A bit of home-grown and home-made.

Oh! Look at me! Back on blogger, two days in a row. This might have something to do with Hubby having commandeered the telly to watch "The Legend of '81"- a documentary about Ian Botham (yawn).

Just look at my veggie patch, there. It has a life of it's own. At the bottom of our garden is an awesome looking field of sweetcorn and in spite of never seeing a farmer, it is all growing in nice neat rows with not a weed in sight. Now, I'm not the most conscientious of gardeners but I do try my best to potter among the veg and flowers, trying to keep things tidy in between school runs, cooking, shopping, teaching, washing... etc etc. I only have to turn my back for 5 mins and all sorts of things crop up/ die/ get eaten before I can stop it. However, some mysterious 'weeds' have grown up among the lettuces bearing pretty purple flowers. I have no idea what they are but I have left them alone for aesthetic value.
But this post is about what I have been up to in the kitchen this week, really. I have been combining our homegrown veg with leftovers to make up this weeks meals as follows:

Sunday: Roast chicken dinner (including my mothers cabbage from her veg patch) (I saved the left over chicken carcass)

Monday: Boiled bacon and parsley sauce with tatties and supermarket veg. (I saved the remains of the bacon joint and some of the cooking water which included onions and celery).

Tuesday: Chicken and bacon pie with broad beans from my veg patch (made with leftover chicken and bacon and parsley sauce adding extra cream in a dish with leek and topped with puff pastry and more of Mum's cabbage).

Wednesday: Summer potage! A soup made from chicken stock that I made from the old carcass plus some of the bacon cooking water I had also saved. Then I added pearl barley, chopped chicken and bacon, more broad beans and lettuce from the veg patch and then I sent Hubby out to get a tin of chopped tomatoes to put in also.

Now, I was in the supermarket a few days ago and found a massive punnet of blueberries being sold as seconds for just 39p! They were fresh. I think, maybe, a few packets had split so they had been done up again like this. So, apart from putting some au naturel in the kids' lunchboxes, I made these blueberry muffins with them. The kids had the little ones for snack after school today. The big ones are for breakfast tomorrow. They are fantastic. The pics are a bit blurry (sorry) but can you see how the blueberries are juicily oozing out of these muffins? Num, num!

So here is today's dinner, the summer soup served with baguette and a selection of cheeses. I wasn't really looking forward to it at first, but it was delicious. I was almost tempted to open my Mum's bottle of homemade plum wine, but then thought "no. It's only Wednesday!" But then Hubby walked in with the tin of tomatoes... and a bottle of rose wine. 'Nuff said. Hubby and I were chatting about how much we both used to dislike pearl barley when we were children. But all our kids love it and we seem to like it now, too. Funny, that!
Look at those happy faces!

Tomorrow: sausage, mash 'n beans.

Secret plans.

Just getting prepared for the forthcoming half term holiday. The kids want to spend more time playing outside. Okay, okay. I want the kids to spend more time playing outside. Well, it's good for them!
They are really into spycraft at the moment. They got some cool spy handbooks and spykits for Christmas and I said I'd help them turn their shed (which is in an awful mess at the mo) into a really cool HQ. So when they came home from school on Friday they got their books out and got busy planning their new headquarters.
Especially Henry. They want CCTV and everything. Not sure about that but I think we can stretch to a swivel office chair, walkie talkies and a homemade alarm.
This was our Friday night supper. I borrowed the lentil recipe from Waldorf Mama. It's basically green lentils (I used tinned) and some finely chopped chard simmered for about 15 mins in a little water and sea salt. Very yummy. I also made some cheese scones with a pinch of cayenne pepper in the recipe to go with. Simple. HM asked if it could be our regular Friday night supper.

Nature's bounty.

Here is tonight's supper. There are a lot of colds going around at the moment. Hubby is suffering from man-flu. I used left-over chicken bones to make our usual flu busting hot n sour soup (with shitake mushrooms) and the kids and I put together little blackberry cheesecakes, made with the blackberries from the hedgerows (just a bit cheaper than you get in the local supermarket or farm shop.)

Plus, we have home-brew plum wine which Hubby made. All very effective in clearing the sinuses, boosting the immune system and soothing aches n pains... unless you drink too much plum wine. Then you are guaranteed a headache in the morning!

The cheesecakes are a combination of a Delia Smith and a CBeebies 'I Can Cook' recipe. As follows:

1. To make the base, we crushed a few ginger and a few digestive biscuits in sandwich bags with a rolling pin and binded the mixture together with melted butter in a saucepan.

2. The biscuit mixture was divided into individual little pudding glasses, flattened with the back of a spoon and left to set.

3. In a mixer we put a tub of Quark cheese, about 3 tablespoons of sugar, few drops of vanilla essence and a squeeze of lemon juice... and whizzed it all up.

4.) This mixture was then spread as the next layer on top of the biscuit mixture.

5.) Then for the blackberry topping. We put about a cereal bowl full of blackberries in a pan with a few spoons of sugar and simmered without any added water. Then we put in 2 teaspoons of arrowroot which had been mixed with a tablespoon of water. This gives the mixture a thicker texture, similar to what you get with shop bought cheesecakes. This mixture was then spread over the top as the final layer.

What about quantities? Well, I don't bother too much with that kind of thing. I have O'Level cookery so I have a feel for what is right (hee, hee). When it came to the sugar, I think we go less than what would be used in a typical recipe as only Henry seems to have a sweet tooth. The rest of us are happy with natural, even sour flavours. I did end up with too much blackberry mixture though. That has been put in a jar in the fridge and I think will be perfect for putting on top of museli or porridge with some yoghurt. Or could even be spread on toast - it is quite jam-like.

I'm going now to watch the last part of 'Gareth Malone's Extraordinary School for Boys'. I wonder if he succeeded in his goal to raise the boys' reading age by six months. I do hope so.

Another museum and other stuff.

Today it has mostly been raining. From the sounds of things, this kind of weather is not welcome for many Mummies stuck indoors with children on half term. It was of no consequence to us, though, as we had already planned to visit the Maidstone Museum and take part in their workshop.
Museums have come a long way since I was a child. I remember the Natural History museum in London being pretty exciting because there were dinosaur skeletons like the brontesaurus, if I remember correctly which I think has now been proved to be a bit of a mistake. Other museums that I visited as a child were, well a bit boring and you certainly were not encouraged to touch! Nowadays they are brilliant places to take children. Usually free and much more interactive. I would recommend taking children to the Maidstone Museum. It is not too big and the exhibits are very varied including, dinosaurs, egyptians, natural history of the British Isles, military and Victorian childhood. Today the workshop was making toys from the 1940's. I'm annoyed with myself for leaving my phone in the car (I use it to take the pics). So we'll have to make do with this picture of the end product. It is a game of battleships made from recycled materials. The children did actually make some battleships from clay that you are supposed to lay across your grid, but they, er, got recycled into something else in the car on the way home! (Thought it was quiet!)

When we got home, the children watched this film 'The Water Horse'. I have ordered 'Carrie's War' from Amazon but think that it is unlikely to arrive this week. We already had this film in our DVD collection. It is set in Scotland (fabulous scenery!) during the war about a young boy whose father has left to fight. He finds a mysterious egg that hatches into a sea creature and becomes his friend. A lovely tale. We enjoyed this.

Meanwhile, as I was making some lamb pittas for dinner, I photographed the kitchen larder that I got for my birthday. I've put it where I originally had my wobble stripe curtain. I've painted the cupboard a soft green and stapled that wobble stripe fabric behind the glass.

I did the same thing with my other cupboard, so they sort of match.

And, well, I might as well show this pretty dish I found in TK Max the other day. In it I have put:

Some diced lamb,

sliced onion,

sliced yellow pepper,

sliced courgette

and sprinkled/drizzled over it some olive oil, salt, pepper, pinch of cumin and garlic and cooked for about 40 mins in the oven.

I used this to fill some wholemeal pitta breads and served with a cucumber dip (natural greek yogurt, lemon juice and finely chopped cucumber) and some houmous (ready-made from Tesco.)

Looking forward.

Half term is coming up soon.
I love the holidays.
So I have been thinking about what to get up to.
I could just leave the kids to it - they are very good at creating their own entertainment, but we also enjoy having a focus. I had a look at the website of the Maidstone Museum earlier. It is a very good place to take children... and free! Next week they are organising some workshops around the 1940's wartime childhood. So there it is. Our theme for next week.
I've also been looking at books and dvds that fit in with this and am considering buying 'Carrie's War' and/or 'Goodnight Mr Tom'. Perhaps we'll try out some wartime recipes, too. I've just been reading a little of an interesting blog by a lady who is living on wartime rations in a bid to lose weight. She has some recipes on there to try.
Here is the link:
http://1940sexperiment.wordpress.com/100-wartime-recipes/

Spuds!

I like potatoes. I don't mind peeling them, but it is a bit time consuming and I prefer not to do it every day.

Like most people I look for ways to cut costs and time to leave more time and money for other things. Once every month I do a big order, on-line, from Sainsburys. That way I make sure I have all my essentials 'til next pay day and get free delivery. (And I don't have to drag a bored toddler around the supermarket for too long). I always go through their 'basics' range first. Some months ago I came across their bag of instant mashed potato. I can't remember the price but it is something like 20p! So I thought I'd buy a bag to keep in the cupboard for emergencies... like when we get snowed in. But since actually trying it, well, I now use it - a lot! Instant mash has apparently come a long way in the last ten years. I can hardly tell the difference from the real thing, especially if it has gravy on it. It is so quick and easy to do and one packet easily makes enough for 2 separate meals for 5 people.

If all that sounds a bit tacky, well, I would also like to 'big up' baby new potatoes for almost the same reason. They are not as thrifty, but they are easy to prepare - just wash, cut up and boil - and they are delicious with some lamb chops. Mmmmmmmmmmm.

Making the most of stinging nettles.

Being a stay-at-home Mum and having to make a very limited budget go far can be challenging but it was how I was brought up so I'm not short of an idea or two. My mother would make the sunday joint last 4 days at least and grew all her own veggies but somehow even she overlooked the usefulness of the highly nutritious stinging nettles. (Her homemade tomato sauce was bloomin' lovely though and so now I can't really bear ketchup!)

So today I 'harvested' the fresh young nettles at the bottom of our garden and used them for two things. Firstly, as I saw demonstrated on 'The Edible Garden' on BBC2 the other day, I put some in a bucket of water and have simply left it in the greenhouse. Eventually, according to Alys Fowle, it will start to stink and when it smells really bad it will be ready as a lovely tonic for the tomato plants. With the rest of the nettles I made soup. This is not as disgusting as it sounds and to prove it I can honestly say that whenever I make this, my husband and kids eat it all up. I mean, c'mon. If man and child will eat it, it must be ok!

It is not difficult to find a recipe but this is how I make mine:



Firstly, I make my own stock with left over chicken bones if we recently ate wings or drumsticks or the whole carcass. I put them in the slow cooker on low for 24 hours with about two and a half litres of water, a couple of chopped onions, a couple of cloves of garlic, a couple of sticks of celery (chopped), a teaspoon of paprika and a couple of bayleaves.



Next, I drained the liquid into a clean saucepan, added the stinging nettles (wear gloves and wash well!) and cooked them for about 20 minutes.



Then I liquidised and seasoned the soup and on this occasion I stirred in a little cream that I had left over in the fridge.



I've seen other recipes that I think included potato, but this version was delicious.



Oh, and, if you were wondering, nettles are very nutritious, rich in vitamins A,C &D, iron, calcium, manganese and potassium. They can also be eaten on the side, as a vegetable, like spinach.


More homemade treats:

Hubby made the kids these bows and arrows from stuff just lying around.

And then we went for a walk in the woods to collect fallen branches so that we could make little tents in the garden. They were fascinated with this hydrant sign so we talked about that for a bit.

Gotta go now. 'Ashes to Ashes' has just started. Luv it!

Yesterday I had a bit of time to make these little cubby hole curtains for the kitchen from my new 'wobble stripe' material. They are very cheerful. (Just like me!!!)

The children decorated biscuits again, from the rest of the kit I bought last week, but I did add some extra colours this time. (Natural, of course) . There is so much stuff you can buy now for this kind of thing compared to when we were young.

This morning, as I shopped in Morrissons, I bumped into the ambulance lady who respond to our emergency the other week. It was nice to go and thank her and to explain the outcome of it all. She is in the St John's Ambulance. I used to belong to that when I was young and Honor has expressed an interest in it too. So I shall be looking into that for her.

Cooking Day.

Yesterday was cooking day. Henry had already finished his Kumon before school so he got to go first. To help him practise his reading, I wrote out some simple instructions from the recipe book for him to read as we went along, like this:

With very young children I like to change the colour of the letters to highlight the different phonemes. (ie: or, th and sh) I think it helps them identify them a bit more easily.

So here is Henry making raspberry muffins.

Honor's focus was.... maths!!!! So here she had to practise accurate measuring.

She made a sardine dip by blending a small can of sardines with 3 fl oz of plain yogurt, a few sprigs of coriander, a little squeeze of lemon juice and pinch of black pepper. Then she cut some cucumber, celery and red pepper sticks for dipping.

And served them with some japanese rice crackers. She loved this. Henry wasn't so keen on the sardine dip, so she ate his too. I managed to have a little bit myself but had to fight her for it!

Then we watched Little House on the Prairie.

Sunshine at last!

This rotten old cold is dragging on but it is amazing how a bit of sunshine can lift the spirits and today I noticed just a little more energy has returned. Though, the day did get off to a slow start. Baby Hope appears to be suffering now and kept me awake a bit during the night. So this morning I stumbled around, bleary eyed but luckily had Hubby around to help get breakfast. I took this photo this afternoon. It is the view from the bottom of our garden. I think it is the first time that I have been out in the garden for weeks.

I released the chickens fron their watery pen. They are obviously making the most of it as they have just been spotted making their way down the road along with the rabbit who also doesn't think much of confinement!

I even got round to doing a spot of baking. These are Nigella's breakfast bars. Or a version of them anyway. They are very simple to make. Simply heat a can of condensed milk and then I have mixed in rolled oats, pecan nuts, flaked almonds, coconuts, sunflower seeds, raisins and chocolate chips. The contents vary depending on what I happen to have in the cupboard but they are always yummy.
I've also got my salmon pasta bake in the oven. Again, a 'throw-together-whatever-you've-got' kind of meal.

And here is my new cupboard that I got at the flea market last weekend!

We are watching Masterchef right now. Hubby is talking at the tv like a real pro! Well, I suppose he is, really!

This afternoon I had to take Henry to the hospital for his appointment with the orthoptist. The history behind this is... I have a lazy, left eye. So has my grandad and uncle. My problem wasn't spotted until I was about 6 years old, during a routine eye test for children. I noticed, when Henry was a baby, that his left eye had a slight turn inwards. I mentioned this, and my family history to the health visitor and we were quickly referred to the orthoptist where my suspicions were confirmed. So Henry has been wearing glasses since he was just 18 months old! Yes. It has been quite a job getting such a young child to wear glasses. At least, it was in the beginning, though I suppose in more recent years it has been easier because he is used to them. The worst times were when he had his tantums and would fling his glasses across the room or just pull them so hard, snarling, until they snapped. Fortunately, the glasses came with a year's guarantee so they usually got replaced or fixed without too much extra expense. Now, Henry doesn't have the temper tantrums so often and if he is about to blow his stack, I quickly remove them! But, I think he is getting better at managing his temper (he hasn't broken anything, this way, for ages). And, today, the orthoptist announced that his vision has improved so much that it is likely he will be discharged after our next appointment in October. He will still have to wear glasses for a while but, it seems, our efforts, and catching it early, has paid off.

I wasn't going to post tonight but Hubby told me to! He cooked for me tonight, again, and enjoys to read about how good his cooking is! (Hee, hee!).

I've been thinking how, erm, necessary, I suppose routine is in our lives, anyway, to get things done. Since I left work to have the kids, my attendence at Mass has been very up and down. I decided that during Lent I will go every week and hopefully this will get me back into the routine for making this happen permanently. Hubby is helping me so we've decided on going to Saturday evening Mass. Sunday has become a bit of a mad dash to catch up with things like making sure school and work stuff is ready for the Monday. So that is what we did this evening. It feels more relaxed, knowing that we are only half way through the weekend. Our son, Henry, is over at Grandma's for a sleepover (the first this year) and that also made the whole Mass experience more relaxed!!! When we got home, our big girl stayed up an extra hour with us and Hubby cooked me chicken livers in port. It was lovely, really! (He had Alpen!)

After the girls went to bed and we had dinner/Alpen, I relaxed by reading my favourite blogs. (And Hubby used his laptop to find out why his knee hurts. Cartilage failure? Patellofemoral pain syndrome or housemaid's knee? Boy, am I in trouble if it is the latter!) Anyway. On the Blessed and Busy blog, Heather writes about how she has a family games night. I think I'd like to copy this idea. We have lots of games in the house and yes, we play them from time to time, but as I was saying about the importance of having routine, we should actually schedule a regular time to do this....

I've had a lovely day today, I have! The kids have been well behaved, got on with things without the nagging... that in itself is enough. But we had a lovely lunchtime treat, meeting my best friend Lisa and her nieces for lunch at Frankie and Benny's. It's the first time I've been there. I don't go out of my way to go to restaurants with kids in tow. I resent paying lots of money for a meal I can't relax and enjoy, usually spending up to an hour trying to keep whining and fidgeting kids entertained before getting served, even! But this place wasn't too bad if you don't mind hearing Cliff singing 'Congratulations' several times over for the birthdy parties. Hope was very good. She was happy sitting in her high chair for an hour and a half watching all the goings on. I brought bread sticks and fromage frais with me for her to eat. The meal deals for the kids were very reasonable, in my opinion. For £3.95, they got a main meal, dessert and unlimited soft drinks. I enjoyed my food, too.

I'm about to get some more lovely grub. Here I am, sitting at our Valentine's dinner table. We're having pear and roquefort toasts http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8262/roquefort-toasts-with-peppered-pears followed by roast duck in a redcurrant sauce. YUM!

Snowmaggedon!

I'm having to post yesterday's news today because I've been having problems with viruses and stuff.
Snowmaggedon... it arrived much to Hubby's annoyance because he had to bring the kids back home again as school was shut! He did, however, get to go skiing in the afternoon along with Honor on her sledge. (Henry had to stay home as a result of not so good behaviour!) Before the outdoor fun we got some studying done. Well, they don't get out of it that easy! Honor worked very well on number sequencing and her Kumon. I also gave Henry some simple number sequences to complete. Both of them began with a Montessori style activity, completing sequences on a mat and then progressed to workbooks/sheets. After that, they played snakes and ladders together on the Numbertime website:http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/numbertime/games/snakes.shtml


Then we made some heart shaped butter biscuits using this recipe http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/598125. The kids need to take them to school today to sell on the cake stall. The proceeds are going to the Haiti Earthquake Fund.

We then decorated our biscuits with pink icing and pink sugar sprinkles.

Lovely!

Gratitude Friday and Peter Rabbit.

This is what we had for dinner tonight. Salmon pasta bake. I made it up based upon what needed to be used up in the fridge/freezer and what is on offer at the supermarket. I rarely buy a newspaper now. (I can't see the point of paying 50p per day to read about people's sex lives, or lack of it. One week it was the woman who wrote about how she gave her husband, for his 40th, the gift of sex every day for a year and the following week another woman who wrote about not having sex for, oh, I don't know how long it was. But I decided then I was giving up the Dailys!) I did get one this week, though and read about a journalist who switched from shopping at Sainsbury's and M&S to Aldi and Lidl and worked out that if she did this properly she'd save herself about £3,000 a year. I've personally found Morrissons a bit of a star this week. A pack of 4 kiwi fruits cost 30p! The kids have chopped kiwi and peaches for their dessert. And tinned salmon was buy 1 get 2 free! So I did and mixed 2 of the cans with wholewheat pasta and a mix of frozen veg, cream and cheese. We had this with chips and garlic bread and a dish of celery and cucumber sticks to nibble at too. It was very nice. I even lit a candle!

These little cherubs are now waiting for me to come and read Peter Rabbit because it is Beatrix Potter night! Yay!!

Such a naughty rabbit!

I don't know if it is because I'm so very tired, but I've been feeling a bit sorry for myself for the last half hour so it'll do me good to list some things I am grateful for...

1.) HUBBY - cos to cheer me up he set out a cup of camomile tea and a couple of 'munchies', those little chocolate thingys, for when I came down from the bath. I asked for vodka but this is nice. Thanks. XXXX

2.) Friends. I recently found an old school friend on Facebook and tomorrow she is coming to visit. I haven't seen her in about 20 years! I'm grateful for my other friends, too. I only have a few, but they are good ones and they know who they are. Big kisses to you too! XXXX

3.) The comments left by the ladies from Faith and Family after my Small Successes post. It's the first time I've joined in and it was lovely to read their encouraging words.

4.) Moonlighting - It is being shown every night on CBS Drama channel (Freeview) and is on right now. How can I be miserable when bears bear and bees bee????