The Cottage Smallholder

It’s ten o’clock and Danny has disappeared to bed. Dr Quito is snoring gently in a basket at my feet. The wood burning stove has at least another hour of life and it’s snug in the kitchen.
Years ago I wouldn’t have dreamt of staying in on a Saturday night. Now I love it. With the Read More »

I’d written my post for tonight. Budget, delicious chicken risotto for 62p per portion when I realised that the main ingredient – the chicken stock hadn’t been blogged.
A horse without the cart is no good for anyone who is travelling in foodie country. So here’s the cart. This stock works with cooked chicken bones or a Read More »

This is the end of the first month of our 2009 challenge – Best great budget recipes for 50% or less.
Danny has become an addict of the condemned food counter at Tesco. He drops by most evenings when he does the final post run in Newmarket. The clientele that are attracted to this mini mecca Read More »

A beautiful postcard stands beside my computer, showing drifts of woodland snowdrops. It’s an advertisement for four snowdrop weekends at Chippenham Park.
One day I hope that there will be bountiful drifts of snowdrops and aconites in front of our cottage.
At the moment there is a patch of grass. The south westerly aspect means sun all afternoon. There Read More »

“How about a poussin tonight, marinaded in lemon, thyme and olive oil?”
D was enthusiastic.
“That would be wonderful and quick to cook. It’s not really a proper roast is it?”
Danny has been great about our “no Sunday roast for January” challenge and this seemed like a good compromise for the final Sunday.
That was before I went Read More »

Doing the washing up was a real bone of contention in our household before we bought our dishwasher.
“Leave the washing up. I’ll do it in the morning.”
“But you always get up with seconds to spare. Just enough time to pour some coffee granules on your tongue before running for the car.”
“Nonsense. It’s my turn so Read More »

Shopping with my mum in Waitrose she asked me to show her anything that would be appreciated in a Christmas stocking.
We were passing the sugar section at the time and my eye fell upon the boxes of La Perruche pure cane rough cut cubes. Waitrose is the only supermarket that stocks these superb French sugar Read More »

I started to make wooden toys in my late twenties. I had never previously worked with wood but, with the arrogance of the inexperienced, I reckoned that it couldn’t be rocket science.
After a bit of a hiccupy start the business was reasonably successful. Ten years later I sold it to a giftware company for a Read More »

I woke this morning with one eye puffy, bloodshot and streaming. It was agony. What had happened during the night?
Danny was alarmed.
“You can’t decorate with just one eye. Your painting will be asynchronous.”
“What on earth does that mean?”
“It’s an IT term. Meaning intermittent amongst other things.”  He explained.
Past caring I crawled under the duvet as Read More »

When I first moved to the countryside 25 years ago, I was given two kittens. I had this harebrained idea that I’d call all my pets names from the shipping forecast areas. It seemed a nice and neat way to progress. Cat wise this was easy. I eventually settled on Finistere and Faeroe (the vet Read More »