Chicken legs baked with apricots and garlic recipe
I was surprised to hear that despite the recession the number of people eating out has shot up in the UK. I’m not sure whether this is people visiting places like Pret for a snack or proper sit down eating out with napkins, main courses and hovering waiters. Danny and I rarely eat out. Perhaps twice a year at most. It’s not that it’s expensive (although 35 quid for pizzas and a couple of beers was shocking) it’s because it’s often disappointing in this neck of the woods. So good food has to be cooked at home. Two things that...
read moreIn praise of Salley Mavor
Have you heard of Salley Mavor? Looking for books on needle felting and working with felt I came across her stumpwork and appliqué illustrations for children’s books. Her work intrigued me and I spent hours reading her blog and examining her expert needlecraft. Superb and awe inspiring I just had to delve in deeper and deeper. Just before Christmas, I invested in two of her books Felt Wee Folk: Enchanting Projects and Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes. I must admit I never thought that I would be ordering a book of...
read moreTasty Baked sausages, bacon and flageolet beans recipe
I’ve never been keen on beans, definitely was not one of the Beans means Heinz fans as a child. Even the recent change to Beanz hasn’t tempted me. In fact I was so out of the whole world of beans as a teenager that I didn’t even understand the flatulence jokes in Blazing Saddles. Now beans are almost considered the new ‘meat’. Economical, packed with goodness and promise. Some varieties can even be grown in UK gardens – come the revolution these could be a valuable source of protein. So I decided to experiment a bit with...
read moreOur favourite old lady
I haven’t written about our chickens for ages. We still have them – I’d hate to give them up as they are interesting and fun to keep and some do become friends. Each has her own personality and a particular place in an ever changing pecking order. They have their friendships and their tiffs. When I’m working in the kitchen garden I am aware, amused and often shocked by their antics. They can be very cruel and astonishingly kind in a chicken sort of way. Do you remember when I discovered that Baby was not allowed to eat and drink...
read moreBubba’s quick Seville orange marmalade recipe using a pressure cooker
When The Chicken Lady tweeted that she was going to try out a pressure cooker marmalade recipe I was a teeny bit dubious that it could match the flavour of old fashioned marmalade lovingly stirred on the stove for hours. But I was wrong. I was surprised to discover that it tasted pretty good, sweet but with that hint of Seville bitterness. In fact the first thing that I did when I woke up this morning was to rush downstairs and put on two chunky slices of toast so as to guzzle some as soon as possible. If you have a pressure cooker and not...
read moreDelicious brisket of beef recipe – slow cooked with root vegetables
As you know Danny haunts the Tesco *CFC when he does the evening post run to Newmarket. He finds spectacular bargains – lots of seafood (responsibly harvested otherwise passed over by his giant paws) and this week a 1 kilo joint of brisket of beef reduced to just £1.50. I’d not cooked brisket before and discovered that this joint is ideal for the slow cooker/crock pot/low oven of the Aga. I decided to treat it a bit like our pot au feu recipe but add even more vegetables to pad out the meat. My recipe also contains a lot of delicious...
read moreSeville Orange marmalade and liqueur recipes
I picked up The Contessa from the vet’s this morning. She’d been staying with them for a day and a night as they carried out a blood sugar curve test. She was diagnosed with diabetes last year and is doing pretty well but recently she has lost a lot of weight and her diabetes needs to be stabilised. The daily injections are not the gruelling trial that I thought they would be. In fact, a kind reader suggested that we give her a tiny treat after the injection and that has worked well. Immediately she spots the syringe she starts to dance...
read moreIt’s that time of year again! Seeds and dreams
“How many seed catalogues have you received this month? It must be at least eight!” Danny gets a bit panicky when the catalogues arrive as he knows that I love buying seeds and can be tempted to splash out in a trice. I do like the catalogues but actually tend to choose my seeds online. The Real Seed Company is always a first stop – the seeds are always good quality, postage is cheap and the site is fun to browse. This year we are going to try growing yacon. This is a plant from South America and it’s the tubers that you eat....
read more
FD