Depending on what you believe in and how you celebrate this could be Easter weekend or it could just be an extended weekend. In this household it's a bit of both! We do give out eggs but that's only because it's a bank holiday and family is home; I would have normally given out main eggs on 21st March when Spring began and just done an egg hunt this weekend, but I wasn't really with it at the end of March so it's all been delayed until now.
Last week was back to work after having a semi chilled week at home the week before where cooking became simple fare: quick salads, freezer food and using up bits and bobs in fridge. Back to slow cooking last week for work days and normal cooking for days at home.
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Sausage Casserole (I did partially brown the sausages beforehand and this is before cooking)
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Good Friday was a lovely day out with a good friend including a drive through the country, a few foraging stops and a lunchtime drink in a pub followed by some charity shop and antique shop mooching.
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A drift of wild ramsons (wild garlic)
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Ramson flower
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Saturday was dealing with foraged goodies and baking ready for next week and Easter Sunday/Monday. Had a bit of an issue in the kitchen as the food processor broke so had to go 'old school' chopping up by hand with a large knife and grinding with the pestle and mortar. Forgot I had those muscles in my arms, haha.
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Chopping ramsons, hazelnuts and finely grated cheddar
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Finished Pesto in sunflower oil and heat treated jar so should keep longer until opened
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Also had a bit of an experiment with mustard seeds, finely chopped ramson flowers, cuckoo flowers, jack by the hedge, sugar and vinegar. Took a lot of grinding in the pestle & mortar but it does, at least, look like a mustard and blimey does it blow your head off 😃 Very nice with the mashed potato from Sunday's dinner.
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Black mustard seed/ramson flower/cuckoo flower and jack by the hedge - HOT!!
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Cuckoo flower - tastes like Wasabi!!!
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Plus, of course, there has to be cake and as I had a bit of a glut of bananas left I made 2 banana breads (1 for now, 1 for the freezer) so son will be happy for a while and the infamous Barmbrack which has now become my favourite fruit cake ever and it doesn't contain any marg/butter. Tried something different with the banana bread as I had a kitchen that looked liked a bomb had hit it and I didn't have room to get any more gadgets out, so tried rubbing in the butter to the dry ingredients and then adding the eggs and bananas which I'd mushed by hand (nothing like getting your hands in food, hehe; they were clean!); worked fine and meant a lot less washing up, so will probably continue to do this in future.
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Banana Bread, Banana Bread, Barmbrack!
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So no more time in the kitchen this weekend as His Nibs will be cooking including tomorrow so I have an extra day off - whoop whoop! Back to normal on Tuesday.
Cya and hope you've had/are having a very Happy Easter! 🐰
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