Cambridge & Scarborough

It's been a driving weekend: a trip down to Cambridge yesterday to meet Rachel and Philip's second child, a beautiful girl who arrived rather dramatically (and early), three months ago, but who we've not been able to travel to see. We had a lovely day with the four of them; and today we made a flying visit to Liz's grandparents in Scarborough, because her grandmother's in hospital. Necessarily, the two days out have rather filled the weekend!

Harrogate and Baking

We went to the Harrogate Christmas Market yesterday, which was a lot of fun. Harrogate's a lovely town, and the market enabled us to get very close to finishing our Christmas shopping.

Today was a pleasant day of baking. Baking many things, many involving pumpkin (we have a pumpkin feast planned for Thursday evening).

Spiced Pumpkin Scones (© Ian 2016)

These we accompanied by spiced apple and pumpkin muffins, pumpkin and sultana cake, apple and Cheddar bread, and a pumpkin pie.

We also made several bottles of apple purée to store for later (hot bottled and heat treated), and a 4lb batch of apple butter (NT Preserves recipe).

The latter was delicious with crumpets, which were the other thing we baked.

Pumpkin and Sultana Cake

• 300g self-raising flour
• 300g light muscavado sugar (we used soft light brown)
• 3tsp mixed spice
• 2tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 175g sultanas
• ½ tsp salt
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 200g butter, melted
• zest 1 orange
• 1tbsp orange juice
• 500g pumpkin purée

Heat oven to 180°C. Butter a 30x20cm baking tin.

Combine the dry ingredients.

Add everything else other than the pumpkin.

Fold in the pumpkin

Pour into the tin.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffins

• 2.5 cups plain flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ½tsp mixed spice
• ½tsp cinnamon
• ½tsp nutmeg
• ½tsp ginger
• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
• ½tsp salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup pumpkin purée
• 2 cups grated apple

For the topping:

• 2tbsp plain flour
• 2tbps white sugar
• ½tsp cinnamon
• 1tbsp butter

Heat oven to 175°C. Oil a 12-hole muffin tin.
Mix dry ingredients; combine wet ingredients separately. Fold together. Pour into tin.
Rub the butter into the other streusel topping. Sprinkle onto the muffins.
Bake for 35–40 minutes.


Spiced Pumpkin Scones

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1tsp cinnamon
• 1tsp baking powder
• ¾tsp ground cloves
• ½tsp ground ginger
• ½tsp ground nutmeg
• ½tsp baking soda
• ¼tsp salt
• 225g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• ½ cup pumpkin puree
• 3tbsp milk
• 1 large egg
• 2tsp vanilla extract

Heat oven to 200°C.
Combine dry ingredients. Rub butter into them. Mix the wet ingredients, then stir into the dry to form a soft dough.
Shape into 12 scones (either roll out and cut/punch, or just form them freestyle).
Place on baking sheet and cook for 10–12 minutes.

Honey

We had a fun trip to the Ideal Homes Christmas Show yesterday, picking up a few presents for people—and a moose for us. For no better reason than we liked him.

Giles the Moose (© Ian 2016)

From the ridiculous to the sublime: we managed to get our new grandfather clock working this afternoon. As we thought, the chains for two of the weights had got jammed too high: my theory is that it was wound with a little too much enthusiasm, and the chains pulled too far, which sprang the hooks off the weights' rods. With a little care and persuasion, and aided considerably by the fact that the case has the removable side panels I hoped it would, we were able to work the chains down fair enough to rehang the weights. There's a bit of damage to the brass shells of the weights, but it's pretty cosmetic, and I've been able to resecure the weights (luckily, the threads don't appear damaged by being yanked free).

It's now up and running, and we'll next check whether it keeps time.

This afternoon's project was processing our first batch of honey from the bees. This has been sat, still in the honeycomb, for a few weeks since coming off the hive. First step is to slice the top off the comb (the cappings) using a large serrated knife. The frames then go into the centrifugal extractor, and are spun round to drag the honey out of one side of the comb. We flip them over, and do the other side, before draining the honey from the tank. From fourteen sides (two frames were only filled on one side), we've got about 14lb, which is a good rate. The cappings are now in a sieve, draining the last of the honey, and then we can clean the cappings and melt them: this wax is, typically, the 'best', as it's only been in the hive briefly (so less time for bees to traipse muddy feet over it), and only for honey (the comb that's used to raise baby bees gets dirtied from the process). It will probably be very light in colour.

A comb of honey ready for uncapping and extracting (© Ian 2016)

Snow

It's only been a week since the first frost of the winter, and now it's snowing.

The Herb Garden (&copy Ian 2016)

The Orchard (© Ian 2016)

The house in the snow (© Ian 2016)

When I commented on the colour being ephemeral, I didn't think we'd only have ten days more of it—but you'll see the Virginia Creeper is bare, and the acers have lost most of their leaves, too.

Clocks and Coffee

We spent yesterday in the Marches, visiting Jenny for her birthday. Unfortunately, we had to do the trip in a single day, as Chess is currently on medication which means we have to be at home every morning to dose him up. So, even though it's 3+ hours each way, we did the return trip. It was, essentially, a journey fuelled as much by coffee as diesel, as we stopped for coffees on the way down, drank a couple with Philip, and had more on the way back. It appears that ten shots of espresso is approximately what it takes. That's 3900 miles per gallon, which is better fuel efficiency than the car.

Last week, we went to one of the antique places near where I work, looking for a book case. We didn't find one, precisely, but did find something that will work in the same way. It fitted in the back of the car, so we got it home that day, and it's now at the foot of the stairs, looking much better than the bowed melamine bookcase that was there previously.

Unexpectedly, we also spotted a grandfather clock while we were there. We've both wanted one for a long while, but never found one that we liked and was a price we wanted to pay. This, however, fitted the bill.

Its wood tone fits the dining room really well, and we really like the look of it. Unfortunately, there are some issues with the weights, which means it's not currently running, but the case is attractive enough to not worry about sorting that out urgently.

Grandfather clock (© Ian 2016)

Alexandra Park

Before the weather worsens too far, and while the trees are colourful, we wanted to spend a lunch break at one of the parks near our workplaces.

All Alexandra Park, Oldham (© Ian 2016)

First Frost

We had our first frost of the year last night. Later than I'd normally expect, but it's been lovely mild autumn.