Brian has a makeover part 2

Here is Brian in his new wipe clean format.... Don't have a before pic unfortunately...

The Vegetables

Pleased to say the veggies are well on their way to the plate! The cold start to summer has slowed matters down however the signs of life are well and truly there now. I even just ate our first sugarsnap pea ( missed the plate stage altogether...). Loving the hot weather and garden time.

Sad to say our oldest and favourite adopted chicken of all time, Rita, died this week. Loved that hen.

The chicks are doing well, they seem huge now in comparison to when we got them!

Apple Terrine

Joe made us apple terrine this weekend...Raymond Blanc recipe on BBC food. Yum. Also some gorgeous bread....

Brian has a makeover

For a while now we have been meaning to upgrade the bed in Brian (our van) so that we can actually sleep comfortably without being squished... So we upgraded today. Started by removing the shelving which the surfboards were stored on (mainly with a drill). Then, we used the jigsaw and normal saw to remove the large wall panel (the left hand side of the first picture was our old bed space). Next, we fiddled about removing some of the shelf and added flooring to the new bed bit. We then put the wall sheet up on the side of the van, and hey presto, a bed double the size. Very excited as I have been wanting to do this for about 4 years now.......

Here is Brian in all his glory ....

Small things matter

So, the electric bill came through this morning. We are supplied by Ecotricity, who are a company who pretty much match your existing supplier, and they support sustainable energy. They, and similar companies are worth considering as they use renewable energy sources.

Now, safe to say, our electric bill isn't massive; there are two of us living in the house, and we don't go overboard on electricity use...Our bill for 3 months was £130, which includes a standing charge of £25 so essentially we are paying £35 a month, so per day just over £1. We used 764 kw/h over the last three months at 13.02p per kw/.


Shrinkthatfootprint.com estimate that each person in the UK uses an average of 496.25 kw/h per 3 months, so for two of us this works out around 992 kw/h per 3 months.

So we are using under the average, but we have been thinking, are there small things we can do to make this bill even smaller? We are on a three month challenge, join us to see if making small changes can reduce your bill and electricity use?

These are the main things in our house which use electricity, and some of the things which we already try and do but will try even more to do!!

Shower (26p per 10 min shower)
- Now it is summer, try lowering the heat
- Turn off when lathering up!
- Shorten shower time

Kettle (0.5p per minute, 0.75p per boil for 2 cups of tea with correct water amount)
- boil only what we need
- descale to reduce boiling time

Dishwasher
We tend to use the 50 degree setting at the moment...as it is more effective at cleaning
-So, we are going to try rinsing things and washing at 35 degrees

Washing machine
- Our washing machine has a 15 minute cycle, so we are going to use this more! At the moment, we tend to use the 30 min or 45 min cycle (which is still v short as cycles go, but every little counts)

Oven
- We have a standard oven, but we also have a halogen oven. We are going to try and use this more for small things (like sausages, fishcakes, small bakes, jacket potato etc)
- We also have built a cob pizza oven in the garden, so we could be using this more for the bread baking which Joe does pretty much once a week

Other
We are pretty good at turning off lights, computers etc when not in use but we will try and be extra good!


So... I will let you know the results in three months time...

THE chair

So for a while we had a chair...it became a bit of a running joke as I had decided to refurbish it...about three years ago that was!!! I am pleased to say it is now painted, waxed and I even made a new cushion cover for good measure. So one revamped chair.

What's for pudding?

This is a question which joe often asks me with a note of expectation/hope/blind optimism...
Well this evening I made syrup sponge pudding in approximately 6 minutes start to finish... Here is how.

You will need...
50g butter or marg, 50g sugar (I used homemade vanilla sugar), 1 medium egg, 2 tbsp milk, 2 tbsp golden syrup.

To make...
Beat the butter and sugar together in a blender (time saver!). Then add the milk and egg slowly to the blending mix. Then sift in the flour and fold in gently.

Put the syrup in a microwaveable bowl then pour on the sponge mix. Cover and microwave for 3.5 mins.

Yum!

Next time I am going to try adding some dissicated coconut and jam instead of syrup to mix it up a bit