Home made bath salts

I hadn't realised just how easy these are to make, but really I was pleasantly surprised and now I know, I will experiment with other 'flavours'. I have begun with lavender as I had dried lavender from the garden and lavender essential oil, so it seemed like a good starting point!

Mix 300g of citric acid (available online) with 150g of cornflour and 450g of bicarbonate of soda in a large plastic or glass bowl. Spritz this with water mixed with about 20 drops of the essential oil and stir together with a wooden spoon. When it becomes a dry, fine rubble, stir in the dried lavender. Decant into clean pretty jars and decorate with ribbon and add labels. They would look great with old fashioned teaspoons or little wooden scoops tied on, but I don't have any. This amount of ingredients filled these three jars, although as the ingredients interact with one another, the contents shrink down somewhat.

I have some bath bombe moulds from a previous kit, but I fancied the idea of the pots of bath salts (and it's a lot less faff!). You could also decant the salts into pretty muslin bags which can be tied under the tap to provide a soapy, sweet smelling addition as you run the bath.

Mr D and I have completed all the present shopping this weekend. We have Christmas and two children's Birthdays (in December and January) pretty much wrapped up (figuratively speaking at this stage). We were like a swat team descending on the shops armed with list, bags and a clear plan of action. Saturday morning saw us pretty much finished, but we had just a few items left, so they were dealt with on the Sunday along with the month's toiletry/cleaning shopping from Home Bargains (all bought for under £20); another upcoming Birthday present and the week's food shop. We were back home by 12.45 having left at 11. Neither of us like shopping at the best of times, but tackling it head on certainly made it more bearable! I also feel that not having any time to browse, helps keep the cost down too!

Of course many of my presents are home made, but I can't imagine ever being in a position to only give home made gifts at Christmas, so there will always be shopping to be done. I can now concentrate on the food element of Christmas - something which I find much more appealing!!

Sausage plait

The cold weather makes me long for comfort food and anything with pastry counts as far as I'm concerned! I used to make sausage plait quite regularly and serve it with hot veg, peas and sweetcorn, baked beans or salad. Obviously it is neither GF or vegan!

Served here with a mixed green salad, new potato salad and homemade coleslaw.

I use ready made pastry, but feel free to make your own shortcrust. You could also use flaky pastry I guess. I roll it out to a wide rectangle.
The filling is made up of sausagemeat mixed with a combination of herbs and other flavours. I used small chunks of apple (from my stock in the deepfreeze), half a red onion finely chopped, fresh sage and thyme from the garden and approximately 2 tablespoons of my green tomato chutney from last year. Add salt and pepper if you choose. Mix well until thoroughly combined.
Spread the filling down the centre of the pastry, which I have laid on a lightly greased baking sheet. Make horizontal slices along each empty side piece of pastry and then lay each thin section, alternating sides, across the middle to encase the filling. Stick down with a finger dipped in water. For a nice finish glaze with a beaten egg (as you can see I forgot!)
Cook in a hot oven - about 190c for approximately 35 to 40 minutes.

Before cooking. Please don't judge me on the state of my baking sheet. I know I need to invest in some new ones!! 

Serve in slices with a mixture of salads as I did, or your favourite veg. It's tasty cold the following day too. It certainly worked to warm me up on a chilly Sunday :)

The battle of the comb

Every day, at least once a day and sometimes twice, I pick up Mr D's comb from the top of the bathroom cabinet and put it back IN the bathroom cabinet on the top shelf, where it lives. It's a silent, unspoken (until now) battle! A battle, I suspect Mr D is totally unaware of. You have to wonder when he gets the comb out of the cupboard every time he needs to use it, if he actually thinks to himself "Ha ha, I'm going to wind her up and leave it on top of the cupboard, a full two inches away from where it should live" ...... I'm guessing that's not the case and really it's a matter of absentmindedness or possibly laziness, or maybe he actually thinks the comb lives on top of the cabinet?
The battle will no doubt continue on ad infinitum - just one of those things you come across when you share your living space with others. Nothing big, nothing important, just a daily reminder that I am lucky enough to be sharing my home with the lovely Mr D - even if he can't remember where his comb should live!!......
It's a similar battle to the one with the kids who leave things for the dishwasher next to the dishwasher rather than in it .......
I expect there will be many of you out there with experience of those mini power battles around the home?

Breakfast muffins

I saw this natty little recipe on Facebook the other day, so we thought we'd give it a go.

Cut a circle of bread from a slice with a pastry cutter. I found I could get two circles from each slice. (The leftovers can either be made into breadcrumbs or given to the chucks as a treat). Place the circle in the bottom of a non stick muffin pan. If you like, sprinkle a little grated cheese on the bread. Place a rasher of cooked streaky bacon around the edge of each muffin hole to form a collar. I used smoked, but it's up to you. It does have to be streaky though, not normal bacon. Then crack an egg into the hole. Grind some salt and pepper on top and cook in the oven at 180c until the egg is lightly set. Finally, top with some shipped chives and serve.

Yummy, a bit different and quite a nice treat for breakfast.

Pyrograph craft

Last Christmas, I was given a pyrograph pen from Mum. Last Easter, whilst on holiday on the Gower, we picked up a small log from the farm where they had been chopping down hedging. Eight slices have been cut from the log, a hole has been drilled in the top of each for ribbon. In keeping with the natural look of the log slices, I have chosen to do a fir/snowflake type of design, drawn freehand with the pen.
It's actually a really easy thing to do. The pen came with loads of different tips, which I will have to play around with.
I'm quite pleased with the results and of course (apart from the cost of the pen which was a gift) completely free! I'm now on the look out for another suitable log to make some more.

I have an ironing mat which is heatproof, so I laid that underneath as a precaution. The pen did get quite hot to hold after doing about 4 slices. 

I can't quite decide on which ribbon to use. The ideal ribbon would be those bits you get on clothes to help hang them with, but I must have used them up. 

On a completely different note, Mr D cooked a fantastic roast chicken dinner for our guests on Saturday night, so I boiled up the carcass to make stock and pick over the bones for dinners for jet.

Every morning I invite Jet out to help me with the chickens. He seems to really like sniffing their feathery bottoms ...... They don't seem to mind either. But I had to laugh yesterday when I asked him if he wanted his chicken dinner - he got sooooo excited - I could possibly be giving him mixed messages?!! 

Seriously?!

This is my airing cupboard ceiling ......

Yesterday I was cleaning downstairs and heard a noise. Had no idea what it was, went upstairs to investigate, only to find that a large chunk of the airing cupboard ceiling had collapsed into the cupboard. Bum, bum, bum!
As you can see, it's lathe and plaster so will be a nightmare to deal with. They are so fragile and so filthy - 85 years of dust and filth up there just waiting to collapse further.

On the plus side, I had already put away all the clean washing from in there earlier that morning.

I can feel a trip through YouTube videos entitled "Repairing a lathe and plaster ceiling" coming on!

I'm beginning to think someone's got it in for me! 😁

Poor boy!

He could be one of the Bratpack? 

We had a meeting with the vet on Saturday to talk through the results. Jet has dysplasia in both of his elbows, but in the right on, part of the bone has broken off. He will have to have an operation on both elbows, six months apart, starting with the right one. In the right side, the orthopaedic surgeon will place metal plates to realign the joint so the stress is better distributed across the three bones in his elbow. It will be a six week recovery period where Jet will have to be in one room, only being allowed into the garden on a lead to do the necessary. The vet talked about a cage, but psychologically that wouldn't work do any of us and we don't have a cage or the room to put one.

Sporting the country gent look, complete with teddy...Brideshead Revisited?

The vet said he must be in constant pain, but not once does he ever complain or snap. He really is an absolute treasure :)
The financial aspect of this is a bit scary as we have already spent nearly £1000 on the scans and the operation on his right elbow alone is being quoted as £3000. The insurance covers £3000 per condition. We will try to persuade them to cover each elbow separately (my motto is "Don't ask, don't get") but I suspect we will have to pay the extra thousands. Still if it means he can walk comfortably and get back to enjoying his walks then it's worth every penny.
Mr D and I are still suffering with our necks. I have physio this week and him next week. We have emptied the car ready for them to take it away as we are very unlikely to see it again. Obviously all of this will leave us out of pocket because we will end up having to buy a new (to us) car which will cost more than the present value of the ruined car. How blinking irritating! We will definitely push for the most money we can get for the car from the insurers - we have paid in enough over the years!
I had the steroid injection in my foot last week, so I'm hoping that I will fall in the 70% for whom it brings complete relief from the plantar fasciitis. It's not as painful as it was, partly due to the silly priced shoes I bought.
We had some friends stay over at the weekend with three small children all under 4. I can honestly say that I have no idea how they cope. They're not even particularly difficult children, but it's constant and the lack of sleep would finish me off. These days I'd have to be going to bed at 7.30 when they did, just to survive! Fortunately I am hoping those days are long behind me and I have a way to go before grandchildren......

Even Jet was done in by the end of the visit :) 

I have to say, I'm feeling a little jaded around the edges just at the moment. I might need some music to get me going this morning.