Jammy Dodgers Recipe

 200g flour

170g sugar

100g butter (room temp)

If using unsalted butter 1/2tsp salt

1 egg

I mix it all in the kitchen aid, but you can do it by hand. Don’t over mix at any stage.

Mix together the butter and sugar, till just mixed.

Add the egg and mix a little more

Add the flour and mix until it just comes together as a dough (prob only 30 seconds). Careful, it will make a bit of a mess out of the kitchen aid ;)

The dough should be soft and workable but not over wet. If it is too wet and sticky you can add a little more flour.

Split in to 3 pieces (just because it’s easier to roll smaller pieces) and roll out to maybe 3mm thick. Use flour to stop it sticking. Cut an equal number of tops and bottoms. Bring together the scraps and reroll, keep rolling cutting until all the dough is done. Or if you want you can out some if the dough in the fridge wrapped in clingfilm or the like and roll and cook later. That way you get them warm and fresh again!

Cook at 180°C on baking paper for about 7mins until lightly browned.

Let cool a bit, sprinkle the tops with icing sugar and then stick together the tops and bottoms with jam.

Homegrown Brunch

We are trying not to eat too much, or at least to do some exercise to offset it when we do!

Bacon, poached duck egg, roast squash and potato. Yum!

Change to lockdown

From today (after 4 weeks of the 2nd confinement) we are allowed to go a little further from home for exercise (and drive to get there). Up until now we have only been allowed to go 1km from home for 1 hour. We can now go 20km for up to 3 hours! Hurrah. This is just far enough to make it to La Mongie so we are hoping to get a little bit of work done there or at least check the apartment is ok.

Lockdown is due to end on the 15th of Dec as long as new cases are below 5,000 a day. But ski areas, restaurants and bars won’t open until late January.

Today we celebrated with a nice walk. Not far from home, but a very nice change of scene.

We had tea and eclairs too. Yay!

She has a slight scratch that she won’t stop licking, so not a serious injury, it just needs a chance to heal

The Virgin

Busy busy

As well as eating a lot we have been busy doing outdoors stuff in the lovely weather.

It get’s hard to remember everything we have done!

We have been meaning to do some maintenance on the stables for some time and finally NOW was the time.

The wind is almost always blowing from the other end of the stables and was causing water to flow off the roof and down this gable end instead of nicely down the roof and in to the gutters.

Doug has taken it apart and out it back together a bit different. So far it looks to have done the job... but we need some more heavy rain to be sure.

Some of the panels also didn’t hang over the gutter enough so water tended to miss so he has adjusted some of these too. We still have more of them to do though.

I’ve cleaned and refinished the end wall now it should be dryer.

We also emptied the waterbutt that is filled from the gutters. It was quite a job as it was 1/4 full of years and years worth or somewhat rotted leaves. Nice!

Also treated and painted the other end wall.

Soon we will finish the roof and do the front and back too!

First Frost and getting hay

 It is always hard to remember from one year to the next the different time if things like the first frost. It seems a little later than normal and the trees are getting quite bare.

We had one day of rain recently, but otherwise lovely and sunny. We made our second visit to the hay man to get 60 small bales. We are likely to need to go 3 or 4 times more. Horses eat a lot and cows get a bit of it too. It always a nice feeling to have a good supply in!

Butternut Squash Cookie Recipe

115g butter

50g brown sugar

100g white sugar

90g roast butternut squashed pureed (don’t let it brown too much)

190g plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp mixed spice

100g chocolate cut in to chunks (or choc chips or nuts or fruit if you prefer. cranberries can be nice)

Melt the butter, gently, don’t get it too hot.

Mix in the butternut and sugar

Stir together the dry ingredients and add to the wet. 

Stir until mixed, but don’t over work.

Chill the dough for 30 mins

Shape in to cookies on baking paper. You need to squish and shape the cookies as they will only spread very slightly.

Cook at 180°C for about 15 mins until lightly browned

Christmas cake made!

 

Now wrapped in foil maturing in whisky until sometime in December when I will ice

 

 600g napa cabbage

1 large carrot peeled

1.5 tbsp non iodised salt

3 tbsp gochugang (korean chilli paste)

1 clove minced garlic

1 tbsp korean chilli powder (or crispy shrimp)

Lump of ginger same size as the garlic, grated

A handful of chives or sliced spring onion (optional)

1/2 an apple grated

1.5l glass jar

I had to adjust this recipe somewhat to use things I had, it is the first time I have tried kimchi, if you want to give it a go there are plenty of tried and tested recipes out there, I wanted to record what I did for next time - assuming it comes out well...

Mix the chopped cabbage with the salt and leave for 2 hours. 

Rince well. It is fine if it is wet when you finish this, you want some liquid in to the mix.

Julienne the carrot and cut the chives in to lengths and mix in with the cabbage.

Mix together all the other ingredients in another bowl.

Add the bowl of garlic, ginger, spices etc to the veg and stir well.

Put in a jar and press down well and leave to ferment for a few days (at around 18 to 20°C). You may want to stir occasionally and make sure the bits are all covered in liquid. Longer will make it more sour. The jar needs to have some headroom as it may bubble up while fermenting.

Nappa cabbage and carrots

Spices and stuff

All mixed together

... and crammed in to a jar!

It smells very very pungent. Quite spicy but not overwelming, may have overdone the garlic a little, we shall see!

Walk and tea

 Wet walk on a rainy autumn day, followed by first cup of tea from OUR OWN TEA BUSH!

A branch partially snapped during transit so we thought we had better not waste it.

Give me a treat!

The holly has a lot of berries, it seems very early, will there be any left for Christmas??

I let them wilt a while, then steamed them for 1 minute, rolled and unrolled them a few times and finally dried them in the dehydrator for 1 hr at 70°C

Green tea!