a full oven, and a plum crumble

Further to the last post on energy saving cooking, here is the oven full of cauli cheese, roast potatoes, and plum and apple crumble.

I poached the plums in water with a teaspoon of five spice for about 8 minutes, then put them in an oven proof dish, bubbled the liquor down a bit, then added two cooking apples (peeled, cored and chunked) and cooked them off until they softened a bit. Into the dish they went, and a crumble topping went, er, on top –  6 oz brown flour, 2 oz porridge oats, 3 oz marg, 3 oz sugar. 40 minutes or so at 180. Lovely.

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.

we *shall* have warmz

And yet more wood. We bought a trailer load from someone via Gumtree during the summer for £100, and it’s mostly that which is in the log store to the right of the photo. He had a stack more to sell then, but we had nowhere to keep it; I gave him a ring a couple of weeks ago and he still had the rest, so we went over to see him yesterday and arranged to buy it from him. He brought a trailer load round, and there is still about half a trailer load to come, which he is prepared to store for us for now, and that lot cost us £150.

We had a handy gap between log store and bike shed, so we put a pallet on the ground, and stacked the new lot on that. Pete constructed a couple of stay bars across the gap, and we chopped most of it before it was stacked, then hurled a tarpaulin over it. So now we have loads and loads of wood to keep us warm, most of it ready seasoned, all of it paid for, and so the weather ghods can just bring it on this winter. If it gets really, really cold, we’ll just set up camp in the living room with laptops.

Now, of course, it’ll probably be the mildest winter on record for centuries, but the wood will keep :)

Mirrored from kestrel.org.

a poorly Ron

The other evening (well, Tuesday 4th, for our records), we noticed a lot of black fur on the dining room rug. Black fur=Ron, so we had a good look at him; he had an abscess on his face, and a nasty hole under his chin. So, the next morning, he was inserted into a cat carrier – with some difficulty, I might say. Ron is the most amenable of chaps, but he really doesn’t care to be confined. Pete then conveyed Ron to the vet in his bike trailer, where he was cleaned, jabbed and prescribed 7 days worth of antibiotics.

He was as good as gold with the pills, once he was convinced that after pills came chickie! as a treat, and we had no trouble at all – just called “Ronkin” twice a day, and he’d come down to the kitchen and sit on the stool for his dose. We did use a pill popper, as it’s quicker and easier for all concerned.

Cost a fortune in chickie!, of course, as anycat who was in would appear for their share, but worth it all the same. He has healed up nicely, and now we’re just waiting for his beautiful black fur to grow back in.

Further note to self: Henry and Ron Advantaged today – Frontline just doesn’t seem to do it any more.

Mirrored from the Tribe.