Autumnleaves | The Little Room of Rachell

Making: It’s soup season again. I’ve made lentil vertes & vegetable, Nigella’s split pea with lime chilli and ginger (really tasty, but needs more vegetables, it’s very split pea heavy. I would recommend an adaption…) Chicken & vegetable soups, Fish chowder and this week a Beef & Vegetable. Dinner in a bowl

Am planning to make Rachel Roddy’s lentil & tomato. If that sounds good to you check out the Guardian, it was featured recently

Experimenting: I’ve harnessed the slow cooker once again and tried it out in the garage (!!!!) It worked really well, no smell wafting around the house for hours and hours

Cooking: Birthday cakes

Museum of Bath at Work – fascinating and quirky place to visit

Surprising: someone with a birthday trip away for a couple of days, it was lovely. Thank you Bath

Sipping: Nespresso cappuccino in the mornings, it became a habit this month, after having the machine years and using it only sporadically for a treat. I bought some lemon and ginger herbal teabags in Louth Aldi and I’m cutting down on caffeine again

Reading: back on to another Ann Cleeves after reading a few proof copies of forthcoming books. I’ve just started The Seagull, which is another in the Vera series

Waiting: for Sunday lunch today

Looking: forward to his roast chicken, gooseberry crumble (which I’m making with homegrown goosegogs, which have been frozen) with good company later on

Listening: to Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers, an audiobook I’ve had for awhile.

I really enjoyed this, but oh the ending! So unnecessary and abrupt. You almost feel betrayed after for listening for so long and then feel let down at the end. Have you read this book?

Wishing: in August I wished for a dibber, a friend read the post and sent me one of her mother’s. In September I wished for rain. After I published the post it began to drizzle. So…. I need to think about this one carefully! **

Buckets & spades and donkey rides on a sunny start to half term

Enjoying: remembering walking on the beach in the sunshine last Saturday in Mablethorpe, with a good friend

Sipping: Mulled Cider a couple of times this October. Check out Nigella‘s recipe from her Christmas book. I sub the rum with whatever we’ve got, sometimes Armagnac or Calvados

Missing: these cheeky little girls! I went up to Lincolnshire to cat sit and I’ve missed them all week

Appreciating: all the warm sunny days we’ve had this month. I know that on 29th of October we should not really be sitting outdoors in England, coats off, drinking coffee and eating cake in a museum garden. But it is really nice, I really like it, although I know it’s global warming

Deciding: To start crocheting a new blanket, I know I’ve got to finish my Coast blanket and my knitted Stripey blanket, plus a few smaller items. I’m seeing such a lovely mix of autumn crochet on Instagram that I want to buy some different colours and start something new

Contributing: crochet poppies for a friend’s WI forthcoming yarn-bomb for a postbox topper for Remembrance Sunday (I’ll maybe try to take a decent photo of mine before I pass them on.) Here’s her knitted ones, they look so good

Munching: apples from Apple Weekend at Waterperry Gardens

Eating: Licorice torpedoes I’d bought at the sweet shop on the seafront at Mablethorpe, and catching up on Taskmaster last night. Actually, I caught up with half of Taskmaster as I fell asleep for half an hour, and kept waking up periodically to say can you stop laughing so loudly, it’s waking me up? Unreasonable half asleep & tipsy behaviour? I reckon so!

Liking: Stuck which is on BBC iplayer. Only 15 minute episodes. Dylan Moran! You know? Black Books Dylan Moran. Yay

Loving: sharing links and “What’s for dinner?” messages in the first few weeks of the month, with a very likeminded foodie friend. We were all about lentils, pulses and soups

Buying: A pink leather friendship bracelet from the pop-up artisan’s shop in Witney yesterday

Watching: the leaves change colour. It’s one of my favourite things about autumn

Hoping: for a sunny few days this week to catch up on some more laundry and to wash the kitchen floor. It’s really magic when you wash it and it starts drying instantly, I know, I’m so, so boring

Wearing: pjs

Noticing: The luxury of an extra hour in bed this morning but I’m not looking forward to the darker evenings

Recommending: The Guard film on Netflix. Very funny

Also recommending: The Jazz man’s Blues on Netflix, watched on Friday night. Liked the realistic ending. Although I did feel there was one iffy plot thing, but no worries because it didn’t overly affect the story. I really enjoyed the music and played some of the soundtrack afterwards on Spotify, through the TV. I streamed Netflix to my friend’s TV when I was cat sitting, via Chromecast. The magic of technology!

Following: Ancestors’ journeys and careers, using censuses and local information, talking to local historians

Sorting: summer clothes into a bag and to the top of the wardrobe. Then the weather became very warm again and I regretted my tidied away T-shirts and cropped trousers

Coveting: one of those all in one instant pots, they seem to do everything from yoghurt making, slow cooking, pressure cooking and rice steaming, plus more

Visiting: Witney Blanket Hall

To be in the building alone is a treat, but there’s also a superb shop with scarves, socks and blankets all made in this country, plus a selection of nice gifts to purchase, The Pie Shop (a cafe), a garden with the river Windrush flowing at the end, a museum and a really nice woman called Angela

I had no idea that thousands and thousands of Witney blankets were sold by the Hudsons Bay Company in Canada

Feeling: lazy, but I need to Hoover, do a little bit of spot cleaning and make some crumble mixture with some brown sugar. flaked almonds, porridge oats, spices, butter and flour

Hearing: bird song

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What about your October? Has it been a challenge or a pleasure? A mix of both? Please share a few things…

** I know, I wish for one of those Ninja Foodi Multi-cookers

Making: my first soups of the season. Roasted butternut and chilli first. I had such a lunchtime soup craving that I was chopping vegetables, with the oven preheating, before 0900 on Friday! Someone was working in London and I had the house to myself. It was such a peaceful morning

While he was having swanky lunch, 500 feet up in the Leadenhall building in the city, I was cosy by the fire eating my soup and chunky sourdough cheese on toast. Bliss

Then the second soup followed the other, quite quickly. I made cauliflower cheese soup on Sunday. It’s so simple, but far more than the sum of its parts!

Here’s how: Use your largest saucepan and sweat a diced white onion in a little oil until translucent. Add a large crushed clove of garlic and cook for a few minutes. Add an extra large cauliflower, which has been cut into small florets, and a litre of vegetable stock. Cook until the cauliflower is tender. Don’t worry that there’s far more cauli than stock, it will all work perfectly. Season with freshly ground black pepper. Whizz with a stick blender (or in a blender when it’s cooled.) Serve with Danish Blue cheese crumbled over or a good handful of extra mature cheddar cheese. I find about 25g of cheddar per bowl is plenty.

I know it doesn’t look exciting at all, but it really is silky smooth and delicious!

Cooking: Chicken & Leek Bake. I don’t buy ready meals, I’ve always cooked from scratch. But weirdly when I was grocery shopping online last week, the store showed me a chicken and bacon and leek gratin thing in a plastic box. Urgh, but it was one of those instant ‘I must make this!’ moments. Then I saw this on my favourite recipe website Chicken & Leek Bake. I always adapt recipes, so mine had smoked pancetta and chicken breasts, not thighs, as that’s what I had in the fridge. And there’s no way I’m ever buying ready made cheese sauce! Mine had a homegrown bay leaf and some dried thyme popped into it. The English (Colman’s of course!) mustard made the sauce absolutely delicious. Perfect autumn / winter dinner. It is going to be made again and again, I predict!

Sipping: jasmine tea from my pint mug

Reading: a week or so ago I read Anne Tyler’s Redhead by the Side of the Road in a day. What a beautiful gem of a book. It was on the library Libby app

Waiting: to feel 100% me again

Looking: forward to seeing and walking beside the sea again

Listening: to Keith Stuart’s The Frequency of Us audio book. I had goosebumps by the end. Super twisty story

Wishing: a personal shopper would just deliver a rail of perfectly fitting lovely clothes to my bedroom. I really need to go shopping. Yawn

Enjoying: crocheting my gingerbread man. He now has a leg too

Appreciating: snuggling in bed with good books. My current is another ebook from the library, this time on the BorrowBox app. It’s The Never-Ending Summer by Emma Kennedy. I love her writing. I can recommend all her books, especially the non-fiction The Tent, the Bucket and Me. I read until gone midnight last night. This book is one of those ‘just another chapter’ page turners…

I always try to have a physical library book too, the libraries need to stay open. Use it or lose it! My friend made a Cranks Bible potato recipe last week and it prompted me to reserve the book. Should be good for soups too? I plopped it onto my car blanket in the boot yesterday, and sent her a pic. I’ve just realised it’s still out there

Eating: too much sweet stuff. After half term ends, next week I’ll be back to eating fewer treats

Liking: the new series of Young Sheldon

Loving: the anticipation of opening my first Inside Crochet mag in ages. I bought a 6 month subscription with some birthday money

Family apple picking afternoon was good fun

Buying: Christmas cards. I don’t know what it is this year, but I’m getting some things done early

Yesterday’s white sourdough, well greige really as the dark rye flour starter turns it a little murky!

Watching: nature changing week by week

Managing: one of my favourite 6 mile loops (circular walks) at the weekend

Hoping: for more blue sky days

Wearing: a furry blue top, so warm and soft

Noticing: even the oak leaves are turning now. Those ferns I showed you earlier in the month have now died back

Following: Lucy’s Blogtober posts. Her visit to RHS Harlow Carr is top, top, top for autumn garden colour. I’m loving the daily diary posts and save a batch to read at one sitting

Sorting: the freezer. I defrosted it on Monday. What a good feeling. I’ve been so dizzy I couldn’t do it until now. It’s looking good now, but apparently the crunchy noise of the door closing on 2 inches of ice on the top drawer is missed!

Getting: organised for winter

Coveting: a new stick blender. Mine ground to a halt a while ago

Only 11th and apparently Christmas displays had already been a go-go for 2 weeks

Feeling: determined to do more garden pruning before the hedges are cut back on Tuesday

Hearing: the gentle ring of tinnitus

Remembering: making the bird and other little things when I was new to it and absolutely crochet obsessed (and I didn’t have a wooky hand which now holds me back.) I recently came across this photo of my noticeboard in the first Little Room, it made me smile