Preparing for winter part 2 - and plans for 2012

A month or so ago, I posted about preparing for winter. Life has been a bit mad since then, but some of the things on the list have been achieved. Curtains are in progress, the winter duvet has come out, the chimney has been fixed (thanks Nick!) and the loft has been insulated (thanks Nick and Eric!).

I still need to have a clear out of my closet and of the upstairs 'junk' cupboard. In fact, in 2012 I would like to declutter the whole house. So many things get held on to because they are sentimental, or they might be useful, or I am too busy to think about taking them to a charity shop or selling them. In reality, these things just take over and make life more complicated: more to clean, more to maintain, more to think about. Little by little, I would like to rid our home of the things that are mere clutter, things that we do not use, things that are past it, things that might be useful but then again they might not, and if we did need one we could easily get or borrow one.

That's my mission!

Beautiful and easy roast vegetable torte

I dreamt up this easy weeknight, vegetarian supper yesterday. It was lovely!

Roast vegetable torte - serves 4
Peppers - 1 red, 1 yellow
1 large courgette
1 aubergine
1 large onion
Italian mixed seasoning (or use a couple of sprigs of rosemary and oregano, and some chopped basil)
Olive oil
4 eggs
225g ricotta cheese
Salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Chop the vegetables into pieces all roughly the same size.
3. Place in a large roasting tray and drizzle with olive oil. Toss to coat. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, turning once.
4. Beat the eggs in a jugs, then beat in the ricotta, salt and pepper to form a smooth paste.
5. Transfer the vegetables to a 25cm flan dish, or any ovenproof dish that looks about the right size to hold them snugly. Pour the egg mixture over the top. 
6. Bake for 30-35 minutes until puffed up and golden.
7. Serve with potatoes or rice, or a big green salad.

Lovely baby blanket to make

I saw this on a friend's facebook wall, and I want to make one too. So many knitting projects in mind!

Apple crumble

For me, apple crumble speaks loud and clear of crisp autumn days, red leaves rustling on the ground, and the comfort of a warm home. I made one yesterday and it perfectly evoked all that I love about autumn.

Apple crumble - serves 8-10
175g butter
200g plain flour
100g demerara (or golden caster) sugar
200g oats
12 small or 8 medium eating apples
75g sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
Handful flaked almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Cube the butter into small pieces. 
3. Tip the butter, flour, and demerara sugar into a food processor. Pulse until well mixed into a breadcrumb texture. Add the oats and mix together.
4. Peel, core, and chop the apples. (To do this, I peel them fully, then slice off each side in turn. No messing around with corers for me!)
5. Place the apples in a large baking dish and sprinkle over the sugar and the cinnamon. Use your hands to make sure it is well mixed.
6. Spread the crumble topping over the apples right to the edges. Scatter flaked almonds over the top.
7. Bake in the oven for 40-50 minutes, until the topping is golden.
8. Serve with cream, crème fraiche, or (my favourite) custard.

I adapted this recipe from one found online. I use more oats because, well, I like an oaty topping. This recipe makes quite a large quantity of topping. Any that is left over can be frozen in a box or bag and used for future crumbles. I used 5 small eating apples and about two-fifths of the topping, and my crumble was big enough to feed 4-5 people. You can't really go wrong: if you have too many apples, just make the apple layer thicker; if too much topping, just freeze the remainder.

Preparing for winter

It is 26 degrees today, so it seems odd to be thinking about preparing for winter, but that is what I am doing. The brief blip of summer we've had for the last few days (during which we did a lot of gardening and took our kayak all the way to Sandford Lock - good times) is surely going to be over very soon, and will be rapidly followed by several months of dark evenings, bitter cold, and the associated feeling of never wanting to leave the house, ever again.

So, here are my thoughts on things my household needs to do before winter really kicks in. We already had the boiler serviced, hurrah!

(By the way, I find the wife of noble character described in Proverbs 31:10-31 totally inspiring. 'When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet... She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.' I want to be just like her.)

• Stock up on tinned and dry goods (for which a semi-major pantry reorganisation may be required)
• Put away summer dresses and make sure winter clothes are ready to go
• Make thermal curtains for living room
• Change to autumn duvet
• Move a duvet downstairs for when we're cold in the living room
• Get a blind for the kitchen
• Install a new fan in the bathroom - no more open windows for showers!
• Make draught excluders for front and back doors
• Clear out upstairs cupboard so we can actually find things in there, and make a place for candles, torches etc
• Get chimney fixed
• Insulate loft in small room

Lots to do! Hopefully over the next few weekends we'll be able to get a lot of this done, and hopefully the result will be we won't be so cold in the house this winter as we were last year.