the green gal

Quick trip round the www

I thought I'd share a few of the interesting things I've found out there in cyberspace this week. I read a broad range of blogs and look at all kinds of different websites so only some might appeal, or maybe they all will! Anyway, there's only one way to find out…

Pedlars Dog of the Week

Issue 3 of the free craft online magazine is ready to read

My friend, Jo, has started writing a blog and it's as charming as its name

Isa of Noisette Marketing is giving away two coaching consultations, great opportunity for small business owners

I've recently discovered Hayley and Betty, the retro ice cream van, if you're anywhere in the Milton Keynes area she's a must for any garden party or celebration

I've never thought about making my own sugar cubes, but this may have changed my mind

Do you know what bubble tea is? I'm still not entirely clear

We Make London pop-up shop, fab idea

This is the first time I've done this kind of post so do let me know what you think of it. Happy Friday! x

Win a bunting tea towel!

You know how much I love bunting and I am so pleased that I have successfully translated it to my new range of kitchenware! The first product to be available is this tea towel made from 100% organic cotton, printed in the UK with my handmade heart bunting design and the words 'a-bunting we will go' in turquoise.

This tea towel is now available in the green gables shop and you can enter my giveaway to win one! Just leave a comment on this post before 17 July to enter.

the green gables' latest newsletter is out now, sign up here to get your copy. Don't miss it, there's a special offer and a recipe for elderflower cordial!

BTW to make sure your newsletter doesn't end up in your spam folder add the email address gabrielle@thegreengables.co.uk to your address book.

I hope you like the bunting tea towel as much as I do, there will be more kitchenware to tell you about in a few weeks' time…!

DIY at Daisy Green

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I'm guest posting over at Daisy Green Magazine today, this time it's how to make your own natural skincare products. You can read the recipes here.

The end of Zero Waste Week

So, National Zero Waste Week has finished, how did you get on?

I survived the green soup (happy to report it turned out to be a very tasty broccoli and stilton soup) and have a decidedly empty freezer.

We barely touched the cupboards as it turned out we had all kinds of food hiding in the freezer that had been forgotten about, until Mrs Green's Week spurred me on to burrow about in the frost. Among other treats we enjoyed defrosted veggie bean chilli and sustainably sourced cod, and a couple of white russians. Not a bloke in a furry hat but an v yummy drink made from vodka (freezer), kahlua (cupboard) and milk (an excess of milkman-delivered milk is a great excuse for a white russian).

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Having spotted a tin of custard languishing at the back of the cupboard, and inspired by the local hedgerow blackberries finally ripening (a month later than last year), I made apple and blackberry crumble. (We ate it before I remembered to snap a piccie so found this delightful dish on flickr.)

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And, while I was foraging I collected some elderberries too and knocked up a couple of bottles of elderberry syrup. Apparently elderberries are packed full of antioxidants and vitamin C so the syrup is supposed to be helpful with colds and flu (although I'd rather not be ill to find out). Not sure how good it is but you can find the recipe I used here.

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The elder tree is so jolly useful. A few months ago I made delicious cordial from its flowers and now I have syrup made from its berries. What a helpful tree.

Zero Waste Week for this year may be over but there are another 51 weeks to work on trimming down the trash before Zero Waste Week 2011…

Printable jam jar labels and tags

Tis the season for making jam!

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I do love a bit of blackberry jam making. However, my local hedgerows are still looking green rather than black with fruit so it will be a little while before I get my fingers sticky with blackberry juice. Looking back on last year's jam post it seems autumn came sooner as I was producing jam pots in the first week of August.

But I have put my fruit ripening waiting time to good use and created a sheet of jam jar labels and tags for you to download and print.

Simply download the pdf, print out on A4 recycled paper or card and fill in the blanks. Stick the labels on the jars with double-sided sticky tape or thread a tag on a piece of ribbon and tie round the lid. Whether your tasty pots are for you to enjoy or to gift to others, your jars will as pretty as the sticky stuff they hold.

Download Jam jar labels and tags

I confess that I used bought jars of jam as models as I have yet to be able to make my own but rest assured, that day will come! If you haven't made jam before I strongly recommend you give it a go. There's something so satisfying about turning a bowl of fruit (especially if it was picked from your local hedgerows) into jars and pots of delicious preserve. I was quite pleased with how my batch turned out last year so if you want to take a look at the recipe I used, it's here.

Do you have any top tips for jam making? What's your favourite flavour?

What have you been doing with your time?

Well, in between working, digging myself out of the snow, crocheting on a train, watching Glee and My Dream Farm, and making my nephew's apron, I've made a few things and found some marvellous bargains:

I embroidered a birthday card for a dear friend…

…found this gorgeous clock hanging in a charity shop, and they sold it to me for a couple of quid…

 

…then I found this gorgeous bowl in my favourite colour in yet another charity shop and it was even more of a bargain. Can't quite decide whether to use it to store things or to plant some spring bulbs in it…

 
…made some more bunting from old shirts and lovely fabric my mum gave me…

 …found a funny website about making your life greener – Do The Green Thing, plus the easiest recipe in the world to make banana ice cream at Love Food Hate Waste, and tried this tasty recipe for Sausages and Mustard (veggie sausages of course) by Nigel Slater straight after watching him cook it on TV…

…used an old map to make a few envelopes and cover a peg (why a peg? no reason, just fancied using my new pot of decopatch glue and thought I'd pretty up a peg)…

…after spotting a few tulip bulbs shoots emerging from the soil in the garden I've been poring over seed catalogues trying to decide what to plant. Trouble is, even though last year I managed to squeeze two raised beds, two towers of tyres for potato growing, a window box for tomatoes, a hanging basket for strawberries and various pots for garlic and herbs into our little garden, I still want to grow more, and rescue a couple of chickens (hah!)…

… and that was how my first month of 2010 ended, wonder what's in store for us all in the next 11 months…!

Scrummy choccie chip cookies

Think they look tasty? They taste even better than they look. Try this Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe and find out for yourselves!

Blackberry vodka – the result

I made blackberry vodka at the end of last year and completely forgot to tell you how it turned out. For the original post see here, however you might need to wait a few months for the hedgerows to be full of yummy fruit before you can get cracking on your own.

So, I filled a wine bottle and an old Jack Daniels (my fave tipple) bottle with blackberries, sugar and vodka in the autumn of 2009. In December I decanted the two bottles and filled one 70cl wine bottle (and a bit more left over) with the filtered blackberry flavoured vodka. 

And the verdict is – delicious! Quite sweet but definitely blackberry flavoured with a hint of alcohol taste when it's drunk neat. Mix it with lemonade or soda water and the alcohol taste disappears entirely, meaning you could drink it by the pintful, quite dangerous! Apologies for the ropey photo, I'm not a big daytime vodka drinker and I've yet to discover how to take quality photos in artificial light.

I'll be making another, probably bigger, batch this autumn and I heartily suggest you do the same. Cheers!

Blackberry vodka

Nope, I've not opened a speakeasy, I'm making homemade blackberry vodka!

I found the recipe in October's Country Living magazine and it just seemed too simple to not try. Plus I had a surplus of blackberries and am partial to the odd vodka cocktail. We made sloe gin a couple of years ago so fancied having a go at another tipple.

The simple recipe:

• Fill a old clean wine bottle one third full with equal parts blackberries and sugar.
• Top up with cheap vodka (no need to splash out on expensive stuff when you're flavouring it).
• Give it a good shake to mix up the berries, sugar and vodka.
• For the next two months give it a shake every day or two.
• Then, sieve the mixture through a muslin cloth, pour into a clean bottle and enjoy!

I'll let you know how it tastes!

BTW, my post about how I made the cushion cover from old clothes is on daisygreenmagazine.co.uk now, check it out http://good.ly/du2yk and let me know what you think!

The finishing line

So, the store cupboard challenge is over!

We ate well, most of the time, not too weirdly and a bit more thoughtfully. I've discovered that we keep quite a substantial amount of non-perishable food and my trips to the food shops needn't be as frequent as they have been. With a bit of thought we've made use of what we already had in the cupboard and the freezer and have actually had a more varied diet for it. It's easy to get stuck in your ways and rely on a handful of familiar ideas and forget what lovely dishes you could have if you took the time to think about it. 

The hubbie, who is head chef in our household, says he's quite enjoyed the Ready Steady Cook Challenge, as he named it. I think he might have blanked out the memory of the choice words he came out with on Friday night when he discovered that sour cream is no replacement for double cream. Separated cream doesn't look the best but the potato boulangere still tasted delicious!

Yesterday was a bit of a cheat as we were out all day with friends so only had popcorn with a movie when we got home. (Don't bother watching Iron Man but do pop your own corn, kids and adults alike love the exploding sounds coming from the pan.)

And tonight could be considered a bit sneaky as we ate last week's leftover veggie bean chilli from the freezer. However, we freed up space in the freezer and the accompanying brown rice came from the cupboard!

All in all the week was a success and I think we'll make it a regular every few months. We saved money, we made some space in the kitchen and used our brains a bit more. I hope that everyone taking part at myzerowaste.com and frugal-life.spaces.live.com enjoyed it too!