TARRAGON & THYME

Recently, I made a scuttle full of home made cleaning vinegar.  This time utilising orange peels and white spirit vinegar.  It is all stored in a huge storage bottle with a tap on the bottom so that I can dispense as much or as little of the vinegar as I wish. I must say that it is a beautiful degreaser and it makes short work of my cooker top and it is a natural cleaner which I am more than happy about. I had a bit of a major accident with some of my brass and copper stuff which had been out in the garden in a poly box. However unknown to me the lid had broken and the contents had become drenched.  There were some particularly nice pieces before the rust and so in what I thought would be a frustrated effort to clean and get these items back into decent order on the safe side I did some research and came back to using a lemon and salt and vinegar to clean up with.  As I had no lemon in house at the time I decided to try and use a drop of my cleaning vinegar ...

After a long absence I managed to get to the computer and prepare a couple of posts to cover the next few days.  This was on Saturday, a very quiet day as I felt washed out where my get up and go had left the building.  I must say it was nice to be tapping the keys again. We had a lovely tea on Saturday.  We had a couple of double lamb chops with mint jelly, steamed carrots, peas, cauliflower, cauliflower leaf (did not want to waste it and it was delicious) and mashed potatoes. I cooked extra mashed potatoes as I have some mince in the fridge which I intend to turn into a Cottage pie for one night during the week.  The lamb went down very nicely and both of us were suitably stuffed afterwards.  I had nipped out to the shop to get some fresh veg earlier on.  I just fancied fresh veg, to me lamb deserves fresh veg.  For about four weeks I have not been able to get any bread flour or yeast.  I keep looking but have not managed to find any....

In the words of the rhyme, 10 green bottles hanging on the wall!  Needless to say this past week alone I have located 18 demijohns lurking in the undergrowth in the garden where they had been stacked in boxes, which have since disintegrated.  I had forgotten all about them, and as I have started doing the garden, in my tidying process they have appeared.  Needless to say that they were in a mess, but have since been scrubbed up suitably with the aid of plenty of hot water, a bottle brush and some elbow grease.  They are now stood soaking in a strong solution of bleach.  They are to be put into service soon and before being used will be scrubbed up again and popped into the oven to "cook" sorry sterilise them before  sterilising with Metabisulphite powder and then adding fresh batches of wine to brew. Sorry I have been absent for the past fortnight or so. I have missed the blogging, but have made the most of the time that I have had.  I have not be...

I am always pleased when I manage to get either an extra preserve or products from the ingredients that I use regularly in the house i.e. when I make plum jelly  as I have the opportunity to make plum cheese from the pulp left over in the straining/jelly net.  That to me is making the most of what you have and reflects my philosophy of "Waste not, Want not"! I have a couple of projects coming up in the next week or so. I have some wine to make from kits, and I have Apricot wine made from dried Apricots to make as well.  The bonus from making the wine is that I will end up with a dried Apricot chutney as well.  I also have dried Apricot jam and Apricot and Amaretto jam to make as well.  Dried Apricots make a lovely jam.   I love Apricots and am looking forward to buying in fresh Apric ots which I tend to bottle in a very light syrup.  They are delicious served with croissants and cream cheese.  Yummy my mouth is watering at the thought. I am...

With OH now working from home, means that I have had to vacate the study/craft room to leave him in peace to work.  I am hoping therefore that I can get into a routine and set about each room in turn, find those items I no longer want or require and hopefully get that decorating done.  Whilst he keeps Missy company as well as working. I have had to start in the back bedroom because of sliding boxes, plus as I go from room to room there will be other items to store in there and to tidy up the rest of the house.  Once the back bedroom is sorted I intend to go on to the Pantry. The Pantry did not get done fully, when I hoped to get it done so that is first on the list.  It was partially done, but the decorating needs doing.  With me planning to slowly fill things up again (which was planned prior to all the current difficulties), I need to have a full detailed list of what I have and what I have not got before I go shopping.  So if the Pantry is dealt w...

Whilst the rest of the world is topsy turvy with this dreadful virus I have been working through another segment of my boxes trying to regain control and knowing what I have where. I have sorted through about 12 boxes today, sorting and re-packing and adding in extra things where I can.  The labels are helping enormously in this respect.  Every time I go to sort something, something else falls over (it was a bag of knitting needles earlier on) and I still have a large tin of ribbons and braids to sort out - that fell over yesterday.  This needs a little patience to say the least.   The boxes I have sorted were starting to collapse and were getting very unsteady so that is a job well done, but there is still plenty to go.   I have found a box of finished needlepoint that I have decanted into a box marked up to be finished.  A lot of it is vintage, not pieces I have worked but which will either be made into cushion panels or indeed for the wall. This...

Just to let everyone know that we are at the moment okay here.  It has been very strange for the last few days as OH is now working from home and has taken over the computer room, as his job entails a lot of computer and keyboard skills, but also telephone calls and live chats!  It also means I cannot get to the computer when I want to! Technically we have both been at home for the past three days although will have to go out for supplies on Friday.  Need animal food etc. so it will be essential shopping then.  Am trying to take advantage of this period in time to do things in the house although it is slow going.  A lot as been done though and very slowly I am starting to restore some kind of order.  I am trying to be organised.  Labels are going on boxes with a rough idea of what is in them and whether they are fragile etc. and in some cases the boxes are being re-packed.  I have also accumulated another box full of UFO items.  I will n...