8&Ruth

Kung Hei Fat Choy and Tết Nguyên Đán

2012-01-23T14:05:00.001Z

Or happy new year - it's the start of the Chinese Year of the Dragon 2012 today and the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. Being a dragon myself I'd like to wish you all good luck and prosperity for the coming year. As I didn't quite manage to do it at the 1st January new year!!

Work had a chinese buffet on in the cafe today - very lovely indeed. Don't think I'll be needing any dinner though! I wonder what the future holds for me...

Well that's ok then! I hope you all are having a lovely year so far and it carries on that way too. Me - well I plan to actually finish some of my many projects this year; including the pantry, making cheese, making cider &c &c &c...

Winter - ish!

2012-01-20T14:03:00.000Z

Although it has been a remarkably clement winter so far the weather has started throwing a little bit more cold at us recently. This has given us crisp beautiful days with a arc of blue above and a rare sighting of that sun thing myths tell us inhabit the upper regions of our sightable sky. It's also been welcome to see the nights slowly drawing out as I do get miserable when it's permanently grey and dark when I'm walking home. Whether this is the cause of my lackadaisical posting recently or something else is to blame for my paltry offerings over the last month I'm unsure but I do intend to get some catching up done on here before too much longer. That said - right now I must return to work so toodlepip and happy Friday!!

Ahoy there!

2012-01-10T16:26:00.000Z

I must apologise for my apparent absence. Much to my startlement it's already the 10th of the new year! Been quite busy hiding under umbrellas and trying to not get washed or blown away!!

Work has also been fairly hurly burly with the new intake for January; students from hither and yon have been pitching up at my work!
I've also been putting the slow cooker to good use with a new batch of winter soups that I have yet to write up in full so there's that to look forward to and I think we're due a rugby round up on the Chiefs performance this season thus far.

New Years eve was blimmin close though...

Chrimbo - good thoughts to all

2011-12-27T19:56:00.000Z

What to do when the shop ran out of sprouts - Chrimble is the time for friends sharing...
Our friend - having heard the Chaps awful situation of zero sprouts; posted us a wee care package...

Bless her. (Personally I couldn't hate them more if they were basted in Marmite but there you go -that's just me!!) At least the Chap was happy. Hope you all had a lovely and good festive period with your family and/or friends and/or family that is made up of friends - they're there for a reason so treasure them. Merry wotsit all. xxx

Path passable, christmas comes, girly shock!

2011-12-15T14:25:00.000Z

Water levels have dropped a bit now... if only I had a wood burner there's plenty of fuel just needing drying out left behind.
Weather's still grotty but I shall venture forth into it later for one small item of giftedness followed by a chrimble catch up with a good friend. Starting to actully feel a bit more festive now - hard to when you have to concentrate on work rather than being able to wind down. Might even get the tree decorated tomorrow! (Bought it last weekend!!) Looking forward to the lovely coloured lights and my pretty things to hang on it. Yup - I'm a bit of a girly at heart. :-D

Delightful weather!

2011-12-14T09:01:00.000Z

In common with most of the rest of the UK we've been getting a bit clobbered by the weather this week. Admittedly nothing like as bad as further north and Scotland have but we've had a wee bit of rain...

This morning we had a wee bit more...

Anyone want to take the riverside path?

No, I thought not!!

Cold beauty

2011-12-06T15:24:00.000Z

The lovely sunrise this morning on my way to work.

Makes up for all the nightmare trying to get round shops at the moment!! I must have spent a good 15-20 minutes queuing in a shop on Sunday for a couple of items. It was only the thought of having to go through it again that stopped me dumping my basket and scarpering. You'd think we were expecting a siege the way some people are going at it. Ok- if you're having to cater for ten extra family members then yes - you need a wee bit more in the way of food but otherwise - do we really need so much more stuff for a whole day when the shops are shut? No - I really don't think we do!

Upcycling

2011-12-01T14:11:00.000Z

Spotted these in a local shop a couple of weekends ago. Love them but £49??!!! Repurposed items can look great but I kind of think that as recycling is a frugal thing so the price should perhaps reflect that too. Now I just need a strong workbench with vice and I too can bend spanners with my bare hands...

The familiar becomes unfamiliar

2011-11-29T15:27:00.000Z

They're (finally) resurfacing our road. Consisting of Victorian (I think) terraced housing parking is at a major premium round our way and normally the street is chocka both sides up the street with cars, vans, motorbikes and the odd camper van wedged in and overhanging the corners where the double yellows start. Due to the resurfacing though everyone has to be cleared out by 8am and it looks so so very different. It's actually quite a wide street without all the damn cars up it! I like it but they'll all be back by tomorrow I think. You can see why it needs re-surfacing though - looking a little bit patchy eh?!

It makes me wonder what it was like back in the day to see it looking so unfamiliar. I'm quite interested in the random little bits of history you only pick up by (for example) perusing old photos on the walls in pubs or flipping through those self published old postcard collections. I find it fascinating to see places I know so well looking so different - sometimes just a scant handful of decades before.

Movember

2011-11-28T13:37:00.000Z

Last week at work we had various moustache themed goodies on sale in aid of Movember. This is a charity event where men grow a moustache for the entirety of the month of November in aid of mens health charities but in particular testicular cancer. A very worthy cause as I'm sure you'll agree. We managed to raise a not too shoddy £116.36 with our munching!

My friend's husband has been growing his own 'tache for this and I'd like to shamelessly plug his page on their site. If you'd like to make a donation he'd be very very appreciative - no matter the size. Consider it - even just £1 makes a difference! Will's Movember page.

If you fancy having a go yourself next year then check out their handy guide to moustache shapes below!

Reality tree

2011-11-17T17:05:00.002Z

I was walking back from the doctors earlier (gastroenteritis if you were wondering - not fun) and I was feeling a little sorry for myself. Then I happened upon this tree and the colours and the perfect carpet of yellow the leaves had made, made me stop and stare and forget the rest of the world just for a moment.

It started me thinking why was I feeling sorry for myself? It's not a life threatening illness, here at least. I have a roof over my head, clothes, a job, I don't live in a famine zone or the arctic ice where conditions make life infinitely harder than I've ever had to deal with. We take so much for granted - easy access to the doctors being one when really; I'm very definitely not that badly off. This therefore is my tree of wisdom today - stop and look at something beautiful and get a sense of perspective every once in a while.

Salt, Pepper & Chilli Squid & Prawns

2011-11-17T11:27:00.002Z

I made this for us on Sunday. It's one of my favourite things and it's pretty quick and easy to knock up. Perhaps not the ultra healthiest as it's fried but drain off any oil really well and as you only have a starter size portion it could be worse. (That is assuming you do only have a starter size portion!!) I adapted my recipe from one found here on the Gastronomy Domine blog.

For 4 starters: (Halve it for 2)
500g raw squid and raw shelled prawns mixed - or all one or the other whatever you like. Get your fishmonger to clean the squid for you and cut into thin rings and the tentacles into short lengths - 2 inches ish.
3tbsp rice flour
3tbsp cornflour
1-2 fresh chillies - to your taste
2 tbsp Szechuan peppercorns - whole
1 tbsp freshly ground (for preference) black pepper
1-2 tbsp sea salt (I actually used the lemon fennel and chili salt I bought at the farmers market a little while back)
Oil - for frying so sunflower / vegetable etc

Dry fry the Szechuan peppercorns in a heavy pan for a few mins to release the flavours. (If you have trouble finding Szechuan peppercorns try health food shops or oriental supermarkets.) They're less solidly dense than the black ones so you can crumble the odd one up a little with your fingers to add to the textures of this dish and make the flavour of them more accessible having more available surface area.
Slice and chop the chilli finely aiming for small squares no bigger than the peppercorns - it's up to you whether you leave the seeds in or not - of course depending what type of chilli you're using as well. I used Aji Limon - a yellow one with a slight citrus taste that's nicely hot but doesn't blow your head off and I only used one so I left the seeds in. [This is the one plant of mine from the 13 chilli plants in 11 different varieties the Chap brought up this year!] Incidentally if you're as rabidly paranoid as I am (fueled by all those horror stories of people inadequately washing their hands then touching their parts in the bathroom or rubbing their eyes etc) then you can get a pack of these plastic gloves and use those for chopping chillies. They can be washed and reused as long as you haven't holed them and their tight enough to the hand to enable you to feel properly to chop.
Place the chilli, flours, salt and black pepper in a bowl and add the Szechuan peppers once done and mix well together.

Put the oil on to heat - about an inch deep will suffice. It needs to be frying temp - 180/190ish C (that's 350-370ish F or when a cube of bread browns in 60 secs).
Gently dredge the squid pieces and whole prawns in the mixture and fry them off in batches. Use a slotted / holed spoon and keep turning them regularly; removing from the oil once golden and crisped to your taste.
Drain on kitchen towel and serve. A fresh crispy lettuce side would provide a refreshing contrast with this and a piquant chilli dipping sauce of some kind would also work. Yum!

Meat Cooking for the Faint Hearted #3 - Roast Chicken

2011-11-09T13:41:00.000Z

It being cold and miserable and generally grim I thought I'd treat the Chap to a nice roasted chicken dinner when he got home from work on Monday. Having text him about it and got the boy all excited I realised I have zero idea how to do roast chicken. Despite reading many and varied cookery books and recipe websites over the years I tend not to retain the details of the meat recipes so much, not eating it myself. So - how do you roast chicken? Answer - google it. :-) Top results are Jamie, Delia, BBC &c &c. I'm afraid I don't tend to go for Delia's recipes very often as I dislike her needlessly didactic tone so I checked out the Jamie Oliver and the BBC effort as well as a handy page here which deals with the entire process including weight vs cooking time tables. I settled for Jamie's recipe in the end as it sounded tasty with the lemon and herbs but pretty straightforward with a minimum of faffing about - just what I wanted after a long day at work.
So - roast chicken. First buy your chicken. Depends on budget whether you'll go for an organic or free range but at the very least please get a 'higher welfare' bird. From watching various stuff like Hugh's Chicken Out campaign &c I've heard that the free range and/or organic birds taste better - a more concentrated 'chickeny' flavour so I guess you can get that bit more out of them in terms of stock, leftovers etc. The next decision is size - the Jamie recipe quotes for 4 people but I was cooking for 1; albeit 1 large appetited Chap. So - I thought I'd look for a smaller size chicken. Pointless! In the stupormarket they had large - deffo too big, then medium and small sizes. The medium were about 1.4 - 1.5 kilos - the recipe seemed to be for 1.6kg bird. The smaller birds were anything from 1 kilo to 1.2 but were only about 20p cheaper than a medium size! A no-brainer so I went for the medium. First hurdle out of the way. (You may be wondering at this juncture why I feel the need to chronicle my chicken buying exploits in quite such detail but as a non-meat eater who went veggie before she learnt most of her cooking; buying meat is not something I'm familiar with at all, nor confident about. So - I'll share with you guys and maybe help a fellow 'faint hearted meat cooker' or more likely - you can tell me how to do it properly. :-D )

Ingredients as used by me:
1 chicken
2 red onions
1 parsnip
2 carrots
Approx 3" section butternut squash - from the narrower neck end
About 4/5 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
Sprig rosemary
Olive oil
S+P
1 lemon

Home then and after sticking the oven on at 240 - top temp - I peeled the veg (except the garlic which also stays whole) and scraped the carrots as they were looking a little tired and sorry for themselves. Chopped them into chunks and piled on the baking tray and drizzled with oil as per Mr Oliver's instructions. Well - I say drizzled - kinda had a bit of a gushing out moment so there was a bit more oil than I intended. My little big sis has greatly recommended an oil drizzler to me for moments like these - given that she is the least domesticated person I know I'm not sure how she knows this but perhaps I should suggest it as a suitable chrimble item.
Righto - using the tips from the 'help with cooking' site linked above I made sure to wash the chicken - inside and out - then dabbed dry with a kitchen towel. Apparently this helps get a nice crispy skin. As my chicken was tied up and Jamie's recipe didn't specify I chose to untie it as the tips site seemed to think this could help it cook more evenly.
I sploshed some oil on and rubbed it in then realised my obvious error and had to ask the Chap to grind on the S+P for me to then rub in. After a good washing of the hands I duly stabbed my lemon and microwaved it on a plate for 30 seconds as recommended to bring the flavour out. Insert herbs and lemon inside chicken - possibly whilst averting your gaze as this really is a bit 'ick'. Plant bird firmly atop your veg and bang it in the oven - turning this down to 200 at the same time.

Cook for 1 hour 20mins, basting half way through. Basting means getting the whole lot out and spooning the juices that have come out of the chicken back over it to help prevent it from drying out.
Remove chicken and put on board - cover with foil then a tea towel (don't ask me why - it's what Jamie says to do so I duly did) and leave to rest for 15 minutes. His recipe then helpfully says: 'Now is the time to make your gravy' without offering the slightest hint how you go about this. Well - in my house I'm afraid gravy comes from veggie granules; generally Aldi's own so I made some of these up a little bit thicker than usual and left some room in the jug.
I poured off the juices from the meat tray into a mug and stuck it in the freezer - the Chap does this when he's had roast beef so the fat solidifies and can be removed easily leaving the stuff with the meat flavour in it that you then add to the gravy. This fat didn't really solidify, quite possibly because a) it didn't have enough time and b) there was a fair bit of olive oil in it but we managed to pour it off and added the meaty juices left to the chaps gravy jug.

I then carved (first time ever!) as per Jamie's instructions - quite easy once I worked out where the leg joint was he mentions. And ta - daa!! Roast chicken all by my own fair hand!

Light displays

2011-11-07T14:05:00.000Z

No fireworks for us this weekend though we had a busy one. We were at the Chiefs game against Gloucester on Saturday; sadly we lost 19-24 but we put up a valiant fight.

After the game the sky put on a good show for us; even without any fireworks.

Then we saw this on the way out - not sure where it landed from but I rather like how it looks. :-)

Frugal tip and unseasonal plant madness

2011-11-03T14:01:00.000Z

Frugal tip of the week - Boots has Aquafresh toothpaste on half price at the mo - that makes it 52p rather than £1.05! Even cheaper than their own brand which is 70p - not a bad deal so I thought I'd stock up and got 6 tubes. :-)

We were in Dorset last weekend and I noticed that in my mothers garden these poppies were not only still blooming - they're bursting back into life with new buds! It's been an odd 'Autumn' so far for the weather that's for sure. How lovely they were.

Let's hear it for Local!

2011-10-28T17:33:00.001+01:00

Devon Flats. That's what these are. I have to admit to never having heard of them until this time yesterday when I went in search of a simple and quick biscuit type recipe I could make some halloween biccies for work with. they're very simple although my recipe differs from a purist one in that it uses double cream rather than the original clotted cream. Anyway - here you are:
Halloween Devon Flats
8oz SR Flour
0.5tsp allspice / mixed spice
4oz Sugar
0.5tsp salt
1 egg - beaten
3.5 fl oz double cream (100ml if that's an easier measure)
Approx 1tbsp milk - plus extra for brushing
Vanilla sugar - optional

Put oven on to heat - the recipe I based these on said 190 which I reduced to 180 as mine's a fan oven but ended up back putting up to 190. I think 200 would be better having scoped a few more recipes out now. Greaseproof paper a couple of trays. Again diff' recipes said you could grease them - I haven't tried it so can't vouch for any sticking / non-sticking using that method. They didn't stick to plain greaseproof paper so I'm happy with that.
Sieve flour and spice into a bowl and mix sugar and salt through.
Stir in beaten egg and cream and enough of the tbsp milk to make a stiff dough. All the recipes I saw said if it's sticky pop it in the fridge to firm up. If like me you don't have time for this as you decided to do these at 7am before work rather than the night before like a sensible person then you can just add a wee bit more flour instead.
Roll out on a very well floured surface to just under 1cm thick. Keep reflouring both surface and rolling pin - these want to stick.
Cut into shapes of your choice, whack on the trays then brush with milk and sprinkle with vanilla sugar if liked. You only need to leave a little space inbetween these as they spread but only a very little - they puff up more. (Described as a cross between a cake and a biscuit.)
Stick 'em in the oven for 5-10 mins until golden ish - mine looked quite pale but were cooked through. May have had something to do with the temp' changes.
That's it - very easy and one of those recipes that can take endless variation. Leave out the spice and use a tbsp of cocoa instead. Or ground almonds. Or - most things really. Enjoy! Oh - and I guess I shouldn't forget the obligatory WOOOOOoooooooOOOOOOOooooooHHHHH!!

What a week for the weather!

2011-10-28T17:11:00.002+01:00

I think we've had it all this week! Ok - so no snow down here in the South West but Monday it was torrential rain all day long, Tuesday dawned bright and lovely but had resorted to the monsoon affect by the end of the day.

All this rain brought the river levels right up but did result in some nice rainbows. Excuse the pic quality as these were on my phone rather than camera.

The sky was amazing yesterday evening though...

Sloe gin a go-go

2011-10-26T14:13:00.001+01:00

We went foraging for sloes at the weekend. As the fruit has all been early this year we found the lower branches already stripped clean. However, we gave thanks for short people as I [being the slightly taller of the pair of us] pulled over the higher branches so we could reach the berries on them, before letting them spring back unharmed.

We collected a respectable 1.64 kg (him) and 1.8something kg (me) giving us about 3.5 kg total between the 2 of us which took us just under an hour and a half - not bad going. We ended up a little scratched - more from the brambles growing throughout the bushes than the blackthorns themselves but it was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon in the sun pootling along the river. There's got to be worse places to pick sloes surely...

The sloes are now safely ensconced in the freezer (in lieu of the first frosts getting them) and we have the sugar and the le parfait jars - just the gin to get now and we're on our way. :-)

The furry faced escapologist

2011-10-25T15:02:00.000+01:00

A quick update. Zeke being the sneaky little catfink he is managed to break out of the house on Thursday night meaning he couldn't have his bits snipped on Friday. Tsk. He's now at the vets today instead and I've just called them to check on him. He's all fine [phew] albeit a little bleary still from being put under. I'll be picking him up sans danglies later and no doubt spoiling him out of misplaced guilt all evening. :-)

Autumn sky

2011-10-20T14:01:00.000+01:00

Well the temperature fell with a thump in the last 2 days - damnably chilly on the way home last night although not helped by the revolting cold I currently have. (Thank you very much to The Chap for that one!) It does make for some spiffing views this time of year though. I always love it when you see the rays of light coming through the clouds - perfect! Here's today's pic then.

I'm hoping to have a bit more time for a decent length post soon but hope you're liking the pics meanwhile.

Taking Zeke off for his snip tomorrow followed by waiting in for the broadband men - I'm hoping that out of the 1-5pm slot I've been given they turn up closer to 1 as I really want to get down the allotment too. Mind you that also depends on how much like death I feel - better keep taking the vitamin C!

Have a happy weekend all. :-)

Random pics #3

2011-10-18T13:45:00.000+01:00

People releasing chinese lanterns on a windy autumn evening. nice. :-)

Random pic #2

2011-10-17T13:38:00.000+01:00

Walking home on Friday I came across this scene. People practising their tight-rope walking between 2 trees in the park. How random! I hastily snapped this - and yes - I know it's wonky but I wanted to show you all. The South West is a wonderful place to be!! :-D

Swifty end of week round up

2011-10-14T17:06:00.000+01:00

Yesterday saw a big colourful bus pulling up outside our building. Much to our surprise it was the Olympic torch!! You could get your photo taken with it and nominate someone to be one of the 8000 people that will carry it on it's journey before the Olympics next year. It's going through Exeter hence this visit but it's not for the first time. Exeter saw the torch go through back in 1948 too.
I had my pic taken with it - you had to wear gloves and they stuck you in front of a green screen then made you choose between backgrounds comprising Tower Bridge, Stonehenge, Angel of the North and Edinburgh Castle. You also got a free mini can of coke - I went for coke zero and it was nasty! I'm not a great cola type drink lover tbh but if you forced me I'd go for pepsi max I think. Anyway - I digress.

A nice freebie was my sample of new biscotti flavour Baileys. This arrived in the post a couple of weeks after I signed up for it on Facebook - it's totally free; you 'like' the page then 'post a toast' to nominate a friend to receive one too then when they accept you both get sent the samples. Nice. :-)

A random note to finish - though frugal related. Having bought the 'value' pack of mushrooms from the Co-op last night [I aways get these packs if I'll use them all up as it's so much cheaper] I was suprised to find no less than 9 'twinned' mushrooms in there! I've never got the thinking behind a natural product like fruit or veg needing to conform to an ideal shape / size / colour but I'm more than happy if this gross stupidity in others means my purchases come that wee bit cheaper. Hail the freak mushrooms say I - for they are beautiful and taste the same!!

Happy Friday my friends.

Foraging season

2011-10-12T13:51:00.001+01:00

It's foraging time again - although really there's something available just about all year round. However the fungi are most plentiful around now and I'm itching to get out there gathering. For now though here's the little pretties I picked up last year - I also wanted to share them as part of Black & White Wednesday over on The Well-Seasoned Cook.

The other free food that should be bountiful now are sloes - we're determined to make vast amounts of sloe gin this year as last year's single batch really didn't last us long enough. This time we're thinking dawn ladder raids and blow everyone else! :-D Maybe gloves this time too...

Random pic du jour

2011-10-11T16:58:00.000+01:00

There's a major construction project going on opposite the building I work in and they're roofing it with copper. I love the colour of copper - it's such a shame it doesn't keep it's lovely warm sheen but goes green instead.

I seem to have been waitng for what feels like weeks to get a pic of it with the sun shining off it - hopefully before it goes green and dull! This will have to do for now.

Lovely things - and cheese!

2011-10-07T17:37:00.001+01:00

It's fatal - they have a farmers market at work now! Look at all these things I bought.

Chilli choc from a different chilli farm - though it's not all for me! Lovely tasting cordials - the lemongrass and ginger one tasted like it'd be fab in a G&T. Seasoned salts and some 2 year old mature cheddar and a blue goats cheese from Tickelmore that do the Beenleigh blue I had a while back. Not a bad little haul for a friday at work!

The beauty of a sphere of mahogany tinted burnished autumn colour...

2011-10-06T14:14:00.000+01:00

...or Conkers to be precise!

They're so beautiful yet fleeting in their gorgeousness. Only a few days pass and the shine has dulled and the covering wrinkles - a little like life in a few days - yet inside is the potential for a whole massive new life. Truly a wondrous sight that shouts 'Autumn' to me...

Autumn views

2011-10-04T08:57:00.000+01:00

It's that time of year again! I spotted this fine fungi on my way home last night - not sure what this one is but all of a sudden all types seem to be springing forth as we hit these cooler drawn in times. Here in the south we still seem to have the sun at the moment - just; though I feel this may be drastically changed by tonight.

The other item that drew my eye was this pole covered in what I presume is dead ivy - I've always loved how nature will take over; how a mere blade of grass will manage to punch up through concrete or tarmac, how we really can't stop it. Nature - I salute you.

2011-09-30T14:27:00.000+01:00

First week of term means week of mentalness for me. We book 'em in, we test 'em and then we register them with nary a hiccup on the way. Which if believed by your fine selves does somewhat lead me to the conclusion that I could tell you any fib I wanted and be similarly believed. ;-)
It does mean I've failed to get a post on for which I apologise but here are a few things I have managed to do.
Admired the misty mornings before enjoying the late sunshine - this was my journey to work on wednesday.

Made the Chap a full mixed grill - truly heroic meat cooking by the faint hearted I reckon! He had local west country fillet steak, boneless lamb shoulder 'lump' (steak / chop / er...?), honey roast pork chipolatas and a duck leg. All the trimmings bar onion and he said don't worry about that - there was no more room on the plate!

I have also enjoyed my beautiful flowers the Chap got me last week opening up and the scent of lilies that greets me each day on my return home. Ahhh... Happy Friday all!

And the years roll on...

2011-09-22T17:44:00.000+01:00

Super quick post today. It's my birthday! Also it's the best one I've had in years and it's not over yet! Lovely Chap gave me a birthday kiss this morning before quietly sneaking off to work leaving me in bed. Well... until he realised he'd somehow contrived to lose his van keys in the 100 yards between the van and the front door last night. After a somewhat less calm half an hour of tearing the place apart whilst I blearily looked on he found them inbetween the t-shirts he'd been choosing from this morning. Doh!

I had to work as this is our really busy time of the year [as opposed to the rest of the year when it's just somewhat busy] but had secured my bosses ok to take an extended lunch as 2 forum friends from CSH were in Exeter visitng from the USA and Ashburton. We popped in Tea on the Green for gluten free pasties for them and seafood crepes for me - really good but a large was too much! We then had a little look at the cathedral - I've finally been in it now after10 years living here! Then we walked on looking at a little church perched incongrously inside an outside bit of a shopping centre [yep - that really is the best way I can explain it] before I sadly had to leave them in the Cook Shop. Hopefully they managed not to buy the entire stock! :-D

I returned to work to find these beautiful flowers on my desk along with some chocolates from the Chap - what a star eh? I've never had flowers delivered to me at work before and being a hopeless romantic was rather happy - a colleague mentioned my 'cheshire cat' grin.
Now I'm off to posh up as we're going to a mystery destination for dinner. Apparently it's posh, I haven't been there before and we're catching the train. Watch this space!

Chiefs stormin on

2011-09-16T18:08:00.000+01:00

It’s been a good start to the season for the Chiefs. First proper game (after trouncing Connact 47-10 then local boys Cornish Pirates 58-3 followed by the somewhat closer 16-13 result against the Scarlets in the pre-season friendlies) was away to Leicester Tigers. Tigers [Hwak ptooie] have been omnipresent at or near the top of the table for some time now and much as I’m not a fan, they are a force to be reckoned with. However – whether it be due to having several (ok - 11) players out for the world cup, bad defending from them or damn good play from us [guess which I'm favouring] our opening game of the season saw us scrape a 30-28 win over the Tigers on their home turf. Woop! Only the second time they're been beaten at home in the last 3 years. Not bad for a club starting their second season of the premiership that this time last year had been written off by all the bookies and the 'big boys'. I wasn't there to see it being busy entertaining BBQ style at the time but was mighty happy when the Chap looked the result up for me.

After securing my season ticket for this year; with the grace of Great Aunt Joan, I was looking forward to the first home game against Newcastle last Saturday. England had recorded a lacklustre win that morning against Argentina in their opening game of the world cup so we were up for something a little more exciting. First try for us went over in the first minute - that exciting enough?! We won against a valiant Newcastle side 32-15 to give us our first ever 5 point win and make us top of the premiership table for the first time ever in the clubs history. So - all to play for against Bath tomorrow and yes - it's on the telly at 5.30pm Sky Sports 3 should you wish to join me in cheering on the Chiefs.

A different cheese and tomato sandwich

2011-09-09T14:21:00.000+01:00

Take a cheese topped bap – mine was from S’burys and you can taste the cheese on them. J Better yet – make your own – I might try this with beer bread – we have tasteless lager left over from the BBQ last week and I picked up a set of those dinky loaf tins in TK Maxx the other day – shh – don’t tell the Chap! He’s firmly of the opinion I have enough kitchen stuff cluttering up the place already. He may even be right – stranger things have been known… :-D Anyway – I am now in possession of some terribly cute wee tins so I’d best get on and use them so I can feel justified in buying them.

Once you have your cheese topped bap [at great length it seems] slice open and spread with mayo. Fill generously with slices of fresh tomatoes and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. [I was at work so sadly was forced to forgo the pepper but it tastes just fine without it.] Munch away endeavouring all the while not to throw tomato seeds all over your top. This worked surprisingly well; such that I thought it worth sharing. Having initially thought that just a tomato sandwich would be a little dull the fact that the roll was cheese topped really elevated it to something I’d chose to make another time – rather than a mid morning snackette at work made because a colleague had generously brought a box of home grown surplus toms in. Enjoy!

Sunny September

2011-09-05T14:13:00.000+01:00

It may be sunny but there's a definite chill in the air - autumn comes on apace. I have to admit to putting the fire on briefly last night in the lounge as we were a little chilly once the heavens opened.

We had a fun weekend with our BBQ; and it didn't rain until 2am so I think we got away with it! I think we managed to sate all that came and the Chap did a sterling job of the cooking. To add to my pleasure the Chiefs won their first game of the new season away to Leicester - get on!! Read about the game here and gloat with me if you will. :-)

The rule of thirds - as in trouble comes in 3s

2011-09-02T16:13:00.000+01:00

I mentioned the probs we had with the cooker being condemned in the annual gas safety check. This was immediately before I left for Dorset for the Shakespeare. On our return on Sunday, having explained the situation to the landlord we bought another one then discovered we needed a power supply as well as the gas. That being the cause of the floor coming up. Then the knob on the shower broke - again - this makes it the 4th set it's on. Crap design flaw in that all the pressure when it's being turned goes onto the thinnest part of the spindle. Grr - I did not need this right before chap's family arrived to stay!
And the third thing?
Tuesday evening I open the freezer to show the chap the exciting goodies I'd got from the CFC (2 half legs lamb and 3kg spicy chicken bits) for our forthcoming BBQ. 'Hmm - where's all the ice and frost?' thinks I in a rising dread kind of way. Eeek - knew I shouldn't have mentioned that it'd been getting very loud recently. Yes - the fridge/freezer combo had passed on. Bugger. Quick phone call saw most of the food safely stashed in my friend's freezer round the corner - luckily it was still frozen; and Wednesday evening saw us trailing round the electrical shops in search of a decent item that met our requirements and was preferably in stock. No joy. Today we go to pick up our ordered fridge combo and tomorrow we have the BBQ. It's all fun. If I wasn't an aetheist I'd think someone out there didn't like me but I'll just assume the rule of 3 (why that should be any less spurious than assigning it to some greater power I'm not sure). Anyway - I'm sincerely hoping that's it now. Mind you the weather forecast for tomorrow is pretty dire...

Caesar on the island

2011-09-02T14:01:00.001+01:00

This years BOAT (Brownsea Open Air Theatre) offering was Julius Caesar, not a Shakespeare play I'd seen before. For once we'd managed to assemble both sides aunt and uncle as well as both the big sis's and my bro in law. We took the customary picnic (see last years trip here) over on the boat to the island, enjoying the views of Poole harbour and the crenellated cottages on the island on the way.
Upon alighting we were 'welcomed to Rome' and met again at the entry to the grassed area the stage is set up in. This is a nice touch they haven't utilised before; although met with traditional English reserve, downcast eyes and shuffling feet from many of the boat passengers who were obviously somewhat startled to find they were having audience participation thrust upon them at this early stage of the proceedings!

We trailed off to our favoured spot and for once this year there were no skirmishing raids mounted by peacock attack teams on the goodies spread out. My job this year was cheese [can't think why ;-)] and I assembled a nice selection of Quickes applewood smoked cheddar - don't let the 'smoked' appellation put you off. This is about as far away from that plasticy smoked cheese from Europe as you can get. It's done using their mature cheddar which is a lovely full flavoured cheese in it's own right and the smoking just adds that touch of difference. I wouldn't consume masses in one go but as a change it's very good. Little big sis really liked it though and ended up going off with what was left of the block! Also along were 2 diffferent blues, one cornish [Tinners?] and one Devon - I think. Have to admit I need to check which they were! Then a block of the regular Quickes Cheddar too and some lovely brie. [Incidentally has anyone ever come up with a fulfilling re-use for the wee wooden boxes camembert and brie come in? Seems such a waste to just pitch them out...] We had a fabulous picnic then went to watch the show. I'm afraid the taking of photos is rather frowned upon in the auditorium so I don't have any for you. Suffice to say it was very good with plenty of blood and fight scenes which were very well choreographed. The costumes and special effects really made it too. Afterwards tired and happy we bundled back onto the boat to cross back over the harbour, agreed to meet up next day and took our seperate ways home to bed. Except once back in the village we opened another bottle of wine... :-)

Flower for TA

2011-08-31T14:39:00.000+01:00

As Toffeeapple showed an interest [thanks!] here's a couple more of the flower. Yes - it dangles from a branch and is rather fantastic. Annoyingly I couldn't see a label to tell me what it was so it will have to remain the bauble flower to me. Answers on a postcard if anyone knows it?
Here's how they look furled up before springing out into the bauble effect. They remind me of raspberry ripple ice-cream.

From another side - you can see the petals join up in the middle. Fascinating huh?

Here you can see them in situ - well - if the Chap and son weren't in the way.. ;-D

Pics

2011-08-30T18:01:00.000+01:00

Another 2 photos from the Eden project, apropos of nothing really- I just wanted to share them.
I've always loved these wooden figures.

What I thought of as a 'bauble' flower - isn't it cool?

The unexpected

2011-08-26T17:24:00.002+01:00

A letter came in the post yesterday. I looked the the postmark and felt something rigid inside the envelope and thought - 'oh, it's a cd of photos from my uncle from our weekend in Dorset a couple of weekends back'. (Yet to be posted.) I then forgot to open it as it was under the e-on bill and only opened it this morning. To my surprise out came 2 old photographs, a short letter and a sizeable cheque. Eh? I read the letter, then read it again; and then a third time, this time managing to grasp the salient points. A great-aunt I didn't know had passed away. This lady was my dad's dad's sister - so my dad's paternal aunt. She; Joan, and her husband Ken had never had children and had bequeathed her estate to her nieces and nephews - of which my father was one and the lady who sent the letter another. (She's the 6 year old bridesmaid for them here.) In the event that any pre-deceased her - like my father did - it was to go to any children of theirs. Thus my 2 big sis's and I all received a cheque in the post.

It feels odd - I never met the lady to the best of my knowledge so it feels strange to have received anything let alone a generous amount from her. It's going in the savings or an isa; although I may treat us to new Chiefs season tickets. I need to have a think about it. This post then is for you - unknown great aunt Joan; in the great unknown. Sleep tight. xxx

Spiffing CSH meet up

2011-08-24T18:11:00.002+01:00

Well - if anyone out there pops in with any kind of regularity you've probably seen me mention CSH - the Cottage Smallholder blog and it's attendant forum; before. This disparate group are a great bunch of friendly people who share interests in making your own, baking your own, growing your own, sewing your own, brewing your own and drinking your own. [hic] :-D Also the keeping of chickens, the finding of bargains on the CFC et al are favoured topics. Well - a while back someone suggested we ~~took over Danny and Fiona's place for the weekend~~ had a meet up - a grand idea we all shouted and promptly charged up country. Well - not quite. After a few weeks of wrangling the time off and organising the picking up of a fellow forumite en route we were off. We stayed with the Chap's brother on the Friday night after first meeting our pick-upee [I know that's not a word] for a quick 'hello' pint in Reading. Saturday we were up bright and early to nip back into Reading and pick up 'Sumprat' - the man who would be demo-ing the arts of home smoking at the meet up. [That's smoking as in fish, meat, garlic etc. 'Fnar' indeed!] En route to his we also nipped into Halfords as the Chap had realised he didn't have the plastic bung for the airbed on which we would be sleeping that night anywhere within the discernable vicinity. Nor indeed a pump. Hmm - rather pre-requisite items one would have thought when contemplating repose on an air bed for the night...

After a wee bit of a drive (you can rely on the M25 to induce impotent total rage at any time) we were finally passing through Newmaket and nearing Chevely; our final destination. A lovely little village; Chevely is composed of some thatched and some charming old brick cottages with some fab brickwork chimneys to be seen. The CSH nerve centre came in site and the Chap pulled the van onto the gravel drive. Danny and Fiona appeared with welcoming smiles and hugs and we were immmediately at ease feeling amongst friends. We profferred our addition of cheese-various to the groaning table of provendar on offer - no one was going hungry this weekend! We took Dorset Blue Vinney, Cornish Blue and the Sharpham Rustic both plain and the chive version. On display were many delicious goodies including fab home baked cakes, homemade fudge, Fiona's scrummy Polenta Bake, various salads and this fantastic creation made by 'Mrs MOS' in honour of the occasion.

We repaired to Danny and Fiona's beautiful garden. This is split into several 'rooms' each leading one from another and all lovely. I want to share some of the gorgeous little cameos that caught my eye.

A tumbling rose blooming over the archway in the hedge leading from one area to the next.

The lovely established pond full of life, and a closer look at one of the lilies.

Much chatting, beer drinking, laughter and joy followed as we spent the rest of the evening being gently smoked out by Sumprat's home smokers - firstly a fab invention comprising a big metal stock pot rescued from a skip, an inner basket for it and a probe thermomenter inserted through a hole drilled in the lid of the whole affair. This was the cold smoker - we tried some mushrooms in there - quite tasty indeed; and then some garlic - smoked garlic is ace! Sumprat also smoked some chillies in it and served up smoked nuts still warm - these were great.

He then cranked up the hot smoker and served up a platter full of smoked fresh mackerel fillets - yum! We also did some hot smoked garlic - so it's cooked as well as smoked. Great stuff!

The MOS's had kindly brought some of their really rather good sloe gin for everyone to try [ours was polished off ages ago but this year I'm determined to have multiple batches on the go] and I can testify that it was damn fine stuff.

Once the smoking was done the BBQ was fired up. Danast had brought some steaks down from Scotland and the Chap was overawed by how good they were. He said it melted in the mouth and was most definitely the finest steak he's ever had. [Danast - here's your chance for a plug for the steak provider!] We eventually headed bedwards; lulled by the quiet strains of the all night rave opposite to the cottage. *rolls eyes*

The next morning brought the much anticipated 'White vs Black pudding / Scottish vs Irish fry off' which I didn't partake in but the Chap did and enjoyed them all, though admitted to preferring the black pudding but not one side of the Irish Channel over the other. [You can find further details here on the CSH site.] We were then showered with gifts from amongst the chilli plants, seeds and cakes that had been brought and Fiona also gave me some veggie pasties which were lovely, along with chutney and a beautiful lavender bird that was a little tardy in winging it's way to me earlier in the year. Most unexpected but really touching and now has pride of place brightening up the kitchen.

Many hugs were exchanged and photos taken and we set off on the long route home. Once more the M25 was fully stationary - this time on the slip road with some fools deciding to reverse back up; followed by some even bigger fools turning round (yes - turning on an M25 slip road!) and driving back up only to seem slightly surprised that they couldn't get out at the top. [Mind you if you're that dumb I guess most things in life come as a surprise - the sun coming up every morning, the appearance of the moon etc... cretins.] Having managed not to be killed by any of these idiots we eventually pulled up in Reading to drop off a tired but happy Sumprat and resumed our journey southwards.

Feeling a little peckish by this point we took a detour via Bath and had a mediocre Italian [the starters were great, the mains not so much - odd] and a small wander to stretch our legs. I liked this wall next to the river with the water heights and dates carved on from various floods over the years.

Here's the classic view of bath - the river drops down through the centre of town; it's pretty idyllic.

Wearily we returned to the trusty van for the last stretch home - fairly uneventful though we followed a classic rounded 50's looking winnebago for some time down some lanes where it really took up all the space. They pulled over to let us pass and gave us a cheery wave to which I waved madly back. :-) [People were pausing in their gardens to grin at it going by - isn't it great how old classic cars and such like can put a smile on peoples faces? There's a passage on that theme in Iain Banks's rather good 'Raw Spirit' in which he tours various whisky distilleries.]

Eventually however we pulled up at home and there was one last task to do - scare the Chap with the mileage we'd done over the weekend. Ouch!! Bring on next years meet!! :-)

Triskaidekaphobia

2011-08-22T17:07:00.000+01:00

Triskaidekaphobia is fear of the number 13 - not something I have but a week back on Friday I was beginning to wonder. I had a week off coming up with the Chap, his son and his bro and I kept running into 13's all over the place. Including this random golf (?) flag sticking out of the river on the way home,

the number of a house we went to a BBQ at, the maths I had to do to verify a post on a forum I visit... It was starting to bug me but I needn't have worried - a great week was had by all despite some dodgy weather at times. More on this anon - here's a pic I like from the Eden Project on Friday. Beautiful. :-)

Offski!

2011-08-12T18:10:00.001+01:00

Well I'm despetrately trying to get myself up to date with posts only to find I am out of time. I'm off for the week next week as we have the Chap's son down, and his brother for a few days so it's all systems go. Hopefully I'll have a working cooker by then as well - the gas man condemned the old one just before I went away to Dorset last Friday...it's a bit of a saga!

At least the floor's back down now!
Have a good week all and fingers crossed for sun for us - we're spending at least one day fishing on a boat so I'm hoping it's not too rough - unlike the very windy conditions on Chesil Beach last Saturday night. it seemed like a good idea at the time...

Things you don't see every day

2011-08-10T14:15:00.000+01:00

Do you think he's lost? lol.

It's the annual clear up of the river overflow system - they drain it then get rid of all the traffic cones, bicycles, signs and wheely bins ready for next years crop. Looks slightly surreal though huh?

Pirates?

2011-08-04T17:41:00.000+01:00

Reading some old posts recently I realised I used to be a lot less verbiose but l made a more concerted effort to post everyday. So - although I'm halfway throughh writing about our CSH weekend away [there's a little teaser for you] as it won't be finished this side of the weekend (as I'm off homewards bound tomorrow); I thought I'd share that we had a pirate day at work today. Arrrhaaaa...

I'm thinking of sending him off to travel the world a wee bit - like his uncle in Hong Kong here. Any takers?

Impromptu weekend away #3: South Devon Chilli Farm - Buckfastleigh - Home (Really this time!)

2011-07-28T19:31:00.000+01:00

Having another very good and exciting weekend to tell you about plus several recipes I figured I'd best finish off the 'IW' sequence at some point this decade! :-)
So we motored off out of Salcombe, licking ice-cream off our fingers and following the satnav built into the Chaps phone - very handy as we'd never have found the Chilli Farm without it; it's a wee bit in the middle of nowhere! After following some pretty small roads and cutting across others we pulled into their smart gravel car park. There's a bit of an industrial unit thing going on and off to one side is the timber building housing the
shop with many different chilli items and their cafe; which we didn't partake of but which looked good. There were some interesting books which we mentally tagged as potential gift ideas - or possibly just for ourselves! There was the whole range of their chilli chocolate - including a new one to try that's not yet for sale made with Naga chilli - that was a bit hot for my taste but the others are lovely. Also on offer were dried chillis, chilli seeds, relishes, chutnies and sauces all made with some of the vast number of different chilli varieties they stock. We settled on some orange chilli chocolate, some smoky chipotle sauce and some chilli chutney. We then ventured outside to check out the polytunnels and peruse the plants for sale section.

The polytunnels were fascinating - as well as all the varieties they use in their products and sell they have other trial types, also tomatillos which I'd never seen

in the flesh before and remind me of big Cape Gooseberry or Chinese Lantern type plants. We also loved the look of this purple chilli variety - sorry I can't remember the name but it wasn't one they had for sale yet.

Having had a good nose at all the plants the polytunnels had to offer we carried on to the plants for sale area. Now - when it comes to plant nurseries or open gardens or farm shops with plants or a wee pasting table in the drive outside someones house I am truly my mother's daughter. [Although in the case of my mother it used to include pub hanging baskets for 'cuttings' as well!! Worse part of it is she'd get me to break off the purloined cutting as I was taller than her by the time I was about 12.] Neither of us can go within a country mile of any or all of these places and not come away with something. [Hence my mahoosive collection of seeds but we won't mention those - I have plans for those to keep them from taking over any more of the house!] This inevitably meant that the Chap and I would be adding to our small family of chilli plants for this year. (A quick aside here - the Chap has got right into the Chilli growing this year with some of his own seeds he planted from our trip to a nursey back in March, seeds from a yellow chilli I had at home that Ma grew last year and a couple of plants my Ma gave us - she's been growing them for years in the lean to conservatory at home in Dorset and makes a mean Chilli jelly - with cheese it's divine!) So - the only question was which would we go for? As we sauntered along the shelves checking

out the labels a sudden outbreak of fluttering and cheeping above our heads distracted us - up in the corner a few feet away was a swallows nest and every so often one of the parents would zoom in with some insectile goodness firmly grasped in beak to be met by a renewed cheeping and the 'I've got the biggest flip top head' contest from the brood. [Excuse the pic quality but I wasn't about to use the flash on them.] This was entrancing and we could have happily stopped there for a few hours just watching in fascination but we had plants to buy then lunch to find so, with some difficulty we finally narrowed our choices down. The Chap got a 'Peruvian Purple' and I chose the 'Aji Limon' - one I've liked the sound of for a while. I will keep you updated with how they do - especially as this is over a month ago now - my bad!!
Next - off to find that elusive lunch.

We ended up stopping in Buckfastleigh which is on the edge of the moor quite close to Exeter although I don't know it myself. It was that or we were in danger of getting back home before we decided on food. We pulled up at the Abbey Inn and sadly perused the sign informing us they'd stopped serving food but 5 minutes earlier - then we decided to stay anyway and have a bag of crisps with our pints and just enjoy the view from our riverside table. When the sun is shining and the water is burbling all you need is a packet of Burts Salt and Pepper flavour and a pint of Dartmoor Best and the Chap and it's bliss. Trust me. :-D

Suitably refreshed we toddled on our way and were soon home with memories of some great places and what seemed like a much longer break than 2 days. If you have the chance and the funds [this was the Chaps treat for which I thank him - he is a star!!] to nip off unplanned try it - it's a true tonic and you don't have to go far to find somewhere you've never visited. Get out there my friends!!

Impromptu weekend away #2 : Salcombe - Chilli Farm - Home (or is it)

2011-07-15T20:29:00.002+01:00

We headed to Salcombe and instead of taking the longer way round we took the back road along part of the Avon estuary. We didn't know it until we got there but for 3/4 mile this road is tidal - how cool is that! Luckily we got there at low tide so it was passable albeit very narrow sandwiched between the mud and water on one side and a rock cliff on the other. The sign at the start of the road warns that it's only passable at certain times - we would have got a pic but there was a vehicle following us.
We wended our way on up the estuary then cut across country to the Kingsbridge Estuary on which Salcombe nestles and tumbles down the steep valley sides to the water below.

This is a pretty little town; although strangely bereft of 'real' shops - ie it's got highly pricey clothes shops aplenty and some nice but also pricy delis but where does one buy one's bog roll and other such essentials I wonder?! It seems like you have to have a boat to live here as well - certainly if you want to do your recycling!!

We had a little wander about before turning our minds to where we would rest our heads that night. Having checked out how much a room in one of the hotels would cost us [£180!! For 1 night!!] we fetched up outside the council/tourist office [closed] and perused the list of B&B's and pubs they had attached to the board outside - trying to spot the roads on the map also handily affixed to said board. After a handful of 'no vacancies' we were pointed in the direction of Pengwern; usefully just up the road from our location. We ended up in their self contained appartment for the night - fantastic view and with the addition of a few essentials for brekkie from the Spar hidden in the depths of the residential area [apparently the only 'real' shop in Salcombe] a snug little place to stay for the night and at £50 for the both of us a fair bit more reasonable than the hotels on the front. After a quick change we set forth for the evening in search of a couple of fine pints and some supper.

We'd earlier checked out the various menus of places to eat in town and had also picked up a leaflet in the apartment for the new Oyster Shack in Salcombe which had decided us on our eaterie for the night so we decided to try a couple of pints in the local pubs first.

The Kings Arms was the first to be graced by our presence; seemed quite locally but friendly enough. We didn't stay over long here though as there were no free seats to sit outside admiring the view which is of course what we wanted to do on a warm summers evening away.

A little further up the road is the entrance down some steps to the Ferry Inn - built into the nigh on sheer cliff sides it has a fab view through the windows over the river and once you've purchased your pint you can exit and go down another flight of stairs to the large outdoor seating area immediately adjacent to the water. There was another bar down here as well. It's a bit of a hidden gem I'd say with a rather nice sounding specials board and good smelling food. We had a drink here; were inspected by the pint police (cheeky!) and then thought we'd best move on for dinner.

Well - we traipsed up and down the road (not long) that the Oyster Shack* was supposedly on twice and saw not a hide nor hair of it. It was all boat sheds, boat shops and one distinctly cheesy looking bar that boasted it was open until midnight and did burgers or something equally unappealing. Damn. Back to the centre of town and into our second choice [I think it was 'The Galley'] - a nice but pricey looking menu having caught our [my] eye earlier. They'd stopped serving - we checked the time - just gone 10pm! Eek - we hadn't realised it had got so late at all. They told us to try over the road at the kiddy friendly place I really hadn't wanted to go to [Captain Flints] and told us they thought that or the burger / late opening bar place we'd just turned our noses up at were probably our best bet at that time of night. Oh well we thought, at least we'd eat and they did some ok sounding pasta dishes even though it was still fairly busy with small people at that time of night. But no - they didn't want our custom either when we ventured in the door although I can't say I was that saddened - it was more that we were both rather hungry by this point.

We wandered back along the main road not seeing any positive or open type signs anywhere until I thought I'd try the little bistro up a side alley we'd spotted earlier. Boatswains [no website of their own - missing a trick there guys!] had some people in still - with a menu with things like wings and potato skins [:-(] etc on but a great looking specials board when we'd checked it out earlier. I popped in and enquired if they were still serving? After checking how many we were the very friendly lady said she'd check with the kitchen and returned shortly with the very gladly received news that as they had a table in that had only just started eating it was fine. She led us upstairs to our own corner table in a window, flanked by a funky metal oil burner and several candles and even brought another couple when she saw it was a litle dark. The whole place is done out in a tasteful contempory fashion with out being pretentious and the service was super friendly and attentive without making you feel pressured or under the spotlight. The lady that originally led us in was American - those wings and potato skins were making more sense! The specials board looked fab and we both chose starters from it - I had scallops baked in their shells in a parsley and garlic butter and the Chap had grilled squid in some sort of chilli basting. [I can't remember the exact terminology used.] Wow - this was seafood of the highest and freshest calibre. My scallops were to die for - they were sweet and creamy and the flavours were well balanced and complementary. Chap's squid was equally lovely - and it was a whole one! I'm afraid there's no pics though because sometimes [just sometimes mind] you have to put the camera away and concentrate on living the moment instead.
For main I was going to choose a cod dish in a sauce I liked the sound of - it's rare for me to choose something like cod otherwise; but they'd run out of it. However, the friendly American lady told us of a dish 'off-menu' that she had which was a monkfish tail that'd be big enough for both of us and came in a similar sauce with a bed of spinach as the cod had done. Well - we were sold both loving monkfish and yes - it was absolutely fab too. Really really special and the best meal I've had out for some time. You could taste the freshness of the fish in all the varieties we had; something that's emminently important and can make such a difference to the taste. That the place was so friendly and welcoming even at that time of night just made it. [BTW there is no material advantage to me in writing this glowing review in case you were wondering - they're not in the least aware of it and we paid our bill in full already! This is my honest opinion - as is everything else found here.]
Having polished off every little scrap of monkfish, spinach, new potatos and sweet potato chips (yummy btw) we decided we really could fit a pudding in - very rare for us as we're both way more savoury people but it was that sort of night. Incidentally they were more than happy to offer us dessert even though it must have been gone 11pm by then. I chose the honeycomb ice-cream - creamy and rich with chunks of honeycomb in - very good indeed. Chap had the baked vanilla cheesecake - also good and very rich. We eventually left and waddled back up the hill to our appartment for a sound nights rest. :-D

The next morning I woke early and took a couple of pics of the view from the window at about 5am. Sadly Chap had parked pretty much bang slap in front of it (!) but you can see how stunning it is overlooking the estuary.
Once we'd actually got up properly, had a leisurely breakfast and paid our bill to the nice people that run the place we took the van down into the town and found a car park so we could have more of a potter about while stuff was open this time. As it was Fathers' day [yes - this second part of the post has been rather a long time coming!] Chap was thrilled to be allowed to have a wander in a fishing tackle shop. :-D In return I was allowed to have a peruse round Gallery 5; a gallery run by a collective of locally based artists I think. A mixed offering with some painted driftwood pieces in amongst various different painting styles from the different artists. We had a proper look round the town checking out some of the expensive yet stylish shops - I was especially taken

by these silver plated mussel pickers for eating your moules with - I generally use the empty shells of one. Something for the chrimble list maybe? They were in a fab kitchenware shop that was however quite hideously overpriced. I saw a wood and glass cheeseboard I rather liked - £80odd without the knives!! They were a further £60odd I think!! Sheesh. It being a shop full of lovely lovely kitchen things though there were many items I coveted but as they were well out of what I'm prepared to pay Chap was safe from me managing to clutter up the kitchen any further.
We had a poke about the local wine shop and picked up a bottle of Rosehip Cordial whilst there - which I can now later confirm as refreshing and 'virtuous' feeling [but in a good way] when drunk with sparkling water.

I spotted these and liked the fact that Salcombe has pretty kerbs - my town doesn't manage anything quite this spiffing. I thought they were pretty cool but then I'm like that. :-)
We popped into the local Salcombe Dairy's outlet place and had [another] ice-cream. Chap went for Rum and Raisin with Navy Rum soaked raisins and I had Stem Ginger with real ginger pieces in. Ooh yum - really peppy and gingery whilst creamy at the same time. I much preferred it to the Rum and Raisin though that's not a flavour I'd go for anyway - Chap assured me it was delicious!
We decided we'd done Salcombe for the time being and would set a leisurely course home taking in the South Devon Chilli Farm and a spot of lunch en route. In fact that is where I will leave you as I feel this post is in danger of getting far too long for it's own good and aside from threatening the very fabric of space time with it's sprawling gargantuanness I'm plenty sure you've had enough by now. [I know I have.] Stay tuned for the thrilling part 3 - Impromptu weekend - the return! [That reminds me - the last Harry Potter film is released here today - end of an era or a chance to return to the magic of the printed word? Whilst firmly being in the 'the book is always better' camp I must admit to a guilty liking of the HP films. If you go see it let me know if it's any good.]
*The mystery of the missing Oyster Shack - quick google search upon returning home reveals it closed around easter to be replaced with the bar we saw. Damn.

Oi Blogger people - fix the frigging comments!!

2011-07-08T18:54:00.000+01:00

Since about May I have been unable to comment as myself on my own and a lot of other blogs. Having checked the 'known issues' the other day this has now been tagged as fixed. No it's bloody well not. Unable to see any obvious place to report this I went in search of help on the forum instead and by swapping to a pop-up comment box rather than having it embedded under the post I can now comment as myself on my own blog. Hoo-bloody-rah. Not an ideal fix as I don't like the pop-up box much but it'll have to do. However, having just attempted to comment on Azza's Blather (pop by and see her - it's entertaining) it seems I still can't comment on some blogs - hers wouldn't even let me comment as anonymous. I just got locked into a mobius loop of word verification - log in - word verification - log in so I gave up. Rather that than heave the whole PC out the window!
Oh - and if you want to utilise the less-than-ideal fix of having pop-up box comments go to Dashboard-Settings-Comments and click the radio button to choose 'Pop-up Window' then scroll to the bottom and save. Tsk. What a pile of faff.

A tussle - and a summer weekend

2011-07-07T18:26:00.001+01:00

Still tussling with the 2nd part of our impromptu weekend post - not sure what's happening there but I will get it to work!!

In the meantime a little update on my last weekend which seemed quite quintessentially English summer to me. I mentioned I would be in Dorset for at least the Saturday. So - I caught the train on Saturday morning to Axminster and changed here to one of the Jurassic Coast buses - these take the long way round along the coast visiting all the little coastal villages and towns en route so they're not the quickest way to travel but I've never been on one before and it was a very pretty and relaxed way to see the countryside from the top deck of the bus. We wended our way up and down valleys towards then away from the sea and passed through Uplyme, Lyme Regis (road full of people dancing with big colourful umbrellas - it was the Jazz Festival so we sat gridlocked there for a while) followed by Charmouth, Morecombelake, Chideock, Bridport (main road closed for an antiques fair), Winterbourne Abbas, Martinstown (great plant stall outside someone's house) and finally into Dorchester through Poundsbury at the top end. Now these names are a litany from my childhood - guaranteed to spark all sorts of nostalgic and coming home type feelings so to be swaying along in the sunshine surrounded by the green of the beautiful countryside and the sparkling of the sea - well - it was truly great. Plus of course you get to be extra nosy from the top deck of a bus. I saw some great gardens and then in the window of a bungalow a toy bear the size of a, say, 10-12 year old child sat in an armchair gazing out. Their lawn was massive and all grass - it was crying out for veg or even vines given the site but instead was this big featureless turf. Anyway - if people would rather spend hours mowing and scarifying etc than tend their own fresh veg that's their affair. In Lyme Regis I spotted a shop that seemed to specialise just in roast meat sandwiches - mentioned this to the Chap and he seemed quite taken by the idea of a visit!

Anyway - having met with the folks in Dorch' we made our way to the New Inn at West Knighton. It's a pretty place; surprisingly large but I think must have been a coach house originally going by this arch type bit into the yard.

The food was lovely, generously portioned and good value for money. I had the linguine which was on the specials board as coming with Chorizo, Crayfish tails and Chilli and asked if I could have it without the Chorizo. This was no problem for them and they made up the difference with extra crayfish (or I assume so - there was certainly loads in there) and peppers and mushrooms. It was tasty and filling and a testament to the friendly nature of this place.

Having supped and eaten our fill here we pootled back to Dorch and had a quick gander at big sis's allotment plot, stopped into the town centre so I could buy some Dorset Blue Vinney cheese at The Fridge deli then I clambered back aboard the bus for the journey home.

I managed to get one of the seats at the front on the way back - the windscreen was the site of a thousand insectile deaths but afforded a wonderful view. It's warmer though as you're missing out on the cooling breeze further back from the open side light windows. I got these views coming into Lyme Regis. There were masses of holidaymakers at the stops here - I had no idea people still travelled this way so much.

There is one reason I gave up on bus and coach travel years back - the punctuality or lack thereof. Now we were 20 minutes late into Dorch' due to various festivals and fairs as mentioned. I was very much hoping this wouldn't occur on the return journey as I had 13 minutes time between the bus getting in and the train supposedly departing... You've guessed it - we pulled up at Axminster station 2 minutes after my train was due to leave - with an hour before the next one was due. Well - bless the spirit of British Rail that still lives on in my train's 8 minute delay meaning I caught it and was soon headed back home to the Chap.

He met me off the train and off we went to a friends BBQ where I could sit down and relax; first having been presented with a glass of Pimms. How British-summer is that?!

On the sunday we took a little wander down to the quay to see some of the dragon boat racing - this time I took a hat as I was a little pink from the day before in the sun! We had a can or 2, dangled our feet over the water before heading back for an after-bbq bbq in the arvo to use up the leftovers from the day before. Time spent well with good friends and family in the sun. A thoroughly lovely weekend. :-D

Week of work mentalness

2011-07-01T17:55:00.000+01:00

Well - it's been a tad busy at work this week on the Ruthdigs front hence the frankly digusting lack of posts. I've half written the rest of our impromptu weekend up - it's just having the time to get in and pick the photos and finish it. Anyway - I've had all I can take for today - a particularly frustrating one amending study plans only for the student / agent / whoever to turn round and change their mind. One girl's up to her 4th change form... Garn!!

I'm off to Dorset for at least tomorrow for big sis's birthday - we're visiting an hostelry going by the name of "The New Inn" in some tiny back of beyond place called West Knighton. [Coming from a tiny back of beyond place myself I'm allowed to say that.] Don't think I've ever been there before but it's possible; back in the 'glass bottle of fizzy pop and a packet of salt-n-shake crisps' days. Anyway - I'm looking forward to it and hoping the nice weather stays with us.

Impromptu weekend away #1 : Bigbury - Burgh Island - Salcombe

2011-06-23T19:20:00.000+01:00

After a bit of a rubbish Friday the Chap came up with the spiffing idea of going away on the Saturday for an unplanned impulsive weekend break. *applause* :-D
He suggested Cornwall and I came up with Burgh Island by Bigbury-on-Sea - which I in fact thought was in Cornwall a fair way down but turns out to be in South Devon not that far from Plymouth. I had heard of the place from a time a fair few years back when my parents had visited. It's a tidal island with a (very) exclusive 30's art deco hotel on it and a pub. It is 'the pub on the island' - which is a bit of a family tale for me but more of that later.

Burgh is on a truly stunning stretch of coastline and has 2 wide sandy beaches facing it on either side of the low headland that rises to Bigbury-on-Sea - a hamlet of what seems to be almost entirely holiday homes built into the hill opposite. It was very windy here and the beaches were popular with wind surfers and kite surfers whilst we were there.

We walked over the sand to the island and started realising how exclusive the hotel is. You can't even get near it through the gates without having prebooked. We saw several big *landy's crossing the sand presumably ferrying the guests back and forth. [In past times people like Noel Coward and Mrs Simpson stayed here and the hideously expnsive suites/rooms are named after them.] A sign said you could wander round the marked paths on the west side of the island but the rest was out of bounds as private property belonging to the hotel. The island climbs a little to the west and south sides - there's some fab rock formations and plenty of sea birds sheltering in the lee of the rocks. We were hopeful of seals but no luck. Although whether we would have spotted them through the watering of our eyes in the fierce wind is another matter!

There's a small ruined building overlooking the south side - presumably a look out post was our best guess. [According to the Wiki link above it could be the remains of the Chapel - very tiny with too big windows though I'd have said.] The weather had cleared by then as well as the morning had been distrinctly grey and showery - we were rather lucky! As you circle round and down you can see the roofs of the hotel over the hill and the coastline opposite the island - a beautiful vista.

There was quite the oldest fuschia bush I've seen as we came down some steps cut into the hillside - I had no idea they got all gnarly like this - looks quite odd to see the flowers sprouting directly from what looks like dead wood! As we carried on down the hillside we more or less got accosted by a walker coming the opposite way demanding to know if we'd seen the pool? We must have looked somewhat blank as he then expounded that he meant the seawater pool - in a tone of voice that suggested deep disappointment in us for not knowing instantly what he was referring to. Anyway it turns out this is a pool for the hotel therefore tucked away on a side you can't see. We carried on down past the hotel's helipad [!] and tennis court and repaired to the pub - the Pilchard Inn for a pint. We had the local Pilchard ale - brewed on the mainland though rather than on the island - and sat outside in the sun admiring our surroundings. It's a fascinating place dating from 1336 with tales of smugglers tunnels and a ghost but is now unfortunately split into the hotel guest's and 'locals' bar and the other smaller bar where the rest of us are allowed. Fantastic setting though and the beer was nice and the staff friendly and a pint cost no more than it does in my local. Outside is parked the Sea Tractor - a rather fantastic contraption allowing ingress to and egress from the island when the tide is in. It had quite the cleanest wheels I've ever seen on anything of this size and looks like great fun. As the tide was firmly out when we visited though we didn't get to ride it.

We returned to the mainland and thought we'd drive into Bigbury-on-Sea and find somewhere to stay - oh no!! As previously mentioned the place looks to be pretty much all holiday / second homes with nowhere to go - not even a corresponding local to the one on the island! Having driven round it twice and come to the conclusion that the only thing to do here was visit the local tiny shop cum post office and we'd done that we returned to the cliff top road overlooking the bays and island [where I took the photo at the top of this post from out the van window - so no complaints that it's a wee bit wonky!] and pootled back along the road. Quick discussion later and we'd decided our destination would be... Salcombe. I'm not sure if I'd been there before - if so it was when I was very small so I looked forward; and at the map, as Chap drove us onto the next chapter of the weekend.

*Landy - Landrover. Big burly 4x4 / off roader / ATV.

Oh - for those intrigued by the family tale of 'The Pub on the Island' (anyone intrigued out there?) it stems from a family holiday when I was very small indeed. I think it may have been somewhere like Solva - certainly right on the coast - and we had a self catering cottage as was normal for our annual hol in Cornwall / Devon / Wales. I'm guessing the story came about as an inquisitive wee small daddy's girl enquiry as to the whereabouts of her father in the evening. Certainly what I was told wasn't entirely the truth. Ma told me that dad had gone off with the earthenware jug (this bit is true) to get some beer to bring back for them. However - because the pub was on an island (this is the not true bit now) he could only get across when the tide was down that's why he took a while sometimes. Now, I don't want you to think my dad vanished off each evening of our holiday leaving ma at home with 3 small girls for hours at a stretch but as time seems to expand unrelated to the actual passing of hours and minutes when you're that small I think that the probably couple of pints he had in the local before returning with a jug full of beer to share seemed enough time for the turning of a tide to me aged about 3 or 4. Anyway - I always believed this and it wasn't until many years later that it happened to come up in idle conversation and I asked as to the exact location of this fabled 'Pub on the Island' - which seemed incredibly romantic and cool to my by then approx 11/12ish year old self. Well - I was first greeted with somewhat blank looks followed by dawning comprehension on the face of my mother as distant bells got clearer through the mists of time. 'Oh - I made it up' she admitted unbeknownst destroying my entire imaginary vision of the place; a place I'd already firmly set my heart on going to one day. Dad was completely unaware of the whole story it seemed and after that it became our family tale - a synonym for a place unobtainable and to me, a reminder of a happy childhood holiday scrambling over rocks and falling in the sea and other such things that made up our childhood family holidays. I was always a little gutted it wasn't real though and thought it would be the best idea for a pub. Well - many years later and the parents take a wee break in Devon (before I lived here so I guess about 12 years ago now) and they find... [drum roll]... A Pub On An Island!! You can't imagine how pleased they were to be able to tell me there was one and it's somewhere I've been slowly getting round to going to ever since. Sadly my father is no longer with us but it was truly lovely to be able to sit outstand the fabled pub and relate the story to my dear Chap. The sun shone on us and it was a perfect day. Go there and start your own 'pub on an island' tradition - it's worth it. :-)

Wet weekend wins over work. Oh - and pickled eggs!!

2011-06-17T17:53:00.002+01:00

Well - it's been a week of grey skies and latterly rainy weather this week. Pretty much reflected my mood at work a fair amount of the time. I'm counting down the hours to getting out of here even if it is into a wet and windy afternoon - it's got to be an improvement to being cooped up in here with the recalcitrant systems and argumentative agents / students!
This weekend we may make some more pickled eggs - ooh - I forgot to tell you about that didn't I? Oops. Hard boil some eggs - stuff I read on t'internet said put lots of salt in the water as this will help the peeling. Not sure whether it made much difference to be honest. Once eggs are boiled run cold water over - this stops that dark ring appearing in the yolk and apparently also aids peeling. Think this may be another fallacy though. With a decent amount of eggs they will heat up the cold water themselves fairly quickly so go back after 5 mins and change for fresh cold water.

Once eggs are cold get your jar sterilising then set about the peeling. Another tip I read once somewhere said tapping to craze the shell, then rolling gently helps. Hmm - see pic for how not to do it - we had to eat this one!!

Put peeled eggs in sterilised jar then pour over vinegar. Ta da!! Actually there's a lot more you can do with this step but Chap had picked up some 'pickling' vinegar apparently already boiled with spices in that advised pouring it straight over item to be pickled with no need to heat or anything. We shall see.

Anyway - must dash - more on eggs after the weekend. :-)

Meat Cooking for the faint hearted #2 - Ox Liver and 'Bacon' hotpot

2011-06-16T18:20:00.001+01:00

Except it was leftover roast gammon not bacon. Chap had done the roasting the previous Sunday and had smothered the half joint [another pre-easter CFC bargain at £2 instead of a tenner - I couldn't believe it when I saw that that's how much what is effectively a big lump of ham costs normally! What a rip off.] in English mustard and I think; a wee bit of honey. I'll have to check that detail with him. - Yep - honey
The Ox liver was also a CFC clogging-up-my-freezer-space meaty bargain at something like 40p so I took the opportunity to combine some leftovers with the frugal liver to create a hopefully tasty dish for t'Chap [who had ended up getting sent off to Plymouth for work meaning he would be back rather later than usual] and reclaim some of the freezer space for veg stuff.

This was loosely based on a recipe I found here, after googling Ox liver. Top pointers seem to be that it's the toughest of the livers available therefore needing a long slow cooking method, but is also the 'tastiest' - should you like the taste of liver. Bleargh. Even back in my meat eating days I detested liver so this was going to be an interesting cooking experience!

Ox liver & Gammon Hotpot

1lb Ox liver

2 sml / 1 lg onion - sliced
1 md carrot - chunked
1 lg / 2 sml sticks celery - chunked
4-5 big (but not the flat field type) mushrooms - chunked
2-4oz gammon in little chunks
1 heaped tbsp seasoned flour

Parsley

Thyme
S+P
Stock
Potatoes - sliced

Put oven on to heat at gas 3 - or if it's my oven which I know is shite at low temps use 3.5-4.

Slice the liver and toss in the seasoned flour. Ha - damn sight easier said than done. Liver is damn messy - muchos blood, not pleasant at all. In fact it's pretty damn manky I'm afraid. If you're a veggie that's squeamish don't do liver is my advice! Anyway - having sliced the [literally] bloody stuff next comes the flouring - I feel I may have done this bit slightly wrong. I dumped the flour on top of the liver and stirred. This gave me a passable imitation of lumpy concrete in a fetching [NOT] pink shade. Hmmm - promising thus far then!

Place your gooey icky pink mix in the bottom of the casserole - oh sorry - that should read 'lay the liver in the base of the casseole' lol.

Mix the veg and gammon together and put over the top.
Sprinkle the herbs over [the recipe said sage and of course the day before making this was when I moved the pot of sage from outside the front door to down the allotment so I used what I had] followed by S+P.
Pour stock over until just on/over the top of the veg.
Top with thin slices of potato arranged in a pretty pattern- or chucked on any old how - it doesn't really matter and depends how much time you wish to dedicate to aesthetics.

Put lid on and whack it in the oven for 3.5 hours then uncover for another half hour to crisp the top.

That's it. Apart from the whole unexpectedly large amount of blood and the flouring bit it actually wasn't too bad - chopping veg is kinda second nature and it's a dish you just bang in the oven and walk away from rather than one you have to hover over constantly.

Chap enjoyed it but did mention he'd have liked some tomato flavours in there. It had crossed my mind to add a good tbsp or 2 squirt of tom puree to the stock - esp. as I was using veg stock cubes not having beef ones in the house and evidently they aren't going to have the same flavours or depth of flavour for a meat based dish. This being the first time I made this though - or any liver dish in fact I was wary of tweaking it so didn't. Hey ho - I know for next time.

My verdict - it didn't seem that exciting a dish when made to me - perhaps mixing the meat and veg more as well as the addition of the aforementioned tom flavour would work better. Also - I need to work on my 'flouring the meat' technique I think! :-D Not bad for a first timers offal effort though.

Allotment top tipple

2011-06-14T14:07:00.000+01:00

Although it rained [a lot] here over the weekend we did manage to nip down the alloment briefly. There's rasps and strawbs and we have black mint growing too. Well - there's only one thing to do with these - Pimms it is! Well - it's not but it's Aldi's cheap version at £ 5.99 a bottle.

We discovered a rather nice adjustment to the traditional Pimms drink. Put ice, strawbs and rasps in the bottom of a pint glass. Pour in Pimms to the top of the ice. Add lemonade to about half way to two thirds of the way up the glass then top up with - [wait for it] - cider! Use something with a decent taste of apple to it [not Strongbow etc that tastes of naff all - like the cider version of Fosters] and think of the flavours of those fruity ciders that seem to be popular now. Take a few mint leaves and scrunch them up a bit then tear and add to the drink. Stir and enjoy!

New IT systems - pah!

2011-06-09T18:43:00.000+01:00

Not enough hours in the day - especially when your company makes the 'sound' business decision to get a new system that takes OVER DOUBLE the amount of clicks/movements to do some stuff as it did before!! How is that good business sense? Anyway - I did not start this blog to rant about work - good at it though I may be, so that's enough of that.
Time has beaten me again and I must off to dinner with the Chaps parents. Must check on how the piglets in the field opposite are doing when I get there... :-D

Upside

2011-06-08T14:21:00.000+01:00

Trying to maintain a vaguely positive outlook [not always the easiest as I am well and truly one of life's pessimists - or realists depending on your viewpoint] and this is proving a little bit of a tussle at the moment - work is less than great; my insomnia's been kicking back in with a vengeance over the last couple of weeks and I think I'm gaining weight despite a pretty healthy diet. [Scales also broken.] Anyway - my damn flip flop broke on my way to work this morning - pah; then it rained on me too. BUT...but - look at the cygnets. This is the first family I've seen this year, they were paddling along the river on my way home yesterday and this morning here they are toddling up the bank. I then saw a family of ducks a little further on and both things cheered me up no end.

Although I'm not a fan of the government putting a £ sign on our green spaces they have a point about the value of nature to us all...

Pimp my noodles

2011-06-03T17:54:00.000+01:00

You know they're rubbish food but they're cheap and easy so there tends to be a few packs lurking in your cupboard. Those cheapo noodles that are loaded with calories and often really eco-unfriendly palm oil. :-(

Sometimes it's what there is to hand though and as I was running out the door for work this morning this very quick make for my lunch turned out to be surprisingly nice - so I thought I'd share it. It's a way of making cheapo instant noodles palatable with very few ingredients or time needed.

1-2 packs instant noodles depending how hungry you are / size of the pack - the cheaper they get the smaller they tend to be.

Thai green curry paste

Creamed Coconut - the solid block kind
Sweetcorn - handful frozen / tinned - your preference
0.5 fillet white fish (optional)
Mushroom ketchup

Boil the kettle and add the required amount of hot water according to the instructions on the noodle pack to a pyrex jug / bowl / microwaveable container.

Add a teaspoon-ish of the TGC paste - to your taste considering that strengths seem to vary wildly. I've got a big tub of the stuff we got in one of the local asian food shops for about £1.69 that's vastly superior in flavour and value than what you'll get for twice the price for a quarter the amount in the stupormarkets. It's also dead strong!

Add the noodles, fish and sweetcorn and pop in the microwave for about 2 mins.

Remove and flake the fish through the dish. Ensure it's totally cooked through as you do so. Judicial stirring should accomplish this - no need to burn your fingers! [You can use pre-cooked fish; mine was. I just flaked it in at the start.]

Grate a little of the coconut block in then stir through. If needed pop back in the microwave for a minute or 2 longer.

Add a little splash of mushroom ketchup just for the depth and stir.

That's it - easy! As mentioned it surprised me how good it was for a very simple dish - I think it's down to the flavours zinging out from the Thai green curry.

Well - that's all I've got time for, I'm off for the next three days - maybe see you at the Respect Festival? So glad it's finally summer weather - yay!!

Meat cooking for the faint hearted #1 - Slow Cooker Sos

2011-06-01T18:01:00.000+01:00

Don't fret - I haven't fallen off any wagon and am still a non-eater of meat [although I am an eater of fish making me a pescatarian not a true veggie.] The Chap is however an eater of meat and it struck me that apart from bacon or a steak I really know naff all about cooking actual meat dishes. Granted I could probably muddle my way through a roast with the help of instructions on the back of the label but it's not something I know - which irks me somewhat considering how much I like cooking. I went nearly all veg at 16/17ish so before I really started cooking for myself, only returning to eating fish at uni. [Prawns were the only thing I never gave up - one Marks & Spencer Prawn and Mayo sarnie a month kept me on the straight and narrow the rest of the time.] Not having eaten the stuff for so long whilst I learnt most of my basic cooking skills means there's a distinct lack of meat dishes in my repertoire.
This is all kicked off due to the Chaps rather good haul of CFC bargains from the Co-op the day before they were shut for easter. He got a plethora of sausages, ox liver, lambs liver, diced beef as well as a gammon joint and a couple of big rump steaks. Nearly all of it ended up in my freezer and when it started to become impossible to fit my frozen sweetcorn in I decided it was time I did something about it and cooked some of the damn stuff for him. First up then was a basic sausage [sos / snag / banger - you're choice of colloquialism] casserole. Long ago I'd kept a recipe from a jar of sauce of some kind and this then was my basis for this slow cooker dish adapted to fit the ingredients to hand.

4 sos - ours were Lincolnshire ones [whatever that signifies - I'm afraid the niceties of that side of it are a bit of a closed book to me]

1 red and 1 white onion - it's what I had - or use 1 large white one etc, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped / minced
EVOO
Mushrooms, chopped (3ish)
Tin chopped toms
0.5pt veg stock
White wine
Red lentils - 2 wee scoops - which was 6 tbsp
1tsp dried thyme
1tsp smoked paprika
Small handful greens - spinach / chard / sea beet / whatever you have to hand

Cook the sausages a bit - to help them keep their shape in the SC.
Heat the EVOO and add the onion and garlic. Fry gently to soften.
Add the mushrooms and cover then cook gently a few minutes more. Tip the lot into the SC and whack it on High to heat up.
Add the toms and juice from the tin, a splosh of white wine and the stock; made with boiling water as this will help the ingredients get up to heat faster.
Add the lentils and the thyme and paprika and stir all together. Judge the amount of liquid in there; the lentils will swell so if necessary add a little more wine and/or stock to ensure there's enough to cook them in.
Chop the sos into inch-ish long chunks and add to the SC.
Cover and turn to medium or low depending how long you've got. Mine ended up having rather longer than needed with 6 hours but it won't harm it. Just make sure the lentils are properly cooked through.
Stir your greens in and re-cover to let wilt for a few mins before serving.

See - it's easy!! Admittedly using a pre-formed thing like a sausage seems a wee bit cheaty but it was what we had to hand after the CFC sweep bargain night - these cost us 40p a pack of 8 making this a deffo tick in the 'frugal' box. They seemed quite 'solid' sausages - not too spongy - actually containing some meat! Which I think will have helped them keep their form in the SC. Otherwise the chap enjoyed it and I can [just about] claim that I can make sos casserole. Kind of... ;-)

Underachiever of the weekend....

2011-06-01T14:17:00.002+01:00

Well, not so much achieved over t'weekend - although chillaxin occurred! The Chap ended up working unfortunately so the trip for cheaty plantlets was put off as was the shelf erecting. I'm fully capable of putting shelves up myself but my drill has ended up on some sort of long term loan / theft by increments to a friend so I'd have to borrow the Chaps'. Which means he would be most effronted that he wasn't doing the actual work himself and would insist on doing it; except he wan't there to do it and neither was his drill. You see what I mean?

Allotmenting occurred and I'll be heading there again after work to harvest some more perpetual spinach beet stuff and strawbs. The beet stuff is great - some went to seed last year so it's been an early bonus crop - although supply is starting to outstrip our use of it! I'll have to clear some space in the freezer and start making spanoptika or whatever it's called. Always fancied trying it - never got round to it somehow. Perhaps I should make it my entry to the 'Bookmarked Recipes' challenge Jacqueline over on Tinned Tomatoes is holding - I've got files full of recipes I've printed or copied off meaning to make and never got round to it... somehow it doesn't surprise me!

Anyway - lots more to be done this weekend although I shall be spending some of it attending the very good Exeter Respect Festival - a free weekend event with diverse types of music, arts, crafts, food etc. to celebrate the diversity of our fair city. Good shout sez I!

Oh - and another good (if belated) shout - the Chiefs winning their final game of the season 21-8 against London Wasps to finish the season 8th in the table. Sweeeeet! :-D

Tempus Fugit

2011-05-27T17:45:00.000+01:00

Well once more the week appears to have flittered away faster then I could foresee - necessitating a rubbishy short post right here in place of anything proper and more substantial. Though for all I know you may be heaving a sigh of relief at the enforced lack of wittering. *shrugs shoulders in an 'I don't know man, you tell me' kind of way.*

Anyway - things to do at the weekend - allotmenting; more watering, planting out of asparagus peas, chard, beetroot. Possible sowing of cheaty plantlets of parsnips as none of my 2 different kinds of seed seem to have come up! :-( More strawberry picking. :-)
Maybe making of pickled eggs, shelves to go up, potentially some sort of nettle brew or elderflower if we get ourselves into gear,a lick of paint on the old blue chimney pot.
Enjoy the bank hol and I hope for sun where y'all are too.

Next week - meat cooking for the faint hearted... :-D

Towel Day

2011-05-25T08:39:00.000+01:00

Well my happy froods - towel day is here - I hope you're all wearing yours with pride? Enjoy the day and take a moment to reflect on the genius of Douglas Adams. Remember - 'Beware of the Leopard'! :-D

Arrabiata prawn pasta - speedy supper

2011-05-24T18:42:00.000+01:00

Speedy supper for when it's late, you're tired and hungry and no - you really can't be bothered being virtuous and make a sauce from scratch. Nowt wrong with that in my opinion. 'Arrabiata' means Angry - which is a reference to the chilli kick this sauce has. You could use whatever sauce you have in the cupboard though and add your own chilli - or leave it out as you like. It's quick and simple but still tasty - ideal.

Speedy prawn pasta
Stock cube - veg
EVOO
Pasta
1 onion
2-3 cloves garlic
Butter
Mushrooms
Salt
Jar arrabiata pasta sauce - ours was Aldi for about 75-80p-ish but not bad
2-3 tbsp tomato puree
Mushroom ketchup
Dried basil
Handful prawns
Handful spinach
Grated cheese - parmesan if you have it in, cheddar if you don't [or are forgetful of your recent parmesan purchasing activities like I was - dur!!]
Black Pepper

Cook the pasta in plenty of water seasoned with the stock cube and a splosh of oil to prevent sticking. (I always put the kettle on for the water for things like pasta as it takes a lot less time than boiling the water on the hob from cold - especially if you have an electronic hob - I'm soooo glad I have gas!!) Ensure to cook al dente as it'll be added to the sauce and heated again later.
Meanwhile heat a little butter and oil in a large wide saucepan.
Chop the onion and garlic and add to pan. Cook gently to soften.
Chop the mushrooms - use however many you like / have in stock. I used 5/6 I think.
Add to the pan with the onion and garlic, sprinkle a little salt and cook covered to keep the juices in, stirring occasionally until the mushrooms have sweated right down.
Add the pasta sauce. As I mentioned ours was an Aldi effort - not bad but it did taste a little sweet to me so I added a good squirt of tomato puree - probably 2-3 tbsp and a splash of mushroom ketchup to counteract this and give the sauce some depth.
Add a decent pinch of basil - I was out of oregano otherwise I'd have added this too. Any Italian herbs you have will do.
Stir thoroughly then add the pasta and stir well again to get it all covered in sauce. We had S'bury's basics penne - the grooves hold the sauce nicely and it's v. frugal at a mere 17p for 500g dried product - that's even better than Aldi or Lidl can manage!
Ensure it's heated through thoroughly then add your prawns. I buy the S'bury's basics frozen 300g bags at £2 a go. As long as you don't overcook them they're fine, just smaller. (Hence if overcooked they'll a) vanish and b) turn hard - yeurgh!) It means that for that price I don't mind adding a large handful - I love prawns!! [I also know myself and after defrosting while they're sat on the side waiting to go into the pan we seem to magically lose half of them - very odd it is...]
Cook only enough to just heat them *through then add the spinach and turn it into the pasta and sauce, cover the pan and remove from the heat. Let stand for a bare minute to wilt the spinach.
Serve and sprinkle with grated cheese and a good few twists of black pepper on top. Voilà!! Shouldn't have taken too long so now feel free to go collapse and chillax.
*Obviously using your common sense where seafood and the heating / cooking thereof is concerned. I accept nowt &c &c...
If you don't have spinach use whatever you have; adding at the right point so it gets cooked. EG - if it's calabrese I'd add for the last 2 mins of the pasta cooking time and thereafter drain it etc all together. Treat this as a vague guideline suggestion type iof thing and ensure you have value pasta and a jar of sauce in the cupboard for those times and you're away.

One of the greats of our time

2011-05-24T18:07:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow is Towel Day - a day dedicated to the remembrance of Douglas Adams; author, mac and net enthusiast, sometime scriptwriter for Dr Who and bit part player in Monty Python. Carry your towel and celebrate the man that came up with the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - a pocket sized electronic guide to - well - pretty much everything, 2 decades before reality managed to catch up with him. Skills. :-D

Why we do it...

2011-05-23T14:28:00.000+01:00

The constant digging I mean. And weeding, stooping, scrubbing dirt from fingernails and clothes, the battle with slugs, snails, bugs and birds, the expenditure on varied types of poo be it worm casts, chicken manure or good old horse dung, the endless endless bindweed...

2 kg fresh strawberries picked yesterday. That's why. Pimms o'clock anyone?

Crunchy Topped Fish Pie

2011-05-18T16:14:00.001+01:00

Ideal for using up odds and sods of fish in the freezer or buy some pie mix from your local fishmonger (undoubtedly better qulity and value than the stupormarkets - unless it's on the CFC of course), this is a doddle to make, goes a long way, can be a light summery dish or a comforting one for those chillier evenings and best of all is topped with cheesy crunchy breadcrumbs. No 6 inch layer of mash followed by a game of hunt the prawn here. This is a FISH pie. Made of FISH. It is not an excercise in rebranding a mashed potato pie as it's piscine equivalent in the hope of sqeezing some more pennies out of the poor old public. You know who I'm talking about here don't you crappy pubs/Youngs &c? (Did you know there's a whole 18% fish in a Youngs Admirals Pie. 18%? That's disgusting. And I had to find that out from S'burys site - they don't tell you on their own. It's 45% potato - nearly half. Words fail me. [Though probably not for long.]) My pie has no potato in it. Again - NO POTATO. Don't get me wrong. I love the spud but there's a place for it and if it's near this dish it's most definitely on the side not in it. Here the fish is the star. Even, as previously mentioned, when it's the cheap off cuts and a handful of value prawns. So - rant over - this is what you do. Amounts are a little hazy as it depends how big a pie you're making - mine was with a (whisper it) supermarket pie mix from the CFC for 70p with some mussels picked from Exmouth thrown in.

Crunchy Topped Fish Pie
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
Mushrooms - approx 4-5
EVOO
Butter
White wine (optional)
2oz plain flour
0.5 pt milk
S+P
Tarragon - or your preferred herbs - a pinch
Fish
Peas / sweetcorn - to your taste - defrosted if frozen. I added a little seabeet we had too.
Breadcrumbs
Grated cheese

Put oven on at Gas 6 to heat up.

Put EVOO and butter in pan to heat up.
Chop onion, garlic and mushrooms and fry gently to soften.
After a few mins add a splosh of white wine and raise the heat to boil off the alcohol and reduce the liquid a bit. Or don't bother with the wine - we had an open bottle to hand so I popped some in.
Meanwhile make the sauce by melting 1oz butter in the microwave.
Whisk the flour in - 2 rounded tablespoons is a good measure for 2 oz.
Add a little milk and whisk in to get rid of the lumps then add the rest of the milk and season with S+P and a pinch of tarragon.
Microwave and whisk periodically until thickened and the flour is cooked out.
Lay the raw fish out in the base of your casserole dish and put in the oven to start off.

Mix the onion, garlic and mushrooms into the white sauce and add your veg - peas or whatever you wish.
Pour the sauce over the fish.
Mix the breadcrumbs and grated cheese and sprinkle evenly over the top.

Cook covered in oven for 30 mins-ish dependent on size of pie - until top golden and cheese melted. Check after 15 mins. Even with the lid on the crumbs should crisp up nicely.

And that's all there is to it - a fish packed tasty, healthy pie with nary a scrap of watery mash in sight. You can add your choice of fish - whether as a mix or spoil yourself with just your favourite. In this way it can be as frugal as you can make it or rather more of a luxury treat for yourself.

Happy weekend!

2011-05-13T18:17:00.000+01:00

Well the Blogger dashboard has been down most of today so I've been unable to bring this up to date with my scintillating exploits. *Sob* Have a top weekend one and all - I shall possibly be attempting cheese making for the first time [woop woop] and allotmenting and things of that nature. Enjoy. :-D

Parke Estate

2011-05-11T13:31:00.001+01:00

A sunny afternoons wander in the countryside back round easter. We had a pleasant walk round the Parke Estate on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon, not a place I knew of before. We wandered along the stream, tried to spot oil beetles [we didn't but we saw some other pretty ones] and generally had a lovely afternoon. Pics follow.

And here's the beetle - any ideas what it is?

Seaside bimble with a forage thrown in

2011-05-04T18:15:00.001+01:00

Well in contrast with the excess of the food festy we took a little bimble along the coast the previous week from Exmouth round to Sandy Bay and picked up some rather more frugal foodie goodies. The weather was glorious, the sea - er - bracing! [Mighty nippy.] All in all it was a thoroughly restorative day for someone cooped up with hurty eyes for too long. Found various shells, some dog whelks and one full size whelk which we stashed in the cool under a rock and failed to find again on the way back! [Darn those pesky rocks all looking the same!] I loved the colour of this little crab shell though.

We had taken along the River Cottage 'Edible Seashore' guide and having carefully perused the pages on mussels decided we'd collect a few of decent size to try. I must say it's a tiny bit thrilling to be doing so when you consider mussels in a pub or restaurant are perceived more as a luxery item with price tag to match and here we were getting them for nuppence - the best price! Do be aware though that you will need a 'sacrificial knife' once you get home to deal with them. No - I don't mean for any dodgy offerings to some formless deity of your choice but a knife you don't mind getting very blunted for the purposes of pulling off the *beards and scraping off any barnacles. The knife I snapped the tip off of getting into oysters after last years food fest does me nicely! Having got a plastic bag from the local plastic tat / buckets 'n' spades type shop [we were woefully underprepared apart from the book having both forgotten to pick up anything to put any foraged goodies into] we collected a decent handful of mussels and some Sugar Kelp seaweed. According to the book of words it's good flash deep fried as a kelp crisp - you can tell the difference from regular kelp (which can also be treated this way) as it has wavy edges and a bumpy look whereas regular kelp is flat.

Now - mussels can contain grit as they're filter feeders. (This is why it's very important indeed you only get them from clean water areas and at certain times of the year which I'm not going to tell you thereby forcing you to look it up yourself. I take no responsibility for any wild food misadventures, only for my own!) Containing grit means you need to 'purge' them - soak them in aerated salt water for several hours with or without oatmeal (apparently it can speed the process) before cooking. If you're going to cook them in a sauce like a classic moules marinière this is important as grit in the dish is a real killer to the enjoyment of great food. We however; due to time constraints amongst other factors, opted to cook them in plain water letting any grit fall into the pan then shelled them and used them in a fish pie. Chap and I did taste one each 'straight' as it were and they were delicious. Sweetish as really fresh prawns can be, a delight to eat knowing we'd scooped them from the waves mere hours before. We'll definitely be repeating this experience though we'll have to wait now until after the summer as this is when they spawn so you shouldn't pick them. Apparently they are biggest in Autumn after their summer feeding and before they lose weight over winter so it'll be a treat I'm looking forward to already.

*I learnt from the book that the 'beards' or 'abyssal threads' are made from iron the mussel extracts from the seawater and used to be woven into cloth called 'mussel silk' which such luminaries as Caeser and Ghengis Khan used to wear! Cool huh? [In case you hadn't picked up on it yet I am a lover of the odd random and/or esoteric fact or three.]

Oh and the kelp? Er...we kinda forgot about it so the taste of Sugar Kelp crisps remains to yet delight our tastebuds, or not as it may be. (We had to throw the seaweed away.) We will gather some again another time though. I know - my bad. :-( Even free food wastage annoys me! :-D

4 days of foodieness! (Well actually - we did water the allotment too...)

2011-05-03T18:32:00.000+01:00

Well, we've had a busy few days here in (mostly) sunny Devon. As I predicted much cheese was purchased as well as several nice pints of ale consumed; or should I say 'quaffed' [I loved this sign] at the food festival and now my fridge and freezer are both well stocked with tasty morsels. [The bloke on the bar seemed so impressed with 3 ladies - Ma, big sis and I - all having pints of real ale he insisted on a pic of us. Not sure whether that's slightly creepy or flattering!] Whilst there I purchased a second smaller chopping board for pungent things like garlic. This is a whacking solid bit of beech wood [really shouldn't have made it the first thing I bought!] and cost me a fiver. Not bad considering that with a little care I should never need to replace it. It came from the same people I got my full size oak one from [you'll have seen it in recipe pics] a few years back and is also made from reclaimed wood. I really have no excuses to get any more now but they are truly things of beauty.

Another purchase I'm rather pleased with is this smoked pepper - ok not even vaguely pretending to be frugal [though you can lift basic food with judicious seasoning as long as you have the options in the cupboard] but it's very tasty without being overwhelming. Although the bloke on the stall recommended it with things like steak I can announce it goes well with a salmon cream cheese roll for brekkie, garnished with a little sorrel from the allotment. I think it'd work with eggs as well; with most things if you like the smoked flavour. I'm a fan anyway!

I'm afraid this is a bit of a short post [I've watering to do] but really - if you're any kind of foodie at all go to one of these shows just so you've had the experience. You don't have to go mad and buy far too much cheese like I did - virtually every stall has samples to taste and there's something for everyone. Look up your local show and go now! We picked up details for a couple of local monthly food fairs / famer's markets whilst we were there and I have now truly set my heart on attending Sturminster Newton Cheese Festival in September. Oh - and making our own cheese but that's another post...

Happy long weekend!

2011-04-28T17:51:00.000+01:00

Well that's as up to date as I've managed to get I'm afraid. You'll have to wait for next week for news of our seaside forage (mussels and seaweed - and it hasn't killed us yet either!), cookie making, countryside wanders and most excitingly - this weekend's South West Food Festival here in sunny Exeter. Pop in - it's great. Even better I got reduced price tickets through work! Ma and big sis are visiting for it and Chap and I shall stock up on cheeses and goodies - there's often some festival-deal bargains to be had. We shall have to remember the size of the fridge though!! Enjoy the 4 days if you have them. :-D

Slow Cooker Carrot and Coriander Soup

2011-04-27T18:54:00.002+01:00

Short on time and heavy on carrots? [They were on the Aldi super 6!] Knock up this slow cooker soup with a bit of chopping and finish it off when it's wanted. Time frugal as well as cost frugal! I'm good to you aren't I? [Well - to myself!!] Although carrot and coriander is one of my favourite soups I realised I don't have a single recipe written down for it, the horror!! I made this up with a bit of looking at a parsnip recipe from Sophie Grigson's veg book. It can just as easily be made conventionally on a hob as well as in a SC [in fact I finished it off on the hob] - just simmer for long enough until the veg are soft enough to blend rather than leaving them in the slow cooker for several hours.
Carrot & Coriander Soup
2 red onions (or use one decent medium sized yellow one - I happened to have red ones in the cupboard)
2 lg / 4 sml cloves garlic

1 tbsp EVOO
'Thumb' of fresh root ginger*
1.5 lb / 700g-ish carrots
0.5 lb / 225g-ish spuds
1.5pt veg stock plus 0.25pt or
0.25 pt milk to slacken soup if liked
Living plant coriander (69p-ish Aldi!) / big bunch of it
Knob butter
S + P
0.5 tbsp lime juice
A little grated cheese - medium - mature cheddar or red leicester I'd suggest

Put the oil in the SC and turn it onto 'high'.
Roughly chop the onions and add them to the SC. Add the finely chopped garlic and stir.
Grate / zest or finely chop the root ginger and stir into the SC pot.

Roughly chunk the carrots - being frugal aware make sure you get all the veg from round the tops - see pic.
Peel and chunk the spuds. (Most of the time I don't bother peeling veg but for a smoothish soup you're blending you really need to.)
Add both to the SC and pour on enough stock to cover. Mine needed 1.5 pints.

Trim the leaves from your coriander and put them in a glass of water in the fridge. Chop the rest of the stalks (you've probably got about 2-3"), ensuring you get all you can from the pot and stir them into the SC.
Turn the SC down to medium or low, depending how long you've got / are out of the house for. Mine was on low for 6.5 hours.
Blend. Don't be disappointed by the taste at this point. Once we add the seasonings it comes into it's own.
When ready to eat retrieve the coriander leaves from the fridge, reserve a few for garnishing if liked and chop the rest. Stir into the soup and gently reheat on the hob.
It'll be quite thick so slacken with a little more stock / milk at this point if liked, or leave thick if that's your preference. I added 0.25 pint milk.
Stir a knob of butter in and add salt and pepper to taste. It did need salt to bring the flavours out.
Remove from the heat and stir the lime juice through.
Serve scattered with a little grated cheese and the reserved coriander leaves.

This was really good - the zing added by the lime worked so well but next time I'd up the amount of ginger used. Guess it depends how big your thumbs are!!* Adaptable too - just leave out the cheese, butter and milk for a vegan dish. I can also see it working with a little coconut milk in place of the extra 0.25 pint liquid at the end. As ever with any 'recipes' I make up it's adaptable as you wish / are dictated to by the fridge & cupboard contents. More of a guideline than a strict recipe. Just so long as it's enjoyed. :-)
[I've noticed this post gets a fair few hits, if you try it out - and I hope you do, please leave a comment and let me know how you got on. It'd be nice to find others enjoyed it too!]

* What in the world is a 'thumb' of ginger? It really is one of the most useless measurements in the world. What if you're a big burly bloke or a dwarf - the size of your piece of ginger will bear no relation at all to each others. I can cope with a 'knob' of butter and a 'glug' of olive oil - in fact I now believe them to be measurements which mean 'enough to add the desired flavour to the dish and that you're comfortable with in relation to your waistline' but a 'thumb' of ginger? I ask you! (Although I suppose that it could be argued there's a potential for difference in 'knob' size as well...)

Allotment update

2011-04-26T18:46:00.002+01:00

Well, where to start? It seems rather a long time since I got a proper regular 'this is me wittering on about what I've been up to' post up on here. Perhaps a little allotment update as it seems to change daily at this time of year. Every time I look around the seeds in the front window have grown another inch I'm sure! Triffids on a bid for world domination! (Yes, yes - I know that was an excess of exclamation marks then.)

My allotment is long and thin and one short edge abuts the track round the site. Theres a small slope here from the track to the plot which was just dead space with grass on it which I wanted to utilise better with some 'raised' (built into the bank) 3 sided beds. These could then be planted up with bee friendly plants - good for the bees and hopefully good for my plot by attracting more pollinators to it. Well - mention it and it shall be done. Chap was there with wood assorted and power tools and in a couple of hours I was the proud owner of 2 smart, free, upcycled beds. All the wood came from other jobs - old fences, roofs etc. The preservative I've used on the insides was a branded end of line one in £land that I've had sitting around at home for a good 8 years! From this:

Grassy bank and scraggy old bits of wood.

To this:

Pretty smart eh? (Ignore the rasps there - they need tidying up I know!) Both are now nearly full of earth - as I've been prepping, raking over & planting each bed I've been shoveling the rock hard lumps that refuse to break up [see pic above left to see what I mean] into these. I'll cover with some compost and plant up very soon. I have various wild flower bee happy seedlings at home to go in and more seeds to sprinkle over.

Speaking of seeds here's some random exciting heirloom bean varieties a friend sent me. I have planted a few of all of them and passed some on where there were spares. I also got the Pea Bean recently after reading about it on littleblackfox's blog. It's also a heirloom variety - I found them at Nicky's Nursery - incidentally very reasonable on price and very helpful on the phone when you realise you forgot something on your order the day before so call up to see if you can add it in! Lovely people.

I hope they all do ok - the Pea Bean is the only one not to have sprouted yet! They're in loo roll inners at home along with 3 different runner beans, celeriac, 2 types of beetroot, the bee plants, asparagus peas, soya beans [they haven't come up yet either thinking about it], herbs, the Chap's chillis, pumpkin, 3 different squashes, courgettes, chard &c, &c, &c...

Since these photos of the plot, where you can see my [somewhat straggly] broad beans; we've also planted the spuds, onion and garlic sets, peas x 2 varieties, parsnip x 2 varieties, salsify - not expecting much there as the seeds were somewhat out of date - I've put the lot in to see if anything happens, Hamburg Parsley and 3 different types of salad leaves as catch crops between these. Also 2 different radish types in the centre of the runner poles which are in but so far only colonised by a few sweet peas - worth having a few in amongst the runners to attract the pollinating insects to the area. More pollinators = more food for you. Companion planting a go-go! Plus I like sweet peas. Anyway, this is the product of a couple of weekends. Now the rest to do - toms, carrots, kale, perpetual spinach beet, the oriental radish the Chap bought, swede, land cress, saltwort, cabbage, cauli, sprouts, er - I'm sure there's lots more but I'll have to check the seed box[es.] I defy anyone to have as many packs of seeds as me and remember them all!! :-D What have you planted?

Occular Errors Part Deux

2011-04-26T13:45:00.001+01:00

The next 'thrilling' installment in an increasingly longwinded and irritating post attempt. :-/

2 days later I was back at the hospital; after being shunted around for 4 hours they decide to do corneal scrapes - anaesthetic drops in your eyes followed by scraping with a mini scalpel blade (or what looked like one) from the surface of your eye - fun. They also upped the drops to every 2 hours and gave me an additional stronger one to tke every 2 hours as well. Needless to say I was quite concerned by all this but toddled off and managed to get the right bus back into town. At which point the amaesthetic drops wore off and I was in muchos pain for the rest of the night where they'd scraped my eyes. :-(
The following Monday I returned once more for another check and the results of the scrapings. Nada - they had grown nothing. As I understand it keratitis is normally caused by an infection of some kind but they thought that perhaps as I was already on the antibiotic drops possibly this had succeeded in stopping it. Either way they were very pleased with my progress and the ulcers had lessened in size. Phew! I'm now back to the ranks of the bespectacled; for 6 weeks at least, and finished the course of antibiotics. I am very very relieved that they're getting better. I was painfully aware that you only get one set of the ol' baby blues [ok - bluey-greyish-greens] so should anything hideous happen to them that's your lot. They must be looked after, a lesson I'll be well aware of in future.
Well - what with one thing and another I'm now mightily behind on the posts. I will endeavour to catch up to the present day but bear in mind it's another 3 day week... :-)

Hope you all had a nice easter break.

Unexpected break in transmission

2011-04-21T17:57:00.005+01:00

I'm still having trouble posting this so will do it in parts. Here then is the first 'thrilling installment'. lol

Well - I certainly didn't mean to suddenly abandon posting like that. Unfortunately my eye was decidedly dodgy so I ended up in the Walk-in centre on the Monday. "No lenses[contact] for 48 hours" I was told sternly - making me effectively useless as I can focus less than a foot from my face before it all goes blurry. If it didn't clear up by the end of that time I was to go to the hospital eye centre.
Wednesday at the hospital - Keratitis - ulcers/abcesses on your cornea. Not clever and they made it very clear they were glad I was there. This is something which if untreated can have serious ramifications for your sight so I was very glad I was there as well. There is an infection you can easily get in conjunction with Keratitis that is particularly nasty and can destroy your cornea in 2 days flat. Scary stuff. I was told I can't even think about wearing contacts for 6 weeks. They gave me antibiotic eye drops and told me to use them 4 times a day and and return in 2 days to check on my progress. Meanwhile to go to the opticians and get glasses - something I didn't have an up to date pair of. [My last pair is 18 years old!]

Return for your next exciting update - well, when I get the effing thing to work. Had quite enough tussling with it now! I'm off to enjoy the easter-time sunshine. Enjoy!

test test test

2011-04-21T14:38:00.001+01:00

Harumph - I'm off unexpectedly and Blogger decides it's no longer my friend. I'm trying desperately hard to get a thrilling account of why I suddenly vanished posted on here and it isn't playing at all. Just going to see if this posts...

Wild food weekend #4 - the Wrap up

2011-04-08T15:50:00.006+01:00

Having spent the latter part of Saturday and almost all of last Sunday feeling decidedly under the weather [no - not the foraging but a bug going round at work I picked up for the weekend] once I felt slightly better and the sun came out on Sunday early evening I fancied a meander along the river. We discovered a great swathe of the broad leaved wild garlic Ramsons about 5 mins from home. Certainly closer than the previous stash I knew about of the narrower leaved type. [I just can't ascertain whether that is Field garlic - wrong leaves, Garlic chives - wrong flowers, or what. Plants for a future has a list of 19 types of 'garlic' and I'm still not sure.]We gathered some leaves and a few of the unopened flower heads having read somewhere on-line that these are good fried in a little butter. [Sorry - I just can't find it or remember where I saw this.] Always ensure you have the right plant - Ramsons can resemble the leaves of Lords and Ladies / Cukoo Pint which is very bad for you indeed. This is one below.

You will help yourself by foraging by hand too - don't cut big swathes with scissors or a similar instrument as you could easily get unwanted leaves in there along with the garlic. Lily of the valley is another plant with similar looking leaves that won't do us any good either.

As well as the Ramsons we found great swathes of nettles - far from the road so ideal for harvest, wild chives which I didn't even know about, mustard garlic and a plethora of other edible greens. We also mentally marked the position of some cherry trees so will return in season to see if they produce anything nice for us.

This was foraging at it's best - a gentle walk in the sun surrounded by the fresh smell of just-rained-on spring greenery drying out, in earshot of the river and it's wildlife with the bonus of some freebie tasty food. What more does one need? :-D [Other than a practical foraging bag of some kind but bear with me - it's in the mulling around stage in my head at present.]

Oh - nearly forgot to tell you - Chap said the squirrel tasted like a gamey pork, with an undertone of nuts / acorns. So not chicken then. :-D

Wild food weekend post #3

2011-04-08T13:47:00.010+01:00

Some more of the edible plants we saw on our foraging walk, or 'bimble' last weekend at Otterton Mill. Bear in mind that all these were in the village; it's certainly not necessary to go trekking off for miles in the wilds to get some fresh free greens. Give it a go!

Bittercress - make a pesto using the raw leaves together with nettles and wild garlic, hazlenuts or walnuts and oil, lemon juice and parmesan. Grows in a rosette as seen here. Nipplewort - used to be used as a soothing poultice by nursing mothers, hence the name. Leaf and stem both edible. Use leaves raw in salad or wilt gently to cook. Yellow Flowers.

Cow Parsely - another of the umbellifers therefore easily mistaken for the poisonous Hemlock plant so I'm not posting a pic. It has a hairy stem though with an angle or ridge to it. I think most of us know what cow parsely looks like in the hedgerows but if you're even thinking of eating it get a good field guide! Use the stem - has an aniseed flavour. Can eat raw or cooked and can pickle it. Peel before using.

Cleavers / Goose Grass - yep - that blimmin sticky stuff that hooks it's little burrs onto your clothes and your cat in the spring and summer months. Best early in the year - around February but fine now. Just pick the very tops and cook - it's too scratchy to eat raw. Don't overcook. The seeds can be eaten when young - like peas. Can also use the scrunched up plant as a natural scourer and at one time people in the Outer Hebrides would weave a quick temporary basket from them for gathering foraged goodies. Red Valerian - Has red / pink flower spike heads. Cook leaves as greens and can eat raw in salad.

Navel / Penny Wort - Use the succulent leaves in salad. Taste better when growing in shade where you will find bigger leaves too.

So a lot of easy to find plants out there can be eaten and there's many more than this. Nettles and Wild Garlic to name 2 favourites.

After our walk we returned to the mill where later in the day we watched the cookery part of the wild food foraging. Here we had Alexanders as well - these grow either by or very near the sea and pretty much can be treated like celery - they sauteed it in butter which seemed to work. I must admit that in the cookery theatre everything seemed a little overwhelmed with butter but as least it gave us an idea of what all this stuff tastes like - and whether you think it's worth going out and getting again. As well as the Alexanders and various of the plants we'd seen on the forage we had Sea Beet; which the Chap and I have had before, and Ground Elder - something I was eager to try as it's so easy to come by. We also had Wild Sorrel and Garlic Mustard (Jack by the Hedge) stems.

I was a definite fan of the Alexanders but found myself a little disappointed by the Ground Elder. It had been done with the stems on and I found I was chewing and chewing and chewing then picking them out of my teeth after. I'd try them again but just the leaves if I cooked it.

All in all and good experience though, which inspired us to go foraging for some Alexanders on the way home down by the coast at Budleigh Salterton. There was masses here - I don't seem to have taken a pic of the whole plant but they have glossy leaves [yep - it's another umbellifer so be careful] and should have this pinkness to the stem sheaf where the leaves are growing out from.

I thouroughly recommend giving foraging a go - you get out in the fresh air, learn stuff and filled with pleasure when dinner time comes round that you got that bit of it for free. You find yourself looking at the hedgerows and pavement edges with a different eye I can tell you!

Ow ow owww...

2011-04-08T11:28:00.006+01:00

This is what my eye looks like today. Good eh? I've no idea why other than to assume it's massively irritated, I just know I'm wishing a) I wasn't at work staring into a computer screen and b) I had my sunnies with me today. Ouchy ouch ouch!

A somewhat prettier globe type object. This is a loan item called 'Flayed Stone' by Peter Randell-Page which is currently residing on campus, under the blossom of one of many beautiful trees here. A much nicer image

Wild food weekend post #2

2011-04-07T14:23:00.010+01:00

As promised, some more info on the wild food weekend we had. On the foraging walk we learnt many different plants as well as some interesting and useful facts on each one, and prep guidance. I'll post some pics here but bear in mind this is a reference for me as much as anything else. In the words of Robin from Eat Weeds - 'never ever put anything in your mouth unless you're at least 110% sure it's edible. For some plants that have a poisonous lookalike this should be more like 500%.' Therefore I take no responsibility etc...

Ivy Leaf Toadflax - The daylight will make the underside of the leaves go red which in turn makes for a more bitter taste. Better if growing in shade and in the Autumn.

Smooth Sour Thistle - Can eat the leaves raw or cooked.

Violet Leaf - Bland. What was used as a 'pottage' plant in the past when the women would start the stew on the fire in the morning, go out in the fields for the day and gather these edible greens on the way home and add them to the pot. Can make a pleasantly flavoured sugar with the flowers.

Daisy - some people can react badly to this. Use just the leaves and cook them - saute. Don't eat raw! I figured I / you don't need telling what a daisy looks like so no pic.

Primrose - similarly no pic though I was later horrified to discover the Chap had no idea what a primrose was. I know he's Londoner originally but that really is ridiculous!! Can use the flowers in a salad or can try drying the leaves and flowers.

Lesser Celendine - As mentioned leaves only. Must be cooked - saute or use in risotto. Pic in last post.

Hogweed - Regular not Giant one. Member of the umbellifer family (like carrots) which means there's a lot of options out there that look the same but which won't do us any good at all. One of the 'you must be 500% sure what it is' brigade. [The edible members of the family tend to be hairy - but that doesn't mean they all definitely are or that all the hairy ones are edible. Carrots aren't for a start. You have been warned!]

The sap can give some people a skin reaction; especially in conjunction with the sun, so gather with gloves. Eat the young shoots and leaves in March - April. Can be made into soup, fermented (think Kimchee style) or sauteed with butter until caramelised. The root can also be eaten but must be cooked. Apparently the seeds taste of Cardamon.

That will have to be it for this post - wow - I haven't even finished all the plants we saw let alone the eating of them, the coastal forage after or the river bank one on the sunday and it's nearly another weekend already! I'd better get my typing fingers out eh? I'm afraid it's far too sunny though to even vaguely think of being late at work and I have what are rapidly turning into mutant broad bean plants desperate to get into the allotment. Thus I am forced [you can tell it's taking a lot of forcing eh?] to bid you adieu. :-)

I have thoroughly given up on this stupid spacing Blogger seems to favour whenever I try and post multiple pics. My apologies for it - know I have tried my best m'dears.

Wild food weekend post #1

2011-04-05T13:54:00.005+01:00

At the weekend we visited Otterton Mill for their annual wild food day. They've been running this for the last 3 years. Chap tried Squirrel (!) and we went on a wild food foraging walk with the incredibly well informed Robin Harford of Eat Weeds. It was a lovely day in a very pretty setting. I have to admit to not having come across Otterton or it's Mill before but they're both lovely. We learnt a lot on the foraging walk; I scribbled notes and took pics all the way round and will do a proper post on these shortly. We discovered some surprising things you can eat - I never knew the leaves of Lesser Celendine were edible - you must cook them though!

Adventures in food - Dried Squid

2011-04-05T12:02:00.007+01:00

Bet you're going 'ick' right now eh? Here in Exeter we've got a fair few Chinese, Oriental, Indian and general World Food shops. Having booked off a half day last Wednesday for the abortive IT system switch over (now delayed for a week) and the Chap having been rained off we spent a greater part of the afternoon poking around several of these shops. It's fascinating and often much better value than buying these ingredients in English stupormarkets. Even if you don't fancy some of the more exotic offerings they're especially good for big packs of noodles or rice - works out a much more frugal way of buying these basics as well as things like soy sauce. We ended up with potato based noodles, dried shrimp, shrimp paste, dried squid, water chestnuts and some 'pickled' veg. [I think the 'pickled' bit here is something of a misnomer, at least sometimes. These packets come in a wide range of veg combos with chilli etc added.] Then we looked up what to actually do with the squid! :-D We decided to make a general stir fry with veg, noodles and the squid. This is how it went:

Dried Squid Noodle Stir Fry

Straight potato noodles - approx 1/3 - 1/2 pack

1 dried squid - soaked in water overnight, water changed then soaked for the day*

1 onion

2 carrots

Pack babycorn

6 Mushrooms

Half pack green beans

Half tin (small one) water chestnuts - sliced

0.25 pint veg stock

Pack pickled veg - ours was a kelp and bamboo shoots mix

Splash (big) fish sauce

Splash soy sauce

2 big tea spoons Tom Yum sauce in 0.25 pint hot water

Generic veg oil for stir frying

Sesame oil (if you have it)

These noodles take 8-10 mins boiling according to the packet so we boiled them for a little under that, taking into account that they will be added to the wok again later; drained them and put them on one side. Note here - they stuck together evilly after draining - apparently I should have added a little sesame oil during cooking to prevent this much like you would oil to pasta. [I don't know the proper name for these but check the picture if you want to find them - they end up looking a bit like glass noodles once cooked but don't in the pack.]

Drain your soaked squid and rinse well under running water to ensure no dirt could be left on. It was still fairly tough feeling so we decided to chop it into smallish strips - about 0.5 - 1cm wide. I just used the kitchen scissors, think this was far easier than using a knife would have been.

Heat the veg oil with a little sesame oil for flavouring.

Chop onion and add. Chop rest of the veg and add, stir frying.

Add packet of pickled veg (if using), veg stock and squid.

Add approx 2 tbsp fish sauce [sorry for the approximate measures here but chap did this bit and didn't measure like I would!] and less of soy - maybe 1tbsp-ish.

Mix Tom Yum paste into a little hot water (if you have sauce instead of paste you may not need to do this) and add to the wok. Continue cooking for a short time until veg are nearly cooked to your liking [bear in mind they really should crunch in a stir fry - at least a little bit] then add the noodles and stir to ensure they are evenly coated in sauce and bits.

Serve. [We're 'not very good at quantities' type of people so this made enough to easily feed 4, or 2 and 2 lunches for the next day!]

Hmm - well I'm glad we tried this but simple answer - we're not going to bother with dried squid again. [Any takers for the second one in the pack?] Small pieces were ok but the texture was rubbery, reminiscent of the limpets we had before I blitzed them, only not as nice! Any pieces that were a little larger took a lot of chewing - they did not have a nice mouth feel to me and made me feel slightly icky. Not recommended! that said the general flavours in the sauce we came up with here were nice - just leave out the dried squid!!

*Dried squid smells, no 2 ways about it. Expect your kitten friend to be climbing the cupboard next to you as you prep the squid for this dish. Frankly he may well end up getting the second one, suitably soaked and chopped into treat size portions. Bleargh.

:-( I just can't seem to get the stupid spacing and formatting of this post corrected - down to having manually retyped the whole post. Pah - enough!

Weekend round up

2011-04-01T12:37:00.011+01:00

We finished our weekend away with a trip to Windsor; briefly stepping across the river to Eton [We stepped in Eton – not in Eton Mess. Badum Tish! Yep – that’s the level of my jokes. Chap’s brother didn’t look impressed either but then he didn’t actually know what Eton Mess is. Tsk.] There’s a whacking big castle – although it’s difficult to get a proper sense of the size of it as it sprawls out so much. I liked the little Homer Simpson I saw peering from one of the lower windows – presumably one of the staff’s quarters rather than her Maj’s. Windsor’s a pretty place, though somewhat overrun with tourist tat shops vying for space with the hideously overpriced lifestyle things stores that will make your life complete for a meagre outlay of say- half your annual income for this litre of aged raspberry balsamic vinegar or some other such nonsense. [Yes – as a foody person that sentence does seem a little hypocritical but I tend to patronise ALDI or LIDL for my balsamic!] There’s a fantastically crooked building – now a tea shop. I didn’t go in to check but I’m prepared to bet it was also hideously overpriced. A clock incongruously set into the floor – no explanation offered I’m afraid. I liked this somewhat tortuously written plaque on the bridge over into Eton, and the masons mark in the stonework underneath. Also on the bridge were these fab bollards – seemed a little like chess pieces to me. Final proof (were it needed) that Windsor’s too posh for itself – even the scaffolding has it’s own hanging basket. Nice. We had lunch with Chap's peres, bro and son then wended our way home going via The Mayfly in Hampshire. A lovely pub on the bank of the river test it's a beautiful spot for a quiet pint before the long drive back West.

Paddy's day pasting

2011-03-31T13:50:00.003+01:00

Chiefs took on London Irish in their home stadium the Madejski on Saturday. As this was the nearest game they had to St Patricks day the 'Exiles' [London Irish] had duly designated it their annual Paddy's Day Party with bands, inflatables and beer tankers galore. And tries galore. Against us. Oh. Dear. :-( The first was over the line within a minute of the start and the second followed 5 minutes later! Not an auspicious start and it kind of set the tone for the rest of the game as we missed a conversion and London Irish carried on scoring. We seemed to come back a bit after the half time break, managing to get within a single point but the end score was 39-17 to the Irish. A deserved win it must be said and we enjoyed our visit. The atmosphere was great and the fans welcoming, several stopping us to shake our hands after the game. The old man next to me certainly enjoyed himself though I must admit to only understanding about 1 in every 3 words he said to me!!

Laarn-don

2011-03-29T13:21:00.008+01:00

Well I got my wish and managed to christen the new fork before going off for my training course. The angled handle really makes a difference when you go to do the first lift and turn of a spit. The handle is some sort of soft grip effect and nice to work with. I like my new toy!! If you're looking for an inexpensive set of tools you could do worse than keep an eye out for these 2 when they're on offer together.

The end of last week took me to London for training on the new IT systems we'll be using in a weeks time. We go live with them on the first day of our new term - brilliant timing!! Not looking forwards to that. I was staying in a hotel just off the end of Brick Lane - with this great juxtaposition of a view outside. Rundown graffitied derelict buildings in the foreground with the shiny gherkin behind. It's near Aldgate East station - one of those with a few odd original bits left like the fantastically retro looking [except presumably they're original so therefore can't really be called 'retro'? Vintage maybe? Answers on a postcard please!] signs telling you which way to go. I love those little individualistic notes in an otherwise rushed world; people with no time to notice them as they pass by on their way to and from the daily grind. Sad really. Or maybe I'm assuming too much apathy on their behalf and these little touches are what keeps people living in and loving London. Who knows?

Lovely things

2011-03-23T14:40:00.004Z

The lovely Chap got me a present yesterday as a surprise. A brand spanking new garden fork and spade set!! I've felt bereft since breaking my fork recently, and he was worried the spade may be going the same way as they both have wooden handles and have been out in the weather for the last 3 years. These are Spear & Jackson ones - with nice sized comfy feeling grips on the handle and an angled shaft to make the digging easier. They have a 5 year guarantee on and were £20 for the set of 2 from Screwfix.* [We'd been looking at potential replacements last week.] Chap said if you bought them individually they'd set you back £15 each instead, or £30 for the pair. Needless to say I'm delighted - what a star he is! Thank you darling!! I can't wait to get down the plot and try them out - I'm hoping to get away from work close enough to on time tonight to nip in and have a quick go before it gets too dark. Otherwise it'll have to wait to next week as I'm off for a training course for work tomorrow and Friday, then we're catching the Chiefs game at London Irish on Saturday. Fingers crossed for the Chiefs! *Can't seem to see them as a set of 2 there now - perhaps it was a limited time offer. The set had three 5 star reviews though so I'm expecting good things. :-)

Veggie 'meat' FTW

2011-03-22T14:00:00.007Z

I finally got round to trying out home made fake meat using the wheat gluten Littleblackfox so kindly sent me a little while back. I used this recipe on the net I've had kicking around for some time. It's got a lot of ingredients but that's essential for the flavour - you can experiment and adapt to what works for you or what you may need for a specific recipe / cuisine. The lovely Jeni from the Heathen Vegan site has very kindly given me permission to post the recipe so here it is, in her words:

Quick Homemade Seitan
Dry Ingredients
1 cup wheat gluten
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 tsp garlic salt
2 tsps pepper (I use white)
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp rosemary

Liquid Ingredients
3/4 cup Bisto gravy (made really thick) [Red bisto is veggie - fact!]
2 Tblsp Tamarind Sauce
2 Tblsp Olive Oil
1/2 Tblsp Soy Sauce
1 Clove of garlic squeezed through a garlic mincer
2 Tblsp Water

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl, really well. Mix liquid ingredients in a separate bowl then add to dry ingredients. Whisk well with a fork so as everything is incorporated and forms into a dough. Knead dough for a few mins.
Double wrap in lightly oiled tin foil. If you want to shape the dough into a sausage then do so, rolling the foil round tightly and then twisting the ends.
Bake in a pre heated oven at 200 degrees [Gas 6] for 90 mins - turning over halfway through. Unwrap the seitan and leave to cool completely.

When I got to the kneading stage I halved the mix and left one half as was and added to the other half:
0.5 tsp basil
0.5 tsp smoked paprika
0.25tsp cayenne
0.25tsp fennel - I had seeds rather than ground and am similarly bereft of a pestle and mortar so did my best to crush them in my fingers. Needless to say the result wasn't exactly even but hey - I'm sure I keep seeing 'rustic' on menus these days so it's virtually de rigueur to have lumps nowadays isn't it? :-D
The idea of this was to get some sort of spicy Italian sausage style end product.
Now I'd never made this before so had no idea how, or indeed if, it would work. I was very hopeful that it would prove to be tasty, have a good texture and be versatile enough to use in a variety of dishes. This would then mean I had a whole new panoply of fake meat options to explore!
Well - I like it. It was very very easy to make, took hardly any time to mix up, a quick and easy knead [I did add a sprinkle or so extra wheat gluten at the kneading stage as I found it quite sticky] then was happily bunged in the oven. They mention turning half way through cooking - I think this is a 'needed turn'; my 2 foil wrapped sausages were turned after an hour and there was a detectable difference in colouring from one side to another so I think if they were left for the whole cooking time unturned the difference would be too much. ['Needed turn' as opposed to things like oven chips / hash browns which tell you to turn them but I routinely ignore. Life's too short y'ken?]
I have to say I will be tweaking the flavourings next time - halving the tamarind as 2 tbsp means you can taste it too clearly in the end product, rather than amalgamated into part of the overall flavour. Also at least halving the white pepper - this much was a bit hot for me at the expense of the other aspects. The Italian type I made was pretty spicy - I guess having used half the mix with the original flavourings already in and then adding cayenne to it might have something to do with that...
All in all a very definite win for the 'fake meat' brigade - even the meat eating Chap gave grudging approval - meaning that he'd eat it rather than it being totally minging like some pretend meat products are, as we all know. [Linda McCartney - I'm thinking of your sausages here.] This was so quick and easy I'm looking forward to experimenting with flavour combos and cooking methods. So far we've tried it fresh roasted as it came out of the foil, and thickly sliced then oven braised with celery and leeks as part of a roast. Both worked. As long as you can get your hands on the *wheat gluten I urge you to try this. I can see it becoming a bit of a pet project with me!
*Wheat Gluten seems to be one of those things widely available in America [where many of the recipes I've seen come from judging by their use of cups as measurements] but not however quite so easy to come by here in the UK. Littleblackfox kindly told me they sell it online at The Flourbin, although it must be said they have a minimum order value of £10 (at time of writing) and you'll need to add £6.95 P&P to that. Otherwise search it out locally or there is a manual extraction method that I don't know and am hoping to get away with not knowing. Good luck. ;-)

Slow Cooker Barley Lentil Stew

2011-03-21T13:03:00.004Z

Had a busy weekend down at the allotment so decided to knock up a quick (in prep terms) dish in the SC for dinner after a hard days graft. This came out thicker than I expected so you could add up to another half pint of stock to loosen it a little. Could also be adapted to your preferred flavour / herb combo; just use the recipe as a blueprint and adapt away.

SC Barley & Lentil Stew

2 small onions

2 cloves garlic

1 tin tomatoes

1.5 - 2 pints stock - see note above

2 bay leaves

1tsp rosemary

1tsp parsley

1tsp oregano

2 sticks celery

1 large carrot / 2 smaller

0.5 cup pearl barley (approx 3oz/75g)

0.5 cup red lentils (approx 3.5oz/100g-ish)

S+P

Chop onions. Crush and finely chop garlic, add both to SC.

Drain tin tomatoes - if ready chopped add pieces to SC, if whole ones slice into about 6 pieces each and add to SC.

Chop celery and carrot into small dice and add to SC.

Add barley and lentils, herbs and stock and cook on High, at least 4 hours.

I cooked for 6 hours in the end which was a little too much - one edge was starting to stick. As mentioned this turned out pretty thick - adjust the amount of stock used to your preference.

All in all tasty, ideal for cold evenings, filling and very time frugal to make. You could add more veg as well - a good recipe to use up odds and ends in the cupboard and fridge.

Irish food fail

2011-03-18T08:55:00.010Z

Well, I got in last night full of ideas for soup but thinking that first I and the Chap would get some seeds sorted. We've been meaning to do this for a week now! So now was the time. Cleared stuff off kitchen table - check. Cleared stuff in lounge window bay - cd rack, 2 small tables, footstool - check. Extricated table from kitchen, round corner, down hall and into bay in lounge where it'll get the best light - check. Plastic sheeting on floor - check. Compost carried in - check. Varied plastic trays and receptacles - check. Big box of toilet roll inners - check. [For growing beans in for the uninitiated - they give a deeper root run and as the beans dislike disturbance to their roots you can plant the entire things out when the time comes.] Chap filled a module tray for his chillies &c; I filled up toilet roll inners for various Broad Beans [including some exciting crimson flowered heritage ones] and some sweet peas [Arthur Hellyer in case you're wondering]. Having omitted to keep back an empty 1 pint plastic milk carton to use for a handy compost scoop/funnel (cut off the base and leave lid on to use as a scoop. Remove lid to use as a funnel) I ended up using the jam funnel. TBH given my various poor efforts at preserve making so far this may be the best use for it! It worked very well so if you want something prettier to fill up your toilet roll liners with than an empty milk carton [though if you're using toilet roll liners in the first place it suggests to me you're not too worried about prettiness where this stage of veg growing is concerned] I'd recommend one. Expect to pay around the £3-4 mark, mine was from The Range for filling flasks with soup since we moved to our new and microwave-less building. Long story!

Anyway, a while later we had a neatly filled module tray, 4 sets of broad bean filled loo roll inners, one set of sweet pea filled ones and I'd laid out all the potatoes to chit and labelled their cardboard egg trays and *fridge egg trays as well.

Thoughts turned to dinner. And eyes turned to the time... :-O

Needless to say at 10 to 10 in the evening I'm afraid I no longer had the will to start making bread; not even soda bread, nor soup from scratch. We had veg and hash browns (cacky emergency freezer food I'm know - though the veg were fresh) with some grated cheese over the top of the veg. So - er - potato cakes are kinda Irish right? [Although I don't think LIDL is...]

I did chop the veg for a soup in the slow cooker overnight so I wasn't completely slack, and it meant I could have fresh home made potato, leek and Dorset Blue Vinney soup today for lunch at my aforementioned work sans microwave. Yum. Anyway, I'm pleased with the seed sowing, we, and especially the Chap, were getting a little twitchy feeling we were behind. Chap has the bad fortune to be working the weekend so I'm planning on getting a lot more seeds and planning done [and rugby watching - final weekend of the 6 nations people!]. Enjoy the weekend and any sun it brings your way! :-)

*You may remember (or not) me wittering on about these previously. I am currently coercing work colleagues into giving them up to me. Mwah ha ha haaa.

Well...I am a little bit Irish...

2011-03-17T09:47:00.004Z

Beannacht Lá Fhéile Pádraig!
Or more conventionally Happy St Patrick's Day! Now as I'm a person that would celebrate this in a non-secular fashion [and tbh I'm just an eighth Irish] I have been looking up some foodie ideas for a veggie Irish dinner tonight. Looks like it's gonna be either Irish Potato Soup or Leek and Oatmeal soup with soda bread. I must admit I'm leaning towards the Oatmeal version; or 'Brotchán Foltchep’ [Brotchán meaning 'broth' and Foltchep the oatmeal.] It's also known as ’Brotchán Roy’ - King's Soup. I'm not sure whether this is because it was regarded as fit for a king or because it was actually a favoured dish of some historical monarch but I fancy giving it a go. And soda bread is great; warm from the oven slathered in butter - ok maybe not the healthiest but tasty and true to what seems to me to be the basic roots of much traditional Irish cooking - made with easily available inexpensive ingredients but nourishing all the same. Anyway - I shall let you know what combo I go with on the morrow

I can't claim credit for this cake - a colleague made it and brought it into work for us but I can attest that's it's very very good (and I don't eat a lot of cake) and you can't taste the Guinness in it - it just seems to add depth of flavour. Good for me as I can't stand the stuff personally! Enjoy the day, and celebrate the food of the Emerald Isle with me.

Cheese - it's spesh and you know it!

2011-03-16T13:35:00.004Z

Well I promised to tell you more about our cheese purchases yesterday and here you go. I mentioned the Beenleigh Blue - it's made by Tickelmore Cheese in Devon. It's a blue cheese made from Sheeps milk. Slightly misleading to look at as it doesn't show a lot of blue veins but it's a robust and strong flavoured blue, although not too 'claggy' or 'wipe out' with the taste. Very very nice, although also fairly expensive, do try it if you see it available anywhere.

The others we got were a good bit of Dorset Blue Vinney, some tasty mature cheddar - Brue Valley Vintage, a Capricorn goats cheese (not pictured) and some Raclette - I've wanted to try this Swiss speciality that's eaten melted for a while so I'm looking forward to having it. We got the 2 jars of loveliness pictured as well; now for a lazy evening dining on cheese, crackers, chutnies, olives and the like. Ah bliss!

Speedy 'Hola'

2011-03-15T13:53:00.007Z

We had a nice weekend both in Dorset and at the allotment. Beautifully sunny day and much digging yesterday has left me rather knackered today!
Over the weekend we had lunch in the Wise Man pub in West Stafford. Pretty little village and a lovely looking pub, nicely done up inside. It is a meat eaters menu though, very definitely. There was a total of one veggie and one fish choice on the main menu; and as the fish was battered I chose the veggie option of sweet potato and butternut squash Thai curry. Oh dear - it was quite hideously sweet. Now - I'm not an idiot so I know both the veg in this are naturally sweet and I also eat and actively like both of them. However the sauce this was done in tasted basically like apricot jam had been used to make it. I found it quite inedible I'm afraid. That was once I'd waited 10 minutes to even try my meal as the dish was supernova heat when it was brought out!!
The chap had a steak purporting to be medium-rare but which was a little overcooked on arrival. As his plate was also supernova it was a lot more overcooked looking once a few minutes had passed but he said it was nice. Ma and big sis had a pork, cider and apple casserole and aside from leaving a few larger lumps of apple on the side of the plate declared it very good. A mixed bag then. I did mention to the guy who collected the plates that I found the curry to be very sweet. 'Mentioned' you'll note, not complained. Anyway he came back and told me that the chef said that 'all Thai curries are sweet' said in a slightly bolshy 'you're an idiot' manner that I found pretty offensive. [I used to work in customer service and in fact used to be a manager so I do know what you do and don't act like to customers even if they're kicking right off, or downright lying or whatever. None of which I was doing.] This was a shame as otherwise, as previously mentioned, this was a nice pub sympathetically done up after a fire a few years back. Also - as a big afficionado of Thai Green curry [to the extent of keeping a jar of the paste at work] I take issue with being told all Thai curries are sweet. No they're bloody not. A lot of them have coconut in yes - that does not however equate to sweet. Anyway - if you're a meat eater you'd probably find something to tempt you here, personally I don't think we'll be returning though.
As for the rest of the weekend Chap fixed some leadwork on Ma's roof and took apart the old coal bunker, earning brownie points in the process I'm sure! We visited the Fridge, a very good deli in Dorchester and spent the best part of £20 [!] on cheese, medlar jelly and a jar of pickled walnut chutney!! [Very nice cheese though - of which more tomorrow.] We watched the home nation rugby games in the 6 nations - unfortunately missing Italy beat France for the first time ever [YAY!] as that's when we were lunching.
We also dug over more at the allotment [oh woe my broken fork - how I miss thee] and now I'm aching a wee bit. At least the sun came out and I could get my hands in the earth once again. :-D

Quick quick post

2011-03-10T17:38:00.009Z

Another 'one good and one bad thing' post.

Love this ingenious use of a recycled tin and a party popper casing for bird feeders here - seen at the local St Bridget Nursery. These have holes punched in the base and a seed & fat mixture inside. And yes; if you're wondering we were there buying seeds! I just can't stop myself... We got these nifty little free guides as well. Also - by searching the ranges available we got the radish seeds for £2.29 for 60 from the Suttons range as opposed to the first pack we picked up - £3.99 for 30 seeds from Unwins! Half the seeds for nearly double the price, go figure. (As an aside to this I find Mr Fothergills good value for money and they don't charge P&P for seed only orders as opposed to T&M who do and take longer to dispatch.)

Gutted and really rather annoyed at myself - managed to break my trusty fork at the weekend trying to extract a big tuffet of grass from a path on the allotment. I can't believe my honourable friend is busted. :-( Think I'll have to borrow the chaps until I decide on a replacement - his already has a broken tine though!

Well, off to Dorset for the weekend for Ma's birthday, fingers crossed for the sun!

Rugby round up

2011-03-10T13:30:00.006Z

There's been 2 home games over the last couple of weekends for the Chiefs with one loss and one win. First up was a local Westcountry derby V Bath on the 26th Feb. The start time for this had been pushed back to 8pm for the telly. This meant that we could watch the 6 nations games first [including watching England cream France] but meant we were all, er, rather tired by the end. [As attested to by fuzzy nature of the pic here!] Sadly we lost 9-12 in a penalties only game which saw our normally reliable Steenson miss a couple in the high winds. It was another packed crowd though for this sell out game; and according to rumour we statistically can't go down now despite stubbornly sticking at position 9 in the table.
Rather more happily our last game on March 6th was a 30-9 win against Northampton Saints including 3 tries scored by us in the glorious Devon sunshine. We narrowly missed out on a bonus point but were happy to add to the Saints losing run. (6th game in a row now.) We're still 9th in the table, but as long as it's the Premiership table we're in I don't think we mind too much.

Foraged Seafood Stew

2011-03-09T10:33:00.015Z

Limpets - hmm. The books seem divided on these with Hugh F-W enthusiastic about them; although admitting to their rubbery qualities, and John Wright of Edible Seashore rather more disparaging - describing eating them as like eating pencil erasers dipped in fish paste!! Not exactly encouraging but I didn't share that section with the boys when we were collecting the things. ;-D

We'd placed them in salted water [35g sea salt to 1l water] until we were ready to use them in an effort to purge them - ie rid them of the grit in their stomaches.
Anyway, having seen a few too many references to rubberyness we decided that a long cooking time would be the way to go so we'd use the slow cooker for this stew. It was an experiment really but I was hopeful they'd prove palatable being an easy forage that's not exactly hard to find. I also added some Sea Beet we'd foraged from the same stretch of beach - this is a common seashore plant that we'd never tried before that John Wright was rather more complimentary about than the limpets; likening it to a superior kind of spinach as it doesn't lose it's shape on cooking as spinach does. This is how it went then.

Slow cooker Limpet stew
3 small onions
2 cloves garlic
2tbsp EVOO
0.25 pint white wine
1 tin chopped tomatoes - drain but retain juice
1tsp smoked paprika
Limpets - we had 3.25lb of them in their shells
0.75 pint fish / veg stock
2-3 potatoes
3 white fish fillets chopped into chunks
Sea beet - 3 handfuls
Frozen prawns - 1 handful
Frozen cockles - a handful
Lemon juice

Put EVOO in pan to heat. Finely chop onion and garlic and fry off to soften.

Place wine and drained tomatoes in the SC on high - retain the juices from the toms though.

Add smoked paprika to the frying pan with the onions and garlic and cook for a couple more minutes, stirring well then add the lot to the SC.

Scrub the limpets and add to the SC in their shells. Switch to 'low' setting and add fish stock to cover - I used 0.75 pint made from a cube. Add the tom juice at this point if more liquid is necessary to nearly cover all those shells.

After 8 hours the limpets will fall from their shells with ease; pick the shells out being careful not to burn fingers!

Add the potatoes, chopped into smallish dice and leave for another 2 hours to cook through.

At end of this time try the limpets and discover they're still disappointingly rubbery in texture so decide to try Mr Wright's tip of blending the things.

Blend mainly the limpets and chunks of potato with a little of the liquid. Be startled at the - er - 'interesting' shade of green it goes. [At this point it's fair to say I was getting a little more perturbed as to whether this increasingly long-winded process was actually going to produce something fit to eat. Looks appetising deosn't it?!] Return to SC where the sauce has been cooking away for another half hour.

Add the 3 white fish fillets (I buy the value packs of frozen ones in the stupormarket) to the SC and leave for a further half an hour.

Strip the stems out of the sea beet - they are a remarkably obliging plant in that these tear out very easily. Add them to the SC. Taste for seasoning - I added salt.

Add handful of defrosted prawns and cockles to the SC and stir in. Leave until fully heated through at least.

Immediately prior to serving add a splosh of lemon juice to taste.

Hmm - we all liked this to start with - although liquidizing the whole limpets (rubbery foot and dark stomach section) had left a bit of grit in - solved by just serving from the top of the pot. However after a while the taste becomes a bit much. Having tried this at various points in it's creation I think that next time the best use for limpets would be to simmer them in stock / toms; whatever you want, to give a basis for a bouillabaisse type soup or stew then discard the limpets themselves. The taste of the liquid before blending the limpets into it was better I think.

Anyway - you have to try these things and now we know. Try yourself and make up your own minds though - it may be a taste/texture combo you love but for me - it just didn't live up to the ones I'd had in garlic butter in Madeira a couple of years ago. As you can see from the shells though they're not the same variety as our native type. Perhaps the shore is the best place for me to leave those in future. :-)

Foodie day!!

2011-03-08T17:00:00.003Z

Well - it's pancake day anyway - but I also learnt today that it's British Pie week. Oh - and it's International Women's Day. So - off you go and think up something to combine those 3! I'm planning on pancakes tonight - although which ones out of regular, scotch (drop/griddle scones), crepes, blini, boxty, oriental, american buttermilk... hmmm - flat foodstuff is evidently a universal constant huh? Enjoy if you too are partaking and I promise I'll have a proper post for you tomorrow - all about limpets no less!
Oh - just in case - basic pancake batter recipe:
4oz plain flour - but if all you've got is self raising that's fine
0.5 pint milk
1 egg
Whisk egg and milk together then whisk in sieved flour bit by bit. Add a pinch of salt if they're to be served savoury. Oh - or sieve flour into bowl then add whisked milk and egg to it bit by bit. Either or. So long as you sieve the flour and you've got a half decent balloon whisk - metal for preference - it'll only take a couple of mins to get a double cream consistency smooth lump-free batter. Not worth getting the FP out for I'd say.
Heat oil in pan - fry.
That's it! Have fun. :-)

Fishing fail on the North coast

2011-03-07T13:50:00.009Z

Over the half term Chap's son was with us [I promise I'm catching up!] we went fishing at Ilfracombe in North Devon. You may recall I was a little unsure how I'd take to this but the issue didn't come up. I caught not a thing - absolutely nowt!! We'd arrived early to be there as the tide came in - apparently that's the best time as the fish come in feeding with it. It was an enjoyable few hours standing staring at the sea and coast line in this beautiful part of the world. Chap's son caught a baby ling - whilst I'd nipped off to the lavatories - but they did show me a pic so I'll believe them. As it was a little 'un they returned it back to the sea. Other than that I almost got a crab but he let go as we pulled the end bit of the line [surely there's a technical term for that - hooks &c?] out of the water, waving a cheeky claw at us as he went -whether in thanks for his brekkie or defiance at nearly catching him I'm not sure. [Tackle - it's tackle!!] It was a mostly dry albeit grey morning though and certainly got some healthy sea air roaring into our lungs.

After a fish and chip lunch by the sea [from a place on the Quay road by the harbour - rubbish. Undercooked and soggy and they forgot to give us the curry sauce so we had to go back] we decided to have a drive along the coast. Originally heading for Hartland but we decided to stop at Clovelly [or 'clover-ly' as the Chap insists on pronouncing it - lol.] If you haven't come across Clovelly before it's a little fishing village built pretty much down a cliff face on the North Coast of Devon. It's very steep and cobbled and famous for pictures of donkeys that used to carry people and goods up and down. Now most people seem to have these nifty sledges made from bread delivery trays. There's a hotel right on the front as well as a pub further up the 'hill' [it's a cliff - admit it Clovellyites] and a fair few wee shops selling touristy stuff and some rather good ice-cream. There's a rocky shore past the harbour and a waterfall down the cliff a little way along the beach. If like me, you walk along beaches staring at the floor and have a penchant for stripy pebbles you'll love it here - just remember that you have to carry any 'finds' back up the hill! Unless of course you opt for the cheaty landrover service to take you back to the car parks - there's no visitor parking in Clovelly at all unless you're booked into the hotel. There seems to be a large number of cats in Clovelly as well, not sure wyt that should be. There's also a donkey stables and vis itor centre if you end up in the main car park. Oh - in looking up that link I've just found out that Clovelly is privately owned and you're supposed to pay to get into it!! We ended up in a little parking area by the recycling bins and didn't pay as there was no one asking us to as we giant-strode down the steep tarmaced road that comes in to the west side of the village. Oops - sshh!! It's a pretty place but I don't think I'd be happy paying nigh on £7 to get in. Anyway, you pays your money [or not] and you takes your choice. :-)

Start Point and a seaside forage

2011-03-04T16:09:00.007Z

Wednesday we took a little jaunt down the coast to Start Point; off past the end of Torbay, Brixham and Dartmouth here. Having parked up in very windy conditions [after following some comedically tiny roads to get there] we had an amble down to the point, looked at the view, got blown about, saw the lighthouse was shut and headed back up the hill. After a sarnie or two we decided to coast hop our way back up; stopping first at Hallsands, where we gathered some limpets and sea beet with the idea of making a seafood stew loosely based on one in the River Cottage 'Fish' book. It was great fun I must admit - we came across some rocks with masses of limpets on [and loads of tiny mussels - noted for later in the year once they've grown] and took a few from each spot. It's important to vary the size if you go foraging for limpets as they change sex half way through their lives therefore the small ones are male and the large female. If you only went for the big 'uns you'd cause a population imbalance; aparently the larger ones can be tougher too. Needless to say as well that if you're going to forage for any seafood check water cleanliness, time of year, local byelaws etc. Equip yourself with some expert knowledge like this - that's what we did. I take no responsibility &c &c &c!!
We also found some dog whelks and these eggs - not sure what they are but intriguing!

We carried on up the coast - incidentally a lovely part of the world, then crossed the Dart estuary on the ferry and headed for Churston Court for a pint in front of the huge 13th C fireplaces. This place is brilliant; quirky, old, fascinating and serving lovely food and pints it's worth a visit just to have a poke about. There's at least 2 suits of armour as well!