The Cottage Smallholder

However careful I am about constructing my fruit cages a hungry bird or twenty always seems to crack the code and get in. One year one of our fruit cages was constructed with high security in mind – nothing apart from me could get in or out and it was such a struggle to access that I Read More »

Over the past few years I’ve bought a number of fruit bushes and trees from the budget supermarket Netto. This can be a bit of a hit and miss affair. The green gooseberry bush turned out to be a succulent red dessert variety and tiny hands clapped with glee. About three years ago I bought Read More »

 
As a child egg and bacon pie was a traditional picnic dish and I loved it. This is not a quiche. The eggs are unbroken and the texture and flavour of the combination of short crust pastry, floury egg yolks, silky egg whites and thick cut bacon is out of this world.
I had forgotten all Read More »

 
Waitrose has teamed up with Delia Smith and Heston Blumenthal to produce recipes that customers can make at home. This is quite a clever promotion as you don’t have to rush about the shop looking for the specific ingredients as they are all on the display stand. Some of the ingredients had me goggle eyed Read More »

 
Ever since I saw the Compassion in World farming videos we have only been buying free range pork. These videos expose the terrible conditions that many factory farmed pigs live in and whenever I reach for a cheap pack of pork I remember the images and quickly pass by. Buying free range pork can be a bit alarming as it is expensive. Read More »

 
Before Danny met me he lived in America for three months. Often he refers to the spectacular spare ribs that he ate there.
“One guy spent three days cooking just one pot of ribs. They were superb.”
Unfortunately Danny didn’t get the recipe.
When D’s brother came to visit he made some stunning ribs. His secret ingredient was Read More »

 
I had a yearning for spaghetti and meatballs yesterday. I have no idea why as I don’t think that I’ve ever eaten this dish in my life but somehow the combination appealed. I spent a morning in the kitchen creating the sauce. My challenge was to use as many dehydrated ingredients  as possible and some Read More »

 
Danny likes our cauliflower cheese especially when I add ham and tomatoes and serve it with garlic bread. Quite often I pick up 6 pints of milk from the Tesco CFC and make it into white sauce, ladled into plastic zip lock bags and frozen flat in the freezer. This takes the strain out of making Read More »

 
Being a devoted alpha carnivore Danny’s face always drops when there is the prospect of a low meat meal. My Wednesday plans were kyboshed when he returned home with two fillet steaks for £2.50 from the Waitrose CFC.
“As they are rather brown I think that we have to cook them tonight.” So he did.
The next day Read More »

 
Danny bought some pork shoulder steaks this week. He wanted to try out a pork, mushroom and cream recipe that he had found at the local supermarket.
“The pork is sautéed in a pan. I don’t feel confident as I reckon that it should be fillet.”
He was right – the pork was chewy and disappointing.
It wasn’t Read More »