Welcome

Reaching the final of Masterchef 2007 was a rollercoaster of emotion, with huge highs and lows, but I loved every minute and learnt a huge amount. I owe a great deal to John and Gregg who had faith in my ability when I did not believe in myself. Since competing on the programme my life has changed considerably. I now write cookery columns for two magazines, give cookery demonstrations and am just working on my 13th cook book - unlucky number for some but not for me!!! I love all forms of country cooking, using seasonal and locally sourced produce. This blog is to enable me to share with you a few of my recipes and baking ideas. Enjoy Hannah xxxx

Tuesday 2 December 2008

In the spirit of saving money this winter, we decided a while ago that we would invest in a log burning stove for the lounge to heat the house (and particularly my office) during the day so I didn't need to have the heating on. Our oil bill last year was astronomical! Our new stove arrived yesterday and we are very pleased with it. Having shopped around for a while we finally heard about some stoves that had chips in their enamel and had £450 off!!!! We took a gamble and bought the cream one without seeing it, on the promise that it came with some enamel paint and we would be able to repair it. The stove arrived and it is perfect - if you didn't know it was there (bottom of the right hand door hinge if you want to play "spot the chip") we wouldn't even have noticed the tiny bit of missing paint and are wondering how on earth there was a £450 discount for such a small amount of damage. We are very happy! The chimney man is coming in two weeks to fit it (there will be a lot of dust so sadly no Christmas decorations for us until he has been)! I love our dear little stove and have a feeling it will become my new best friend over the next few months!

8 comments:

Celia Hart said...

Oh I love it! I want one too! You could warm muffins on the top :-)

Celia

Rita said...

You are going to have lots of great conversations around this little stove! So cute!

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

At the house we had a wood stove downstairs and a gas firplace upstairs. The best of both worlds:D

Joanna said...

Beautiful ... we've bought two new stoves this autumn, and are now warmer than we've ever been. I am doing virtually all the cooking on the big one, and making cups of tea using a kettle on the little one in my study. Meanwhile, Lucius is happily building a fourth wood store, as we are using at least a barrow load a day ... I can't tell you how happy this all makes me - and mine are all black, nothing like so beautiful as your perfect cream stove ;)

Joanna

Anonymous said...

We have one very similar to this in Cape Town. Great for simmering soups and casseroles.
It keeps everyone toasty warm in winter!

Marie Rayner said...

Ohh, you will love it Hannah! I had one just like that back in Canada, where as you can imagine, it came in very handy in the winter months! I always kept a little pot of water with some orange peel, cinnamon and cloves simmering on the top of it. It was a wonderful room freshener and smelled like I was baking something good to eat!

Amy J said...

It is beautiful! What a cozy addition to you houdr. Am envious!

Ciel said...

Oooooo, that's lovely! I'm filled with longing - I miss the wood stove we had in our last home. Now we have a convenient gas fire - yuck. Give me crackling, fragrant, glowing logs any (cold) day!
You'll have such fun decorating once your stove is safely installed. :-)