Bottling Summer

I was kindly given a huge bunch of rhubarb from my auntie a week or so ago and so I turned to my little book of preserves and found a recipe for rhubarb and beetroot chutney and as I had some vacuum packed rhubarb in my fridge it seemed rude not to give it a go!!

Here's the rhubarb simmering in all it's lovely pinkness

And here is all the chutney jarred up and ready to go :) 

But I have to wait a month before I can eat it - that could be hard going!! Although it might take me a month to find some pretty labels to put on them!

I do love the idea of bottling up the surplus of summer and putting it in the cupboard for the darker days - much as we used to do before we could buy everything anytime due to the supermarkets dominance.  I will be on the lookout for more garden bounty on the roadside whilst we are out and about as I don't think my small efforts at growing produce will keep us going for long.  

Last week summer arrived (it's gone again now :( ) And so I crept outside whilst the little man had his nap to do a bit of hooking.  

This started off as being a crazy cushion - as I though the colours looked a bit crazy altogether but...

They actually work really well don't you think?

I had this cushion on my sofa which I got from Next last year which at the time I thought was totally adorable and had to be purchased - however since then not only have I gone off it but it's got very grubby and bobbly (white knit with a toddler?!?!!?  What was I thinking!!!)

So it's been given a new lease of life.  However the cover is a tad too big so have plans to make it a bit more fitted - watch this space :) 

I've not been very well for the past few weeks with a sinus infection and then a sore throat/gunky chest which resulted in me losing my voice for a bit (yes that is my husband you can hear cheering!!).  As a result I've been wiped out totally and not been doing much cooking or anything at all really.  But thankfully although I'm still shattered my mojo seems to be returning and have been in the kitchen today and made the following:

Nigella's Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

This is quite nice but I think I may have over cooked it a tad and the overpowering smell of olive oil was slightly off putting.  Might try again with vegetable/sunflower oil 

Pain de campagne (ooo get me!!) from Paul Hollywoods earlier book that I still have out from the library.  This has homegrown oregano in it and it looks fab - but it's for lunch tomorrow so not tried it yet!