Layers

As I was getting dressed this morning, I suddenly remembered vests, so voila, I'm now feeling cosy with one of this summers camisoles under my sweatshirt. It may have taken me some time, but I'm about to get the joy of layering.

Its cold !

The good thing about this no heating malarky is that you cant sit around in your dressing gown - I'm off to get dressed in something warm. Was pleased to see that men apparently prefer curvier women in a recession, I must say theres a lot to be said for a bit of padding when the going gets tough.

CC nibbles

You need
Left over puff pastry bits from making home made sausage rolls (0r anything else for that matter)
A bit of left over passata/salsa/pasta sauce, or anything else tomatoee
A spoon full of something from the cupboard door, like pesto, relish, etc
Any grotty bit of cheese, finely grated

Roll out the pastry, paint on the tomato and paste, sprinkle on grated cheese
Cut into random (yet stylish) shapes
Cook in the oven for 10 mins (while the dinner is in the oven)

Serve warm with something alchoholic of your choice - cheers

CC alternative toppings very welcome in comments please

The drying experiment.

Since autumn has finally arrived, and warmth is a bit short on the ground, drying the clothes is becoming trickier. Last load took over 24 hours to dry outside, and still wasnt aired. I'm conducting some experiments on whether things dry quicker indoors or out, so far the doorways in the upstairs rooms are doing very well, plus no risk of a quick downpour.

Any bright ideas gratefully recieved in the comments.

The Great Heating Challenge

We are going to leave it as long as possible before we turn the heating on this winter.
So far so good, jumpers keeping us warm enough

We Are The Champions!!

We have won the Greenest Household in Richmond award

YAY!

Here is the mention in the school magazine

Here

Credit Crunch Cooking- Dorset Apple Cake

Ingredients:
450g cooking apples (such as Bramley)
juice of ½ lemon
225g butter , softened
280g golden caster sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
350g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
demerara sugar , to sprinkle

Method:

Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter and line a rectangular baking tin (approx 27cm x 20cm) with parchment paper. Peel, core and thinly slice the apples then squeeze the lemon juice over. Set to one side.
Place the butter, caster sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour and baking powder into a large bowl and mix well until smooth. Spread half the mixture into the prepared tin. Arrange half the apples over the top of the mixture, then repeat the layers. Sprinkle over the demerara sugar. 3 Bake for 45-50 mins until golden and springy to the touch. Leave to cool for 10 mins, then turn out of tin and remove paper. Cut into bars or squares.

Enjoy

Credit Crunch Cooking- Chickpea Bread

Ingredients:
1 basic bread recipe
1 tbsp cumin seeds, lightly cracked
1 tbsp coriander seeds, lightly cracked
1 400g tin chickpeas, drained and mashed

Method:

Preheat oven at 230c/450f/Gas 81 At stage two of the basic recipe, mix in the cumin seeds, coriander seeds and chickpeas and carry on through the recipe until stage 5, when you divide your batch of dough into 10 pieces. 2 Roll out each of these to 0.5cm/¼" thick and gently pull out into a slightly irregular oval shape. Cook one or two at a time, depending on how big your oven is, straight away without a second prove, directly on the bars of the preheated oven at 230c/450f/Gas 8. 3 They take about four minutes to cook and puff up beyond belief. Allow to cool slightly for a couple of minutes before eating.

Enjoy