TARRAGON & THYME

I would just like to make a small addendum to yesterday's post.  In the end it took me 8 hours to empty out the Little Cupboard under the stairs.  There was a lot more in there than I had realised.  I ended up not going to bed last night, despite being desperately tired and my back and hips deciding that it had enough of all the lifting and bending involved in clearing things. Would just mention that there is a new Laminate floor going down.  The shelves are also going to be lined with vinyl and an edging strip added all the way around the shelving to stop jars jumping off the shelf and smashing.  I think I am going to need another tub of Plaster repair stuff. Will start with sanding down first tomorrow in any event and see how we get on.  I therefore allowed only one day before tackling the sanding down of the filler, but may have to leave it a couple of days as it is more extensive than I originally had thought.  In any event there is always somethin...

 for the work to be done. I have been working on the rest of the house today.  I have managed to get the under-stair cupboard completely stripped out and ready for the work to be commenced.  I did not realise that I had as many drinks bottles.  On and off for years I have made wine, cider and bitter. I have never got rid of the equipment as a lot of it is hard to find these days and some of it comes from my Mum and my Nan and some from my brother.  Plus it is also very expensive to buy a lot of the stuff today compared to what it was.  In any event they will not be going anywhere as I am feeling the pull to make more wine again.  I had considered it, but then decided not to get rid of.  Thought would start off some Ginger after we have finished with the Electrician and then hopefully it should be ready for next Christmas.  It is a lovely wine and very warming. It has taken me over 3 hours to get everything out of the under-stair cupboard! The...

it is going to be a busy week this week moving forward.  This will be as a result of the new mains Electric panel being installed on Tuesday.  As a result my work this week necessarily begins on Wednesday.  This is Part One of an outline plan I have of dealing with matters that need addressing moving forward. No time restrictions just need to get both jobs done and dusted.  They will be finished when they are finished. However I do intend to get stuck in as I cannot tackle other areas until these two are sorted.  There are items that need to go into these storage areas which are currently in areas they should not be, which is restricting access.  Some of the items mentioned have been covered before and work anticipated, but real life has got in the way and things have not been completed as I had hoped and for whatever reason work stopped.  Fingers crossed will get this all done soon.  I am itching to get on with the Dining Room and get that decora...

 I have very heavy clay soil in my garden, not really suitable for carrots (from what I have read and understand) and therefore I grew them in my deepest planter.  I have ended up with my first crop of carrots ever, quite wide on width but a little stumpy with what looks like carrot tails coming out of the bottom.  Not quite sure what this is about  if anyone could give me an idea would be helpful as I am certainly going to grow more carrots next year and I want to put any mistakes right.  However I am grateful that I got a crop of carrots out of it.  You really do learn as you go along. The flavour is always far better picked straight from the soil and is possibly the best way of getting all your vitamins as there are no air miles or road miles for delivery. Carrots are that deep purple hue of Beetroot.  They taste lovely and I think would be good to ring the changes with a salad.  Would certainly make the salad pop out.  I am certainly goin...

Plans for Monday Well the clearance work is starting tomorrow (Monday) in the Little Room under the stairs. There are no end of things in there besides the preserves that need to come out.  To be truthful I am not quite sure what is in there at the moment everything has to come out in readiness for Tuesday morning first thing.  I am choosing to strip it out so that the Electrician can get on with what he needs to without bothering whether a preserve jar is going to fall on his head.  It will give him space to move.  It will also mean that I will have to get on and start the decorating with items being everywhere else. A lot of the contents of the cupboard are preserves of different types.  There are also pieces of preserving equipment and lots of other items.  There are plenty of jars, but I have decided that the majority of these are going to have to go into the Stone shed, which is also on the list of things to sort out. I have a lot of jars (not as many ...

Work is scheduled in here on Tuesday as we are having the Mains Electrical box replaced.  This cupboard I have been threatening to do for ages.  Unfortunately despite the plans it got waylaid a couple of times.  However, bearing in mind that there is going to be a bit of mess going on in here with the fitting of the new Electrical box, I am going to strip the whole cupboard out and let them get on with it.   Once they are done and dusted, I will then go in there, give everything a good wash down and then start filling the plaster, rubbing it down and eventually sorting out the paintwork and painting the cupboard out which will make it lovely and clean. Then attention will be paid to the shelving in there.  I am hoping to put a deep edging all the way around the shelves to stop jars falling off the shelves.  That will need painting as well.  Also intend to put some spotty green vinyl on the shelves as well to stand my preserves in there.  In r...

I was unexpectedly taken to the Butcher/Warehouse  we sometimes go to today and we ended up buying in a few items to keep us going moving forward.  The freezer is being emptied at a rate of knots and to get us through with meals for the interim.  I am hoping to go again shortly and really stock up on the meat front. There were some very good prices which I want to take advantage of and get the freezer stocked a little bit in advance of Christmas.  Not only for Christmas but meals moving forward as well. I also came across Green's Cheesecake mixes.  Have not seen these for ages and so have bought one home.  This was something I always used to keep in the Pantry and when I go again I may top up so that we have a supply moving forward as this is something that we like. A Box of Mixed Biscuits and a Box of Chocolate Biscuits, Marshmallow biscuits, a large jar of Hot Dogs, Hot Dog Buns, a tray of Lincolnshire Sausages, a tray of Mince, a tray of Stewing Steak, a...

I had planned for a little while to buy some Pears and preserve them in a light sugar syrup. Waitrose have small bags of pears which are ideal for this at £2 a bag.  The syrup that I use is a light syrup basically this is 8oz of sugar to half a pint of boiling water (you can use boiled kettle water) and then stir until the sugar is dissolved) or you can do it the traditional way by boiling the water in a saucepan and then adding the sugar until it has dissolved. Then bring to a gentle simmer near boil stirring all the time and take it off.  Add the cold amount of water depending on what quantities you have used)  Then  you top off with half a pint of cold water.  I always leave mine covered in the fridge overnight once it has cooled down and then use it the following day.  This time around I have made a 2 pint batch. Today, I managed to get to them and get them processed.  Hard work and well worth the effort involved to serve in puddings or with cream ...

For the past 14 years or so I have been celebrating and preparing for Christmas in all sorts of ways. There are a multitude of posts published over the years as well as little checklists for things to make. Search by key word, i.e. ingredient name or "Christmas" in the search bar and it should give you quite a lot of posts related to those matters. Now in reality those checklists are just check lists.  You cannot possibly make everything on the list, but it is an aide memoire and gives you the option and a reminder of possible things to make, which helps an awful lot in filling the Pantry and giving yourself a Plethora of useful ingredients to choose from.  I will re-publish some of the checklists as I go along.  These are just the ones I use, but you can create your own.  There is a link here to one of my To Do Lists for September 2009.  I really have been blogging for a lot of years.  Link is here: September To Do List/Checklist That C word (Christmas rea...

Getting back to basics! I prefer to buy my eggs in bulk if I can and Free Range.  I usually buy a tray of 20 to 30 eggs (depending on the size of the eggs themselves) as we use them a lot in general cooking and baking. However at this time of year I am looking to preserve them for use throughout the Winter and to provide yet another item for Christmas eating.  I do not like Pickled eggs, but I always make sure that there is a batch or two available for himself to eat or snack on.   I also every so often make homemade Scotch Eggs and some of these will certainly be gracing the Christmas table this year. G went to see the Egg Man this morning.  A local trader from one of the Laybys he also sells sacks of potatoes, Honey and Duck Eggs. I will in a few weeks buy in a fresh sack of potatoes for general use.  I prefer to have a big sack of potatoes as a security thing on the food front during the cooler months. I have done this for years. I store the sack of pota...

 After a difficult night with Missy, I was up early as G lost patience with her and I ended up having to find out what she was upset about.  Eventually got that sorted, and solved and got her to calm down and go to sleep.  By that time I had had enough and so decided to get up and cook G his breakfast.  I had a fried egg sandwich for a change. Hopefully the pair of them will now settle down! Me, well I have a lot of things to do today, and predominantly today and tomorrow I will be dealing with preserving items; the preserving is always done at this time of year, however I am a little behind at the moment.  This is all part of my Christmas preparation strategy in order that I have a choice of ingredients to use over the Winter and Christmas periods and moving into next year. However there are a few standard jobs to deal with as well.  These are as follows:   I have washing to do . A wash has already been put on and will not be long before it is fi...