Simple things

:: discovering :: a red phonebox on a recent campervan excursion, only to realise that The Tallest didn’t know what a Public Telephone was! Soon rectified with the aid of a mobile (!)

:: Playing :: At one of our village parks, making the most of the brightest sunshine, trying to soak it all up and preserve the memories for the coming darker days.

:: Proud :: Of the harvesting and preserving going on thanks to the allotment, it may be small scale, we are sure to have run out before Spring arrives, but it’s Ours!

:: Learning :: Something new everyday. Like mattress alteration! Don’t fear something that you’ve never done before, embrace it, and you might discover that you enjoy it (I did!), as well as saving a shed load of money by not having a professional alter it for you. (Photo credit : The Tallest)

:: Baking :: The joyful knowledge that a little bit of pastry (Gluten Free of course…) can turn yesterdays leftovers into some attractive looking supper.

:: Celebrating :: The 2nd Birthday of a wee friend, at that most perfect of places, the beach. Laughing at the mad dog. Enjoying party food made at home with care and love. Gratitude to have found such good friends.

Simple things, simply put, what’s been shaping your Summer?

Another ‘First Ever’

The Tallest started at ‘Big School’ today, she attended a whole 6 1/2 hours of school, and from all accounts loved it. She’s shattered after only one day, I hesitate to think how she will feel after one week, but she’s raring to go again tomorrow and that is what really counts.

The Smallest and I had to settle into a more sedate routine than the one of late, and it was simple pleasures that filled our day, for her feeding and changing her doll, for me making jam and peeling onions for pickling, but all done strangely to the almost silence of the day, no tears and tantrums, no arguments, she is so much less needy than her sister, and today it really showed. I look forward to having some alone time with my youngest daughter, something that has happened so rarely since her arrival into this family over 2 years ago now.

I haven’t been managing to get much preserving done before now, life has been getting in the way some what, it felt so very good to be pouring this hot sticky sweetness into jars for consumption over the winter months.

When I checked the brambles again today, they are heavy again with ripe fruit, but this time I feel that a bit of Blackberry Vinegar is more than overdue.

What of the summer are you ‘preserving’ for the coming winter months?

Broken washing machines and leftovers

:: Apologies once again for the length of time between posts, but we have been busy enjoying the company of my brother (who lives in Devon) and his three very energetic children. The day after their arrival we were waiting for the washing machine repair man again! But with it being a beautiful May day the girls and I launched into a bit of hand…or maybe that should be…foot washing…::

:: Has anyone spotted the purple boobs in the background?! ::

:: I have so much respect for those that hand wash all the time, even though this was an enjoyable thing to share with the children on a warm day, I don’t think I’d be too keen on doing the cloth nappies in January! The time that it took up was also very noticeable, so whilst I won’t be giving up the convenience of the machine anytime soon, I’m much more appreciative of it of late that’s for sure! ::

:: I’ve also been trying to use up the leftovers that inevitably arise in a household with small children, and wanted to share these tasty little potato cakes with you…okay not share as such, rather let you witness the wonders that can be achieved with a few leftovers ::

:: These made a lovely change to our usual breakfast, just leftover mashed potato, mixed with grated cheese, egg and herbs, with enough flour to keep the ‘dough’ dry enough to fry, and one tin of tomatoes and a couple of squirts of tomato puree in the blender later – a healthier alternative to the usual ketchup. Those ‘Get well healthy people‘ as the Tallest calls them have a few decent ideas to be honest ::

:: Enjoy the rest of the week xx ::

Pancake Day

:: The  occurance of Pancake day is never needed as an excuse to cook pancakes in this household, but I have to admit that I do make a concerted effort on the day itself  by cooking a savoury dish as well ::

:: These are loosely based on a Hugh Fearnely Whittingstall recipe, and by happy co-incedence there were several leftovers in the fridge to be used. The filling was fried (already cooked) potatoes, mushrooms and bacon. I normally add onions but the Tallest was ‘supervising’ the meal and wouldn’t allow them in!  A spoonful of  this mixture in each pancake with a spoonful of cheese sauce on top, rolled in an oven proof dish and then covered with the remaining cheese sauce, and a sprinkling of grated cheese. After about 20 minutes in a hot oven, once the cheese is brown and bubbling it’s ready to eat ::

:: Mr GT and I only need two of these each as they are incredibly filling, but super tasty! Hope you’re not suffering with pancake overload this evening. xxx ::

A bird in the hand…

:: Is worth how many in your back porch exactly? ::

:: And this wasn’t the half of it – I managed to find people willing to take the unprocessed birds – so that was five less for me to sort out, but I am still complaining that my thumbs hurt! ::

:: I had a night off from it tonight, but there is one hen pheasant left to be sorted out, who will by tomorrow have been hung for six days (more than enough for my tastes!) my freezer is full and my slow cooker full of pheasant curry! ::

:: Never one to refuse a free meal – that’s the problem – free in the monetary view of the word is all very well and good, but it usually means that some time has to be spent on making whatever it may be fit for eating, time a commodity that I feel so desparately short of of late ::

:: There are as you see on the left of the picture, four wee woodcock – quite a prized bird I hear, knowing not one thing about the preparation and cooking of these wee things, I turned to the bible that is The River Cottage Meat Book and read with growing horror that he suggested they be roasted with nothing but their gizzards removed, and that the insides have a delicate creamy flavour once cooked, and isn’t recommended highly enough, although among all the beaters and shooters that we know not one of them had eaten them this way, so needless to say, mine are minus their insides waiting patiently in the fridge to be cooked. Until HFW himself want’s to bless my kitchen and cook them himself – that will be the way forward from now on. ::

Decorated Tree Biscuits

:: Due to an unexpected day off from my usual work, I’m nursing a poorly Smallest whilst the Tallest has fun and frolics with her Nursery chums, I ended up getting a batch of tree biscuits baked without the usual distractions of a 4 year old to deal with :: And not wanting these to be entirely ‘mama-made’ they were used as the basis for our before bed ‘activity’ ::

:: As you can see from the tray we started off with six biscuits to decorate, but one unexpectedly got ‘broken’ and had to be eaten! :: Accidentally on purpose is my favourite sort – they always taste SO much nicer don’t you think? :: The recipe I used is my Basic Gluten Free Biscuit Recipe which make a really nice crunchy biscuit, but to keep things seasonal I added some ground ginger and mixed spice mmmmm Christmassy ::

:: Here are three of the beauties in close up :: We kept things simple, as offering too much choice just before bedtime usually results in disaster! :: She’s so happy with them that she’d like to give some to her Nursery teachers :: Enter Mummy for a bit of late night appropriate packaging retrieval ::

:: Work tomorrow so unless I am feeling particularly perky I’ll drop you folks a line on Friday, when hopefully I should have finished that danged hat :: Too many distractions (read work and children!) and not enough time (read FAR too easily distracted!) ::

:: By the by, Thanks Friends for a lovely evening, good company; good conversation and a warm fire to do it besides….we really should do it far more often than we do! ::

Slow Cooked Sausages in Apple Juice

With the advent of my returning to work two days a week, the slow cooker has been dusted off and put to good use on the days when I am out of the house, as work is fifteen to twenty minutes away by the time I pick up the girls and get home they are well in need of their dinner and won’t wait for a meal to be cooked. I’ve tried a few things this being one of the more successful.

Bare in mind that this recipe is using gluten free sausages, but as long as they are a good quality thick pork sausage you won’t go too far wrong.

Ingredients

2tsp Olive Oil

6 – 10 good quality gluten free pork sausages (depending on how many you’re feeding)

5 rashers smoked streaky bacon cut into small slices

4 eating apples, peeled, cored and diced

2 leeks trimmed, cleaned and cut

300ml of apple juice as this is a family recipe or you could use cider for a fuller flavour

• Heat the oil on a large frying pan, on a medium heat and brown the sausages, once coloured evenly spoon into slow cooker
• Return pan to heat and add the bacon and the leeks and fry until softened and coloured (about 3-5 minutes) spoon into slow cooker dish
• Add the apples together with the apple juice (or cider) cover with the lid and cook on low for 6-8 hours
• Serve with lashings of creamy mash and your favourite vegetables, I recommend purple sprouting broccoli, the kids recommend carrots!

I really enjoyed this and felt that it warranted sharing with others.

Bon Appetit!

A hot afternoon for baking

Despite the hot and muggy weather that we have been experiencing, the Girls and I spent a busy afternoon in the kitchen, with some rather pleasing results.

Pardon the colour but it was taken at night using a mobile phone, not the best combination.

Everything that you see is gluten free, and I have to confess that the sausage rolls are a first time try, which have gone remarkably well, just a standard gluten free pastry recipe, but using Self Raising rather than Plain GF flour, to give the pastry a lighter texture, and I have to say that it worked.

Gluten Free pastry is notoriously crumbly and very good at falling apart when you touch it. This I am afraid to say is no exception, but while the texture will never be as good as ‘the real thing’ the taste is excellent, and by keeping the dough ‘dry’ rather than wet when working it it doesn’t go like sheets of iron once it has been in the oven.

I’ve eaten three already, I don’t think that rest will survive the weekend at this rate!

Peas in

Tallest seen here posing with the row of peas that she helped plant up and stake in.

We’ll go back to the allotment tomorrow to have a recce to see how many succumed to the bloody pigeons that seem to wait undetected while us foolish gardeners plant the fruits of our labours into the ground, only to turn our backs on the plot and find the remenants of a rave the next day after we’ve left. I’m sure they taunt me whenever I’m down there…anyway that’s besides the point.

My Cut and Come Again lettuces have been rather more successful than I thought they would be, so rather than have them all in pots I think that either I’ll put them towards a swopsies, or I’ll put a row into the allotment and let them grow into full plants rather than cut the leaves.

In the turmoil that was bulldozing the garden, our beautifully well established Rosemary was done for, and given that Rosemarys are not known for their love of moving, I got the knife out and finally ventured into the unknown world of taking cuttings. I await with baited breath the outcome of my endevours (I hope they root, I think that I’ll be addicted if they do, I found it extremely satifying trimming and cutting the pieces).

My Borlotti beans, are showing very little signs of coming up, out of the five trays that I sowed I can only see two plants shooting, its the same story with the sweetcorn. Last year I sprouted these in a jar first and then planted them out when they had germinated, this year I have sowed direct into modules and it doesn’t take a genius to see whats happened.

The cucumer plants have finally began to show their heads, I am hoping to grow these on in the garden, Hubby is particularly fond of pickled gerkins, and that is one thing that I have never managed to do for him in all the seasons that we have been growing, so we’ll wait and see, although at this rate he’ll be lucky if he gets but one jar.

So late second sowings of my favourite staples seem to be the order of the weekend. We’ll see how much we get done, as the Smallest is currently on a one baby mission to deprive the whole family of sleep, and combined with all the effort that has been going into getting the garden right, we are all beginning to show obvious signs of running out of steam.

Enough for now, time for some sleep while its all quiet up there…

Weight Loss and (too much?) Activity

So, posts have been a little thin on the ground, but then again so have I…

My diagnosis with Coeliac Disease around three years ago seemed to be the answer to my constant battle with maintaining a healthy weight. And for a while this was so, but 11 months after having my second baby, the weight is dropping off again, so my attentions have had to turn to calorie counting and extra protein, rather than the allotment and getting the seeds in in time!

I have an extremely healthy diet, and I have never had a really sweet tooth nor been a fan of convienience foods so I have always eaten quite alot to keep my calories up throughout the day, but right now I don’t think that that alone is enough so I have had to redouble the efforts to gain weight.

Now, this will sound terribly girly of me, but this summer I have two weddings to attend, and I would like to look ‘good’ not  ‘skinny’ so let battle commence!

So while I’m busy eating myself into a stupor, rest assured that the allotment is now being set with beetroot and parsnips, the lettuces, calabrese, sweetcorn and peas are all growing good in the greenhouse and the other seeds are swelling nicely waiting to spring into germination.

A Mum friend actually suggested that I should do less (growing, digging etc) and then I could ‘focus’on my weight issues, she didn’t seem to acknowledge that if I didn’t ‘focus’on the growing then there wouldn’t be anything for me to eat! Nevermind, I’m sure someone will realise one day that we grow the food because we need to, not just because we feel like it and it’s a bit quaint!