Rubbish????

Isn't it amazing what some people are prepared to put in the bin? My neighbour is moving soon and was having a bit of a clearout at the weekend . She called over the gate did I want these as she was just about to take them down to the dump but though she would ask first....

This rice steamer doesn't look as if it has EVER been used,

These 3 Le Creuset pans are in FAR better nick than the ones I have.

I, of course said "Yes Please" and "Thankyou" and took round half a dozen of my freshest eggs from the girls as a little token. What a lucky girl am I eh????

Easy Peasey Low-tech yogurt NOM

For Ethan....and anyone else who is interested.....
I know that there are special machines you can buy, and even special starters you can buy so that you can make yogurt at home...but this is how I make yogurt every week, with nothing more technical than a colander........lots of pictures, very few instructions and no measurements required - now that's my sort of recipe! :-)

First, pour some milk into a saucepan and heat it up until it nearly boils...see it's just starting to go frothy round the edge. If you REALLY want to you can boil it so that it overflows onto the stove...I do this occaisionally, but it's not really necessary for the recipe. You can use whole milk, semi skimmed, skimmed , 1% fat, and I believe even soya milk.

 Pour the hot milk into a bowl.

Cover it with a tea towel to stop anything nasty falling in...and let it cool down a bit. I set the timer for half an hour to start off with.

It has reached the right temperature when you can hold your pinky in there for a fairly fast count of 10 ( probably about 5 seconds) It needs to be cool enough not to kill the good yogurty bacteria, but warm enough to encourage them to multiply. The 10 count pinky test has never failed for me.

Now add in a dollop of yogurt...I usually save a tablespoon of last weeks yogurt as a starter for this weeks batch...but this week I scoffed the lot and had to buy a little pot.

I scoffed 2/3s of this pot and put the last bit into the new batch.. if you are buying a pot, just choose one that isn't flavoured and says things like natural, live, bio....it's the good buggys that you need:-)

Give it a bit of a whisk so the yogurt is well mixed through.

Cover it with cling film.

Snuggle it up and keep it warm...here I've wrapped it in a towel and stuck it on the top of the Rayburn, but it works just as well in the airing cupboard or even on the kitchen table wrapped up in a couple of extra layers (I've used jumpers and ponchos in the past). It needs a few hours to turn into yogurt...I usually do this in the evening and leave it overnight. In the morning you will have yogurt! You can stop right there if you wish and just pop the bowl in the fridge in the morning and use as normal. I like thick yogurt ( oh all right, I like REALLY thick yogurt...I want the spoon to stand up on its own!) so for thicker yogurt follow the next steps too.....

Take one bowl.....

Add one colander...

Line the colander with a clean teatowel.

Pour the yogurt into the tea towel...

Cling film back on...

Add let it drain until you feel the yogurt is thick enough (all day for me :-)  ) That is the whey collecting in the bowl.....if you think your yogurt is TOO thick (surely not!) you can stir a little whey back in to loosen it up again.

Here's mine after it has been draining all day...see how much further down it has sunk? Mine is so thick I can just tip it and roll it off of the tea towel into a tub - for thinner yogurt you would need a sppon to transfer it over.

Tadah!!!! Here's my yogurt ready for the fridge. I like to take a pot of yogurt with a big dollop of honey in it to work each day....us ole ladies need the calcium dontyaknow!!

Why not give it a try and let me know how you get on...Ethan...that pinky needs to be CLEAN before it gets dunked in the milk :-) ...just saying...

Cow whisperer?

Today, when I went out for my walk, the creatures ignored me as usual.

A few stared for a moment ...

but mostly, they just ignored me.

That was , until I spotted these guys hiding behind a hedge..."Oh hello, I didn't see you hiding there"

My milkshake brings all the boys cows to the yard ?? Here they come...

Oh Hello Mrs!

 And the full chorus line!!! They all lined up to see me and posed to have their photos taken. I stood and talked to them for 5 minutes ( shamelessly flattering them and telling them how pretty they were) and they seemed a little disappointed when I had to leave. How bizarre I thought. Maybe not...maybe cows really like humans, as the same thing happend half a mile further on...

 Hello little belties!

I'm ready for my close-up!

And here they all are.....am I the Cow Whisperer or can they just not resist a grey haired lady with the whiff of Dove about her?? Anyway...it kind of made my day...I've had a bit of a soft spot for cows since my Aunt took me to the cattle market in Thame when I was 6. Here's hoping that something made your day too! Take care  - KKWF

Feeding my addiction...

I seem to have become addicted to charity shops. Somehow the fact that it's cheap, and I'm rehoming something that has been pre-loved makes it a noble deed rather than a dirty consumeristic transaction...oh how we kid ourselves LOL! With careful googling I've managed to find 5 charity shops within easy lunchtime perusal distance of my office in Theale. One is walking distance in Theale High Street..but I think they have aspirations ...they seem to price everything as if it's a vintage shop not a charity shop. I don't really want to pay £8 for a second hand book thanks. Anyhoo...lunchtime forays yesterday and today have bagged me the following goodies:-)

I found this in the Sue Ryder shop...I really don't like the picture, but the frame is perfect for the Annabel Fairfax print that I've had rolled up in a cardboard tube for 6 months.

TaDah!!! Now I like it much better.

I also found these 4 Spode Blue Italian cups...I have lots of Spode spice jars so they'll match...now I need to find some saucers...£4.95 for the set...a little more than I would usually spend but far cheaper than Ebay methinks.

This darling little dish and spoon were 50p...good for salt I thought..I have a SaltPig already but this might make a nice gift. Anyone got any ideas as to what else I could use it for?

I've been looking for a little hand drill for ages...I find it a pain to trek to the shed at the bottom of the garden for the power drill when all I want to do is drill a few holes in the bottom of a plastic pot...think this might come in useful and it reminds me of my grandad who had a shed full of wonderful tools like this. I still have his folding wooden ruler that I remember playing with as a small child.

Last but not least, I found this little chalk board...I'm thinking that maybe if I wrote on here some of the things I need to do , a few of them might even get done...we'll see. Anyway, that was £13 shamelessly splurged on these items over 2 lunch breaks so I'd better pack in some serious no-spend days to the end of the month.I find that I can be very good for a while but every now and then I have a lapse... Still, falling off the frugal wagon in the charity shop is a lot less dangerous that doing it in Next & Monsoon eh??
Anyway I think I'll have a glass of wine and then trek up the wooden hill...sleep tight peeps :-)

The inmates...



Akira (14 months) , Queenie ( 12 weeks)

 Oh, I am experiencing technamalogical difficulties! I thought I'd show you the inmates but TBH I'm struggling a bit...apologies if it looks a bit of a mess, I'm not necessarily uploading the photos I intended...meh! Anyhoo...here are the creatures that share my life...whether furry, feathered or just plain fantastic .

Baldrick (12 weeks)

 It may say "Ethans Room" on the door...but we know the truth don't we? Akira, Queenie and Baldrick show possession is 9/10s.

 Baldrick and Queenie - crash and burn kittehs

 The girls...Yolko Ono and Mother Clucker ( or Mo for the benefit of lil Cath next door)

 My precious boys...they seem to have escaped! Josh to Oz and Ethan to Uni.