Making Good Use

It's Mid-November and I'm Still Picking Salad Leaves!

I find it hard to believe that in the middle of November I've still managed to harvest a reasonably respectable amount of salad leaves from the garden.  Here they are having been thoroughly washed, draining on a tea towel.  There were probably just enough here for one serving but I added them to half a bag of supermarket salad leaves so that there was enough for both of us. 

Just as well I picked them in when I did as this morning we have had the most violent hail storm, accompanied by gale force winds, thunder and lightening, and I think the few remaining salad leaves in pots have been well and truly shredded by the strength of the hale. 

Growing these salad leaves has been a revelation to me and I'm certainly going to up the ante next summer by a) sowing them much earlier than the end of June and b) having more pots planted up so that I can get a really good rotation system going with them.  There really is nothing nicer than home-grown produce is there?

Quinoa

Both P and I used to be very partial to couscous but, for some unknown reason, it's not very partial to either of us - causing headaches, nausea and some dreadful, ahem, 'wind' issues.  I've rather missed not having couscous in my culinary 'repertoire', especially the very useful flavoured couscous that is now so readily available in every supermarket.   However, a month or so ago when I was having lunch in Spitalfields I had a rather tasty taboulleh, apricot and feta salad.   It was a real 'ah-ha' moment for me and I thought I'd actually found a good replacement for couscouse.  Sadly, even Waitrose couldn't oblige with taboulleh so I bought quinoa instead.

Quinoa is not quite as user-friendly as couscous in that you actually have to wash it first and then boil it up in a pan until all the liquid has been absorbed - cue the likelihood of charcoaled quinoa at some point in the future.  But I duly followed the instructions and cooked up 100g of quinoa - which looked most odd when I'd finished.  In an attempt to try and replicate the taboulleh salad, I added chopped dried apricots, chunks of feta cheese, chopped cucumber, some fresh mint leaves and a good slosh of balsamic vinegar.  It was rather nice and I didn't have any ill effects from eating it either.

So, two questions, does anybody know where I could get hold of taboulleh (I think that's the correct spelling) and also have you got any recipes for quinoa as I think I'd quite like to extend my range from just one recipe.  Any suggestions most gratefully received.

A Couple of Nice Results

Cor, flippin' 'eck, these iron-on motifs are brilliant.

I was a bit daunted by the instructions which said that an ironing board wouldn't be of any use as it didn't get hot enough!!

So, I used the back of an old wooden bread board - which certainly did conduct the heat nicely.

The vintage fine cotton pillowcase I got last week from the charity shop proved to be the ideal fabric to use - finely woven, plain-coloured and really soft.

I was really pleased with the results and can foresee everyone getting one of these motifs on a Christmas card this year.  (Mum, have a guess which one your's will be!!)

I did have one 'oh, b*gger it' result with this lovely plum-coloured polar bear.  The iron-on slipped a bit and I ended up with a shadow effect.  A*se, and I really liked this one too.

Also a nice result was the pear fool which we had for pudding yesterday evening - very yummy and more-ish - which was just as well as there is still quite a lot left.

I Did Eventually Get My A*se In Gear

This weekend saw a relative flurry of activity on my part.  I finally got the sewing machine out and sorted out the old velvety trousers which I wear around the house.  One pair I've had for five years (an ebay purchase) and the other pair for about seven years (a charity shop purchase before I moved to Essex.)  Both pairs had lost all the stretch in their elastic waistbands and consequently were constantly slipping down in a most annoying fashion.

I cut off the old elastic waistband (it wasn't an elastic insert more of an eactual lastic waistband), folded over a couple of inches and sewed the new channel on my sewing machine.  This sounds so easy when it's written down but this stretchy velvety stuff was a total pig to sew in a straight line and much cussing went on whilst I was doing it.  The easy part was threading the elastic through the new channel.  Et voila, two pairs of trousers which are now mucho more comfortable to wear and which should, hopefully, give me another five years or so of use!!  As the fabric is 100 per cent man-made poly-something-or-other I can't imagine they'll ever really wear out, although they have gone a bit 'worn' around the bum and knee areas.  But, honestly, as I don't wear them outside of the house that doesn't bother me one little bit.

So, I was mighty pleased with myself for doing that (finally!!), then I moved on to dealing with the pears I'd picked in from the garden weeks and weeks ago.  Those little swines just would not ripen.  They'd look like they were ripe but, oh no, cut into one and it was still rock hard.  Then a couple just sort of went off in the bowl so I decided to stew up the rest.  I cooked them in a little red wine and sugar and was going to make a pear crumble with them but Mum, very wisely, suggested I try blitzing them to a pulp and making a pear fool instead.  Which is just what I've done, having mixed the pear and wine 'mush' with whipped cream and some custard.  Don't know what it tastes like just yet as I'm saving it for pudding this evening but it looks quite pretty.  I'll let you know tomorrow.

Tempus Fugit

I've been home alone for a whole week now - with three days more to go - whilst P is away on business in Hong Kong.  Oh, I had such wonderful plans for these 10 days, what I wasn't going to achieve whilst I had all those hours and hours to myself!  Has any of it come to fruition - well, no, not really. 

I did have a VERY BUSY weekend for ebay sales last weekend, which meant mega amounts of packing and posting on Sunday and Monday.  I was really pleased - if a trifle knackered - with the resulting large payment from my Paypal account to my bank account.  This weekend should be much easier as I've only got four items ending on ebay on Sunday, although I did have a fairly mega listing session again yesterday afternoon (10 day listings to end on a Sunday afternoon - Sunday. apparently, being ebay's busiest day of the week.)

But, back to the plans.  I had intended to try and do something with my old 'about-the-house' trousers which are elasticated-waist velvety ones - one pair black, one purple.  The elastic at the waist has become really loose over time which has meant the darned trousers constantly slip down and drive me mad.  Now, in my defence, I've only just been able to find suitable elastic to mend them with as the local sewing shop only had narrow elastic, the sewing shop in Basildon has closed down and so I was left with good ol' ebay as my only source of elastic.  Sure enough, someone was selling just what I was looking for, at a very reasonable price, and it arrived this morning.  Maybe this weekend I'll get round to it.

 

I also had very grand plans for trying out these lovely iron-on transfers which I've had since the spring.  I've got as far as reading the instructions before but that was it.  Finally I think I've found some suitably soft, not too wide a weave, pure cotton fabric that I could use.  It's a vintage pillowcase from the charity shop which I hoped would be good to go as is but, sadly, it has one or two marks on it that just won't wash out so I'll use the fabric to put these transfers on instead.  I'm hoping then I can make the pictures up into cards.

It was the same with making another draught excluder - this time for the kitchen door - nothing has been achieved as yet, not even choosing what fabric to use.  The problem for me is that as soon as the light starts to fade around 4.00 pm then I lose all interest in trying to do anything that requires a sharp eye - and that includes dusting, hoovering and ironing.  Ah, excuses excuses!

Anyway I do have the next couple of days to try and achieve a few things from my potential to do list.  And all has not been entirely lost this week - I have managed to clear out a few things, and tidy a few more away and my knitting has come along wonderfully as that is something I can manage whilst tucked up watching a bit of TV in the evenings.

Spotted this leaflet at the local library this morning - sounds just my thing craft AND cupcakes - think I might give it a try.  Perhaps someone can finally teach me how to crochet!!

Back to More Normal Things

Apologies for the rant yesterday but I feel better having got it off my chest - and many thanks to those who left helpful comments about food waste collections, very kind.

I would probably have been writing a longer post this afternoon but I've been incredibly lazy and have spent the past hour and a half watching an episode of Wallander on the BBC iPlayer.  It was excellent, as always, but I now feel incredibly guilty for wasting the latter part of my afternoon on TV or, in this case, computer watching.  It's not like I haven't got anything better to do but I find it very hard to get motivated once the light starts to go at about 4.00 pm.  Well, that's my excuse!!

Here a few bits I found in the charity shop this morning.  A rather nice piece of rose-print fabric.  It's not old - the label says 'Made in China' (where else these days!) but it is pure cotton and is lovely and thick so should be useful for something.  The yellow and blue bias binding are probably from the 1960s but the taupe colour one is much older - I only really bought it for the lovely card it's on.  The whole lot cost £1.00 so I was very pleased.

Oh, Lawks! (And Other Not Quite So Genteel Expletives)

We had a printed leaflet from the council pushed through the letterbox at the weekend.  Apparently, the local council is introducing compulsory recycling from the middle of November.  Not something I particularly have a problem with as I recycle as conscientiously as possible already.  OK, the odd toilet roll inner does end up in the black waste sack instead of the pink recycling sack but, hey, none of us are perfect!!

So, I'm reading on through the rather densely-typed information on the leaflet - thinking, well, I'm alright Jack, no £75 fine in the offing for me for not recycling correctly.  Then my eyes alight on a small paragraph near the bottom of the page which says the council will be introducing food waste collections from next year.  WHAAAAAT!!!!  Good job I was in the house alone as the air turned blue with swearing.  They're introducing slop buckets - rat-attracting, maggot-infesting slop buckets.  And this is the same council that still makes us put our household waste in black plastic bin bags for collection (and, yes, I have contacted the council several times to point out how environmentally unfriendly this is - why not wheelie bins for heavens sake?) and collects all recycling in one pink sack (except for glass) which probably means that having been assiduously sorted by us it will still end up in landfill in the third world.

Now, I am a keen supporter of recycling and really do try to do my bit, but I do object to a) being told anything is compulsory (I have a bit of a problem with being told what to do), and b) having to sort food waste into slop buckets.  How on earth can you compost meat and dairy waste anyway?  Luckily for us we don't have much food waste - all meat bits go out in the garden for Mr Fox and / or assorted passing felines, fruit and veg waste goes into the compost bin (well in the summer it does, at the moment the grass is too wet to trek across to the compost bin.  Think I'll have to get a lidded bucket to keep outside the back door for compost waste.) 

Anyhoo, I'm really not too happy about this and I feel another phone call to the council coming on.  I have to say I can't quite see how they'll enforce it - will they be ripping open the black bin bags to root around in them checking for evidence of misappropriated food waste??  Will they notice if I never put the slop bucket out for emptying??  Will I be fined £75 for refusing to use said slop bucket??  Anyone else out there with a compulsory-recycling-slop-bucket-providing council?  If so, what are your experiences of food waste collections?

PS Sorry about the rant but this has really got on my whatsits!!

Free Lego Offer

Two posts in one day - unheard of!!  Just wanted to say that there is a free Lego offer with the Daily Mirror this week.  I only happened to find out about it by chance as I was standing in the queue in W H Smiths when the woman in front of me bought three copies of today's Mirror.  That's odd, thought I, until I realised there was a free mini Lego kit with each paper.  I quickly bought a Daily Mirror myself (only 45p) to get the free Lego stegosaurus kit for my nephew.  When I had a look through the 'newspaper'  (I use that term rather loosely here) I discovered there are free Lego things to collect all week.  Collection is only from WH Smith, or save the vouchers and collect from Toys R Us too.  Thought this might be useful info for anybody, like us, with a small Lego-obsessed person in the family.

Sausage and Cider Casserole Recipe

It's probably a bit of a cheek to actually call this a recipe as it's really from the 'bung everything in and hope for the best' school of cooking (my favourite sort.)  Anyhoo, here goes

Brown the sausages in a frying pan or saucepan (whatever you use needs to have a lid for the ensuing simmering) with a little olive oil.

When the sausages have got a bit of colour on their skins take them out of the pan and put on a plate.  In the same oil fry off a smallish onion and some bacon pieces (or pancetta if you're really posh.) 

After five minutes or so add a heaped teaspoon of flour to coat the onion and bacon, then add a wine-glass or so of cider.  Bring to the boil until the sauce thickens then add the sausages, some chopped carrot, mushrooms and anything else you might have knocking around that would be good in the casserole - this weekend I added chopped apples and they were mighty tasty.  Add a couple of goodly pinches of dried mixed herbs.  Simmer on the hob for approx. an hour and a half and serve with creamy mashed potato.  Delicious.

The idea for this casserole only came about because I had half a bottle of cider to use up.  Since then I've used part cider, part apple juice and that worked fine too.  I'm sure it would be just as tasty with just apple juice.  Equally, I tend to use bacon pieces but you could leave them out altogether or if, like me, you find you have no bacon, bacon pieces or similar in the fridge you could resort to using up three sad looking rashers of parma ham in an opened packet.  Can't stand parma ham as is but it was absolutely fine in this casserole.

I tend to be very boring and stick to just using carrots and mushrooms but I'm sure any other root veggie would be great too.  As, if you're so inclined, would celery or celeriac (personally, I think anything that has the flavour of celery is the work of the devil.)

I've only ever used pork or venison sausages in this dish but thinking about I'm sure if you substituted the cider for red wine it would work equally well with beef sausages.  Hmm, think I'll have to try that!

The vintage recipe booklets were found this morning at the 'Coffee and Jumble.'  Be honest, who could resist the title 'Gayer Cakes with Satin Icing!'

Apple Picking - All Wrapped Up

Well, I got wet, I got covered in the green algae-type stuff that coats the apple tree's branches, I wobbled about on our little two-step step-ladder, I stretched and stretched, I tried to reach those apples (always the fattest and juiciest looking ones) that stubbornly remaind just out of reach, and I finally called it quits. 

I suppose I managed to pick in approx. 50 more apples and out of those 10 had suspicious tunneling-maggot looking marks and / or bruising.  The dodgy ones have been put to one side to be carefully cut up and either eaten as they are or, in the case of my rather delicious sausage and cider casserole last night, hurled into any savoury dish that might benefit from a touch of cooked apple.  The rest have been wiped over with a kitchen towel, wrapped in newspaper and carefully laid in for winter storage in a lidded cardboard box.  They're not large apples - probably best described as 'fun size' but they are incredibly sweet and juicy, and would be a lovely reminder of summer days in the depths of winter.

I'll be interested to see if a) they remain as crisp and juicy as they are now, and b) whether any passing rodent will sniff out the apple box in the kitchen and start gnawing their way through them - again!!