Loving leftovers and plumbing finished

The best thing about making enough food to feed an army you get lots of left overs, and then you get to eat them instead of cooking a meal from scratch.

Which is a good job really because I had to feed the starving hero today - the heat exchanger works! We have a warm bathroom!

First of all he had to drill holes in the new fire - a bit stressful this, buying an expensive new fire then making holes in it.

Then the heat coils were installed inside and the copper pipes pushed through then attached to flexible hoses to feed through the living room wall to the bathroom to be connected to the pump.

To fix the coils securely a bar has been run horizontally across them.

Here they are inside the top of the fire box.











Complete with flames!

In an attempt to make the whole system automatic, another of the scrapyard finds comes into play, a thermal switch, which should activate the pump at 35°C with another on the return as a safety backup which trips in at 60°C.

But that should mean that we can throw a couple of logs into the fire and safely leave it overnight knowing that the pump is going to kick in and not just leave the water boiling in the heat exchanger.

Here is the very technical test to see that the switches work - one hot mug, one cold mug.  James May and his man lab have nothing on this!

There is also a mains powered override switch to turn the pump on and off should the thermal automatic switches not work.

So we are all watching the thermometer with eagle eyes - how many degrees difference is this new system going to make.

Here is the new bathroom layout, fire removed, radiator, and towel rail fitted.

One water pump scavenged from the scrap yard....

....has saved us about 50 squids in addition to a roll of copper pipe donated a couple of years ago by a friend, and "viola" as they say in France - another stage of the plumbing is done.

Looks very complicated and that is because it is. It is set up so that the bathroom radiator always takes priority over the other rads, and also has been plumbed to allow for thermo syphoning - but we don't know if it actually will or not - hence the pump.

While Brendan was doing this complicated set of pipework I have to admit that I ran away to my studio, knowing full well that the only help I could offer today was the cleaning up afterwards.

So I got on with some more bags - guess what everyone is getting for Crimble!!

Thank you for the belt donations - the first ones are being used for bag straps today.

Sunday's plumbing update

After installing the new fire, the Panadero Dublin, it was time for the next stage in the heating/plumbing refit.

The original plan had been for Brendan to create a boiler from stainless steel that would be mounted within the fire bin, but on his weekly trip to the scrapman (I think he has a not so secret crush - not on the scrapMAN but on the scrapYARD itself), he found a large coil of 8mm pipe, so decided to reshape this into a heat exchanger instead.

This should now fit into the fire with the minimum of effort, a two hole, two bolt affair.  At this point it is safe to say we have no idea how efficient it might or might not be.  The whole project is an experiment.  Well the winters are long here and it is best for everyone's sanity to have something with which to occupy your time.

Having lovingly fondled and shaped his heat exchanger and after a brief-ish interlude involving a Peugeot engine swap, it was back to the plumbing.

After some debate on the sitings of the radiators, we decided on an internal wall for the one due in my office.  Mostly because an internal wall retains more heat into the house, and the only other available place would put it under the office window, where I currently sit, but that is an external north facing wall, so some furniture reshuffling will have to take place.

Yesterday saw the radiator fixed to the wall, and the first tails of piping running across the floor to the bathroom below.  

I should say that heating my office is a secondary priority.  

The whole point of the new fire is to heat the bathroom, which currently has - or rather had - its own wood burner, which we never lit.  The priority is to install a radiator fed from the living room wood burner, which we do light every night, to heat the bathroom, but not knowing how efficient the boiler or heat exchanger may be we have run the second radiator to the office in hopes of being able to heat both rooms even if that does mean turning off one radiator so that the other one can get hot and not being able to have both running at the same time.

In addition I have benefited from a new shelf for all my junk because the system requires an expansion tank, to allow it to boil and for the system to be topped off.  Another of Brendan's scrapyard finds this - an old kettle - looks more decorative than a plastic tank anyway.

My office is currently a few piles of files, shoe boxes and other assorted oddments scattered across the floor, in anticipation of the plumbing being finished some time this week, hopefully Thursday which is another national holiday.

Might be worth mentioning that our internal partition wall is so thin that when Brendan was drilling the holes for the shelf brackets he managed to drill right through into the bedroom, so another bit of fixing up required there too.

The bathroom fire is now just an ornament, bereft of its flue pipe, and has revealed the garish fact that the floor below it did not get waxed and treated when I did the rest of the floors in July, but the up side is, I can now reclaim the large piece of marble it used to stand on as its hearth stone, back to its rightful place in the kitchen as my dough board for bread making.

Saturday projects - Flavoured oils

I make my own flavoured oils, as these are so simple to do, yet so rewarding, they taste and look great, and don't cost a fortune.

I tend to get my bottles from my lovely clients who have little 'Monika' stash boxes next to their bins for their jars and glass bottles, newspapers and toilet roll holders, as well as from friends, although less from friends these days as everyone is at the make your own game now.

Today, even though it is still drizzling a bit, I thought I would get outside and set about the herb garden a bit.

With the oregano, the sage and the thyme doing well, I took a few cuttings from these for the oils.  To make the best oils or when drying herbs, always pick them in the morning when the levels of essential natural oils are at their highest.  This will give you the best flavour.

I am using grape seed oil as the base because it is much milder than olive oil, as well as having a beautiful greeny colour.

Whilst there I found a few strawberries nestled amongst the grasses and nettles.  To be honest we quickly scoffed the best ones, and what was left I put in some vodka for the freezer and summer cocktails when the summer finally gets here, and a few more into some gin - mother's ruin with some added kick.

With a strong steady rain settling in again, I am off to fill in all the school forms now.

Day 4 - Stuffed Tomatoes and Ras El Hanout Rice

It was actually dry today so I managed to get some long over due gardening done.

I weeded the greenhouse, and around the outside perimeter too, then transplanted some grown on tomato plants, my two not very happy looking aubergines, and my sprightly pepper plants.  I am so glad we have the greenhouse, it has proved it's value and was well worth the effort of hunting it down in the UK and bringing it with us, even though we did stress over the poly getting damaged before it was erected.

I also managed to plant out my spinach, my purple sprouting boroccoli, and my broad beans.  I did make a start on the weeding, but found that the hunger pangs drove me inside before the storm did.

Tonight's offering is actually a family favourite, another one pot dish (I am such a lazy cook).

Whilst generally I find supermarkets to be akin to the outer rings of hell, I do enjoy specialist shops, and one of my favourites is the North African supermarket in Clermont Ferrand.  This little shop of treasures has all things weird and wonderful, some larder staples and a good range of herbs and spices, one of which is a prepared Ras El Hanout mix for rice.

I have tried to make my own mix, but it can be so difficult to find uncommon herbs and spices in France that it is a false economy to make your own especially as at a bare minimum it needs at least 12 ingredients.

For my stuffed tomatoes then you need some good sized ripe tomatoes, for a main course I serve 2 per person, just 1 for a starter.

Cut the top off and scoop out the centre into a bowl and chop finely, add some minced meat, not much, you only need about 150g for 4 decent sized tomatoes and preferably a drier mince like beef or chicken, add salt, pepper, a chopped garlic clove and a generous dash of paprika and mix together.

Spoon the mixture back into the tomato, top with a slice of mozzarella, and put the tomato lid back on.

Place the stuffed tomatoes in a shallow oven proof dish.

Into the dish add 2 heaped tablespoons of basmatic rice per person, and a teaspoon of Ras El Hanout spice mix per serving of rice, then pour over boiling water until the rice is completely covered and the water level is at least 2 cm above the level of the rice.  Try to use a shallow dish, so that the water does not get deep enough to enter into the suffed tomatoes but sits sort of half way up them.

Bake in the oven for 1 hour covered at 200°C, then uncover and cook for a further 15 minutes.  If your dish is deeper you may need to check halfway through for liquid levels for the rice.

We ate our dinner on our laps in front of the TV, watching Shrek (again), and yet another storm rolled in, and now it is raining again.

Recipe for Ras el Hanout
.

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground ginger

I teaspoon turmeic

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seeds

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Thank Crunchie it's Friday

The weekend starts here - well actually the weekend starts a few kilometres up the road with a birthday BBQ in the sun this afternoon.

In the meantime - a bit of greenhouse potting on again- I found more tomato seedlings and I just can't let them go to waste.
I keep finding these random little strays from last year, peeping out from the edges of the weed suppressant and so I keep pulling them up and replanting them.

  I grew cherry and plum in the greenhouse last year so they could be either - but most likely cherry as we lost a few fruit here and there collecting them in.

I have started using my new cutting table, I have a dress on the go, and also a couple more bags done, they just need the embroidery finished.

As you can see the table has four handy little cubby holes underneath it - which I have obviously already filled up.

I also managed to finally get my patterns sorted out this morning, having been stuffing them willy nilly into the pockets of the room screen and running the risk of damaging them, I got them organised into a folder neatly - not sure how long that will last though.

Unfinished bag embroidery - first layer of beads done yesterday, now just the crocket flowers and large sequins to go.

Well this is a bit embarrassing....

.... I changed my status on Facebook today to say that I was celebrating 10 years of marriage......unfortunately our wedding anniversary is actually tomorrow. Not the first time I have got it wrong, but what is really embarrassing is that I went and checked the date on the certificate, and still got it wrong!


As a special treat my lovely husband took me to the scrapyard. Ostensibly to collect a table he had spotted there the other day that he wanted for his workshop, but in reality, once there he was trying to palm me off with all sorts of other rubbish, because once I spotted the table I knew I had to have it.

It has come out of a local school, Thea says they have similar ones in her science lab, it is waist high and has a laminated top, so I have commandeered it as my pattern cutting table for my studio. What did he expect with a trip to the scrappy as an anniversary gift. Still for 10 years it is supposed to be tin or coal.

While I was there I did find some other treasures, a metal bucket for my wood store in my studio, some saucepans to use in the cages for our ever expanding rabbit population, a waffle iron and a night potty bucket. All of which the scrap man gave me for free - as my anniversary present!

I am not quite sure what that says about my life here in rural France, that my local scrapman gives me an anniversary present? Nor am I sure what it says about our marriage, that my husband thinks a trip to the scrappy is appropriate? What does it say about me? Am I taking reduce, reuse, recycle a step too far?

On the other hand a bucket of bits and bobs or a bag of coal - good practical presents both of them, better than some overpriced flowers, although I wouldn't necessarily say no to chocolate.

While in the scrapyard we visited our lorry. We moved to France in winter 2006, with all of our wordly goods crammed in this 7.5 tonne lorry, bought for one trip only, then sold to the scrap man once we had cut the body off it in order to transport our 2 pig arcs, and run several trips to collect hay and straw in it while it was a flat-bed. Then eventually it died and it was time for it to move on. All that is left now is the flat bed base and the roof - still with the hole cut out from the caravan window that had been set into the roof while it was a horse box. I cut the window out to make a cold frame for the garden - waste not want not!

The big plus side of a visit to the scrap man and scrap yard are the photographic opportunities. Scrap metal and cars are one of my favourite things to capture - well they don't move around for a start.

Tomorrow's project is to collate and process the photos I took today, having installed my table under the window in the studio today, taken a couple of quick shots of the kittens - as you can see from the photo above, Fergie is happily installed on my shoulder as I type this, and a quick dinner of pork chops and dauphinoise potatoes.


Recipe - dauphinoise potatoes
Peel some potatoes - any old softening ones in the bottom of the veg basket or what's left of last year's harvest are perfect for this.
Slice about half a centimetre thick and layer in an oven proof dish - I like to add some thinly sliced onion in as well.
Sprinkle on some garlic powder and season as you build the layers.
Pour over a litre of stock and leave to cook in the oven at 180C for about 45 minutes.
By this time the stock should be pretty much gone, but the potatoes nice and soft, then pour over a carton of thick double cream (about 150 ml), sprinkle with some paprika and some parsley and leave to cook for another 20 minutes.
By cooking in two stages like this the cream won't split and you need less cream so it is slightly healthier.

Saturday's child has far to go .........

...........I don't think that is right but it certainly fitted today.

Today's project was a bit different from studio or gardening time.  Today I went hunting eggs with a friend.

Orpington eggs to be exact. 

My friend likes Orpington chickens, has done for several years, and is now ready to become a chicken mama.  So having found an Orpington breeder on line with eggs and chicks for sale, we drove 180 kms across France today in hot sunny weather to collect some eggs ready to go in the incubator.  I had my first introduction to this breed first hand, and, wow, they are big birds.  Looking forward to the hatching to see what we get.

It has been a glorious day today, 27 celcius this afternoon, and this evening is still very mild, at fast approaching midnight, I have only just closed the front door against the dropping temperatures. 

With Mr Pink happily curled on my lap after an impressive afternoon when he caught 3 mice, following the two he had this morning before we went out, we are both agreed that it is now bed time.

Early start tomorrow for the car boot sale, our favourite of the year - perhaps I'll even get to replace my broken crockery from the other day.

Reluctant model

With the rain finally easing off, and after a manic hour of weeding in the garden as well as getting my beetroot seedlings planted out, I finally got my reluctant model to don her coat and head outside for a few photos.

I finished this lastest round of hats the other week, but had not managed to get them listed yet as both the weather and my model were conspiring against me.

With this dry spell possibly continuing into tomorrow I may be able to get the rest of my items photographed and listed. This afternoon I am making a start with these.

Late Spring may seem to be the wrong time to list wooly hats, but as the inclement May has shown us, it is not summer yet.

Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep (and a fat free cake recipe)

A bunch of new arrivals, 10 lovely little yellow chicks.

Yum yum for my tum - new arrivals means a cull of the older birds - the current count is 6 rabbits, 4 ducks, 4 chickens due to go in the freezer - just waiting for the rain to ease off.

With an early start this morning, I though I would get ahead of the game and have another go at making a cake for us to munch for elevenses.

This time I managed to remember not to try to turn it out before it had cooled and so managed to successfully keep the centre in the cake.

Citrus Fat Free Cake

150g of natural yoghurt
2 beaten eggs
225g caster sugar
orange zest and freshly squeezed juice from one half - or lemon or satsuma or grapefruit or whatever you have - a squeeze of prepared lemon juice in one of those plastic things will do at a push
225g self raising flour - if baking in France I use the Farine Fluide with a sachet of baking powder (leveur chimique - I don't use the Gateaux flour as I find this makes a heavier cake albeit that it is more crumbly)

As I make mine in the bread machine and mine has a cake setting it is very easy, throw in the wet ingredients, then the dry with the raising agent if using it last of all, then let it bake for the preset time.

If making in a conventional oven preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, butter then flour a bread tin, combine the wet ingredients with sifted flour until you have a wet runny lump free mix, pour into the tin and bake for 30 minutes or until golden.

Just what we needed with a cup of coffee when we got back in this morning.

Tuesday morning - what to do with an old red jumper

This is the material I picked up on Sunday - no idea why I said it had peacocks in it - must have been one of those visual delusions. They are just stylised flowers.

Anyway - before work this morning, with it raining again, I had an hour to spare so obviously I spent it in my studio this time with an old red jumper.

First things first - on Sunday I bought a kitten bed for the new kittens in a lovely garish blue and yellow check - which Thea hated, now that I have removed the body of the sweater and recovered the kitten bed she loves it and has claimed it for her room, on the basis that it matches her black red and white decorating theme. I just hope her kitten appreciates it.

We are off to visit them again on Thursday - can't wait till we get to bring them home. Mr Pink has been additionally loving over the last few days as if to remind us that he is the current king of the hill. And Purple has vanished - I think she has gone to find her final resting place. She has been unwell for so long now, we thought she was dead the last time she vanished and the neighbour found her and bought her home, but since then her lump has grown significantly and she has stopped eating as well. I fear that this may be it, however she is the cat of 15 lives, one for each year of her lifespan so far, so maybe not, she may yet venture home.

Back to today's project.

Having removed the body of the jumper I was left with some arms, and a roll neck.

Just to set the record straight - I am not obsessed with fingerless gloves, honest I am not. I just find them so practical - when gardening or knitting or typing on the computer in my cold office, when driving, and when wearing yet more boring black and with the weather continuing in its current inclement way they are more practical than you might think for May.

I wear a lot of black, in fact should you watch one of those moving abroad type programmes you are bound to see those old ladies sitting outside their traditional stone houses in tiny villages dressed all in black shelling peas on roasting hot days - think of me when you do. In an attempt to spice up my dull dull dull winter wardrobe that consists of black jumpers and black tops and black black black, I have taken to wearing fingerless gloves that stretch up to my elbow in various colours (depending on which jumper I butchered recently), this has given my wardrobe an infusion of colour that has not cost me anything.

Therefore with some scarlet sleeves left over my poor tiny little brain could not see past the making of more gloves.

 I really admire the style of NCIS's Pauley Perrette, (although I have taken to staring at the screen trying to spot her wrinkles) she manages to carry off a modern goth look without resembling a cast off Marilyn Manson marionette.  I don't think that I could successfully manage the full look, but perhaps this way I can add a bit of gothic revival to my wardrobe.  I did used to be a happy goth (a misnomer I know) and I do miss a lot of the clothing. 

I have therefore decided to finish these gloves with contrast black stitching, black detailing around the thumb holes and some felted black flowers.  Now I just need some more time - this project will therefore have to roll over for another day.

But before heading out the door, I just had enough time to take the roll neck and finish it off into another headband ready to received the same black detailing treatment.  Back to my sketchbook I think.

The headband is really easy to make, just cut off the roll neck, fold it back in on itself to hide the large seam and sew together.

Because you are working with a stretch fabric I have found the easiest way to do this is to stitch by hand.  Pin into place around the perimeter, then stretch the fabric between your thumb and hand and sew just picking up a couple of threads either side of the join.


Right - off to watch another episode of NCIS for more style tips.

Quick re-fashion of a t-shirt top

Take one boring long sleeved top as purchased by your mum on her latest charity shop rummage.

(I really should not take the mickey so much or keeping cutting up the clothes she sends because she may decide at some point to just stop sending them - which would be a great shame as I am reliant on her rummages for my wardrobe)

 Cut off the neck and arms, leaving the side button details in place.

Using some woven ribbon in a matching brown cotton, pin tuck to the neckline creating little pleats just over a centimetre in size, then machine sew down the centre to secure in place.

To finish around the button edging, I cut off the inner button, looped the ribbon over the edge of the split to the back of the button hole and then just sewed the button back in place over the top of the ribbon.

To finish on a bit more detailing, sit down in front of the TV, take some matching sequins in bronze and metallic blue tones, and settle back for some detail stitching by hand along the brown woven ribbon of the neckline.

And there you go - one boring long sleeved top - to a summery v-neck vest ready for those summer days.