Meatballs

  

This was second on my batch cooking list.  I thought, in a similar way that I freeze uncooked burgers I would do the same but with meatballs.

Tomato Sauce

        

It’s Bank Holiday Monday and I have just got back from a double set of weekends away.  I feel summer has now really kicked off and I need to change my routine at home so I can get everything done that I need to in the week so my weekends are then free to enjoy.  So the first thing I want to change is the cooking/eating.  We still have no money so have to buy cheap and clever to get the best value for our food.  Therefore we are back to no luxuries this month.  Still I still believe in good fresh food so I decided to try and batch cook all my meals for the week as much as I can.

Amroth Arms, Pembrokeshire

We were on a day out and having had a quiet walk down from the National Trust location at Colby Woodland Gardens, we felt that some refreshment was in order. It was Morgan's birthday so this seemed a doubly good reason to have a "pub lunch". We decided that the "Amroth Arms", situated directly across the road from the beach, looked inviting and presented a reasonable menu selection (without being over ambitious).

The pub seemed pretty quiet and we sat down at 1pm. Dylan would have liked a burger but was content to make do with chips. The rest decided on a Coq au Vin, Chicken and Leek pie and Ham and chips. These were promptly ordered at the bar through the friendly bar staff.

Viennese Kisses

It was Friday and got home from work to find all the biscuits in the house had been eaten.   I have this really old book on the shelf which has some really lovely biscuit recipes.  After a flick through the pages me and Rhi decided on a Viennese biscuit recipe but with our own twist.

Lemon and Poppy Seed Cup Cakes

Hungry again and no cakes left in the house.  Everything had been eaten by the ravenous kids.  I decided to knock up a few cup cakes.

I have wanted to try poppy seeds in cake for a while and had bought a packet in the shop this week.  I had to toast a teaspoon or two on a small oven proof plate first.  I then had a look in the fridge to see what I could find.

I found half a jar of lemon curd and thought, yes good combination.

Shed Blues

Well I had a lovely afternoon at the allotment painting my shed in the sun and generally tidying up from the winter.

My shed is now a beautiful, brilliant shade of blue.  I have also started painting the inside as well so as to brighten it up. 

This week Morgan built himself a new lean to green house attached to his own shed so I now have a full green house to occupy instead of just half.  I am already filling that side with my pots of lettuce.  I do need to bet some pea gravel to even out the floor surface of the green house though.

Also did a bit more strimming and watering as it is quite dry.

TODAY I HARVESTED MY FIRST 2 MUSHROOMS : )

Dandelions...Heaven or Hell

Not much happening at the moment just windowsills loaded down with seedlings and plants at various stages of development.  Up at the allotment the only thing really growing is the weeds and especially the dandelions.

    

I had receipt of some environmesh from a friend in work this week so I have laid this over my carrots to stop the carrot root fly.

This weekend I think I will try and paint the shed and cut back some the grass and weeds with the strimmer.  I may also sow some parsnip seeds and some more cabbages as these seedlings have rotted in their pots this week.

Chocolate Easter Cup Cakes

                      

As it was Mothers day this Sunday I thought I would make some cup cakes to take round as a gift. 

Dress the Salad...

Harvesting on the allotment is now picking up.  With the weather warming up the lettuce, spinach beat and radish are growing really well in the greenhouse and have been picking salad leaves all week.  I have also been pulling the odd Japanese onion to go on the salad as well.  The cress on the windowsill is ready so we are now adding this to the classic egg mayo to give another dimension of flavour to our tea time sandwiches.

Greenhouse is go...

          

As I may have mentioned before, I am a lazy gardener and cut corners where ever I can.  This may not always produce the greatest quantity of produce but rather than being overwhelmed with too much produce I have always had enough to feed myself and the family though out the year.  The reason I have mentioned this is that this weekend I probably skipped a step in the growing of tomatoes, aubergines and peppers.  This is bad I know but I generally don’t have time to do everything by the book.

Planting Spuds

This week I have been mainly planting potatoes…

                       

Last weekend at the allotment I noticed that the more experienced gardeners had started to plant their potatoes.  This prompted me into planting mine as well.  I had my seed potatoes delivered way before Christmas and have had them sat around since then waiting around, doing a bit of chitting here and there but basically slowly shrivelling.  I have had little success with potatoes on the plot so far.  I have tried different varieties none of which have performed as well as the classic King Edwards. These are in fact my favourite flavour so points all round.  I have put the poor results and small size of the potatoes down to the condition of the soil so this year I am only growing the one King Edward variety,  planting less and giving what I have more TLC.  Therefore over this last week I have done really well and pat myself on the back for this, and made the effort to ride my bike up to the allotment every night once I have got in from work and prepared and planted my potatoes.  Whether it works this time we shall see.

Painting Chores first

    

Once I had filled my belly with two generous bowls of Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes I got the paint out to finish some painting I had started last year.  There is a strip of wood which goes round the top of the walls a bit like coving but not.  I painted this and two beams which go across the middle of the room.  I keep looking at the colour I painted the walls and am still not happy with the colour.  It is just to blue and not duck egg enough.  I think once I have some money again I will try and get a better colour. 

Followed by a stoll along the beach

Sunrise at the Shed

I woke early, on Saturday, to a beautiful sunrise so I thought I would share it with you..

Mole Heaven

Grampys attempts to scare the moles away are not working.  If anything they are attracting them.  I say live and let live.  Just rake them down and sow a bit of fresh seed.

Microwave Dinner...Yummy

     

It’s Friday and work finished for another week.  Weather was looking good for the weekend so we set off in the car for a weekend away in our shed.  Pug arrived early and prepared tea but we arrived at about 8pm.  Dinner was on the table but a little worse the wear for the microwave.

Curtains and Cushions

Since deciding to re-decorate the playroom I have been looking for the perfect curtains for the room.  I would normally paper a single wall with a feature wall paper but in this room I just didn’t have the spare wall to do this on.  One end had floor to ceiling shelving and the other end had a window.  Therefore I decided to use the window end of the room as my feature wall.  I began my hunt for the perfect curtains.  I came across a number of fabrics during my travels to Ikea which were really cool but I am no seamstress (Loath sowing actually) and no way can afford for them to be made.  Therefore I started to search the internet and stores in the area.  Found a couple of possibilities in M&S (A little on the expensive side) and Dunlin Mill ( right colour green but plain and stripy).

My search criteria was: Not plain, not stripes and no flowers.

I eventually came across some really cool retro designs which were affordable in Next Home.  They were a fabulous green with bold retro design leaves.  They also had a matching cushion that I just had to buy as well. 

BELLINIS – Cardiff (St Davids 2)

I had no idea where to go for my birthday this year then my friend suggested Bellinis.  I had previously been to the Bellinis restaurant located by the Thistle Hotel in Cardiff for lunch with my daughter.  We had a lovely meal there so I thought it sounded like a good plan. I remember while having our lunch, there was a lunch time meeting going on, in the restaurant with what we assumed were the owners of the business reviewing plans for a new restaurant in Cardiff bay.  That restaurant has since opened and also their latest one in St Davids 2.

The Most Amazing Smartie Cake

300g sunflower spread

300g caster sugar

6 eggs

300g self raising flour

vanilla essence

300g butter

700g icing sugar

vanilla essence

milk

1 packet white chocolate drops

lots and lots of Smarties

Malted Vanilla Cupcakes

150g sunflower spread

150g light muscavado sugar

3 eggs

150g self raising flour

2 tbsp malt drink powder

75g butter

175g icing sugar

vanilla essence

milk

Sofa Satisfaction.

 

Scanned the sofa showrooms and Internet looking for the right sofa for my ‘playroom’.  Most seemed to be too big for the room or too expensive as this project is being done on a budget.  The idea being that as and when we have enough money to buy a better sofa we will.

I eventually found the perfect looking bed settee online at ASDA Direct.  It was only £220.  Bargain I thought even if it is a bit cheap.  Unfortunately when I went to order it they had put the price up to £275.  Mmmm. I thought.  I see their cunning plan to put the price up so they can lower it for the January sales.  So as I was in no rush I waited about three weeks and sure enough the price went back down to £220.  I ordered the sofa and waited.  When I logged on and noticed a change in the status I rang to find out what was happening to the sofa and was told it was on its way and the delivery company would contact me.  Well they did at about 8pm one night to arrange delivery the following Monday between 7am and 9am.

It was delivered at 7:45am on the Monday which was great.

And it looks great.  I couldn’t be more satisfied.

Sowing the seeds...

Seedlings of tomato and chilli.

                       

More broad beans.

 

Cress seed.

                           

King Edward seed potatoes chitting.

Aubergines...

                    

Tonight I planted some aubergine seeds.  

This is something new I am trying for 2011.  

I will see if my little cloche works.

Cloches, Cloches and more Cloches

Over the last couple of weeks I have grown some broad beans and peas on the kitchen windowsill. Last week I replanted the beans into an experiment of mine.  I put some newspaper into a toilet roll then planted a bean into each one.  Today I planted these out along with the peas I have grown as well.  I have used plastic bottles as cloches to try and give them some protection.  I will check them out next week.

               

I also dug over the plot next to where I had planted the beans then spread some manure over the top before covering with two tunnel cloches.  This will keep the ground warm and dry ready for the next set of planting.  This is what I had done previously before planting my beans and peas.  It means digging is made much easier.

Jenny Church's 100th

Last weekend my grandmother ‘JENNY CHURCH’ celebrated her 100^th birthday. 

Leading up to the event we were all very nervous not knowing if she would actually be attending the celebration or not.  When she had been told that there was a small lunch planned, with only the regular close relatives attending who would normally visit her on her birthday anyway, she panicked and told everyone to cancel.  This lunch arrangement was only a half truth as the full extent of the event had been kept a secret.  The actual event was going to be at a local hotel called the Miami.  Little did she know that a whole suite had been booked with a glamorous lunch and as many relatives as could be seated had been invited and were flying and travelling in from all over Europe.

The Little Christmas Tree Comes Home

It had been raining most of the week so I was expecting it to be quite sticky but oh how sticky it was.

Christmas Tree:  My first job was to replant the Christmas tree so I dug out the hole from whence it came and tipped the tree in with its compost.  I then attempted as best I could to heal in some more mud around the tree.  Unfortunately all that happened was that every time I pressed down with my welly the mud just stuck to the welly.  I have replanted it as best I can but will have to keep an eye on it in case it blows over in the wind.  Once the soil has dried out I will try and firm it in a bit better.

Kale: Well the kale is no more.  The pigeons have now eaten the lot and when I checked to see what netting I had anyway it was the wrong kind.  Oh well I will know for next year.

While I was up there I tried to dig a bit more of the plot but again it was just way too sticky to do anything.  I did find some carrots from last year and a couple of parsnips so I dug those up for Sunday lunch.  I also had a check in my greenhouse and picked some more rocket along with some lambs lettuce and baby pak choi.  I sowed some more lettuce in one of the pots.

Pizza Di Sinistra Sopra

It was the end of the week and we were running out of easy cook food in the house so, as I couldn’t be bothered to go to the shop, I decided to make pizza. Had no traditional pizza ingredients, so raided the fridge for left over’s.

I found the following left overs: Stilton, Serrano ham, bottled chilli peppers stuffed with cheese and chorizo.

Little Boxes...

     
After looking around at various shelving units I decided on this one from IKEA as it was the cheapest and at the moment we can’t afford anything better.  I would have liked to have got this in a light wood but unfortunately they do not make the unit in the wood only black or white.  I have also added some wooden boxes to give more storage and texture.  Can’t afford any more at the moment as they are quite expensive.

Also from IKEA.

Have to figure something out with all the cabling though as it detracts from the minimal look I am trying to achieve.

Let me know if you have any ideas.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Torte

175g digestive biscuits (crushed into crumbs)
85g butter (melted)
can of Carnation caramel
pinch of sea salt
300g plain chocolate (broken up into bits)
600ml double cream
25g icing sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract


I found this recipe by James Martin, in this years Christmas Good Food magazine and chocolate always goes down well in this household.

New season starts here...

Just before Christmas, I received a package of live plants in the post.  They were my gooseberry bushes.  This was really bad timing as the whole of the country was in the tight grip of winter with deep snow and freezing temperatures. 

Between Christmas and new year winter seemed to loosen its grip and this brought on a spell of hope for the coming year.  The days were already getting longer, the birds where beginning to flirt and the new yellow flowers of the broom were beginning to emerge.

I made a list of things to do, donned my new Christmas wellingtons and set off for the allotment.