Choosing the seeds for 2009

Posted in Flowers, Plants and Bulbs, Vegetables | 11 comments

Choosing the seeds for 2009

I woke up a couple of nights ago with the name “White Lady” on my lips. I lay quite still, wondering where the words had come from. A few minutes later I remembered that Maurice had recommended “White Lady”  as the best runner bean seed available in the UK. Jalopy and I were loitering in with intent in Fordham yesterday, visiting the organic butcher and the Secret Garden stand. Just opposite this wonderful resource there is a small branch of Scotsdale’s in the Fordham High Street. A good garden centre which is a mini version of the...

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Dreaming of butchers and home smoked bacon

Posted in Curing and Smoking | 7 comments

Dreaming of butchers and home smoked bacon

Our new organic butcher buys his beef from farmers whose steers graze the fields in the local studs around our village. Something like ox kidney has to be ordered in advance. Last week I invested in organic shin of beef, just £8.00 for 2 kilos. And a large oxtail that was quite a bit more expensive. Some shin and oxtail went into a beef and vegetable soup and the rest was frozen until an organic ox kidney was available to make our favourite Steak and Kidney Pie. So this morning I motored over to Fordham to collect the kidney and buy an...

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Garden update: March 2009

Posted in Vegetables | 5 comments

Garden update: March 2009

Even though our broad beans were planted in November they have only just come through over the last couple of weeks. Usually they appear by late December. I was beginning to think that the seeds might have failed. John Coe planted his own beans a good couple of weeks before he sowed ours. Just before Christmas we stood surveying the kitchen garden. “Your beans will be coming through very soon. Mine started peeping through last week.” But the freezing weather in late December and January must have set them back. I don’t mind at all. We...

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Passata and rice water can remove the metallic tang of leeks in a dish

Posted in Discoveries, Rice and Pasta, Vegetables and Sides | 8 comments

Passata and rice water can remove the metallic tang of leeks in a dish

I’ve discovered that using non slow cooker recipes in the slow cooker enhances the flavours. This is generally great except in the case of onions and leeks. The quantities of these ingredients need to be halved. I’ve tried reducing them by a third and then had to battle with making the dish palatable. Earlier this week I tried making our conventionally cooked oxtail recipe in the slow cooker. I halved the oxtail and made up the weight with shin of beef.  I cut down the onion and leeks by a third. I was planning a thick soup rather than a...

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Save trees and money and scatter some joy with Jaquie Lawson e-cards

Posted in Discoveries | 8 comments

Save trees and money and scatter some joy with Jaquie Lawson e-cards

I received my first Jaquie Lawson Christmas card seven years ago. It was one of her Chudleigh (black Labrador) cards. I was thrilled. Great animation and top marks on the feel good factor. Then I forgot all about them. A couple of years ago an old friend started sending us Jaquie Lawson cards at Christmas and Easter. Margaret and her husband Tony had been our neighbours and had moved far away to Cumbria. Each card was a delightful reminder of an old and lasting friendship. There’s something very magical about these cards. This Christmas we...

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Milk pouches

Posted in Cottage tales | 29 comments

Milk pouches

We recycle our plastic bottles. These are collected every two weeks and by the end of this period the large sack is bursting with 4 pint plastic milk bottles and a few fizzy water bottles. If we keep the sack outside the house it’s a palaver going outside to chuck in an empty bottle but if we keep it in the kitchen it becomes a dominant intruder that always seems to be toppling over. On Sunday I was shopping with my mum in Waitrose, Cambridge and my eye fell on a pile of milk pouches. In fact I’d been attracted to the word Free on a sign...

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Book review: Nancy Wake by Peter Fitzsimons

Posted in Reviews | 13 comments

Book review: Nancy Wake by Peter Fitzsimons

I was delighted when my new friend Pamela sent me this superb biography Nancy Wake: The Inspiring Story of One of the War’s Greatest Heroines. I’d not heard of Nancy Wake. She is an Australian who became a WW2 heroine in Nazi occupied France. A volunteer. She hated seeing what was going on in France.  Pamela had mentioned that she couldn’t put the book down and had to read it straight through. I was a bit envious and thought, “I’d love to have the time to be able to read a book straight through.” I woke early on Sunday...

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Best ever cauliflower cheese recipe

Posted in Vegetables, Vegetables and Sides | 22 comments

Best ever cauliflower cheese recipe

Ten years ago I cooked a rather poor cauliflower cheese for Danny. His response was lukewarm. “If you make this again it would be great with a baked potato.” He was never a great one for suggesting a baked potato meal. Potatoes are important and for him and shine as a side dish. He didn’t mention the watery sauce. Or the flabby cauli. And he didn’t help himself to more. Making a great cauliflower cheese that would not need a baked potato became a secret challenge. Over the years I have progressed and now make a cauliflower cheese to...

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