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!

SINUS, HEADACHES AND A DAY IN THE KITCHEN

Well, we are still getting kale, parsnips, cabbage, swede, leeks, chillis and turnips from the garden although it is all beginning to look a little bedraggled as we’ve had some early morning frosts and a fair amount of fog this week.  There is also fresh mint, thyme, oregano and marjoram, sage, bay and rosemary.  Rest of garden needs a good tidy which might have to wait until after Christmas now as I have to get on in the kitchen.

This week hasn’t been too brilliant as I ended up with sinus problems which made me feel like I’d been punched in the face and the headaches were awful.  Also not sleeping too good; combine the two and you’re not looking at a very productive week.

So Monday’s leftovers were turned into a pasta dish with the remaining roots in the cupboard.  Tuesday’s slow cooker dish was a white fish chowder using up the oddments of frozen fish, some green beans, potatoes, onions, leftover cream and veg stock with a bit of mashed potato added to help thicken. Wednesday was a fry up of bacon, gf sausages, eggs, beans and mushrooms and Thursday’s slow cooker meal was a Sumatran Lamb Curry which I found in my new Farmhouse Cookery book.  Used my spice grinder for the first time on this and I think it is now my favourite piece of kitchen equipment along with the zest grater.

Started feeling a little more with it by the weekend and after a lovely woodland walk with a mate on the Friday to clear the cobwebs I made Chilli Chocolate Brownies and soaked the fruit for Barmbrack on the Saturday.  Partner was out most of the day and all of the evening which meant a free kitchen.

Started on the Xmas decs at the weekend too; we have a real tree and I don’t like my decs up too early, so it’s normally the weekend before Christmas that they all go up.

Anyway, as promised, I can now list the flour combination that I use.  So if you are gluten free and/or have a problem with rice (as I do) this is it:

1 cup of potato flour

1 cup of gram (chickpea) flour

1 cup of soya flour

1 cup of buckwheat flour

½ cup of coconut flour

I’m sure that you could replace the coconut flour with ground almonds (need to experiment), but I would definitely include some sort of nut flour (unless you are allergic) as it seems to keep the moisture so I can now, eventually, make a decent shortcrust pasty.  If you are worried about using soya or can’t use, up the ratios of the other flours; as long as the potato, gram and buckwheat are of equal quantities you could miss out the soya.  I make this up as I need it and this quantity gives at least 8oz-10oz of plain flour (depending on size of the cup).  I have a large Kilner jar that I measure it all into and shake the crap out of it to mix it up.  I then top up as and when I need it, so if having a baking day that could be several times.  Most of these flours are of reasonable cost.  You could replace the soya with quinoa flour, but that is rather expensive in comparison to the others.

Cya next week

UPS AND DOWNS WITH PAIN; BUT AUTUMN DEFINITELY HERE AT LAST.

Been an odd week in the kitchen as I’ve had bouts of back ache and I’ve started a new job two evenings a week, meaning I’m dragging out the slow cooker from the depths of the dusty drawer and using that for dinners.  Not been too adventurous with it at the moment, but I’m sure I’ll start Winging It up within the next few weeks.

On the up side it looks like Autumn has finally arrived.  No more scorching hot days where I neither want to cook, nor bake or, to be honest, do much else.  The weather is still warm, T-shirt weather for me anyway, but with a glorious breeze and there have been a refreshing couple of days of rain.  The tomatoes are continuing to turn red, so I’ll leave them for a few more weeks before I dig them up and use the remaining green toms in either a chutney or ‘marmalade’.

Anyway, back to the week.  Monday didn’t start too fab as woke up with back ache; so a slow start.  Finally cut and rolled up my plum leather and it’s now stored in the cupboard.  Then attacked the basket in the chest freezer to clear out stuff that wouldn’t get used in a month of Sundays and to chuck away ice cubes that had taken on the smell of surrounding foods; not pleasant.  This led to discovering sliced bananas and cut strawberries which I’d frozen to make a ‘healthy’ ice-cream; both were food processed to a smooth creamy consistency and it’s now in an ice-cream tub waiting to be eaten.  Then after squeezing out the remaining juice from the crab apples that had been straining overnight, the juice was measured, sugar added along with lemon juice and crushed dried mint and the whole lot boiled until setting point reached and then jarred; apple and mint jelly!  Quick wash up as kitchen now looked a mess and a quick cuppa before prepping dinner.

Plum Leather

Raided the fridge for any veg that was left which included some celery, a punnet of baby plum tomatoes, three quarters of a red pepper and a small bunch of spring onions; this lot was chopped and poured into a roasting tin with three large garlic cloves, salt, pepper and paprika, bit of olive oil and a glug of balsamic.  Roasted off for 20mins then a tin of chopped tomatoes added and half a large bag of quorn ‘chicken’ cubes and back in the oven for approx another 20mins; served with pasta.  I know I did something similar last week, but it’s nice and simple and can be adapted week by week to use up bits and bobs in the fridge and happens to be, not only simple, but a family favourite.

Fridge raiding

Tuesday was the first of the slow cooker days and, after a morning trip to our local Aldi, it was slow cooked ratatouille with instructions left for partner to cook a jacket spud for me that I could have when I got in at 9.15pm and mashed potato and the buttered chicken pieces I found in yesterday’s freezer raid for them.

Wednesday was non-existent as I woke up feeling awful.  I must have slept awkward, as my spine and surrounding area from back of head all the way down to shoulder blades hurt like hell and it was causing a mini migraine with nausea; so back to bed with ice pack and painkillers for me.  Managed to feel a little better by lunchtime and did paninis with ham, pepperoni, grilled cheese and salad for son’s lunch and a cup of soup for me as still didn’t feel that brill in the stomach area.  By 4pm, I was feeling really rough again, stomach playing up, felt incredibly sleepy and generally unwell, so text partner to say he was in charge of dinner, he did shop bought pizza and garlic bread, and I went back to bed and slept until 7.30pm.  Bake Off on the telly, an episode of Criminal Minds and back in bed by 11pm!!!  Was really annoyed as I’d had to cancel breakfast with a friend that morning.

Luckily, Thursday, I was back on my feet as we had my son’s ESA assessment in the afternoon and I was back in work that evening.  Slow cooker dinner of beef mince, chopped potatoes and carrots, last of the mushrooms, onions and fresh spinach and flavoured with salt, pepper and horseradish mustard.

Friday was a beautiful day and I had intended to do some baking, but decided to have an impromptu trip to Dobbies Garden Centre (https://www.dobbies.com/) instead for a browse and a coffee; bumped in to a friend which was an unexpected bonus.  Needed candles which I managed to get in the sale and after walking around and around the plants for a second time found a gorgeous white old rose in the sale at £7.  I kept picking it up, putting it down and picking it up again; mainly as I was going to have to transport it on the bus and it wasn’t that tiny.  In the end I decided to get it as it was the only one left of its kind and also picked up a packet of perpetual spinach which I should still be able to plant out as it’s still quite warm.  Got to the till, found out the rose had been further reduced and with my 10% off and my £2.80 voucher I got both the seeds and the rose for less than £4; bargain! Mixed salad with cheese and ham for me tonight as they were having chips.

Weekend was shopping and then a glorious walk down by the river to pick rosehips and hawthorns, also managed to find more red crabbies and an eating apple tree; that’s next week sorted out then.

Eaters

Crabbies

Rosehips and Hawthorn berries

Hawthorns

Rosehips