While we waited

The past few days have been a bit of a rollercoaster as we have first waited for, and then delighted in, the birth of the newest member of the family.  It has been a very special time.

We tried to fill our days beforehand but to be honest, our thoughts were always elsewhere, so it is surprising that much got done at all.  However, in between the waiting and anticipating of phone calls, the vacuum cleaner has been taken to pieces, cleaned and repaired, and we have saved ourselves the considerable cost of replacing it - a definite result.  If something can be mended to extend its use then we will certainly have a go, and it is quite satisfying knowing you have saved a few pennies in the process and prevented adding to landfill.

Not much room left in the preserving pan 

Our first sweet corn

When the weather has allowed us (we have had some torrential downpours recently) we have spent some time in the garden, preparing it for winter.  With the colder temperatures, fewer tomatoes and peppers are ripening now, and we had the usual glut of green tomatoes left on the plants.  Not wanting to waste them, we made them into a spicy chutney, adding the last couple of courgettes and the remainder of the cooking apples we were given.  The smell may linger overnight but the chutney looks wonderful.  And this evening we enjoyed our first full-grown sweet corn cobs - with a dab of butter, they were delicious!

I still make bread every week but I'm keen to learn and make improvements where possible. Although the bread is very tasty, I think it's a little on the heavy side, possibly because I think I get the dough too dry so I have been experimenting with a much wetter mixture.  It's certainly very sticky to work with so I have had to find something to assist with mixing it - I found the little plastic scraper used to de-ice the freezer is ideal!  However, using more water and working with wetter dough, and baking at a higher temperature for a little longer seems to be resulting in a much better-textured loaf.  I'm glad I persevered; a bit of trial and error seems to be paying of and my bread-making skills are gradually improving.  The loaves always seem to get eaten so they can't be too bad :)