Make use of time, let not advantage slip - William Shakespeare
Even on Boxing Day we manage to find time to do some "boaty" jobs!
We basically finished off the wiring-in of the new small inverter that we've fitted on a 12v cigarette socket directly to the batteries for the TV and aerial. We still had the thick cable hanging down the wall to the sockets which looked a bit of an eyesore and I couldn't bear it any more!
It all looks neat and tidy now and we've really noticed an improvement with the battery capacity. With everything we usually have on, using the main inverter was taking around 10-13% out of the batteries an hour, which was way too much! With this new inverter we are only using around 3 or 4% an hour which means a lot less engine running time ! It's fantastic. I think this also shows that it WAS the main inverter that was using the battery capacity and the batteries aren't knackered after all!
So if there's any people out there who are planning on getting a new inverter or are fitting a boat out etc, DON'T buy a Stirling inverter - go with Mastervolt or Victron. I know I'm not the first person to say this about Stirling inverters either. They're simply too power hungry.
We will only use the main inverter now to use the vacuum or washing machine and keep it off at all other times.
After tidying up we sat down to a spot of lunch and a film on TV - it felt like the first time over Christmas that we've properly relaxed despite P having to head off to work at 2.30PM.
I'm not up to much tonight as I'm on my own although P will be back early tonight. I'll watch some more trashy Christmas TV, keep the fire in and maybe have a bacon butty :)
Finally - here's the chilli jam recipe too. Do try it out - it really is great and we were eating it again with the cheese we had at lunch today. I've been spreading it on everything... Cheese, pâté, turkey ....mmmmm!!
This will fill a one litre jar approximately. Simply double up on the quantities to make more.
Remember to deseed your chillies as well. You only want the heat from the chillies -you don't want it to blow your head off! Don't worry about getting every single one out though, the odd seed is fine!
The easiest way to deseed chillies is to cut them in half, lengthways and scoop the seeds out with a teaspoon - don't rub your eyes after!
Sweet Chilli Jam
Ingredients:-
* 1 large red pepper
* 80g of fresh chillies
* 300ml of cider vinegar
* 500g of jam sugar
* small squeeze from a lime
Method:-
1. Place the cider vinegar and jam sugar in a saucepan on a low heat - do not stir!! Just allow the sugar to dissolve into the vinegar on the low heat. Stirring will crystallise the mixture and ruin the texture.
Sometimes, once your sugar is dissolved, some white residue may form on the top of the liquid mixture. You can spoon it off if you don't like the look of it.
2. Whilst the sugar is dissolving into the vinegar, get on with chopping up the pepper and chillies.
3. It's best to use a food processor or just a little mini chopper. I use the mini chopper and it makes light work of it. I cut the pepper into bite size chunks first and throw them in with the halved chillies...
4. Blitz until the pepper and chillies are just small flecks.... You don't want huge lumps of anything. You can do this by hand if you don't have s chopper but it takes a lot longer!
5. Once your sugar is dissolved in the cider vinegar, simply tip the chillies and pepper into the saucepan and turn up the heat until the mixture is boiling - keep it on a fast boil for around 15 minutes.
6. Leave to cool - it should get more syrupy and finally thicker, as it is cooling.
Spoon the mixture into sterilised jar (or jars!)
Voila!
We basically finished off the wiring-in of the new small inverter that we've fitted on a 12v cigarette socket directly to the batteries for the TV and aerial. We still had the thick cable hanging down the wall to the sockets which looked a bit of an eyesore and I couldn't bear it any more!
It all looks neat and tidy now and we've really noticed an improvement with the battery capacity. With everything we usually have on, using the main inverter was taking around 10-13% out of the batteries an hour, which was way too much! With this new inverter we are only using around 3 or 4% an hour which means a lot less engine running time ! It's fantastic. I think this also shows that it WAS the main inverter that was using the battery capacity and the batteries aren't knackered after all!
So if there's any people out there who are planning on getting a new inverter or are fitting a boat out etc, DON'T buy a Stirling inverter - go with Mastervolt or Victron. I know I'm not the first person to say this about Stirling inverters either. They're simply too power hungry.
We will only use the main inverter now to use the vacuum or washing machine and keep it off at all other times.
After tidying up we sat down to a spot of lunch and a film on TV - it felt like the first time over Christmas that we've properly relaxed despite P having to head off to work at 2.30PM.
I'm not up to much tonight as I'm on my own although P will be back early tonight. I'll watch some more trashy Christmas TV, keep the fire in and maybe have a bacon butty :)
Finally - here's the chilli jam recipe too. Do try it out - it really is great and we were eating it again with the cheese we had at lunch today. I've been spreading it on everything... Cheese, pâté, turkey ....mmmmm!!
This will fill a one litre jar approximately. Simply double up on the quantities to make more.
Remember to deseed your chillies as well. You only want the heat from the chillies -you don't want it to blow your head off! Don't worry about getting every single one out though, the odd seed is fine!
The easiest way to deseed chillies is to cut them in half, lengthways and scoop the seeds out with a teaspoon - don't rub your eyes after!
Sweet Chilli Jam
Ingredients:-
* 1 large red pepper
* 80g of fresh chillies
* 300ml of cider vinegar
* 500g of jam sugar
* small squeeze from a lime
Method:-
1. Place the cider vinegar and jam sugar in a saucepan on a low heat - do not stir!! Just allow the sugar to dissolve into the vinegar on the low heat. Stirring will crystallise the mixture and ruin the texture.
Sometimes, once your sugar is dissolved, some white residue may form on the top of the liquid mixture. You can spoon it off if you don't like the look of it.
2. Whilst the sugar is dissolving into the vinegar, get on with chopping up the pepper and chillies.
3. It's best to use a food processor or just a little mini chopper. I use the mini chopper and it makes light work of it. I cut the pepper into bite size chunks first and throw them in with the halved chillies...
4. Blitz until the pepper and chillies are just small flecks.... You don't want huge lumps of anything. You can do this by hand if you don't have s chopper but it takes a lot longer!
5. Once your sugar is dissolved in the cider vinegar, simply tip the chillies and pepper into the saucepan and turn up the heat until the mixture is boiling - keep it on a fast boil for around 15 minutes.
6. Leave to cool - it should get more syrupy and finally thicker, as it is cooling.
Spoon the mixture into sterilised jar (or jars!)
Voila!
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