December musings

I find it hard to believe that it is nearly Christmas, where do the years go? Here are my last gathering of roses from the garden for the year. I have cut them all back, not pruned, just cut back in order to protect them from rocking in the wind and loosening the roots.At least it is nice to enjoy them indoors for a few days.


We enjoy having friends in for dinner and on one such occasion recently we had home made soup to start with then Chicken Divan served with fine green beans. This was followed with individual Upside Down Caramelised Apple Sponge served with ice-cream. (Recipes below)

Chicken Divan (4)

1 medium chicken cooked or ready-to-eat roast chicken
500g broccoli (weight before trimming) 1 x 295g tin condensed cream of chicken soup 1 x 200ml tub ½ fat crème fraiche
3 heaped tblspns mayonnaise 2 tspns lemon juice
1 heaped tspn medium curry powder 4 oz fresh breadcrumbs
2 oz butter 2 oz mature cheddar, grated

Shallow oven-proof dish 13 x 10 inches, lightly greased. Mk 3/170C

Bring a saucepan of water to the boil. Meanwhile remove the skin from the chicken, take off all the meat, then discard the skin and bones. Cut chicken into bite size pieces and leave to one side.
Trim the broccoli and cut into florets, then cut each floret into 3 pieces. Blanch in the boiling water for 1 minute, then drain thoroughly in a colander.
To make the sauce, mix together the soup, crème fraiche, mayonnaise, lemon juice and curry powder. Season with black pepper. Fry the breadcrumbs in butter until golden brown.
To assemble, place the broccoli in the baking dish, followed by chicken pieces, then spread the sauce on top. Sprinkle over the grated cheese, followed by the fried breadcrumbs. Cook in the top half of pre-heated oven for 50 minutes.
Serve with a crisp green salad or fresh green vegetables.

Upside-down caramelised apple sponge

2 ¾ oz butter, plus extra for greasing 2 ¾ oz dark brown sugar
4 dessert apples
Sponge 1 ½ oz butter, softened 2 ¼ oz caster sugar 1 egg at room temperature
2 ¾ oz self-raising flour 2 fl. oz milk few drops of vanilla essence

Gently melt the butter and brown sugar in a saucepan over a low heat, stirring until smooth and combined to make a toffee mixture. Lightly butter 4 x 7 fl. oz ramekins.
Spoon the toffee into the ramekins. Peel and core the apples and cut into quarters. Place 4 quarters in each of the ramekins on top of the toffee.
Pre-heat the oven to 180C/ gas 4. To make the sponge, cream together the butter and sugar, then beat in the egg. Fold in the flour, milk and vanilla. Spoon the sponge mixture onto the apples, allowing it to flow around the apple pieces. Leave a small space between the top of the mixture and the rim of the ramekin to allow the sponge to rise.
Place on a baking sheet and bake for 15 min s until risen and golden.

This recipe here was not the success that I had anticipated. It was from one of the internationally well known TV celebrity chefs. Namely a Sticky Gingerbread. The ingredients were scrumptious, including lots of spices and ground ginger as well as grated fresh ginger and molasses, etc. etc., but the end result in my estimation was soggy and not too digestable. I love a good Gingerbread so had to try it but will not be doing so again.

Award Catch-up

Over the last few weeks I have received these 8 awards. I do appreciate them being sent to me but if I followed all the rules it would be a mammoth task so I am merely going to link to each person that sent them and say a thank you very much. I appreciate your blogging friendship and your wonderful and encourging comments.

Melanie of Jelly Bean Angel

Melody of Tea Time with Melody

Patsy of The Smith's Bennie & Patsy

Paz of Paz's New York Minute

Now for some reason blogger is not coming up with the links. Sorry. I have already typed this 4 times and it has disappeared from the page.

Wild Flowers on Two Tree Island

Let's backtrack to June of this year when Willow of 'Willow's Cottage' in California came and stayed with us, along with her husband. We began in the town with coffee and cookies and here we are walking on Two Tree Island in the Thames estuary. A rather blustery day but the wild flowers were out in abundance so I made it the focus of this visit. We had a great walk but in stopping to take pictures I managed to lose a lovely pair of sheepskin mittens. Yes, sheepskin mittens in June, that was the kind of Summer we had this year.

What is interesting is the fact that much of this area was burnt black when a fire raged through last year. How well nature renews itself.

Willow and I sitting at a picnic table

We are now off to have lunch before window shopping around the town

Life of a House Church

As I am sitting at my computer late Sunday afternoon, I am looking out on a pretty pale sunset, a bright moon in a fading blue sky and a street covered in white frost. Nature's artistic tapestry. I digress:



A few people have asked me recently to tell them something of our house church. How is it going, what are we doing?



I guess in a nutshell, we seek the presence of God, the Will of God, and life in the Spirit and endeavour to live daily from the revelation that brings. We also have lots fun.



This last Summer our leader, along with others from the church, travelled to the revival in Florida and were involved in mission trips to both India and Uganda. At the same time our House of Prayer was open every night of the week for 18 weeks for all the house churches to get together for a time of praise and worship and prayer and intercession for our neighbourhood and country.



Recently we opened the House of Prayer for 3 consecutive nights to watch and pray into a very challenging video (The Revival Hymn) which is on the internet at the following link, if anyone is interested.

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.emeraldministries.com/images/revival%2520hymn%2520lrg.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.emeraldministries.com/Videos.htm&usg=__QLvfqdTZCxpasipjJhweloyQ8to=&h=275&w=364&sz=55&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=9paA5EvgtSKJsM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=121&prev=/images%3Fq%3DGoogle%2BVideos%2BThe%2BRevival%2BHymn%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4GGLR_enGB285GB286

Obviously we meet together for meals, and individually, and share as much of life as possible with some working in our school and within the wider ministry.

Our Sunday gatherings are varied and may take the form of prayer, praise and worship, teaching, sharing and praying for each other. Sometimes we meet early and begin with breakfast together. Other things we have done in the last few weeks are seen here in pictures.

Firework party (Guy Fawkes weekend) followed by a BBQ and buffet. The fireworks are being set off next door and folk spread over our two patios, so you are seeing my garden in a different light.

Another Sunday we visited our local general hospital. This is a new hospital and the ground floor entrance area resembles an airport lounge, complete with grand piano. We visited in order to spend the morning praying there, the young children prayed too. We finished with a time of fellowship in the coffee shop.

These few photos curtesy of the website

This morning we prepared lots of Christmas hampers (having bought the produce over the last couple of weeks) for needy people in our area. We ended by praying for all the families, unknown to us, who will be receiving them. (photos blurred for privacy)

Soon we will be Carol singing in our neighbourhood and inviting folks to come out and join us (as some did last year) followed by a Christmas buffet. It is a priviledge and blessing to be part of this Christian community here and I never cease to give thanks for this.

The Throw

I have just finished a 90 week knitting project, that's 2 years all but 3 months. Just another reason to prove just how quickly time flies by.

This was done through a knitting course called, "The Art of Knitting". The idea was to knit one square a week for 90 weeks, finishing up with a patchwork throw. Basically the course was aimed at teaching people to knit by introducing different patterns and stitches throughout the weeks.

Now I first learned to knit when I was 15 years old but this course intrigued me and I thought it would be fun. Although I certainly did not need to learn to knit I have learned quite a few new techniques over the weeks.

The course came via. a weekly magazine which also contained a number of patterns each time both for the home, bits and pieces and designer knits. Whether I will ever make any of these only time will tell. For the throw there was the pattern for the square of the week complete with the wool to complete it. Also included was a stitch library, questions and answers, knitting school and glossary.

When one adds up £2.99p times 90, plus the cost of 6 binders, it would seem a very expensive throw. Initially Alan was horrified at the ultimate cost until I suggested he add up the cost of our daily newspaper which of course over 90 weeks would come to much, much more. It got me thinking - 2 mugs of coffee a week at Starbucks and certainly for much longer than 90 weeks!!! My weekly Belgium chocolate fix....... no, I won't go there!

So, after all that - here it is. It is extremely heavy and warm.

Nearly Finished