Weekend

A beautiful weekend, weather wise enabling a little bit of sitting outside and watching the world go by.  Or in our case very little go by, it is so quiet.  In fact most of the time all we can hear is the birdsong, which is a real delight.

Saturday I spent a couple of hours in the kitchen preparing the Sunday roast and goodies for the cake tin.  On the list this week, banana bread to use up a couple of bananas that were starting to go black.

We picked our first crop of rhubarb to make a crumble.

A little ginger and some almond made it quite decadent, a real treat with icecream.  Then a bread pudding was made to use up some stale bread.  Mixed spice and good amount of dried fruit.

Yorkshire puddings and some sage/onion stuffing made and then the surplus for the freezer.

Finally meringues, a real treat for afternoon tea filled with chocolate. 

One made to use to top trifle, a real luxury making it a very special desert.  No reason just because...

I can report that it was very tasty.  We had so much fun catching up with our daughters and the grandchildren via the internet.  We are starting to dream a little and hope that we will be able to make plans to see each other soon.  

I have ordered some more elastic and am awaiting its delivery but in the meantime I have another 20 masks cut out ready to go.

I have also added a Christmas bear to the gift drawer, it is filled with both love and lavender.  It really does smell divine.

Its little face features are not as prominent as I would have liked but it will make a great gift topper.  I also added some mini wreaths using oddments of fabric, all ready to top gifts.

They were made very quickly but I think will made a wonderful addition/topper to a gift.

All in all a quiet weekend but one filled with love and laughter.  I have a lot to be thankful for when I see the news and events happening around the World.  How was your weekend? 

Take care and stay safe.

See you soon.

Sweet Treats

I am a little behind with blogging at the moment, but I am slowing getting around to visit you all.  Nothing wrong, just life seems to be taking over.  Although Gerard has been having some nasty side effects from some drugs he takes.  He has now under the consultants advice stopped taking one of his RA injections and consequently is having a flare up.  Rest and healthy eating is the order of the day.  In fairness we do eat healthily most of the time.  We do have a tendency to have treats when we have visitors and we have had several visitors of the weekend.  Homemade desserts are the best, yum!

We have an abundance of eggs at the moment so I made meringue, so that I could add strawberries and fresh whipped cream to make eton mess.

I also made a strawberry tart with a homemade custard base, using more eggs.

Topping it off with a strawberry flavoured jelly.

Finally an orange cake topped off with butter cream icing and jellied orange.  The perfect addition for afternoon tea.

I have started to use the liners for my baking, so much easier than greasing baking trays.  I am all for an easy life these days.  I have spent a lot of time in the kitchen this weekend jam making and replenishing the empty glass bottles with basil oil.  Apricots were cheap in the supermarket this week and I managed to get some yellow sticker strawberries, making the jam much more cost effective.

Already to be labelled up.  Finally the rain has stopped so I am ever hopeful that I may be able to get out in a few hours and mow the lawn.  I also intend to pick some more herbs ready for drying.  I have an abundance of mint which will be useful for mint sauce.  The roof on the outbuilding is almost finished so next we are going to replace the windows and get the door put back on.  Once the structure is sound we will be able to make plans for the interior and build the raised beds.  It is slow progress but we are thankful progress is being made.  What are you working on?

As always I thank you for your visit and your uplifting comments.

See you soon.