Nursery Days

I think a nursery mood brews nursery food and I have certainly found that to be the case with me recently. A nursery mood is meloncholic and unrest, and the best way to ‘treat’ it is to treat it! Everyone is allowed to have off days-although I have let too many creep up on me at once. However, I think it’s quite counter productive to force yourself to be cheery and eat mango or pineapple when, quite frankly, you need stodge.


There will be many that think quite the opposite, and I understand that too, but it does not work with me, and at times when you feel the most lethargic I don’t want to train my mind to want something my body really doesn’t. So, when I get a bit gloomy the food which does the most amount of good is stodge. That’s why Autumn doesn’t bring me down the way it can feel oppresive to some Summer People. I like the smell of decay in the woods, wood smoke on the wind and pot roast in the kitchen. When my mind is full of gloom I want the same comforting Autumnal food on my plate.

“What?” I hear you say, “this is Spring!” Well I know that, but look out of the window and the sky will tell you a different story. This means that I crave mince, tatties and skirlie. This is what Grandmothers made, and Mothers had in a slow cooker for you after school. This is instantly what you need. Butchers mince, browned off and bubbled up in a pan so the gravy is thick and goey. Soft fluffy mash and a generous spoon of skirlie. Fried off oats and with chopped up onion thrown in the pan. Oh the diet goes right out the window, but nothing makes you better like it!

Breakfast Out!

Ah, breakfast out with lots and lots of tea!  Heaven....

Birthdays Are Coming

Birthdays are the most wonderful sorts of days, only surpassed by Christmas Eves in which everybody joins in the excitement. When I was little Birthdays meant wearing a badge on your blazer to school proclaiming your new age. Birthdays were for friends for tea and a party at the weekend in the village hall. They were, quite literally, for jelly and ice cream and musical statues. I hear from friends with little ones about extravagant events and if that’s the way its going, I’m sure my nephews would think I lived in utter poverty with just a game of pass the parcel and party songs which were solely meant for twirling to.


It is TH’s Birthday soon and this year it falls during the Easter weekend. We are having about ten people over and I’d love to do a really pretty theme. I hope to have the house covered in pastel colours and hopefully it will be a nice weekend as we plan to have a BBQ. The kids can be entertained with an egg hunt, and the grown ups entertained by some pretty drinks! I’ve got these cute little glasses and some of those paper straws I’ve seen everywhere. I also bought some Happy Birthday bunting and I think you get really sweet paper plates etc. now so I will get those too. Hmmm, I just need to get a present, eek!

January is here!

Oh January, I used to think you awful. You used to be plain and boring after the excitement of December, November had Bonfire Night, October is our anniversary and Halloween, and before that is the general excitement of Autumn. January used to just be exam time at University, or thawing snow.

This year is really quite different. Not only is there no snow, but the garden is completely untended to, and although it’s mild, oh my gosh is it windy-and the whole place looks a mess. This is not helped by the fact the fence is half blown over, the gate has been whipped off, and rubbish is strewn across the place from toppled over bins and recycling totes, and a busy, busy Autumn meant the place was never really tidied after Summer in the first place.

This means that on top of the normal things like sowing sweet peas (if you want to get lovely strong ones), I need to dig everything over. I would like to grow my own potatoes this year too, so will have to get a move on and start to chit some of the many varieties taking up vast corners of garden centres at this time of year.

January is actually quite exciting this year. My friend Holly who was involved in a terrible accident has an amazing outlook on life which has completely rubbed off on me. I feel like last year was a bit ‘Urgh’, I think lots of people have thought that. There seems to be a general consensus-certainly around the coffee table-that yes we did get through it, and yes we should learn whatever lessons it’s taught us, but it was a bit of a long hard slog.

I think we are still in comforting food mode, but a bit more ready for fresh things with bite too. Re-heated second helpings of Christmas and New Year dinner are long forgotten! We’re planning on going on holiday with my family this year and getting a villa in Cyprus for two weeks, so like last year I think I'm going to be having lots of Greek and Cypriot food as we’ll be booking our flights early and I tend to get in holiday mode early…very early! There is loads of gamey foods available, and we’re incredibly lucky that our local butcher has such a wide supply of really good food. Living by the sea means that we’ve got a massive choice in fish namely; John Dory, Mussels, Oysters, Scallops and Turbot. There are bundles of root vegetables about for filling up on, and the clementine’s are always there for a burst of colour.  I'm living by the BBC foodie website here which is full of really great ideas from a range of really great names.

Most of all I think its time to get like Paddington Bear and make some marmalade with Seville oranges!

I'm hoping to have a busy year, I'm planning to go out and do more, this means lazing about less, but with working one normal job means I spend less time travelling. I hope that I'm busy actually doing fun things, or at least a chore I need to do. I don’t want to fill my time with travelling, I don’t want to fill my time with nonsense I don’t want to do, and I don’t want to spend time with people that drain my energy. Those are pretty much my new year’s resolutions-but probably something that you should subscribe to in general-and something I should have had the sense to actually act upon long before now.

Simnel Cake

Simnel cake is a light fruit cake, similar to a Christmas cake, covered in marzipan, then toasted, and eaten during the Easter period. On the top of the cake, around the edge, are eleven marzipan balls.  Simnel cakes have been known since medieval times, and were originally a Mothering Sunday tradition, when young girls in service would make one to be taken home to their mothers on their day off.

They are also a fabulous way to show off even very moderate baking skills!!

I'm using Delia's recipe which can be found here, but this is Nigellas.  I can't wait to decorate it with bright yellow ribbon, and probably a couple of little chicks in amongst those 11 balls.  I'm hoping to create a whole table full of the kind of delights found on this table (the picture is taken from google) Doesn't it just look so delightful and bright?  Doesn't it welcome you?  I want this, i need this, i need a giant welcoming table thats full of bright yellow and pastel pinks, blues and greens.

x

Porridge for Breakfast

It’s actually hailstones right now! Can you believe it? Was that Autumn yesterday, and now its Winter?....No, bring back Autumn!  I don't want to go back to this...not yet, soon enough, but not yet!

Whatever it is, its time for some good warming food, that’s why I’m back to porridge for breakfast! Porridge is the perfect start to the day, whether its made with all water (and salt), milk and water, all milk or the utterly decadent tinned milk and milk it is too good to miss out on.

Apparently it is high in vitamin B6 which helps the brain produce chemicals which makes you feel good. That’s why I’m cheery even though it’s bitterly cold inside and out (or maybe its because I didn’t forget my lunch and have to go out in the rain?).

Anyway, it’s normal to have 1 cup of oats to 2-3 cups of fluid-whatever it may be. I'm a fan of jam on top of mine, although sugar, almonds, cinnamon, any seasonal fruit, honey or….salt, will do just as well.

Just stay warm!!
Sheila
x

Getting the Bonfire Party organised

This is the first time The Husband and I have had a garden to ourselves, and let me tell you it is exciting. I'm not telling you gardens in general are exciting. I know many of you harvest food from them, or are amazing gardeners, but to someone who has never, ever, ever had a garden, I’m telling you that is exciting!

The garden is pretty much an extension of the house, and although it’s easy to see why this is the case in Summer, I feel it should be as much the case in Autumn (and probably all months really.) This is why I am beyond excitement at the prospect of our very first Bonfire Night Party!!!

Its only a very small and ‘select’ soiree …ok, its really a couple of friends and some relatives, but 1) I love Autumn, 2) I love the chance to celebrate anything. 3) I love sparklers, and 4) I love food.

I’ve been looking at the November issue of Your Home, and they have some totally yummy recipes and ideas in there. I know that we’re making a king size pot of soup, a similarly large pot of chilli, jacket potatoes, beans and some chilli hot chocolate-im so addicted to chilli chocolate right now and think it is such a warming Autumn/Winter thing to have.

However, I’ve found a recipe for some sesame sausages. Here it is with a couple of tweaks:

Sesame Sausages
Ingredients

20 chipolata sausages
1 tbsp of garlic oil
2 tbsp of soy sauce
100ml of honey
1 tsp of chilli powder
Some sesame seeds

Method

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 or equivalent, and put the sausages in a baking tin.
2. Mix together the oil, soy sauce, honey and chilli powder and pour over the sausages giving them a shake so they are evenly cooked.
3. Cook in the oven for 50 minutes making sure they are all sticky and lovely. When they are just about done throw the sesame seeds over and chuck back in the oven for a further 10 minutes.

Yummy Autumn Food

Last night I had a hankering, you know when you just WANT something? It can be good, it can be bad, but you want it, and nothing will replace it. Mostly its chocolate and I'm telling you, a piece of fruit will not fill me up the way a piece of chocolate does. Yesterday my hankering for was Toad in the Hole.

I must confess I'm a bit of a philistine when it comes to sausages. I eat Cumberland but that’s about it, I'm perfectly happy with a good Irish sausage. As long as its not filled up with rubbish and gunk I'm happy. My friend told me about a great butchers website here, its excellent value for what you get.

Anyway, I will be making this recipe tonight, but I’ve made Toad in the Hole countless times before, and its not technically something you do need a recipe for, but here it is anyway.

Ingredients

8 Good quality sausages
1 Onion
‘A dash of olive oil’
(For the batter)
100g Plain flour
2 Medium eggs
300ml Full fat milk

Method

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 7 (about 200)
2. Chuck in all of the sausages (a good snug fit) and throw the sliced onions, the dash of olive oil  and the seasoning over them
3. While that’s cooking (10-15 min) make up the batter-sift the flour and add a pinch of salt, make a well in the middle and crack in the eggs, beat lightly, then add the milk slowly. Just keep going until its lovely and smooth
4. Take the sausages out of the oven and pour the batter over them.

Supper should only be about 25-35 mins away now, or when the batter goes all goldeny and crispy!

"Mum, can i have some?.........please?"
"Just a little bit Daisy, your tummy is too little"