Keep fit with flies
Danny doesn’t kill things. Ants, wasps, caterpillars and slugs are all given a free range in our cottage and garden. When his car pulls out of the drive I attack the pests that are destroying our stuff. The ants and wasps initially and then it’s a leisurely stroll down to the kitchen garden with a bottle of beer. To top up the complimentary bar in the slug traps. There is one creature that D hates and encourages me to destroy. Sociable and busy creatures they move swiftly from manure to the kitchen sides and never, ever wash their...
read moreIndulgent treats: Prawns, spinach and crème fraîche linguine
A couple of years ago we became addicted to Tessa Kiros’ recipe for linguine with prawns and asparagus. Delicious and almost worth crawling the five miles to Newmarket to buy the ingredients. Tonight we decided to eat Clare’s scrumptious quick spinach and prawn gnocchi recipe and then I spotted that we had some linguine in the larder. “Let’s try Clare’s recipe but use the linguine rather than buy gnocchi.” Linguine is the perfect pasta for soaking up a sauce. Danny has a horror of what he describes as...
read moreBelated Happy Birthday
We’d been looking forward to the blog’s birthday, crossing off the days as we sailed into August. This morning I realised that we’d missed it. Yesterday the blog was two years old. So tonight we raised two large glasses of sloe vodka to the blog. It has bought us so much joy. My mum always says that when she wakes on my birthday she lies in bed and thinks of watching the dawn break on the morning that I was born. She tells me how happy she was – a new life sleeping beside her. Our blog snoozes beside us at night and has...
read morePaint
“Finona, do you know that you’ve got paint on your jumper?” Hector, aged two, was keen to save my embarrassment. Growing up in a world where a splatter of paint beyond a painting smock would cause a shriek of horror, he was intrigued. Later in the day he came into the room where I was working and carefully closed the door. He stood beside me and his head followed the journey of the massive roller is it transformed the walls from yellow to a paler shade of yellow. After a while he tapped my leg and whispered, loud and...
read moreLeftovers: Spicy new potatoes and cabbage on the side recipe
I’m not a great one for being imaginative about small leftovers. They are usually shoved into the dogs as a relish on the top of their complete dog food. In the past I used to put them into small bowls, hoping for inspiration and they would be forgotten as they were gradually pushed to the back of the fridge. Danny calls these “offerings to the fridge gods” as he removes them two weeks later. Now I’m enjoying using up everything that I can. The little scrappy handfuls are the most fun to transform into something that...
read moreWashing up
Years ago I met someone who had been a kitchen porter on a cruise ship. This meant that he had all the lowliest jobs including washing up at the end of the evening. This was the one duty that he loathed. He resented the time scrubbing away whilst the rest of the team were playing pool in the bar. The life was pretty good apart from the two hours a day battling with the pots. So he hatched a plan. There must be something that would eat up all the caked-on food and fat. So rang a friend who was an up and coming research chemist. When he came...
read moreWalnut Wine – Vin de Noix
Having started the pickled walnuts I still had loads of nuts left over, so I looked around for other green walnut recipes. I was tempted by an Italian walnut liqueur that my last hairdresser makes every year. He buys pure alcohol in Italy and makes enough to last him until the next annual visit. He loved it and his wife hated it. Perhaps a perfect state of affairs when it comes to sharing precious grog. Some recipes suggested that it could be made with vodka but I decided to wait until we visit Italy again and can buy the alcohol. Finally, I...
read moreMrs Boss is sitting on bantam hatching eggs
“Isn’t it weird? When Mrs Boss used to go broody it was a nightmare. Now it’s a joy that she has gone broody again as we need her to raise new stock for us.” Danny was studying the lots of hatching eggs on eBay. We had decided finally to put a clutch of bantam eggs under our diminutive broody hen. Our main flock was bought four years ago and they are well past their egg laying prime. Carol, the Maran hen, is now three and still lays well. She is joined on the egg laying front by Cloud, the gentle guinea fowl hen. The...
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