BIT LATE!!!!

Sorry a bit late; was a busy weekend. We've been clearing the back bed in the garden which has, basically, been left for a few years because of the complete change round in the garden since my son has grown up and I've decided what I want.

We've removed the Dogwood completely as it was never looked after properly, outgrew itself and was slap bang in the middle of the bed.  We salvaged the 99p honeysuckle which had managed to survive even though it was buried under a load of weeds and lavatera and found two tiny oak saplings which we have also rescued and put in a pot until we can decide where to put them. Also cut back the buddleia, pond plants and lavender.  Now got lots to burn, which we started on on the Sunday just so we could sit outside and celebrate our hard work.

So, back to last week. Quiet week at home, pottering about, catching up on household bits including finally getting around to spray painting a brown metal lamp into a silver metal lamp which goes much better in the room it's now in. Plus I got round to planting up a metal basket in the garden which my daughter bought me and had found itself buried under a pile of stuff in the shed after taking the old shed down.

Lined with carrier bags

Cooking wise it's been a bit of a play with spices as I bought a jar of Fajita seasoning from the wonderful Steenburgs spice company. So a meatball recipe and seasoned wedges:

FAJITA SPICED MEATBALLS

500g British minced beef

3-4 spring onions

2-3 cloves of garlic

400g tin of kidney beans, drained

Squirt of tomato puree

1 egg

1tbsp fajita seasoning

Salt and pepper

Dip: 1tbsp sweet chilli sauce, 2tbsp mayo

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4/350F

Mash the kidney beans roughly leaving some slightly chunky.

Finely chop the spring onions and the garlic and add to the beans along with the minced beef, tomato puree and seasonings.

Get your hands in and squidge together or use a wooden spoon 😂 and then add the egg and do the same until combined.

Make golf ball sized balls and brown off in a frying pan before placing in a roasting tin and cooking for approximately 15-20mins until cooked through.

Mix 1tbsp of sweet chilli sauce with 2tbsp mayo and use as a dip.

Serve with salad and potato wedges which have been seasoned with salt, pepper and more fajita seasoning.

This week it'll be more gardening and getting ready for Spring!!!!!  Bulb planting, wildflower seed sowing and generally tidying up.

Cooking experimentation will have to wait for a while. 

EASTER TIME OR JUST ANOTHER BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND?

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.

Sausage Casserole (I did partially brown the sausages beforehand and this is before cooking)

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.

A drift of wild ramsons (wild garlic)

Ramson flower

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.

Chopping ramsons, hazelnuts and finely grated cheddar

Finished Pesto in sunflower oil and heat treated jar so should keep longer until opened

 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.

Black mustard seed/ramson flower/cuckoo flower and jack by the hedge - HOT!!

Cuckoo flower - tastes like Wasabi!!!

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.

Banana Bread, Banana Bread, Barmbrack!

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! 🐰

SPRING HAS MOST DEFINITELY SPRUNG: FRUIT FLIES ARE BACK!!

Well, it's here, finally here!  After tempting us with warmer weather and a few buds and then reverting to dull, overcast days with temperamental rain, I think that Spring has arrived.  Hoorah!! Just wish that my mojo had returned 100% as well though as it hasn't!  Last week was full of quick dinners, freezer dinners and shop bought dinners; not really good, but every now and then it really doesn't matter so I'm not beating myself up about it!

Also had a rather bad experience at work that seems to have escalated completely out of hand and tonight I'll face whatever excess fallout there may be although, might I add, I am not to blame for any of it and did what I could but, as is quite normal for some members of the public, it wasn't good enough and as I'm front line staff, I got the brunt/blame from said parent.  Must admit as far as I'm aware I have been backed up by the powers that be although I haven't received a phone call to say as much and if it wasn't for a colleague I wouldn't know the outcome until tonight.  But I'm digressing and having a moan which isn't what this blog is about, although life does obviously affect moods, abilities and time allowances.

Yesterday I had a quick jaunt around the back garden and a proper clean up and sort of the front yard.

Told you Spring had sprung!

Camelia in flower!

Ready for my close up 😂

I've had to reconfigure pots out there as the Camelia keeps being blown down by the wind and as they don't like a lot of water...... Think I might need to re-pot, but it's now wedged up against another pot so hopefully....

Back garden is also looking good and bulbs/blossom is now blooming:

Muscari bulbs

Blue Lungwort - Bees adore it

Plum Blossom

We've also seen our first flog in our pond.

As to the kitchen; weekly banana bread is still happening although this week it'll be a bit late as I've run out of eggs!!  How did I run out of eggs? I'm never out of eggs!  But it would appear that I am, so tomorrow will be shopping and baking.

Yesterday, admittedly, I did an egg based dish (hence discovering that I had run out of eggs or at least didn't have as many as I thought).  Getting really bored with leftovers on a Monday especially when it's just roasted veg and a few greens.  Soup isn't something that other half considers as dinner so it would be a lunch item and I'm a little fed up with bubble & squeak although can't do that unless mashed potato involved and I'm not cooking spuds just to get mash! So a roasted vegetable frittata was the order of the day with a side salad of mixed peppery leaves, last of last week's tomatoes and half of this weeks cucumber with a mustard dressing.

Not a fab picture and the vultures had descending leaving me with this bit to photograph and eat!

Tonight is a mixed bean chilli in the slow cooker as I have work.  Cooked chickpeas from freezer and last of the dried black beans (soaked overnight and cooked this morning), along with last courgette, red pepper, onion, mushrooms, chilli flakes, ground coriander and cumin and a carton of tomatoes.

I also tray roasted off 2 courgettes, 1 red pepper, a tonne of various tomatos (before I used the last in the salad), red onions, garlic, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and mixed herbs yesterday so I've got the basis of a pasta sauce tomorrow.  Might leave as it or might add some chicken or some tuna depends on what I fancy.  Means I'm not having to worry about dinner tomorrow either and I can concentrate on shopping, baking and hopefully a bit of veg planting!

As to the title of this blog; fruit flies are back big time.  My plastic council compost bin is full of them as it is every year so whenever I take off the lid there is a cloud of them erupting! Just have to remember not to breathe in, haha!  Does make pretty good compost though and the worms love it!  I love my worms and my frog and my crows and my other birds and the bees and, and, well you get my drift, but I DO NOT like fruit flies; they get everywhere!  Hey ho!

CHATTING TO MR CROW (includes recipe for 'Fakeaway')

Working last night, so no chance to get blog done.

I've now used my slow cooker every day this week so far and will be using it again tomorrow as I'm back at work in the evening.

Surprising what you can do in it, haha

Yesterday was pumpkin chilli using another one of the pumpkins I picked in October at the pumpkin farm; yes, they are still ok!  I have one huge one left and it's still really firm.  Actually the one I used yesterday was a smaller version of the big one and the skin was so hard on it, I nearly sliced off my thumb; whoops!

http://pumpkinmoon.uk/ - Pumpkin Farm where we picked our own pumpkins for Halloween 2016

Ended up finding that the quickest and easiest way to do it was to wedge it into manageable bits, then cut into cubes using a very sharp knife and a tea towel so I could whack it and then cutting the skin off.  Bit laborious, but it worked.  Then I just shoved it all in the slow cooker with a wedged onion, some garlic, coriander, cumin, chilli flakes, salt, pepper and a tin of tomatoes and a tin of butter beans as I didn't have any kidney beans!!  Very unusual for me I have to admit.  Must get back into buying the dried, soaking and cooking and then freezing in batches.  Works out a lot cheaper. The chilli was then cooked for 4 hours on high.  They had it with rice and I had it with some pickle and yogurt when I got home.

Pumpkin Chilli before cooking

Today was another beautiful day; yesterday was overcast and I had another headache (convinced they are to do with air pressure), so quick trip for supplies in Aldi, quick visit to Wilkinsons for toiletries and home to put washing out on the line and have a general peruse around the garden.  Obviously I got distracted by Mr Crow and his constant cawing; it would appear there maybe a rival crow about as he wasn't very happy when another appeared.  Also saw the first bumble bee of the year and happily watched him buzzing about for another 10mins.

Mr (or Mrs) Crow

Decided that as I was out there I'd tidy around the 1st pond area and cut back the dead stalks from the tansy and the foxgloves, dug up some weeds and grass clumps and then watched the water snails and whirlygigs busying themselves in the water.  I can spend rather a lot of time just watching wildlife in my garden, haha.

Tonight's dinner was a first for me.  I'm on a slow cooker page on Facebook and they are always going on about a 'fakeaway'; basically a kebab type thing made with mince, onion, garlic and herbs which you moosh together until smooth (I did it in the food processor) and then cook, wrapped in foil, in the slow cooker.  I cooked mine for 4 hours on medium along with several sweet potatoes which had just been scrubbed and put in whole.

I would have taken a photograph, but they descended like vultures before I got the chance, so maybe next time.  It was alright, I wouldn't rave about it, but it was simple and served in pitta breads alongside some homemade coleslaw and a green salad it made a good meal.

'FAKEAWAY'
500g of lamb mince
1 onion
3-4 cloves of garlic
1tsp of dried oregano (although I used fresh as didn't have any dried)
1tsp of dried mixed herbs
1/2tsp paprika
salt and pepper

Blitz the onion, garlic cloves, oregano, mixed herbs, paprika in a food processor until very finely chopped.  Add the mince and blitz again until smooth (it looks a bit like sausage meat).
Turn out onto some tin foil and squish together into a cylinder/sausage shape.
Wrap in foil and place direct into slow cooker and cook on high for 3hrs or low for 6, or, if like me you have a medium setting, 4hrs on med.
Unwrap and thinly slice.

IT FINALLY FEELS LIKE SPRING IS COMING

What an absolutely beautiful day?  Woke up at 7.30am which is extremely unusual for me especially as I stayed up watching a movie until 1am!  But as it was such a lovely, sunny day I decided to get up.

Washing on, cuppa made, kitchen tidied where I had a bit too much of a close encounter with a rather large spider that had decided to nestle itself in a tea towel that had been left screwed up on the kitchen side.  Needless to say there was a bit of squealing and that wasn't from the spider.

Veg box delivered and off to town I went to visit my Indian shop which is now run by a Chinese man (?) and the Eastern European shop that is now run by an Asian 😖.  Love the diversity of my little town, haha.  But at least I now have a cheap huge bag of rice, cheap large bag of turmeric, gram flour, fresh coriander, spring onions, leeks (I thought there were some left in the garden but it would appear not), jar of sweet and sour gherkins and jar of roasted peppers. Lovely chats with both merchants about the weather in true English fashion.

Home and first lot of washing of the year on the line outside which meant, of course, that I got totally distracted by the neighbouring cat who appeared pleased to see me, the goldfinches and blue tits in the tree and Mr and Mrs Crow who flew pretty continuously from tree to tree to tree cawing loudly.

This afternoon was a mega bake session.  Two banana breads as I'd forgotten I had a load left and ordered another 8; whoops and some chocolate brownies which I haven't made since forever.

Banana Breads

Dark Chocolate Brownies

Both of these will go down well, although I have frozen one of the banana breads for a later date. Then made a batch of pasty for tonight's dinner.

Back beginning to ache so shoved the leftover cooked gammon, the remaining cheese sauce and some freshly chopped leeks into the slow cooker for a couple of hours to cook, once done I rolled out the pastry and placed on top and finished in the oven to cook the pastry while I did mustard mashed potato and green beans.

Gammon, leeks and cheese sauce - before it was cooked through

Am seriously hoping that tomorrow will be just as sunny as the area outside the back door needs a good tidy as does the front yard and there are some cutting back required on some of the plants that have overwintered in their respective beds.

Finally feel like I have a bit of mojo.

Cya

LOST A WEEK!!!! (includes a pickling recipe)

Oh dear!  I try doing weekly blogs and they don't work as some weeks I want to put up more than one recipe; I try doing quick daily ones and I lose days through being ill or no time, etc, etc.  So what is a girl to do??  I think I'll just give up on putting myself under pressure to do anything on a regular basis and just go with the flow!

So last week, after working all day on Sunday, then having to do Monday/Tuesday evening instead of Tuesday/Thursday, I lost all track of days, felt totally shattered by Tuesday night and basically did very repetitive meals that were quick, easy and didn't require a lot of thought.  Wednesday I lost completely as I could hardly move through aches and pains and kept falling asleep, so ended up ordering a take out!

Today, Sunday, is the first day that I've felt a little more like myself although I'm still sleepy.  Think a doctor's visit is required.

Obviously the other half is in the kitchen today as he cooks, but was at work this morning meaning I finally managed to get in the kitchen and sort out the turnips which have been loitering in the cupboard and had started to resprout!!!

After pulling up the remaining ones in the garden to join the ones already trying to make a break for sunshine in the cupboard I had a reasonable amount in which to pickle/ferment!  The recipe says it's a pickle, but as the process is done in salted water with just a few tablespoons of vinegar and then left for a few weeks in a warm place, it's most definitely a ferment more than a pickle.  Son loved them last year, so nice big jar now on the go.

Nice batch of turnips :-)

Peeled and sliced with added cloves of garlic

Brined and weighted down with a sterilized stone

Fermented Turnip Pickle - I didn't weigh anything, but did measure liquid.

1kg turnips, washed and thinly peeled
4-5 cloves of garlic, sliced (I left mine whole this time)
Salt (see method)
3tbsps white wine vinegar

Clean and sterlize a large jar or several small ones.
Slice the turnips into approx 1/2cm slices (mine were a bit thinner if I'm honest)
Put the slices into a jar and pour over enough cold water to cover.
Then strain the water off and measure liquid.
For each 500ml of water add 1.5 tablespoons of salt and stir until dissolved.
Stir in the white wine vinegar and pour back over the vegetables and weight down to ensure the turnips stay below the level of the liquid.  I used a bit of greaseproof paper and weighed it down with a clean, sterilized stone from the garden which I now keep for such things.
Cover with a clean cloth and leave in a warm, dry place for at least 2 weeks; do not seal the jar.
The fermentation will stop eventually and you can then seal your jar; this can take up to four to six weeks.

Ensure that the vegetables are under the liquid at all times and they may 'shrink'.  You may also get a cloudy liquid forming, but this will clear so don't panic.

NEW WEEK! RAIN! SPRING MAYBE SPRINGING (includes recipe)

Weekly posts are getting too long and as I don't tend to cook at weekends anyway it does seem a bit pointless to wait a week.  Plus if I do a quick daily, I can include a recipe if I think it deserves one.

So today; weather is awful!  Raining, dull, miserable and not really making me want to go out and about.  So I stayed in and did the housework instead; catching up with washing, dusting and sweeping.  Oh and writing up this of course and last week's, haha.

This week's box delivery

I have tried to be a bit more organised this week by going through some recipe books and ordering just what I needed to get me through the week, so ordered individual items rather than a random box. I still have a couple of beetroots, half a red cabbage, a celery, some mushrooms and some tomatoes leftover from last week so will use those up somewhere along the line.

Planning on using up the slow cooked boar with veggies from yesterday and turning it into a shepherd's pie type dish tonight so all I need to do is some mashed potato and I'll serve it with the kale from the box.

First bulb of the season

Spring may seem a long way off with regard to the weather but this little beauty popped it's head out over the weekend and another one looks like it's on its way so, hopefully, it isn't that far off.


SON'S FAVOURITE BANANA BREAD

200g plain flour (obviously I use my grass free mix, but you can use anything you like)
2 heaped tsp baking powder (gluten free of course)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (although I tend not to measure this out and you could replace with mixed spice)
75g butter/marg
115g caster sugar
3 ripe bananas, mashed (I tend to wait until they are beginning to go black and aren't really suitable for eating as is)
2 eggs, beaten.

Preheat oven to 180C/Gas 4
Grease and flour an 8.5 x 4.5inch (21 x 11cm) loaf tin.

Mash the bananas in one bowl.

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon into another bowl then add the butter/marg and eggs; beat until combined.

Fold in the bananas and spoon into the loaf tin.

Bake for 50mins or until skewer/knife comes out clean.  Cool for 5 mins and turn out onto a wire rack to completely cool before eating.

This is rather nice slightly warm with butter :-)

WHERE IS MY BRAIN? BRING ON SPRING! (includes recipe)

The non-plastic plastic bags my veg come in

Well that was an odd week.  I was a week behind in my head.  Both my partner's and daughter's birthdays are this week and I was convinced they were next week (or as I'm late with this post; this week).  Confused yet?

Anyway kitchen duties weren't too bad but I'm still suffering from non inspiration.  Been thinking that maybe I'm awaiting Spring and am getting a bit fed up with Winter food.  Looking forward to asparagus and spring greens.

Had a few bananas left over and as we had run out of apples and my son loves his bit of fruit in the evening, I made a banana bread.  Not that healthy I hear you say; why not just give him a banana? However, my son doesn't like bananas as bananas; as he says "the only way to eat bananas is in banana bread".  So I cooked one and he was delighted and snatched a slice before I could photograph it, haha.

Son's favourite Banana Bread

This wasn't the only cake made this week as partner likes a coffee cake so a coffee and walnut cake was made for his birthday.  Luckily I found some chocolate butter cream in the freezer which I must have put in there over Xmas; I don't waste anything if I think it might be worth keeping and butter cream freezes beautifully.

Partner's Coffee and Walnut Cake

Whilst rummaging around in the freezer I came across one last batch of frozen pastry so thought a roast vegetable and bacon pie was in order to use up the leftover Sunday veg.

Roast Veg and Bacon Pie with mashed potato and greens

Rest of the week wasn't as inspirational and my shift of dinners ended with a rather quick and easy storecupboard dinner of tinned hotdogs, tinned beans, scrambled eggs and toast!

Am hoping next week will be a bit more exciting.

This week's box delivery

COFFEE AND WALNUT CAKE - you will need a food processor or something similar

140g walnuts
150g caster sugar
5 eggs, separated
55g flour
1 tbsp instant expresso powder
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp boiling water
pinch of salt

Butter cream and some sort of jelly/jam to fill.

Preheat oven to 180C/Gas 4 and grease and line a 9in x 2in (25 x 5cm) cake tin.

Grind the walnuts with 3 tablespoons of the sugar and when ground blend in the flour (hence the need for a food processor or something similar).

Beat the egg yolks and the remaining sugar until thick and pale yellow in colour.

Sift the cocoa powder with the coffee powder and dissolve to a fairly runny paste (not too runny though).

Fold the walnut mixture and coffee/cocoa mixture into the egg yolks.

In a clean bowl and with clean whisk(s), beat the egg whites with the salt until they form stiff peaks and then carefully fold this into the yolk mixture with a spatula.  You can always slake the mixture by folding in 1 tbsp egg whites first and then folding in the rest.

Pour into the cake tin and bake for approx 45mins (check after 40mins to see if cooked).

Leave to cool for 5 mins before slicing in half horizontally and filling with the jam/jelly and butter cream.

Tah Dah!