PROJECT 25- BOTTLE SWEET PEPPERS

I did not plan to do this!  When I moved into the new house there was a lot of ripe green and red peppers in the vegetable garden.  You know me by now....nothing must go to waste, so I bottled them.  The end product is quite nice and I'll surely do this again next year!  I used vegetable oil, but next time I'll use olive oil that will definitely give you an even better product.

You will need: 6 sweet peppers(I used green and red, but you can add some yellow ones as well)

                       300ml oil

                       salt

                       4 cloves of garlic

                       1 chillie

                       twig of fresh rosemary

                       5 ml black peppercorns

                       30 ml lemon juice

     

Halve and deseed the peppers.  Wipe it with a little olive oil and place on a baking sheet.  Bake at 200'C for 20 minutes until the skins are black and puffy.  Peel off the skins and cut peppers in thin slices.  Salt lightly.  Peel and crush garlic. Slice the chillies.

Pack sliced peppers in sterilised jars, add rosemary, garlic, chillie and black pepper.  Pour lemon juice over and fill bottle with oil.  Shake to remove air bubbles.  Seal and keep refrigerated.  Allow to stand for 3 days, then use within 3 months.

Project 24 .....baking gingersnaps

Ginger biscuits have always been a favourite in this house.  Try these ones....

Preheat your oven at 180'C.

Rub 250g margarine into 450g of flour until it looks like breadcrumbs.  Add 450g of white sugar, 5 ml of nutmeg, 5 ml cinnamon and 20-30ml ginger.  Mix 2 eggs, 15ml milk, 30 ml golden syrup and 10ml of bicarbonate of soda in a separate bowl and add to flour mixture.  Mix well and knead a little until it is well combined.  Roll little balls and place on baking sheet.  Press it down with a fork.  Bake for 10-15 minutes.

Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Make a large mug of coffee and enjoy!

project 23-framing smaller pictures

Sometimes you need something bigger for a specific spot, but you want to use a specific picture and making a large copy will cost you a fortune!

I had some A4 sized wedding photos of many years back that I never used.  So in the new house I ad a specific spot I wanted to used it in.  Using two A4 photo frames would not have done the trick.  I then took a large frame(one of those pictures my mom used to have!) and spray painted it metallic silver. I scratched some of the paint off to give it a worn look. I then glued two antique looking A4 frames onto the large frame and put the pictures inside.  Now I had a large eye catching feature that did not cost me much! 

Hi everybody!

I am connected again!  Can not believe how long a month without Internet can be!

We have moved to a new house in town during April and changing lines took some time! But we are connected now and I am back on track!

It was a difficult time in my life!  I loved the smallholding.  I loved my big house. I loved the quietness.  I loved everything at home! 

Home has a new meaning for me now!  I had to adapt by having neighbours close to me now.  I have a next door gardener that is peeping over the wall and follow my every movement.  I have a smaller house and with that had to get rid of some stuff.  I realised that a person does not need all the stuff you gather, but it is still not nice!  The only positive thing for me at the moment is that we are staying around the corner from the school and suddenly the days are longer because the boys can come and go as they are pleased!  They walk to school now and it takes them less than 5 minutes!  On the other side....I have a lot of kids around daily as it is close for all the friends!  The cookie jars used to empty fast, but now it is worse!  They don't last at all!

Well, I am sure I'll get used to this new lifestyle!  They say it it safer as well, but I never felt unsafe on the smallholding.  People visiting did.....

I haven't been very busy with anything else than unpacking and re-arranging, but I am sorted  now and soon will be my old self!

Thanx for being patient!

Sandra
  xxx