A Hard Fortnight!!

It's been a little while, but not without good reason!! The weather's improved immensely and I've spent quite a lot of time either at the allotment, in the garden or indulging my creative urges. On the 17th I went to a workshop where we began to make a wall-hanging based on a design called "Daisy, Daisy". The original design won prizes and we were shown how to piece the background and construct the design. Not exactly rocket science, but thoroughly enjoyable. I'd chosen a very different colour scheme from the suggested green (and as a result won a few Brownie points) preferring to work in my favourite blues instead. I'd found lots of bali batiks and had the best fun putting them all together and working the layout. This is just a background block and there's a lot more to do so I'll keep you posted on that!!

I've been working the allotment in dribs and drabs. All the seeds I'd planted a few weeks ago suddenly shot up and looked in need of more space. There were three beds still to be weeded and I set to last week clearing one of them... and then had to abandon everything as I got this horrendous muscle spasm in my neck!! It was so bad I really thought I'd done some lasting damage (it's still a bit sore) but the nice man at the A&E (who looked like John Simm) gave me some wonderful drugs and even though I could still feel it I didn't care!!!

A week later and the worst is over, but those beds still needed weeding and I took advantage of a whole free day and spent it in the sunshine (a whole 21 degrees C) clearing another bed and planting LOADS! The day started with a disaster as I loaded the seed trays into the car - I dropped them!! Somehow I'd knocked my elbow and a whole tray of sweetcorn and all the squash ended up on the gravel. I just burst in to tears! All that work!! Jerry helped me salvage them and it seemed that most of them survived. PHEW!!! I'd hoped to get all the beds cleared and everything in the ground today, but there's still one more to be done and all those sweetcorn seedlings (minus four) to get in their beds. However, the legumes bed and the squash bed are looking fab and to celebrate I got a 12-Spitfire flypast - twice!!

I'm amazed how easily six hours can pass down at the allotment. You just end up in a little world of your own. No hurry and very little to worry about really. LOVELY!!!!

Garden Goodies

More about that trip to the garden centre on Bank Holiday Monday. The forecast was good for Tuesday (and it was lovely!!) so it seemed a good idea to stock up a bit while we had the opportunity.

We don't go to the big, flash garden centre - it looks more like an oversized gift shop than a proper haven of all things horticultural - we go to the smaller family-owned version just next door. The plants are healthier generally and they do know what they're talking about!! We came away with all manner of what! Peat-free organic compost, a white water lily for the pond, two shrubs (a pink Hebe and a very pretty Japonica) four delphiniums, three blueberry bushes, three very sweet double primroses (also blue - getting a theme here?) and twelve strawberry plants. Oh! And a sweet little Doronicum called "Little Leo". Awwwww...

I bought two gorgeous blue strawberry pots last year and will give them a go this summer. I've heard mixed reports on yield in strawberry pots, but they're in a very sunny and sheltered position so they've go the best possible chance.

We also bought peas, broad beans, dwarf runners and quite a few packs of seed tape. Seed tape is a boon - I can heartily recommend it!! For a start you don't get the wastage that you get with ordinary thinning out so although it seems a more expensive option I believe it averages out. The tape also feeds the seedlings so last year we had rocket that growd like Topsy! I'm trying carrots too this year plus some basil, chives and coriander seed mats. We also have more patty pans and pumpkins - for the kids, of course!! I accidentally bought two lots of broad beans so I still need to buy peas! Tut!!!

I did manage to get all the plants in on Tuesday - my hip ached like crazy afterwards!!! - and this afternoon (and probably tomorrow too) I'll get Leo and maybe Saffie (?) to help me with sowing the seeds. I'm sure they'll lose interest after a while, but it'll still keep them entertained for an hour! This morning Chuck stomped fresh compost all over the bed - the little monkey's been digging in the freshly turned soil again!!! Grrrrrrr...

Accidental American Cheese!!!

After last night's hilarious Channel 4 comedy show in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital I feel compelled to tell you the tale of how I managed to make a cheese sauce just like Kraft Velveeta - and I still can't work out how!!

Basically I made my usual cheese sauce, but on this occasion used a combination of sharp cheddar, red leicester and a small quantity of jarlsberg. Somehow the stuff came out like liquid plastic - the same shade as melted Velveeta and actually tasted a bit like it too. NOW I'm not suggesting you try this at home - it's more of a recommendation that you don't!!

I slopped ("pour" just isn't the right word) it over cauliflower and it browned OK, but with a definite skin on it. Very odd! Didn't taste TOO bad either, but the whole experience was just a bit too retro diner for my liking!! Wish I'd taken a photo!!

A Very Happy Easter!!!

A few minutes to myself!! Just thought I'd share a few Easter goodies with you. Last week's Simnel Cake went down very well and we're still eating it! Nice and moist - a little bit crumbly, but not as bad as I'd feared - and a good flavour too. Quite like Christmas cake, but more Cointreau than brandy!

Being a festive sort of weekend (I do like Easter - it's Christmas without the stress levels!!) I've been baking more than usual. I suppose I should say I'd been baking much less than usual during Lent. Not that we're particularly religious, but it didn't do any harm to go without for a few weeks. I didn't go mad on the decorations, but did buy some lovely cut hyacinths (they smell divine!) and decorated my little silver whirlygig with the hand-painted eggs Jerry and I bought in Vienna the year we were expecting Leo. I'd also stretched the boundaries of parenthood by mustering every ounce of creative energy to make a "bonnet" for the Easter hat parade at Leo's school. Not being much of a bonnet man we came up with this for him:

Anyhoo!!! Easter Sunday there were seven of us for a feast of roast duck and roast salmon, hot cross bun stuffing (a Nigella recipe - damn good!!) roast potatoes and springy veg: purple sprouting broccoli, sugarsnap peas and chantenay carrots. Dessert was the Nigella Easter Egg Nest Cake (Are we getting a theme here?) Here's my offering:

Of course it usually goes down in about three bites with my merry mob, but they were slightly daunted after scoffing 2 kilos of potatoes and stripping a whole duck bare so there is a very little left! Amazingly (huh!) we didn't have room for anything other than a small snack before bed. A good time had by all!!!!

Interestingly enough after six weeks of NO CHOCOLATE both Rowan and I felt that bog standard Cadbury's tasted bland and indifferent (Sorry you Krafty Cads! But there you go!!!) and that "real" chocolate tasted so much better than before. I'd bought the gang medium-sized Green and Blacks eggs each plus some smaller, average eggs. Hence the comparison. Jerry bought me the most wonderful Charbonnel and Walker egg filled with handmade chocs - I have had just one gloriously delicious choccie and it tasted WONDERFUL!! Unfortunately we hadn't seen the program about non-fairtrade chocolate before we'd bought all these goodies so we'll be re-educating ourselves over the next year!

Tonight is Nigella's Blakean Fish Pie (should have had it Friday, but we were at Jerry's family for the day) with more springy veg and a very special Mars Bar Cheesecake (see previous blogs) - this one seasonally decorated with tiny choccie eggs. I promised I'd make one for Rowan and he is most pleased! YUM!!! We went to the garden centre today to stock up on seeds for the allotment and some shrubs and perennials for the garden - I bought some Nigella!!!!

Almost Happy Easter!!!

It's been a bit manic this last week. The list of chores (some still not finished) is seemingly endless and my Dad is coming for a visit and a curry today so there was some seriously domestic stuff to be done! Until the day before yesterday the house looked like a tip. I'd had a particularly bad start to the day and took out my negative energy on the piles of clutter and the hoover. By yesterday afternoon it looked much more homely and the last few flowers from my Mothers' Day bouquet have revived and are in a smaller vase in the kitchen.

Monday and Tuesday I launched an attack on the allotment - ready for planting potatoes next week. There are two beds that we've designated as potato beds and they both needed a good weed. I hadn't quite banked on the extensive couch grass root system, which must have added a good hour to the job, but now they both look very pukka. Only three more beds to do!!! The seed potatoes are as ready as they'll ever be - we have quite an eclectic mix to go in this year! I found some Edzell Blue in a local garden centre and thought I'd give them a go and I have Roosters, Epicure and Cara as well as the seeds from last year's Pink Fir Apple and Desiree crop. WE had Charlotte's and Maris Peer last year too, but I much prefer Pink Fir Apple anyway (which cheerfully grow like stink on our land) and the Maris Peer were so small I'm not sure they're worth the effort! For some reason, red-skinned and red-eyed potatoes seem to like that location. Weird, eh? It's lovely being down there and time just whizzes by. It's usually very peaceful apart from the occasional train and a barking dog and I get this odd sense of disconnection from the world as I emerge, blinking into the 21st century.

Yesterday I baked the Simnel Cake. For the first time (that I can remember) I mucked it up!! It looks quite pretty now, but it was no mean feat getting it to that stage. For some reason the damn thing took over four hours to bake and then, as I removed the tin and the baking parchment, it cracked in two across the middle and sagged hideously around it's girth. Saffie and I worked quickly to strap it together with clingfilm and I let it cool overnight in it's supported state. It still has a slight bulge below the marzipan filling, but clever draping of the top marzipan layer and the traditional yellow ribbon have disguised it well. I haven't cut it and no one has tasted it yet, but the crumbs seemed to pass muster with Saffie so fingers crossed!!

Lastly, I would have liked to have got the garden looking all spiffy for may Dad's arrival, but the weather is being contrary and no sooner do I grab my garden shoes it starts to rain again!! The garden looks OK, but there are still a few odds and ends that I'd be happier with if they were tidied away. It's not actually raining at the moment so I might just nip outside...

Hello again!! Sorry it's been SUCH a long time. I honestly don't know how it happened! One minute it was Christmas and I barely had time to go to the loo, never mind updating the blog!! Then out of the blue (after three months of freezing cold weather) it's Spring and everything is suddenly on the up: temperatures, bulbs and libidos!! I can only assume that the winter weather froze my creative juices and hopefully this (and my crafty stuff) will become a more regular event again - maybe not a daily one, but certainly a little more often than recently!!!

The other factor is the somewhat dire lack of home baking going on here. In a desperate effort to shift the rather too many pounds I've been carting around with me I decided not to eat anymore cake or similar goodies for the whole of Lent and some! It has to be said that it's not all vanity. I do need to shift a couple of stones for the sake of me 'elf though, ironically, my hips STILL hurt like crazy after the unlamented loss of a whole 17 pounds!!

But Easter will soon be here and with it the joy of baking lots and eating the odd treat here and there! As I write the fruit for the Simnel Cake is soaking in Grand Marnier and I plan to bake it next week. My Dad's coming next weekend and LOVES fruit cake so we'll just have some a little earlier. I don't think anyone will miss it at Easter itself as NONE of the kids will eat fruit cake! I'm almost congratulating myself on the fact that I've made it to the allotment a few times already and it actually looks quite well cared for right now - all ready for those seedlings and potatoes to go in!! I'm really hoping for some good crops this year!!

I know I have a few not-now-secrets to share as well. The cats cushion I made for a friend (she loved it!) and the birthday pizza I baked for Rowan's 19th last weekend. Like me, he's avoiding all desserts for Lent (we've formed a sort-of support group, though he calls it a competition) so I said I'd make him "something" and came up with a Peking Duck Pizza (as shown above!) especially for him. He was really pleased and ate the whole thing in one day - the day after!! His birthday was actually on Mothers' Day so we had to share. I did get a special day to myself at a patchwork and quilting exhibition where I met up with old friends and had a VERY indulgent day indeed spending rather too much on fat quarters and haberdashery. His birthday treat was a meal out at Frankie and Benny's. I honestly didn't have any desserts - just a Peach Bellini and a Margarita!!