The Autumnal Christmas Chronicles Preamble - Thread 2 further ramblings

[HannahDefoesChristmasHamper]

Hope nobody minds me starting anew thread as old one nearly full

Will pop some links in 🍂🍁

@WeMeetInFairIthilien, would you share your flapjack recipe, please? It all looks amazing!

I made roast lamb and rhubarb crumble after a NVN busy day yesterday.

We've had an appley day too, DD was at work but DH and I went to an apple fair - there is a big apple farm near here. We tasted and tasted and tasted then brought home a bag each. I have also been out to take photos of some maple trees that are planted nearby to commemorate Canadians who fought for us in the two WWs. In between I soaked the fruit for my Christmas cake and I have brought Nigel (CCs) up to bed to peruse the recipe properly. So here's my day in pictures

I'm really liking the day in pictures theme!

@Bimblesalong you may be lucky. I found my taste buds didn't change. I totally lost my appetite though. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

@WeMeetInFairIthilien I would love the recipe for the medieval cheese and spinach tart.

I also had a cooking day yesterday, with coq au vin and lentil soup.

Apologies for any typos. I'm not sure how, but for some reason my phone is showing the desktop site and I have no idea how to get the mobile site back and it's really hard to see the screen as I write (or to use Mumsnet in general).

My weekend lake swim was absolutely magical yesterday. It was dark by home time, but with lots of fires around the lake, and in the changing hut.

Oooh @UnimaginableWindBird that looks amazing (& you are braver than I, swimming in darker skies!)!

Morning all. Wow some amazing photos. I'm also mighty impressed by anyone swimming in the darkness.

Our first frost, here. 0 degrees with a freezing fog. Went outside just to check that it would be a 'soft' frost, easily scraped from the car. Nope. Solid and icy!

Hi everyone!

Been a while...mostly due to toothache.

We saw the Aurora Borealis too, which was fantastic! I haven't seen it since I lived in Norway as a teenager.

Did a bit of baking - our favourite rye bread with caraway seeds, mini sausage rolls, peach crumble (with tinned peaches). Made a batch of leek and potato soup so we have some ready when we fancy it. Yesterday had a really simple, basic roast chicken - just the bird, carrot and swede mash, garlic smashed roasties, peas and gravy. But I've only got a photo of the loaf.

Going back to NVN crockery, here's a little peek into one of my kitchen cupboards where I keep some of my EB pieces. Right now I've got the vaguely autumnal coloured mugs out for daily use. I've got a couple more packed away somewhere that I want to find this week - one is harvest moon themed and I'm annoyed that I missed the official time for that (same as last year heh) and one which is Hallowe'en themed so I need to get a move on before I miss that too! These will stay in use until end of Nov. and then I'll bring out the Christmas mugs for Dec.

🎄🎄🎄

(@RainbowZebraWarrior I also remember that really lovely collection of tea cups and saucers, but I can't remember who it belonged to!)

Had our first proper frost here last night. It feels very autumnal indeed now! Beautiful sunny day here today which is so nice!

Still haven't opened the book. It'll be a treat when I finally do read it.

Finally going to see the dentist today. Thankfully the pain's been all but gone for a couple of days now.

As always, thank you all for your lovely photos and the snippets of your lives that you share with us.

Just catching up loving all the photos! Had a very early morning drive from Cornwall to Somerset on Saturday and was thinking of you lovely lot - the low lying mist over the moor areas was unbelievably beautiful and lovely to be driving into the light whilst the sun was coming up - sadly no photos as was driving but took great pleasure in it. I do find you really appreciate the best moments sometimes very early in the morning.

@DeckTheHallsAndBringYourBrolly that loaf of bread looks amazing!

Hello, all.

@DeckTheHallsAndBringYourBrolly that loaf does look amazing. As does your lovely EB crockery. I particularly love the jug.

I bought these wax seal stickers very cheaply from ebay for my Chilli Jam Christmas gifts. I'm rather pleased with the way the colour matches. I usually print out labels saying "goes well with chicken, fish and rice dishes. Great with burgers and sausages" etc. However, I think after gifting them for 25 years, the recipients already know this.

The cold weather has really got to me, and I feel very achy and hot / cold.

Hope everyone is doing OK.

If you're on android, try clicking the 3 vertical dots on the top right of your screen, then deselecting the 'Desktop site' check box (at least, that's how it works on mine!)

@FoolShapeHeart thank you! I can actually read again. I haven't done that since the days when there was a link to switch between mobile and desktop the bottom of the page.

Thank you @Bubblesbythesea

The tart tastes particularly good, if I say so myself. We visited the Weald and Downland Open Air museum in the summer (I grew up nearby), and DD was entranced with the Tudor kitchen. I've a love of historical reenactment, so we've been trying various Medieval and Tudor recipes.

DD has said that the other children in her class have previously commented that she has 'old fashioned' things in her lunchbox. She doesn't care, she loves making and eating food (she only 8), and her friends always hoover up any baking here, when they visit.

Flapjack recipe @Splendud

225 g Butter
150 g Golden Syrup
150 g Soft light brown sugar
450 g Oats
1 tsp salt (if you used unsalted butter)
75g chopped dried apricots
75g dark chocolate chips.

1. Melt the butter, golden syrup and sugar together in a large pan + salt if using.
2. Mix in the apricots, then the oats and finally half the choc chip.
3. Tip into a lined tray, and squash down with the back of the spoon.
4. Sprinkle over the rest of the chocolate chips.
5. Bake at gas 6 for about 20 mins, until the edges are caramelised.
6. Slice when hot, leave in tray to cool.

Medieval spinach and cheese tart recipe @UnimaginableWindBird

Shortcrust pastry
250g fresh spinach
6 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
100g grated strong cheddar.
1 chopped onion (I use red)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Freshly ground black pepper

1. Make your favourite shortcrust pastry, line a large flan dish.
2. Blind bake, at gas 6
3. Steam the spinach in a basket over a pan of boiling water for a couple of mins, until wilted. Leave to cool and then squeeze out the excess water.
4. Beat the eggs, then add and mix in the milk, onion, cheese, salt, nutmeg and pepper.
5. Add the spinach, mix, then pour all into the pastry case. Spread mix out to the edges.
6. Cook for 30 mins at gas 6, or until the middle is set.

An alternative recipe (based on one in the British Library), is to make the 'tart' without pastry, baked directly in a tin. Substitute the nutmeg for chopped chervil and tarragon.

Catching up after the weekend, we had such a nice day on Sunday putting the garden to bed for the winter. It was one of those soft Autumn days, not too cold or raining (for once!) but grey and calm. I also made beef in Guinness which is our absolute favourite for this time of year - I always feel a bit Nigel when I’m preparing it ☺️

is that photo of Leeds Liverpool canal ? Looks a bit familiar to me !
@DeckTheHallsAndBringYourBrolly do you have a recipe for the rye bread ? Most seem to need sour dough starters but ours never seem to work !

Thanks for the compliments on my loaf! ☺️ It's a great recipe - easy and straightforward. It pairs well with fish and also with cheese. You can make it without the caraway seed if you prefer.

It's this recipe:

Hairy Bikers, Scandinavian rye bread

I make it with dark rye flour or with light, depending on mood.

(it's not fully rye though so not suitable if you're trying to avoid wheat flour)

Just nipping in to mention this as I know a lot of you are keen gardeners.

Thompson and Morgan have some really good discounts on their Kew Garden seed range (from 79p, some really pretty artwork packets) I filled my basket and a couple of days later got a 20% off code, so I've ended up with about 20 packets for £15. Half are for myself and the other half I'm going to put in a lovely tin as a Christmas gift for a friend.

Here's a link to the seeds

https://search.thompson-morgan.com/search?w=Kew%20seeds&asug=

You have inspired me to make flapjack - even though I had to go to some effort to track down golden syrup!

We put up our Hallowe'en decorations last night. I'll post some.photos nearer the time. There are a few bits I'll put out at the last minute. Someone (teens probably) stole/broke some of our decorations a few years ago, so I'm a little wary now. I need to pick up some mini bars and lollies between now and the 31st. I reckon we'll have 70-80 kids on the night. Depends on the weather - if it's a very wet night, we might not get so many. DD thinks she'll be out on the night, so I'll have to open the door to callers myself. I've no problem with that, but keeping the cats inside will be a challenge.

Not quite! Shropshire Union, just south of Liverpool. I guess the landscape is pretty similar. I am really enjoying the little metal chimneys and the woodsmoke in the evening haze.

@RainbowZebraWarrior those seed packets really are lovely!!

Morning all! 🍁🌾🍂🍁🌾🍂🍁🌾🍂

This week two very happy-making things have happened!

I got my teeth looked at and everything's fine now thank goodness, just a cavity needs filling (I knew that already because the old one fell out several years ago and I was about to arrange for it to be fixed when covid/lockdown happened), and also my gums and teeth are in pretty good shape which is always nice to hear - I've got a health condition that means they can suffer. So glad I managed to fight off whatever infection that was. And I'm so grateful to be pain-free again!

But most importantly: I have a new hob!! I've made do with only two working rings on my induction hob for almost a year now - which is okay, I mean it's not a big deal in and of itself...but I enjoy cooking and it's been such a pain to have to juggle things around constantly when cooking meals with several elements. I'm sooo glad to be able to easily cook again and touch wood Christmas Dinner will be a doddle this year compared to last year's venture! 🎄

@LillianGish those flapjacks look really good. Would make some but DH isn't keen and I don't want to eat them all myself.

@RainbowZebraWarrior love the wax seals! If I could benefit from your bakery knowledge for a moment, I'm looking for a recipe for a very small cake - just enough for one or maybe two portions - and I thought it might work to reduce the quantities of a traditional pound cake but keep the ratio. Is that likely to work, do you think? What I'm envisaging is to use it as a sort of go-to when I want to make a very small treat for us so for example a pineapple upside down cake made in a tin just big enough to fit a slice of tinned pineapple. Or an apple cake or whatever.