My second draught excluder and the downstairs toilet!

Today I've had quite a lazy day - I been sewing for most of it!

I've finally made my second draught excluder

My lovely husband plastered our downstairs toilet today. We are doing our house up so that we can move away from this village we hate. At the moment we live close to the borders of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, but actually in Northamptonshire. I grew up in Oxfordshire (Thame and Chinnor) but was born in Chalfont St Giles. I would love to go back to South Oxfordshire (we are close to Banbury which is North Oxfordshire), but my husband is self-employed and is known in this area. Obviously he doesn't want to travel too far everyday.

So Steve has been busy getting our house ready to go on the market (although there is a long way to go yet).

For tea we had homemade beefburgers and sweetcorn relish - it was yummy!

Sweetcorn relish

1 onion - finely chopped
1 stick celery - finely chopped
little olive oil
4 tbsp brown sugar
4 tbsp vinegar
black pepper
pasatta
2tsp cornflour - mixed to a paste with a little water
tin of sweetcorn

Method

• Gently fry the onion and celery in oil.
• Add the sugar, vinegar, pepper and 2 good squirts of pasatta.
• Simmer for 15 mins, adding more pasatta if necessary.
• Stir in the cornflour and add sweetcorn.
• Mix well and pour into serving dish.

This worked really well with my hamburgers -

• Put mince in a bowl, add shake of paprika, pinch of mixed herbs, pepper, parsley and chopped onion.
• Bind with a beaten egg and shape into burgers.
• I grilled mine for 5 mins each side and then finished them off in the oven while I made the relish.

It's time to bake again tomorrow. I need to make Ashley's birthday cake for Monday.

Mandy x