Sunny days

What a fabulous day! We've had glorious sunshine here all afternoon, although Belfast this morning was grey and cold. I had to keep my fleece on all day!

I have to admit the pic in my post wasn't taken today, I took it about 2 weeks back one morning while in Donaghadee, the sea was calm and it just looked so peaceful, I couldn't resist a snap of the harbour.

I really must start to take my camera to work, the pics I snap are usually with my phone, though to be honest, I really don't think it matters much as my photography skills are a bit hit and miss!!

What ever you are doing this weekend, I hope it's sunny where you are!

Beer butt chicken

A quick and easy recipe for you all today, beer butt chicken. This has got to be my favourite way to cook a chicken, it stays so moist and the meat practically falls off the bone, mmmmm!

You will need:

1 chicken
1 can of beer, I just use larger to keep the chook moist but you can use a stronger flavoured bee, like an ale if you want a bit of flavour too.
Some salt
Some oil
A large roasting tin

Preheat oven to 180oc
Anoint your chicken with oil and rub in some salt to make the skin lovely and crispy.
Place the "butt" of your chicken over the opened can of beer.
Stand upright in the roasting tin
Roast in oven until the juices run perfectly clear, no need to baste this baby, it does this all by itself.

When cooked, allow to stand for at least 10 minutes, this allows the juices to relax back into the meat and also allows the beer can to cool slightly so you can remove it carefully with oven gloves!

Serve the chicken with whatever accompaniments you like!

Enjoy!!

Oh and don't forget to stretch the chicken even further by using the carcass to make stock!

Boredom into bag making

The weather has been very changeable here and it's been so wet for the past few days that I haven't been able to get into the garden, a sprint to the greenhouse is just about all I can manage!! So gardening has been out, bulk cooking is out too as I have a full freezer. I never seem to have space to bulk cook much or is it just that I have a ridiculously small freezer space???? So I have been sewing again! I re-jigged the checked bag I made at the weekend as I wasn't happy with the handles. A local craft store sells a small selection of wooden handles, so I picked a nice set to put on the check bag.

Then came reversible tote bag............

The outside view

and the reversed view!

I'm really pleased how this one came out, I hadn't made anything like this before and I even managed to put a pocket on it too!

I'm currently grappling with a grab bag pattern, attempt one last night didn't go too well, I think I made the mistake of being determined (read stubborn and tired) last night to get it done, even when I wasn't sure of where I was going with it. Hopefully this version will work a little better.

(This is a picture of the not so good version)

The fabric I'm using today come from my Freecycle stash, there's lots to choose from and the bigger pieces left over have enough space to cut a square for my quilt :0)

I think the terminology for re-using items to make something else from them is "up-cycling" ? Plenty of up-cycling in this house then!

A sewing afternoon.........

My friend Dianne, is very crafty and makes lovely bags, the two pictures above are ones that she made. So with that in mind, I decided to try another bag this afternoon, using some more of my freebies from Freecycle.

Here's the result..............

I'm chuffed to bits with this one!

Sewing skills are improving, however it will be a while before I'm up to the standard of Dianne and her bags!!


The basic bag design came from "I made it myself", by Eithne Farry. The book is really easy to follow and has some fantastic designs, not just for bags, but for clothing as well. I'd recommend it to anyone who is just starting, like me, to venture into the world of sewing.

I'm still cutting squares for my quilt, though I haven't cut any since Monday night as I sliced the back of my hand with the rotary cutter, ooooops!!

Off now for a very large G&T and enjoy the rest of the evening.

Chirpy chirpy cheep cheep.....

that's all I can hear from 4am in the morning. Grrrr! Now, I have nothing against the little birdies, but when they nest in the eaves of your house, right above your bedroom, it can be a little frustrating.
So, sleep deprived that I am, I have made myself a little energy boosting treat for breakfast tomorrow morning. I made a yummy banana and strawberry smoothie. I used 400mls of my home-made yoghurt, one banana and a few tinned strawberries that were left over in the fridge from my frozen yoghurt. It is very tasty and I think it will make a nice change from cereal or toast tomorrow.

it's all ready to go in my travel tumbler, chilling nicely in the fridge. Yum yum!

No sewing tonight, I don't trust myself with the sewing machine to be honest! It will have to wait to the weekend, maybe by then I'll be awake enough to concentrate.

Ta daaaaaaa!!!

Tonight I finished my denim patchwork bag and I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the finished result, even if I do say so myself!

It took a little bit of time to get the lining in, this was my first ever attempt at bag making, so I didn't expect it to go so smoothly. I finally solved the handle problem by using cotton webbing I found while out shopping today.
Hubs helped at the end to get the rivets in place. It took a bit of time to punch the fabric out, but I think it was worth it as the bag looks unique with this style of handle.

I didn't use a pattern for this bag, I just started with denim patches cut from an old pair of my jeans. Not bad for a beginner :0)

I'm still cutting out squares to make my patchwork quilt and after seeing one on sale in a store today for £115, previously £145, I will be most definitely making my own!

Fabric galore!

I spent a very happy afternoon yesterday, sorting through a big bag of fabric. It was given to me by a very lovely lady on freecycle

There's an amazing assortment of colours and fabrics, most of which apparently came from a dressmaker. I have one piece in a gorgeous lilac which is big enough to make something really special with. I'll save it until my machine skills are a lot better, it's too nice to cut into squares for a quilt!

The downside of my fabric collection now is that after I start to cut out all my squares, there's loads of threads and fluff everywhere, the dog doesn't help as he carries it off to play with and then leaves it sticking all over the place. *sigh* I'll just have to get used to more hoovering I suppose :0)

Domestic update......

I knew it wasn't going to go smoothly making this bag. So far this evening I have completed the lining and it's all ready to go in. The problem now is the handle, the belt I had planned to re-use is just too thick to sew in with my machine or by hand. I'm going to have to rethin k this part and so, I've stalled. Drawn a blank. I was doing so well too. *sigh*

I'm not going to rush this as I really don't want to mess up. What else can I sew in place? Hmmmmm, time to rummage charity shops this weekend I think to see what turns up!

OMG, I've become domesticated

I've become domesticated. It's official. Not only do I own a sewing machine, but I know vaguely how to use it too. Now this may come as a big shock to those of you who know me well. I'm certainly not the girl I was years ago!! If you'd told me way back when that'd I'd be happily married, gardening, cooking and now sewing, I would have laughed in your face. But now, here's the proof in full glorious technicolour........


I sewed a bag this evening from an old pair of jeans. Now not even a straight up and down bag, no, I decided to make a patchwork one. Ambitious for someone, who until recently was just about able to zoom up an old pillowcase in a not so straight line.


To make a bag from recycled jeans, I cut out some squares

Sewed the squares in a strip

Sewed the strips together to form a large piece, then sewed the two piecess together, with the right sides facing.
To square off the corners, I squashed the bag down and sewed across the corners

This is how the bag looks, inside out...

Turn it the right way round and voila!!!

To make the handle, I'm recycling a belt from an old pair combat trousers...
I have to yet finish the lining, I'm going to use an old pillowcase for this. Maybe. Or I might use some old curtain material, I haven't yet made up my mind.


I'm so proud of my efforts this evening!! Quite an achievement for little me :0)

Final thought for the day......

Here's something to get you thinking this evening...................

Give me just a little more time.

What's your answer?
What would you like a little more time for?


My answer is easy...............................sleep!

Thanks to Meme Express for the prompt!

Busy day

It has been a productive afternoon for me, I've experimented and taken my home made yoghurt to the next stage and made Strawberry Frozen Yoghurt!!!!
After doing a bit of research on t'internet, I decided to use a full flask of yoghurt (400mls) To that I added one and a half cans of strawberries, drained of syrup and a dollop of honey to sweeten. The last batch of yoghurt I made was a little more tart than the first batch as I used a different brand of organic natural yog as a starter.

The ingredients were combined in a bowl and then poured into my Mum's ice cream maker to churn and freeze. I then scooped it out into a tub to place in the freezer wher it will stay until tomorrow.

An excursion out this evening to meet a lovely lady from freecycle brought home a friend for Vera. Now I have decided to call her Mavis, don't laugh, I haven't lost the plot, I just thought as I'd shortened aloe vera to vera it seemed only fair to give the new plant a name too!
So here she is in her new pot beside her friend! In the process of giving the girls some new pots, I discovered that Vera was having babies!!!!!!!
I have taken those out and re-potted as well. No idea if I have completed this task in any way correctly, but I will keep an eye on the babies to see what happens. In the picture below you can just see the babies peeking out of the pots!

Now in the course of writing this blog post (It's only taken me an hour!) I've had to go vacuum up my husbands mess, vacuum the rest of downstairs while the vacuum cleaner was out,make lunches, and tidy the kitchen. *phew* In fairness to hubs, he was hanging a new door for me, so it was the least I could do to clean up all the wood shavings. I've come to the conclusion though, I need to vac pac my family and dog, particularly the dog, then perhaps I wouldn't have so much grot to clean up



Anyone know where I can buy an industrial sized vac pac machine on the cheap????????????????

End of an era

The time has come for me to say goodbye to my beloved Joe Kool's T-Shirt. I bought it in 1991 while on holiday in Canada and I have loved it ever since. I've worn it in bed for the past few years and now it's past even that stage. But never fear, I'm going to recycle the non holed parts into a quilt for my house. I don't profess to be a quilt expert, nor can I say how long it will take me to make the quilt, but the enthusiasm is there non the less!!

Transition...............

I have just purchased a custom domain name for my blog. My blog can now be found by checking out www.arkonite.net!

There shouldn't be any noticeable changes, just an easier web address to remember. If you have my blog stored as a bookmark, it will automatically re-direct to the new address.

Another yogurt success!

After a bit of tweaking, my second attempt at home made yoghurt has turned out fantastically!
Added to that, there's actually photo evidence to support it this time! The second batch worked better as I added a little bit more starter than I did in the last batch and also an extra spoonful of milk powder. (The starter this time was a few spoonfuls I reserved from my first batch last night)

The consistency is really thick and creamy, almost like a greek style yoghurt. It's not too tart either, so I don't think I need to add any additional sweeteners to it.

Next experiment over the weekend will be with a good quality pro-biotic yoghurt as a starter and UHT milk.

Yoghurt success!

Hooray!! The yoghurt I made last night worked a treat. It worked so well that it has all been eaten and I haven't any pictures to show you :0(

On the other hand, as it has been so well received, I now have batch 2 on the go. I just have to try and get the consistency adjusted now. The yoghurt, although tasty, hasn't got the same thickness of store bought. According to my research this can be due to a number of factors: not enough culture, not long enough to "yog", not enough powdered milk. Or it could also be contributed to using fresah milk. Apparently UHT milk can be used with great success as the bad bacteria have already been killed off during the UHT process.

I will experiment more over the weekend with organic yoghurt as a starter as well as trying the UHT milk method.

Results will be posted here as I try, so you can see how it all turns out!

New Look.........

How do you like the new look for my blog?

It's all free and funky thanks to the girls over at Leelou Blogs

Feel free to post a comment telling me what you think!

Making yoghurt the easy way (apparently!)

I decided to experiment tonight with yoghurt making. It doesn't need any special equipment, just a wide neck flask, milk, milk powder and some live natural yoghurt as a starter.

The flask I already had in the cupboard (it was gathering dust, so I might as well find another use for it!) so all I had to buy tonight was milk powder and a small tub of natural live yoghurt to start my first batch.

If this batch is successful, I can reserve a small amount to act as a starter for my next batch. It appears you can also freeze small amounts of starter too, though I have yet to try this as tonight is my first attempt.

Here's what you do:

My flask holds 400mls so I measured out just under this amount of milk for the flask. (The amount of yoghurt used as a starter is approx 1 tablespoon per pint of milk.)
Place milk in a pan and bring to the boil.
While you are waiting for the milk to boil, boil some water in your kettle and fill the flask.
This sterilises the flask and pre-heats it.
When your milk has reached boiling, set it in some cold water to bring the temperature down to blood heat (approx 46 degrees celcius) you can test it on your wist as you would a baby's bottle.
Remove any skin that forms on the milk.
Thoroughly stir in 2 tablespoons dried milk powder and 2 tablespoons live yoghurt.
Pour into your flask and seal.
Leave 6 - 8 hours or over night.
Remove from flask and chill in a steril container with lid in the fridge.

You can now flavour and sweeten your yoghurt as you wish, use it in cooking, over cereal, fruit etc.

Apparently if you like your yoghurt really thick, you can strain it through some muslin and the result is like a thick and creamy greek style yoghurt. I'll try this tomorrow morning before I go to work! It can sit in the fridge to work away while I'm out :0)

I'll post the results tomorrow and let you know if it works or not!!

It's all growing in the garden!

The weather here has been pretty dismal for the past few days and so I haven't been able to get much done in the garden.

I have been out though keeping an eye on the progress of my plants and it appears that things are starting to grow!

This is my raspberry cane which currently is residing in a pot. As you can see we have small flower formations, so hopefully we will have some fruit this year. Also on the same cane, we have a new cane appearing, I'll let this continue to come up and then split it off for a new plant next season.


The alpine strawberries, which we grew from seed last year are also forming flowers. We did manage one single strawberry last year in November of all times! Fingers crossed for a good crop this year. I will then allow the plant to put out runners next year. This will in turn lead to new strawberry plants.


Finally we have peas making an appearance. We lost the first batch that we planted. The seeds rotted away for some reason and the few that remained were in the rotting stage. I'll start another batch of peas off in the next week or so. This will ensure a continuous crop. Last year we ended up with a glut, so I'm trying not to let that happen this year!

This has to be the best result for me so far.............. butternut squash! I saved the seeds from a squash we bought in the supermarket last year. I just scooped them out and washed off the flesh, then allowed them to dry out on a piece of kitchen paper. When dry I popped the seeds in a bag and stored them in the freezer. (It will be an added bonus if we actually get some fruit from these plants.)I save all my seed this way, it stops germination and allows the seed to get all warm and cosy when you plant them in the new season, thus encouraging them to sprout.

Also in residence in the greenhouse are tomatoes, a melon plant, a cucumber plant, assorted herbs, a courgette plant and later on in the season we will be trying some sweetcorn. Dad is starting this off for me in his heated propagator so that by the time we are ready for it, we have hopefully got warmer weather.

In the garden patch, the potatoes are up and will need earthed up this weekend, carrots have finally started to show and my onion sets are sprouting well. The experimental asparagus doesn't seem to be doing anything so far. I'm a novice on this front and the crowns weren't in any way expensive. So if the crowns don't produce anything, it hasn't been a big loss.

I decided this year not to grow any brassicas. The butterflies got to them last year and all the plants ended up looking like net curtains. I felt for the effort I had put into them, I didn't get much in return so I'll have to stick to buying those from the greengrocers.

Cheesemaking

Today I have been making my own soft cheese. It is also known as paneer, fromage or queso.
It's really simple to make and you can eat it plain, flavour it with herbs or even make it into cream cheese!



Currently there are two batches sitting in the kitchen, the first was made from whole milk as per the instructions. The second batch I made by re-using the whey from the first batch. Then repeating the splitting process. This has resulted in a smaller curd, which will be better for a cream style cheese.



I haven't yet decided what herbs I'm going to flavour my cheese with, but the last batch I made, I flavoured using dried herbs. This worked out ok, but fresh herbs will result in a better, fresher tasting cheese.

(You can see the curds hanging in a cheesecloth pouch to drain in the picture on the left)







I also made oatmeal and raisin cookies today, I have to admit though I cheated and used a packet mix as I have yet to find a recipe that results in moist chewy cookies like you can buy in the supermarket!










This past week and the next few weeks will be absolutely hectic at work and so I haven't had much time to update my blog. I hope to be able to get a few posts in to keep you up to date with what's going on!!