floors have been laid. We're getting closer to picking curtains - but as BH assures me we're not there yet.

Our current project is this...



The beloved insulation! Its such a boring topic, task and thing to spend money on - but I know we'll be thankful for it in the cold Yorkshire nights ( which aren't limited to winter unfortunately!)

So that's how we're getting on...and why I've been absent from the blogspace...it's like I said, we're getting there...slowly! But when we get there- oh brother its going to be worth it!



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Getting crafty...

Wish me luck - after years of threatening to do it I've finally signed up for an evening class in sewing and dressmaking. Whilst I've sold the idea to the family on the premise of stress relief and mum time, I know they're secretly quite worried about the creations I might be foisting on them in the near future! Will my dressmaking muse be Gaultier or Gaga? Or will I go totally Goodlife and start making all their clothes! Tremble they might!!!

Actually they've no need to worry... I've already got my pattern and it's quite family friendly I think...



It's been sat in the drawer for two years now so it's a case of 'get on with it or admit defeat!'

I've got my fabric too, a cloud9 design from a fantastic site called seamster.co.uk. I love it...



Now all i have to do is make it- yikes!

To be honest I'm quite nervous about the whole thing, I've bought a new pencil case and everything just like the start of term! But if I can learn enough in 10 classes to make up for living miles from decent clothes shops than that will do me fine!


And who knew there was a whole world of great online fabric stores, I could be hooked! I'll keep you posted...


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Showgirls and Giants...

This weekend the gardeners of Yorkahsire gathered en mass at the Harrogate Autumn Flower Show to celebrate the great and the gargantuan of garden produce. It was my first time visiting the show and after hearing tales of the the giant veg competitions I was looking forward to some treats, but nothing could have prepared me for the displays in the exhibitors tent...

Dahlias to die for..

Chrysanthemums the size of footballs...

And the Roses were just about as good as it gets...

the blooms were definitely the showgirls of the day, with every colour imaginable on display, puffed up, blousy and demanding attention. We loved it! and wandering from tent to tent in a Pimms induced state of bliss, we had no idea what the produce tent had in store for us as we quite literally went from the sublime to the ridiculous!

I quite literally have 'never seen anything like it in my life'! Row after row of trestle tables groaning under the weight of veg so gigantic you have to wonder how they got it there!

You've got to really like cabbage to grow these - lets face it you're going to be eating it for weeks!

I didnt know whether to gasp or giggle at these marrows - they were HUGE! We agreed they wouldn't look out of place with a dinosaur chomping on them!

And the onions! The onions were - staggering! This was the record breaker

Yep - thats right 17lb 15.5 oz That's definitely going to make someones eyes water!

All in all the show is a testament to peoples passion for growing things, everything from Delphiniums to Dragons Egg Cucumbers ( I bought some seeds so I'll be showing you them soon!). I loved seeing the individual growers by their stands, guarding their produce and glowing with pride, that feeling that we all have the first time we grow something that makes it to the table - its just that these guys have turned it into an art form! And striving for excellence is something we all share as gardeners whether we achieve it or not - I know I won't be alone in ending the growing season already planning for what i want to do differently and better next year. Im certainly planning a trip to the Spring next year to get me off to a head start...

Summers over, school begins...

Its official, summer is definitely over. All the signs are around us, the harvest is in, the nights are getting darker, Mums back to blogging...but most importantly the school shoes are polished and ready for the get go in the morning! And what a start to school it will be, one mini freeranger moving into 'Juniors', a phrase I like to use even though she sighs every time I call it that and tells me that was what it was called in the olden days! and one mini freeranger starting school for the very first time, although he doesn't quite believe it yet and just laughs and runs off when questioned!

this doesn't bode well for the shock he's going to get when he has to stay there all day, oh dear!

Fortunately this photo was taken before the weekend when Boy decided to tussle with a neighbours dog, the play was friendly and Boy was avoiding any teasing as he knows its wrong but the old dog got carried away and nipped him in play. Here are the results he'll be sporting for his first day at school...

My poor Boy...One trip to hospital, one very hysterical mother and several ice lollies later he was feeling much better, enough to tell me that he'd had " a terrible time and his head was sore and his tummy was rumbly...a biscuit might help"!

Not to be outdone, Girl has managed to lose 4 teeth this summer. She's mastered the art of speed eating spaghetti and we'll have no problem with her vampire outfit for Halloween, but I can only pray that schools photo wont be for a few weeks yet!

Ive got some foodie and garden blogs to come but for now the only thing in our house is the end of the holidays. We've crammed the days full, playing, adventuring, travelling, splashing, digging, scoffing, snoozing, giggling and most certainly avoinding the laundry mountain thats threatening to take over the sitting room.

But that was then... Uniforms have been pressed and hair clips collected from the bottom of toy boxes, book bags emptied and homework found too late to do much with it. All we have to do now is get out of the house on time and leave them at the classroom door. They'll be fine...as long as I don't embarrass them with my mumsy tears - someone save me a tissue for tomorrow, in fact make it a box...

A walk in the park...

Today we packed up the Freerangers, Citygirl and the dogs and headed out for a proper grand day out. The rules were it had to be free, fun for everyone
and stand a good chance of tiring out children and animals. Yorkshire Sculpture Park fit the bill on all counts...

We had the awesome...


The magical...


The weird...


And the wonderful Henry Moore collection...


The special exhibition was by an artist called Jaume Plensa and the amazing mesh heads caught our eye...and eerily seemed to look upon us wherever we went!


The Minifreerangers loved these huge sculptures made of letters...


And the treepeople... I could do with some of these around my Hollyhocks to keep them upright!


We walked miles...it's amazing how far kids will walk when they've got something to look at!

And finally, at last, we achieved what I thought was impossible... Pearl and Arthur tired out!



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Wildflower walk...

I kept meaning to photograph the fields while they were ablaze with poppies but kept forgetting the camera or being in a rush in the car. However, I quite like flowers which have outlived them - just waiting for their moment...



And the bees agree...






Now I just need to take my observer book of flowers with me to find out what they are!

We had a good long walk beyond the village which you can see in the distance. Every time I bring the dogs up here I tell myself I will do it daily before work; there's something energising about all that sky...


But of course its like going to the gym - the hardest part is dragging yourself out of bed to do it. Not for these two though...



The hardest part is keeping up with them! No chance of a face on close up... Just bottoms in the distance!

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Schools out for summer...

Its taken some time, some sleep, sunshine and perhaps a glass or two of wine, but I finally feel like the last term is behind me and I can finally put my holiday head on - Hurrah! The first few days of the summer holidays are usually spent attempting to scale the cleaning mountain that has been allowed to build up on the last few weeks of term and taming the garden that was so meticulously planned back in January and which has gone wild in the few weeks when I take my eye off the ball. But today all that changed and we took a trip to the beach....just sandcastles, ice lollies and sunsunsun...today we could have been anywhere in the world, we just happened to be in Yorkshire...

We have so many wonderful beaches here, we really are spoilt for choice. Today we visited Hunmanby Gap where there are tremendous views of Bempton Cliffs. Its a great clean beach where we can always find a good spot, no matter how busy it is...and its got great sand for digging in...

So now the summer plan goes like this - beach, garden, odd day out...no work, absolutely no work! I do intend to take a break from my hectic garden and beach schedule to blog, cook and have a week in the South of France (do you like how I just dropped that in as though I'm not beside myself with excitement, which I totally I am), but the golden rule is...no work, just mum time...see, I feel better already...