Pumpkin Day

Had a Pumpkin Day this weekend. It involved three recipes and this pumpkin:

A Marina di Chioggia from last year’s crop. It was keeping well still, but had changed colour (it was a very deep bottle green), so I figured it could do with being used up.

So, to start off – Pumpkin Wine
This much of the pumpkin (about 5 lbs)

was grated into a brewing bucket

then 3lb of sugar was disolved in boiling water and added. Once this had cooled, yeast was added

Now it sits for 3 days, being stirred daily.

NEXT – Pumpkin/Veg burgers. This little lot

comprises of about:
3lb Pumpkin
1lb Potatoes
1lb Onions
1lb Tomatoes
8oz Carrots

It was all grated (after being skinned if necessary) into a colander and pressed with a masher to squeeze out the juice.

Then it was mixed with about 8oz breadcrumbs, 2 heaped teaspoons chilli flakes, 1 teaspoon paprika, salt, pepper and 2 eggs

Then shaped into burgers. 24 were open frozen and 6 were for tea!

AND FINALLY – Pumpkin Cookies. This remaining slice was diced, cooked and allowed to cool

Then, 1/2 cup mashed pumpkin, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup oil, 1/2tsp vanilla, 1/4 cup chopped walnuts, 1/4 cup dried cranberries + chopped apricots, 1tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 2 cups wholemeal flour, 1 cup oats and a pinch of salt were mixed together. Small balls of the mixture were flattened on a baking sheet and cooked at 150C for about 15 mins

I enjoyed that!

Goodbye…

…Uncle Geoff.

You will be missed.

The New Fence pt2

Finished the fence off today:

Before:

After:

Not much more to say about it all other than it looks so much better and although it looks an easy job, we’re both knackered!

Oh and the OH enjoyed burning the old panels (that’s the bits that didn’t crumble when I removed then).

It’s all gone Apple

Have you noticed how the world appears to have “gone Apple”? Or should that be jumped on the Apple bandwagon. Or maybe just spotted a formula that works really well and “adopted” [read as copied] it.

We got a new router for our broadband today. The packaging was so much like an Apple product I really thought it was. All white space and stylish photography. The router itself looks like an iPod dock.

We were at the cinema the other day and I had to laugh. There was an ad for Apple Macs and it basically ripped Pcs to shreds by personifying the two kinds of computers. The PC was represented by a slightly tubby, stuffy, not particularly smartly “suited and booted” guy. The Mac was represented by a reasonably good looking, well presented, trendy looking guy. The thing I found funny though, is that a PC manufacturer could never get away with an ad like that. If they tried it they’d be seen as directly attacking a particular brand. However, because there are so many manufacturers of Pcs (by that I mean Windows based Pcs) Apple can knock them all without actually attacking any one brand.

Classic!

Seriously flawed

Greenpeace has just won a High Court case against the government.

All to do with the consultation process it carried out before making its decision to build a new generation of nuclear power stations. The full article can be read here.

Now the good old BBC likes to be seen as helpful and forward thinking, so beside the article they’ve put a “Power Calculator” – not a new thing, it crops up on their site everytime they publish an article about energy and the environment. As far as I’m concerned it’s a total waste of space and seriously flawed – probably as misleading as governments nuclear consultation!

I tried it. It can be found here.

Firstly, it limits the amount you can reduce demand – apparently 20% is the maximum demand can be reduce. Bollocks! It may be the amount demand can be reduced without making us change the way we live our lives, but then, when oil reserves start running low (don’t get me started on the complacancy over peak-oil!) and the price of EVERYTHING rockets (yes I mean everything) we aren’t going to be able to live the way we do now anyway. Why not finally admit things have to change and start encouraging people to change their lives/habits etc. If we start now and do it gradually it’ll be far less painful. If people don’t want to change then I’m afraid the only way I see to do it is make people change (yes force). We have to change – it’s not an option.

Secondly – having accepted the reduction issue I completed my calculations to be told my suggestions were unrealistic because it would mean a substantial increase in bills. Now, bear in mind the figure they quoted was for 2020, it was approximately £80 more than my current bill. I’d be prepared to pay an additional £80 a year to finance a substantial change to how this country meets its energy demands. But then, I’m expecting my electricity bill to go up a damn sight more than £80 over the next 13 years – it has in the last 13!