Next steps; grip-relaxing bimbling, and avoiding the temptations

Suffolk_lass

I want to draw them in with the fudge and the little twist bags are only 70-75g each. I make a little bit but once they taste it, they are ready to look at the table and see other things. I've just made 6 little beeswax candle tins. Not nearly as beautiful as the chrysanthemum and snow flake candles my friend made. I was going to make tiny cup and saucer candles too but the wicks are too short. More ordered. She is coming round at 10.30 to make fudge with me.

Yesterday was quite productive.

• I jarred up honey and it is in 8oz (230g) jars, ready to be labelled. 
• I also baked a large loaf, 
• made soup 
• made a very garlicky ragu that ended up as a lasagne for supper. 
• I also did two loads of washing, 
• all dried and put away, and 
• took husband to collect his now fixed, motorbike 
• collected dog tablets and dietary supplements on my way back.
• Completed and distributed the minutes of the trust board meeting I am the administrator for and started my follow-up actions

Mr Sl used the new Sullivans gloves I got from America for his birthday and as he poured my tea, he said his hands had been toasty warm driving back; shame about his feet. The Aussie leather jacket that was his Christmas present was also in use. He needs to stop snacking as he is looking a bit fatter and it won't fit if he gets much bigger. Last night he was saying how itchy his scalp was itching and I suggested he eat a little less sugar... that went well.

I also received ten jars of honey back from the 26 I stood up for a friend's farmer friend. I haven't been paid yet and the jars all looked a bit grubby and uncared for (one bent lid) and none had been labelled. Anyway, he owes me.

Must stop lolling in my nightie and get a wiggle on

Watty1

Tiny cup and saucer candles sound charming (so much so I'm thinking of buying the cups in the local charity shops - like I really have time to take up candle making LOL)

Makingabobor2

I tried candle making once. Found it too time consuming really. 

Suffolk_lass

My wax pot just goes into the aga for an hour to melt the pieces, and then I pour into the pre-wicked moulds, so not too much of an overhead @Makingabobor2 - Soy wax and cheaper paraffin waxes are more tricky but the nature of the beeswax and once rendered and cleaned it burns pure and true.

So, just back from our haircuts (£25 for both of us), with Mr Sl also having his beard trimmed. Mine is just that toilet brush look before it gets cut, all sticking up and out, with flat bits where I've slept on it. All done now for 7 weeks.

What else? My friend came to make fudge, and I made a double batch with her watching, and having a stir for the consistency, and making notes on the copy of my recipe we were making. She went home, via The Lone Ranger shop, to invest in a sugar thermometer. Updates during the afternoon and evening suggest it did not go to plan. It seems she plunged her pan into a sink of cold water instead of a bowl, and in so doing, opened the tap, ruining one batch. She sent pictures of a second, too-soft batch in its' tray but then in the bin. She could have let it air dry first, then turned it out, cut it and let that dry out too, but I fancy she lost her temper with it. Her choice.

I am about to fiddle-faddle (technical term!) with some marzipan, to decorate a couple of Christmas cakes. One for my Mum, who loves Marzipan. The other will go over the road to the Christmas coffee and shopping morning as my contribution of cake. I shall make shortbread next week, but that is for me to sell on my table.

I've also offered to do a pasta bake for Sunday's Christmas get together at my friend's house. I think she is quite relieved that someone else is cooking a "main" as there are lots of nibbles and sweet things from everyone else. I'll cook the pasta and ragu and mix them then top it with cheese sauce and grated cheese, and it can then easily be reheated, at her house. She makes fantastic curried goat and is undecided whether to go for that or jerk chicken (equally fantastic). It should be good.

Right, and my audio book next, I think!

foxgloves

Sounds like fab food at your friend's get together. Back in the day when I used to go to such things, I often volunteered to bring a dessert & made a white chocolate terrine thing with a jug of apricot coulis to serve. Well, the coulis would travel in a lidded container, of course, but the good thing about the terrine was its solidity so it could travel in its cling-film lined loaf tin & be easily turned out onto a plate on arrival. It also travelled to 2 opera night picnics when my sis was still performing, so it was a good fool-proof traveller. Doh, I could fancy reviving that recipe now!
I find that beginner fudge makers (myself included when I first started making it) often don't realise that 'soft ball stage' for setting test purposes really does mean that it will roll into a little ball which keeps its shape. If the boiling process stops once testing is at the 'promising looking soft blob' stage, then my experience is that it will be fudge icing for spreading on fairy cakes rather than something which will set for cutting up. I only have one batch to make this year as I want to test out a gingerbread bun recipe too so will be gifting a tin of those to my nephews instead.
F

Suffolk_lass

Yes, I think we have all made fudge sauce or cake toppings in our time @foxgloves!

She has calmed down this morning and accepted the batch I made on Thursday to take to her Christmas Craft Fayre tomorrow. It's in an affluent part of a trendy coastal place at the Tennis Club - so she is boosting prices too. Taking 10 of my candle making kits to market as an after dinner entertainment for Christmas family get-togethers, too. And I am lending her some little gift baskets she can make up too.

I just read your big budget day post, foxgloves and then slipped away to check the state of my credit card this month. It has my car service, insurance, VED for my car, and the service Mr Sl had on the truck, together with his insurance. All on the voucher giving partnership card. Quite a shock and once Mr Sl has stopped sulking about ruining yet another expensive hob-hat, I will ask him to stump up some money from the account he uses for the house our son lives in. I have (and have never have had) visibility of this. He has just paid for his motorcycle repair from it. He has occasionally offered to use it but I have no idea what money is there.

Right, both accounts will last until paydays (Thursday his OP, Thursday mine, then his SP on Friday. I must not feel rich (repeats as wanders off, Mutley-ing about the hob hat ruination)... time to get a wiggle on and get outside!

thriftmonster

I have been known to tip a tin of fudge back into a clean pan and give it another few minutes before I got better at knowing the feel of it

Suffolk_lass

I think that is the thing @thriftmonster - it is all the feel. My first (single) batch this year was a little on the firm side so it's easy to mess it up. 

I'm waiting to hear how this afternoon goes for them as I feel invested in their stall but also, so I know if I need more fudge or candle kits. I've also put her onto a local market looking for new stall holders, and I'm going to message her to offer to do a few with her and see how they go.

This morning I was up by 06.00 as usual and spent the first hour or so making the ragu to form the base of my pasta dish for tomorrow's social catch up with the ladies group I was in when we lived in a (new) city. As they are bringing partners, I think we need more than a few bits of cheese and meat and puddings. The men will always eat my cooking (I speak from nearly 30 years experience with this group!) and there is something very satisfying about people eating your food!

Right, I am wreath-making this afternoon and I need to liberate a box of champagne flutes to be able to serve Mimosas (included in the cost) and help set up the hall for 20 makers, a place to hang ribbons and and a teaching station to demonstrate. 20 people doing it, plus my neighbour teacher and her granddaughter. We are setting up at 11.00

Oh yes, Mr Sl sold his little Jazz so we are back down to 3 vehicles - plus the motorbikes.

Makingabobor2

You are just constantly busy...lol
Well done on Mr SLs sale

Suffolk_lass

Had a bit of a lie in this morning, and have been pottering. I have written the Christmas cards for the Ladies I will see this afternoon, and also put my big pot of ragu back in the oven, ready to combine with the penne I have measured into one of the destination dishes, ready to cook. We will be leaving about 12.00 so getting my act together about 10.30 should do it. Just a bigger batch of white sauce and the pasta to sort, and Mr Sl will grate some cheese for me (avoiding the seasonal hazard of grated finger/fingernail, for me).

He was in and out as I was sat (slobbing) in the chair last evening, out to the shed and back in again. He is planning to list the spare wheels for the car he sold and the trailer (the latter has new wheels and tyres now, following paving-slab-gate) and took photos, then needed the dates they were manufactured. I have messaged my neighbour, the police officer, whose son bought our son's car. He told me at the Bonfire night that he loves it, it's a really good little car - so we wondered if he might want the spare wheel with a new tyre for £35. That would see it gone and a win-win for both of us.

Not much money saving (except on postage to my girlfriends) - I have bought a large black cloth that covers a long table, down to the ground on three sides, so I can use it when I do markets and Fair-events as an under-cloth to hide all the boxes under the table! I've also got several text books coming, ready for my next exam module, which I start studying for in January.

This week we will be having Mr Sl's Occupational Pension, then mine, then his state pension so the pressure on the accounts will make me feel we have money (for a change). I need to do a bit of a budget as I have a track record of spending too much if I feel a bit flush. I need to feel poor or we will be raiding the pig-shed pot again. I have bought plenty of snacks in advance of Christmas, with various baked nut packets stashed in the larder and upstairs (I bought three of some, for a better price and to ensure free delivery [feel like a sucker!!]).

I will need some more stamps, but I think I have enough cards. We can write them after next week's Christmas shopping and coffee at our village hall. Oh, and my £35 of Morries vouchers will be deployed this month. I have a number of items to buy for the lunch we are delivering next Friday, and will be going to Sainsbugs too (their chicken drumsticks in bigger packs are better value) - if I spend £30 for four out of five weeks I get some sort of Nectar bonus, but you know what? it will save more than we make if I don't. I do have a £18 off £60  online or click and collect so I might use that this week, instead. Hopeful that veg wars will be applied in the week before Christmas. That would be good.

We have 8, possibly 9 now on Christmas day. I have asked one lady to bring the starter as a platter we can all share, and the other will bring a lemon meringue pie (her speciality) and a Christmas pudding she had left from last year (the best sort IMHO) - so I only have cream, brandy butter, custard and a panetone trifle to provide for desserts, along with a few devils and pigs for canapes with drinks beforehand, and of course, the roast dinner. I think I shall make some mince pies this week as they freeze well. I could send some (with my miniature Christmas cake) over the road for the coffee morning. As always,  shall do a small cheese board (that always remains uneaten, but we can live in hope!!).

The money from Mr Sl's car will pay towards the credit card bill and he tells me his house account has some more in it, if needed. I would rather feel I need to be frugal but it is good to know it is there.

Right, have a lovely day everyone, ours should be lovely and relaxed, catching up with friends.