Sunny suppers

The sun came out at the weekend and for the first time in what seems like months, I was able to do a bit of gardening.  Just a little weeding and mowing the lawn but oh, how lovely it was to be back out there!  I find it so calming and feeling the sun on my skin was beautiful.  I also had a look at my seed collection as I am itching to get started again with sowing vegetable seeds.  The nights are still frosty, so a bit more patience is needed...

Then yesterday I drew the winner of the giveaway and that made for a great start to the week - I just wish I had been able to give something to everyone, especially to those who go through the trouble of sending such lovely comments so regularly.  Well, there is always the next time and I am already plotting what goodies will go into the next giveaway.  I've got a couple of good ideas... :-)

Despite the recent sunshine, my body is still craving comfort food.  Light summer dishes are not on my menu just yet...again, more patience required.  As you have probably gathered by now, I love doing recipes in the oven and one of my favourites is potato gratin.  We have a great big bay tree in the garden, so I use the leaves from it in this supper dish although I dare say it would be just as nice without.

What a great dish!  It can be a side dish or turned into a meal in itself and it never ever disappoints :-)

Mhm, I can imagine it now, all creamy with lots of potato and vegetables and maybe even some ham thrown in for good measure - yum! As usual, I have amended the quantities of cream and cheese and have added more vegetables to make it slightly healthier without loosing its creamy luxurious taste.  I hope you will like this one as much as we do!

From the garden into the pan (hopefully)...

Roasted vegetable pasta with chorizo & feta

Good morning!  Brrrr - it's cold today!  But the sky is blue and I think it is going to be another beautiful sunny day.  I did a little bit of tidying in the garden yesterday and am getting excited about planning my vegetable garden for this year.  When I say vegetable garden, I mean my one raised bed and containers - small but I think just right for a beginner like me.  I grew dwarf peppers last year (indoors) but this time, I am going for the larger ones.  And I will definitely grow more cherry tomatoes - I love those!  Both would go perfectly in today's recipe...roasted vegetable pasta.

This dish is a great "fridge cleaner" - you can use up leftover vegetables, slightly bruised tomatoes,...

For this version, I used chorizo sausage and feta cheese together with roasted vegetables but anything goes really.  I roasted peppers, red onion, garlic and cherry tomatoes in the oven with a good drizzle of olive oil, salt & pepper and some Italian herbs for about 20 minutes at 180c (fan oven).  Whilst they were sizzling, I cooked some dry pasta according to the packet instructions and set that aside.  Once the vegetables were done, a few bits of chorizo sausage went into my wok (no need for any oil) and fried for a couple of minutes before I mixed in the cooked pasta and vegetables, heating everything through.  And just before serving I added a bit of crumbled feta cheese.  Quick and easy and ever so tasty!

I love how you can just amend it to whatever you like and have to hand - you may not have feta but want to grate some hard cheese over the top.  Or maybe you want to keep it vegetarian and leave out the sausage, giving extra flavour by adding a couple of spoons of pesto.  I think this makes a lovely lunch or quick dinner for during the week.

Simple meals...

Pasta with broad beans...

More on the theme of simplicity!  A couple of days ago I made a really simple but delicious supper which still makes my mouth water just thinking about it!  Not only was it very tasty but I love the fact that it was made out of only a handful of ingredients and in no time at all.  Pasta with broad beans, garlic, olive oil, mint, a bit of salt & black pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice - job done!

And this morning I prepared an equally simple dish for our lunch: mushroom soup!  All it needed was mushrooms (really? :-)), a couple of leeks, some garlic, thyme and vegetable stock (I did use a cube for this).  Again, really straightforward and also very cheap to make.  You can add cream to it but it really isn't necessary and if really hungry, a slice of bread on the side might go down a treat.

It just goes to show how easy it is to make a satisfying meal that doesn't need to cost the earth (quite literally).

Mini peppers...

Before I forget...I harvested some of our homegrown mini peppers again the other day to add to a roast vegetable dish.  How cute are they?  I love the different colours and shapes!  The colours are obviously due to the different stages of ripeness but funny how the orange ones are quite a lot longer/bigger.  I have kept some of the seeds to grow more next year although I am tempted to try the "normal" size variety.  They may have to be grown outside of the house though as their plants are bound to be huge.

This afternoon I will go and collect the last of the tomatoes from the garden.  They are bound to be green ones but I have decided that they need to be harvested before it gets colder.  I will turn them either into green tomato chutney or salsa (the latter can be frozen).  I'd hate to see them go to waste, so that seems to be the best option.

Home, sweet home

Foccacia sandwich...

It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday, so I went for a walk by the seafront - it was lovely!  I decided to treat myself to lunch in a little cafe/restaurant - I had eaten there before with a friend and loved it, so I was really looking forward to returning.  Well, what a disappointment!  Now, don't get me wrong - I feel incredibly lucky that I can just go and buy myself some food and I really appreciate that.  What was disappointing was how bland the food was - I went for a veggie quinoa burger with fried potatoes and salad.  It sounded really promising from the description on the menu but wasn't tasty at all, not even after adding extra seasoning.  The only good thing was that I was full afterwards :-(
So this lunchtime I made my own lunch - homemade foccacia spread with pesto (also homemade) and topped with lettuce, feta cheese and figs...yummy!  Simple but tasty! :-)

I also harvested the first of our baby peppers :-)  Lovely taste if a little small but hey, they are mini peppers!  I might roast the next lot whole and either preserve them in oil or chuck them into a pasta dish or similar!

Homegrown mini peppers...

Veg growing olympics

It's the London Olympics and I have been glued to the TV, watching all manner of sporting achievements!  It's been stunning but has meant that, given that we have had visitors as well, the blog got a bit neglected.  It's been quite nice being in a bit of a bubble and enjoying the sports - a good distraction from the bad stuff that goes on in the world.

Homegrown & very tasty...

We have been able to harvest the first lot of tomatoes - they are absolutely delicious and sweet.  I will definitely try and grow these again next year.  We have also been feasting on our blueberries and the potatoes are in now as well - smaller than hoped but tasty nonetheless. 

I don't think we will have a lot of apples this year :-(  It was just too cold for the bees when the blossoms were out, so not enough pollinating went on.  I would say we will probably have about a quarter of last year's harvest... not great!  I dare say that it is the same across the country, so I wouldn't be surprised to see prices going up in the shops.  And there are other - far more serious - implications of the current weather scenarios across the world.  The drought in the US is affecting wheat, corn and soya crops and flooding in the East is causing havoc for rice growers.  This has to be a wake-up call for all of us but I doubt it will be :-(

Peppers anyone?

First peppers appearing...

Very exciting news: the pepper plants which have grown indoors on the window sill for the last few weeks have started growing tiny little peppers!  At the moment, there are just a couple but I can already see some of the flowers making place to some more.  I grew these plants from seed and not having done this before, I am especially proud! :-)  They are a dwarf variety but I do sincerely hope they'll grow slightly larger than they are right now :-)

With the sunshine we have been having these last couple of days the tomatoes have started turning colour - I can't wait to try one of these little fellas!  Patience....

Tomatoes ripening...

Produce....

First spuds 2012

Time for another post, I dare say!  As mentioned before, the weather has been shocking lately, so we couldn't do much in the garden.  With all the wet weather it now looks as if my potato plants have succumbed to blight (although I am not 100% sure).  The plants started to look very odd with dots on the leaves and then they just died...sounds like blight to me.  I did a bit of research and found that the plants should be cut down, so that's what I did today.  I also emptied one of the containers to see if the blight had reached the actual tubers and am pleased to say that whilst small, the spuds look pretty healthy.  We planted King Edward potatoes which will be great for roasting if they reach a decent size.  These little ones will be great just boiled with their skins on- might have to incorporate these into my supper tonight!

First blueberries 2012

The other exciting thing that has happened whilst we were away for the weekend is that the blueberries are now changing colour!  They look really fat and juicy but need a bit more sunshine to ripen properly.  Last year's experience told us that even if they are blue, it doesn't automatically mean they are ripe.  Patience is required!  Not one of my stronger points but I know it'll be worth it.

The pepper plants indoors are now coming into flower which is great!  Hopefully that means that there will be peppers growing on them!  We'll see!  I will have to check if they need a hand with pollination...would be a shame to have lots of flowers but then no actual fruits.

Summer

Summer in a bowl...

The last few days have been really sunny and we have been trying to make the most of it by doing gardening, drying washing outside, running, walking the dog... Sheets dried by the sun just smell soooo lovely!  Another one of life's little pleasures!  Talking of which, I had some delicious strawberries yesterday - don't they look beautiful?  I love the neat little rows of green seeds on them :-)  If I had to choose a favourite food, then I would definitely have to say it is fruit for me.  So many exciting flavours and all come in their only neat little packages - simply perfect!

The sunshine has definitely helped the blueberries in the garden along as well and I hope there will be more to come, so that they can ripen nicely.  The same goes for the tomatoes!  Following my last post I noticed that there are actually lots of tiny tomatoes on all of my plants - how I did not spot these earlier is a mystery to me :-)  I have now started feeding the plants with an organic tomato feed and will report on their progress.

I can't sign off today without posting this beach photo that I took on my way to the shops yesterday -looking at it reminds me just how lucky I am!

Exciting news!

First tomatoes!

Now - if this doesn't deserve a second post today, then I don't know what does :-)  I have just been out in the garden to check on the strawberries in their baskets and what can I tell you (drum roll): 
I discovered our very first baby tomatoes!!!  Not on the strawberry plants, obviously ;-)  I had planted one of my cherry tomato plants in the top tier of the basket tower and that one now has several little tomatoes on it!  I am pretty sure they weren't there a couple of days ago but maybe I just missed them - they are tiny after all.

After all the disappointment with the slugs, this is really exciting and I am ever so pleased!  I hope that the plants I have indoors will also fruit - will keep a very close eye on all of them, so I don't miss the first ones appearing.  I guess some people may say I need to get out more ;-) but to me this is just very, very exciting, especially since I grew these plants from seed.

Progress in the garden...

Lily in our pond...

After days of storms and rain we have finally had lovely sunshine today!  It's amazing what a bit of warmth can do as there has been lots of progress in the garden in just a few hours such as the lily in the pond that has been opening up and looks absolutely stunning! Hopefully we will have a few more rays over the next days and weeks, so that the crops can ripen!  No good having lots of blueberries if there is no sunshine to sweeten them!  Which reminds me that I need to put up the fruit cage...don't want the birds to feast on our fruit when it is ready!  We also have a few strawberry plants now and have tasted the first couple of berries...yum!

I am so disappointed with the failure of both the broad beans and the lettuce but have now bought a couple of plastic cloches to cover the lettuce seeds I am due to sow.  Hopefully that way they will germinate and develop without being snaffled by the slugs.  Not sure if I with bother with broad beans again - it might even be too late to get those into the ground.  I'll have to check!

Stormy June

It is absolutely shocking out there today with what can only be described as autumn storms...in June!  The dog was not impressed when I took him for a walk this morning - we couldn't even go to the park because trees have come down there and it is just not safe.  I dread to think what my tomato plants outside look like ... if they are still standing.  The plants indoors are doing fine - here is a picture of my pumpkin plant shortly after watering...there are quite a few more flowers on the plant that aren't showing in the picture. Very pretty!

Pumpkin in flower...

Funnily enough the ones I transferred outside don't have a single flower yet - guess it is that much warmer indoors.  I really do hope that I will get some pumpkins this year since the only one I got last time round was snuffled by the slugs :-(

Given the weather, I have been using the time indoors to do some baking - fruit buns are done (see photo) ...can't wait to try one with a hot mug of tea to go with it.  Yum!  I also prepared some bread dough, so we'll have homemade bread for the weekend!

Fruit buns...

An update

I've been away for a few days and thought it is high time I gave an update on what's going on in the garden.  The good news is that the potatoes are doing incredibly well and are growing nicely.  The same goes for the tomatoes and pumpkins - especially the ones I still have indoors as they are safe from the slug monsters.  And here we come to the not so positive news: the little monsters have munched all of my broad bean plants, even the new ones I planted under a protective cover :-(  When I checked this morning, a big fat slug was hanging upside down on one of the plants, munching any leftover leaves that had been missed during the previous feeding frenzy.  There I was dreaming of broad bean & feta salad and all I have is a great big fat slug!  Just as well we don't have to rely on my crops for survival!  I have decided to keep one pumpkin plant, the peppers and a couple of the tomato plants indoors to see if they will crop...fingers crossed!

Jobs in the garden

This week promises to be a sunny one, so I am making a little list of jobs to do in the garden: mowing the lawn, weeding, planting out tomatoes & pumpkins, sowing lettuce seeds, earthing up 2nd lot of spuds... That should keep me busy!  And I suppose I will have to water the veggies as well, since there is no rain at all forecast for the next week or so. 

I fear my broad beans have not survived the onslaught by the slugs, so I will plant some new seeds and hope that the protective netting "cage" I bought will be enough to protect them.  Since the pumpkins are supposed to be going out into the same cage, I do really hope this works as I doubt there'll be anything left if the slugs find a way through it.

In the park this morning everything was peaceful and glorious!  I saw a blue tit flying into one of the nesting boxes, so I guess there are baby blue tits in the making there.  I wasn't fast enough to take a photo but it was nice to watch what was going on.

I did take this slightly wobbly picture though - holding the dog lead in one hand with dog pulling and trying to take a photo is not easy :-)

Oh, and on the baking front a new favourite has been added to the list: pineapple cake!  Recently, I made a pear loaf cake which was ok but not that fruity - well, I have amended the recipe using fresh pineapple instead and the cake was absolutely delicious!  Very fragrant and so yummy that by the time I thought of taking a picture, the cake had already disappeared.  Oops - maybe next time!

Of slugs and wild ponies...

It's been a few days since my last post and since then we have had lots more rain but also some glorious sunshine over the weekend.  That mixture of moisture and warmth has meant that all the plants are growing rapidly, well, apart from those that got eaten by the slugs :-(  I have only two out of my seven broad bean plants left and the Valmaine lettuce has not even made it further than germination before they got snuffled.  The only way to protect the plants and the pumpkins I am planning to plant out soon is to get a great big cloche or some netting to cover everything.  Very frustrating but not at all unexpected!  At least the spuds, onions and garlic are still going strong as are the plants growing indoors...luckily, the slugs haven't found a way yet to break into the house and let's hope they don't! ;-)

We took the dog for a lovely walk up Cefn Bryn yesterday - it's probably one of the most stunning places on earth and really not far from where we are.  The photo doesn't do the view justice but you can see that the wild ponies were enjoying it as much as we were...

Wild ponies at Cefn Bryn...

October storms in April

To say it has been breezy here over the last couple of days would be an understatement - it feels as if it should be October with these storms, rain and cold!  I was very sad to see that one of the large old trees in the park toppled over yesterday but luckily, no one got hurt.  Still, it was such a shame to see such a magnificent giant brought to its knees. :-( 

What a nightmare this weather also is for the organisers of our local park festival that is due to start tomorrow for the month of May - they have to check all the trees to make sure it is safe to walk around, tidy up any fallen branches etc.

Our big old hawthorn in the garden seems to be holding up remarkably well - long may it continue!  I am just glad I did all my gardening on Saturday as it really hasn't been the weather to be outdoors.  Try telling the dog that as he still insisted on his two walks per day.  It is supposed to get brighter and calmer out there as of tomorrow, so fingers crossed...

I have planted another lot of potatoes in a large bag and am trying to protect my broad beans from the slugs - hopefully, the measures taken will be successful (nematodes, netting, plastic bottles...).  Indoors, I have now potted on all my tomato (9) and pumpkin (3) plants - the peppers are still too small and delicate to handle, so they'll have to wait for their move into a bigger "home".

Garden update

Gosh - I am not sure where the last few days have gone!  It is definitely time for an update as the plants in the veg garden and indoors have been growing so much!  Here are a few photos of what's been happening...

Peppers, tomatoes & pumpkin

On the window ledge, the seeds have germinated, even the bell pepper ones!  It is funny how different the growth rate is when you compare the different plants.  The pumpkin ones were large from the word go, the pepper ones are much more delicate and small.  The tomatoes are doing really well and I have planted some of these on into bigger pots with the others to follow as soon as I have had a chance to buy some more pots.  They do seem to be thriving and I haven't even started using the tomato fertiliser yet... If they all survive and crop, we will have a glut of epic proportions :-)  Fingers crossed!  Tomato salad, sun dried tomatoes, tomato sauce....yummy!

Tomato "tree"

Outside crops...

Outside, the raised bed and grow bags are also looking good!  This photo was taken this morning and since then I have earthed the spuds up again to make sure the tubers don't turn green (or whatever they do when you don't do the earthing up). 

You can see that the garlic, onions and broad beans are thriving too and I have just noticed that the lettuce seeds have germinated, so those should be coming through nicely as well now.

With the weather a mixture of showers and a bit of sunshine it's been ideal conditions and it is just a joy to see how everything is coming along!  Which reminds me that I need to order the veg mesh to protect the plot before other creatures find it as alluring!

Whilst our own rhubarb is not quite ready yet, I have bought some and made more jam - 8 jars of it, so that should keep us and family/friends happy for a bit.  Can't wait for the strawberry season, although I am already running out of jam jars, so might have to source some sooner rather than later.  There is always something to do which is exactly how I like it!  I am already thinking about other little projects like making elderflower cordial...and I am sure there is more baking to be done...

Beautiful views...inside and out

Despite the April showers the park looked beautiful this morning and the view down to the sea was stunning! 

We've had lots of rain over the last couple of days which mostly fell overnight, filling up the pond to the brim.  With periods of sunshine added to the rain, everything in the garden is growing incredibly fast and I keep having to earth up the potatoes.  And even the plants inside are doing well - a tiny pepper plant is beginning to uncurl with others hopefully to follow and I now have three pumpkin plants!  High time I got more pots for planting on as they will soon outgrow their current home.

I quite fancy baking something today, so I might attempt bagels for a change.  I have never made these before but am intrigued that they get poached before baking and want to give it a go.  I will post an update later - hopefully with a photo of some yummy bagels accompanying the post :-)

Of pumpkins and perfectly horrible cakes

Grow, grow, grow!

Almost overnight two of my pumpkin seeds have germinated - I can't believe that I checked in the afternoon and couldn't see anything and suddenly, there they were.  Here is a photo of one of them...if all goes well, they should eventually carry small one-portion sized pumpkins which can be hollowed out and used as soup bowls.  I quite like that idea :-)

It has turned much colder today with even a risk of frost tonight, so I have covered the little broad bean plants and the area where I have sown the Valmaine lettuce seeds with fleece and have made sure that the potatoes are earthed up properly.  Fingers crossed all will survive the cold!  The pumpkins and tomatoes are still indoors, so no problem there.  

No news from the pepper seeds - they are yet to germinate but hopefully that'll happen over the next couple of weeks - I believe they take a little longer to develop.  I fear I might be slightly obsessed with growing stuff as I am already contemplating what to sow next. I have to remember that all these little plants need to be looked after properly as well, so I don't want to overdo it but I keep thinking that there might be something else useful and tasty I could try growing.

Less successful was my latest attempt at baking :-(  I had found a recipe for a straightforward lemon drizzle cake which I thought I'd do in little muffin shapes.  Well, big mistake!  They came out absolutely horrible with all the fat having separated and sitting at the bottom of the tin, slowly frying the cakes from underneath whilst leaving the cakes themselves dry and stuck to the paper cases.  I hate wasting food but there was no way I was going to serve these to anyone.  Very annoying!  Needless to say, there is no photo of the disaster!

Bunnies and beans...

Bunny invasion...

Whether or not you celebrate Easter, here is to a happy Sunday!

I have just been outside to check on the crops and have found that the potatoes are already beginning to poke through the soil again, so more earthing up will be needed soon!  Other exciting news is that two of the broad bean seeds have germinated already!  I am hoping the other ones will make it as well but this is definitely a very good start!  Onions and garlic are also doing well, so I am - well - a happy bunny, I suppose ;-)

I think sometime over the next couple of weeks will be a good time to get the lettuce seeds into the ground as well.

Easter

Hot cross buns

It's the Easter weekend and Good Friday at that, so what better excuse to make hot cross buns?  I did exactly that today with the help of my River Cottage Handbook Bread.  I amended the recipe slightly to increase the amount of dried fruit as last year we had to play "spot the raisin", so double the amount went in this year.  The photo shows the result - not too bad, I reckon and they taste rather lovely :-)

Vegetable nursery...

Yesterday, I potted on the tomato plants and given that they are still looking ok today, I guess I didn't do them too much damage in the process.         

I also put a few pepper and pumpkin seeds into pots and then the propagator, so hopefully they will germinate in a week or so and then grow into strong plants.  I should have enough room in the raised bed for the pumpkins as I am planning on putting the lettuce amongst the garlic and onions.  The peppers if successful at all should be best kept indoors on the window sill.  Can't wait to see how many will make it :-)