Willows Kitchen Capers!

This is my lovely grandaughter Willow, she has been staying with us whilst off school, we had a busy day yesterday and as it was hot we thought we would just have homemade pizza and salad for tea. Willow loves to cook, even though she is only 7, well very nearly 8 she is very good at it and everyone enjoyed her efforts.  I did all the chopping up with the sharp knife and she did the rest.

We have Salami, peppers, onions and cheese and a ham, mushroom, onion and salami with cheese.

 Both were absolutely delicious, with some left over for tea tonight.

Now the spring onions!! most daughter in laws would take their mother in laws a bunch of flowers, not my daughter in law, I got a bunch of spring onions!!! lol. Straight out of her veg garden, they will be lovely in our salad tonight and more tasty than flowers :-)

Hope you are all having a lovely day today. I bet Prince William and Kate wish they were tucking into Willow's Pizza instead of a lavish wedding breakfast!

Karen xxx

Renovating and Relaxing.

The water barrels in the garden were starting to look a bit grotty, they were bright blue when we aquired them free about 15 years ago, and they got painted green but over the years they have faded. Plus the watering cans needed a spruce up, we had seen these in the garden centre at £52 each!!! so it was worth the £3.99 for a tin of green paint from Aldi. Hubby gave them a quick brush over with a wire brush to remove the flaky bits and gave them a good lick of the new bright green paint.

 All shiny and good as new and saved us a small fortune.

I didn't realise hubby had taken this photo of me relaxing until I uploaded the piccies from today. It was a well earned rest after I had cooked a roast lunch for 7 of us. We have enough dinner leftover for the next 2 days so nice and easy for me.  Hope you have all enjoyed the Easter sunshine.

Karen xx

Family

Yesterday it was my future daughter in laws birthday, they live in Plymouth which is 320miles away so we were unable to share in the celebrations.  This is a photograph of Julie with my lovely son Daniel taken last night, they are both incredibly happy and are looking forward to their wedding in October. They have 4 fabulous kids and they are a credit to them. I can't wait to see them all again.

 This is Daniel with the other little lady in his life, my grandaughter Danielle Rose age 3 1/2,  two cheeky monkey's who I love to bits.

 Not much doing at Chelmarsh today, cleaning this morning and making pizza this afternoon.

 We had naughty pudding today too Pear and Apple Oaty Crumble and custard......yummy...

I feel so stuffed I can hardly type :-)

Thank you for looking xxx

Feeling smug!!

 I am actually feeling a little smug today, we have been checking the gas tariff to make sure we are on the cheapest option for us, hubs always sorts this out for us. While we were sorting that out I started checking the bill and comparing it with the same quarter last year. We have been quite good at turning down the thermostat and using the heating sensibly, all winter we have been warm and had plenty hot water and guess what..... we have saved 637 units yippee!!! I am well chuffed with that.  We had also overpaid on the water rates by £17 so the direct debit for that will stay at £21 per month.  A good start to the year.

 Here are my shopping bargains that I will use for tea tonight.  The potatoes and carrots came from Sainbugs the other day and the swede from Morrisons, we parked the car in their car park today so I popped in for some milk and saw this swede reduced to half price. We then walked up to Aldi and I bought broccoli and a cucumber from the super six at 39p each.

I cooked dinner tonight with the spuds and veg and a portion of the beef goulash I made and froze last week.

Delicious dinner in minutes.

Enjoy your evening xxx

Cornish Pasties

After seeing homemade Cornish Pasties on Frugal Queens blog a few weeks ago I decided to give them a try.  I know they aren't exactly perfect but who cares if they are "rustic"  judging by the wonderful smell they will taste gorgeous...........Ooop, yes they do...yum!

 Here are my ingredients all chopped up and ready to go along with the pastry which I have divided into 8 lumps. We have swede, potato, onion and beef plus a beaten egg for glazing.

 I actually made 7 beef and 1 cheese, the cheese one has a few herbs sprinkled on just for identification.

 Here they are after about 50 minutes in the oven at 180*c.

 Rough costings are
Pastry, using 700g flour 350 lard&marg mixed 80p.  Filling- 3 potatoes (reduced) 15p 1lg Onion 20p half a small Swede 30p 440g Beef on special offer £2.67. Salt and pepper and 1 egg free from grandaughters chickens. Without electricity they cost 52p each and they are huge! Even paying full price for everything they will come in at much less than a pound each and are very very filling.
We couldn't wait until teatime so we have shared one for lunch and it was delicious, although next time I will use more seasoning.


I'm just sat in the conservatory watching these little goldfinches having lunch and squabbling amongst themselves.



Enjoy your day xx

Day out

Last week we promised Mum and Dad we would take them for a little trip out to the garden centre in Brigg, its probably 40minutes drive. I really needed to buy something cheap for the side of the garage, it had to be something that came every year so I would only buy once.  I found some Primroses which were nice and healthy looking and 4 in a posh tray with a handle was £2.99 then about 3 yards further down the path I spotted some more just in plain plant pots at the bargain price of 30p each.  A quick look through them and I managed 10 with lots of lovely new buds, so for £3 I have enough plants to mix in with some transplanted muscari and forget me nots to give some lovely spring colour, not just for this year but for the next couple of years, hopefully by then they will be big enough to split and plant on further up the garden.

They have a lovely restaurant and Dad treated us all to lunch and coffee. Thank you Dad.  Mum, and Dad made a few more garden purchases and I bought some Dwarf Bean seeds. We then had a nice drive home calling in at the library to change our books.  Please please use your libraries before we lose them with the council cut backs.

No cooking for me tonight :-) we just had a sandwich of wholemeal bread and some chicken,bacon and sweetcorn sandwich filler bought from Sainsbury's for the reduced price of 40p, it was really tasty too.

Hope you all enjoy your evening xx

Lazy Sunday

Ahhhh. Sunday and I really just want to be lazy and potter about. I did make it to the greenhouse and potted on some veg seedlings and some strawberry plants. Its amazing how quick things are growing just now, hubby has cut the grass and tidied the garden, just the weeding to do in the vast borders maybe I will make a start tomorrow.  We had 2 lots of visitors this afternoon, my daughter in law with a lovely pot of baby spinach plants and hubby's brother and sister in law, we have been looking after their plants while they have been away for the week and they called to pick them up and have a cup of tea and a bit of a catch up.  I did manage to get the chicken and the gammon in the oven in time for tea.  Some of this is going straight in the freezer ready to make my version of the chicken and bacon pie that Froogs made the other day, the pastry cases are already in the freezer from last week so it will be a quick meal. The rest of the gammon will be cut with my slicing machine to make nice even slices and also to make it go further, I will wrap it up in baking parchment and freeze it for a later date for sandwiches and pizza. The left over chicken we will have tomorrow for tea.

 While the oven was on I made 3 dozen Yorkshire Puddings and a tray of roasted butternut squash and parsnip.

 Good job my grandaughter Willow isn't here, she is a real yorkshire pudding monster and would have been waiting for these to come out of the oven and testing a couple before we got them to the plates!!

 Yorkshires freeze brilliantly and defrost very quickly, so I can just take out a couple when we fancy them.

and finally tonights dinner Roast Chicken, yorkies, roasted veg, carrots cabbage and root mash the gravy looks lumpy but its because I didn't have time to make stuffing (due to visitors) so just added a sprinkle of the packet stuff into the gravy, it thicken it up and gave it a lovely sagey oniony flavour.
Looks like the weather is good tomorrow so we might get up early and have an hours walk on the moors, we haven't been since we had the snow and it will be nice to see the new spring growth on the trees and ferns.

Hope you have enjoyed your Sunday too xx

Orchid, Ducks and Sausages!

Not a lot happened here today, I think after yesterdays busy day we were a bit tired. I started jet-washing the hardstanding where the caravan sits, it had all gone green and slippy,  I managed to get most of it done and hubby finished it off while I brushed on some diluted Jeyes fluid, hopefully now its dried it will be ok until next year.

This little beauty is a Phalanopsis Orchid it was given to me as just a couple of leaves in a pot, I was delighted when my friend saw it and told me it had a flower shoot growing , it was almost put in the bin. I persevered looking after it properly and this is the result, it has 4 beautiful flowers and such a gorgeous colour, I'm so glad I didn't throw it away.

 I was just stood drying the dishes after tea and looked into the front garden and saw this little chap, having a rest, he was quite happy sat there for about 10 minutes. When you consider I live on a main road and it was busy hour it was incredible.  There are 2 of them flying around and they do come into our back garden and waddle round but I never thought they would be in the front only yards from the road.

 Yummy sausage and mash for tea tonight, I found these Extra Special sausages in the bottom of the freezer when I tidied it out a couple of weeks ago, according to the date on them I had bought them in September... eeek! so thought we had better eat them up. We had half the pack tonight and the rest with the left over dinner for tomorrow.  Cook once eat twice :-)

Hope you have enjoyed your day too xxx

Recycling. Free Propagators.

Its been such a lovely day here at Chelmarsh Towers, much too nice to stay inside, so I wombled down to the greenhouse armed with my recycling and set to planting seeds for the veg garden.

Here we have the mushroom trays and the beef steak trays from the other day, all washed and ready for use. First I used a craft knife to make little holes in the brown trays for drainage, I used craft knives from £land, I think you get about 10 on card for a quid, they have snap off blades and last ages. Next 1 filled with compost, gave a good watering and sprinkled on some Broccoli seeds and Cauliflower seeds, popped on the see through lid and there we have a mini propagator all for free!

 Next we have the insides of toilet rolls, all filled with compost and Runner Bean seeds, no need to disturb the roots when they are ready for planting in the garden as the tube will rot down.

 Here you can see all my recycled tubs put to good use.

 I had some cabbage seedlings to pot on, you can see my seed tray full of damp compost and the fab homemade "holemaker" that my hubby made last year from a bit of wood and some plugs and screws. Its absolutely brilliant and makes such a neat job, you just press it into the compost and voila you have perfectly spaced holes for your seedlings. Makes a boring job quick and easy.

 As you can see all neat and tidy. Plenty plants for us and a few to swap with my friend.

 While I was gardening my lovely hubby decided it was time to spruce up the caravan and give it a lovely soapy wash after the long winter. It was really manky but now its lovely and shiny and all ready for the off.  We have has this van for nearly 8 years, bought whilst we were both working and knowing that it would provide us with lots of fab cheap holidays for many years.  I love my caravan, hubby says its because I was a deprived child and never had a wendy house lol.  We took the decision to buy our first cararan 19 years ago and during that time we have had some fabulous holidays and met lots of lovely like minded people. We are so fortunate to live in such a beautiful country, even when the weather is carp there are plenty of stunning views to admire. I can't wait to be on the move!

After a busy day spent in the garden we had a lovely easy and very tasty tea. Roasted veg from the freezer (from last years produce) I actually found 3 tubs of it in the bottom of the freezer, what a lucky find...yum... Yesterday I cooked extra new potatoes so I could saute the leftovers with a couple of mushrooms and a few green beans and peas, we had greek salad yesterday and there was a bit of feta to use up too.  

It probably looks a bit of a mish mash but it tasted delicious ans well under a £1 each.

Thankyou for looking xxx

What a cook up!! Part 2

I actually did this baking yesterday but by the time I had finished writing my mamoth post on the savouries I didn't have enough brain power left to write about the baking! must be my age :-)  I hadn't really planned on doing baking as well but I had a spare shelf in the oven while the casseroles were cooking and needed to make good use of it.  Casseroles are quite forgiving and let you turn the oven up and down without spoiling anything and with it set to 160* I made these little fruit loaves. I have had this recipe for quite a long time, it was given to me by my daughter in law's granny who is in her eighties and has been making this fruit cake since she was a girl, taught by her mother!. I love these kind of recipes, the ones passed down through the generations, tried and tested hundreds of times. I used to bake these for our local Farmers Market and they were always a winner so I thought I would share them with you. I renamed the recipe as Alices Fruit Cake in honour of granny Alice.

 Here are the ingredients you will need for
Alices Fruit Cake
350g Dried Fruit & Glace Cherries
1/2 pint Milk
225g Butter or marg
175g Sugar
2 teaspoons Mixed Spice
1 teaspoon Bicarb of Soda

350g Self Raising Flour
2 large Eggs beaten.

Oven 160*c for about an hour or until cooked and firm to touch. Please note that I have made double the quantity to make 4 x 1lb loaf cakes

Using a large saucepan you put in the dried fruit and cherries, Butter, Sugar, Milk, Spice and Bicarb. Bring to the boil gently and simmer for a couple of minutes, keep stiring so that it doesn't stick to the bottom, it will froth up a bit with the bicarb so don't worry. Take off the ring and leave to cool.

 You can see the fruit mixture in the pan and it doesn't look too appertizing but it smells wonderful.
Pour into the flour and add the beaten eggs and mix thoroughly, I cheat and use my mixer. It is quite gloopy!

 Pour the batter into lined loaf tins, you will only have 2 if you followed the amount above. We love this cake so as I said I did Double quantity You can see I pinched a bit of the mixture out to make a dozen bun size ones, great for pack-up or picnics.

Bake in the 160*c oven for about an hour, the buns took about 25 mins. They should be firm to touch or use a skewer to check, it should come out clean.

Here are the finished cakes, they are better if you can keep them in a tin for a day before cutting as they firm up a bit. Three of mine are wrapped up in the freezer for a later date.

They are gorgeous cakes and well worth the effort.
If you wanted to make a special birthday cake you can use the above ingredients to make an 8" round just watch your timings for your oven as it will need a bit longer to cook, maybe 1 1/2 hours.





 Cherry Scones
450g Self Raising Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
175g Butter or marg
175g Sugar
100g Glace Cherries
2 Eggs beaten
Milk

Rub butter into flour and baking powder until resembles breadcrumbs, stir in the sugar and chopped cherries. Add the egg and enough milk to make a soft but not sticky dough. Tip out onto the worktop and press out until about 1 inch thick, I don't bother with a rolling pin but be gentle with the dough and dont squash out the air, you want them to be light and fluffy.
Cut with a 2.5 inch cutter or a small glass, place on baking tray and brush with the residue egg or milk.
Bake in a hot oven 200*c for about 15 minutes until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. I made 17 with this mix.

Just need to put the kettle on and have one warm with a nice cuppa......yum!!

I have cut the Alice Fruit Cake for you to see the inside, it was still a bit warm and crumbly but you can see how delicious it looks, I wish you could smell it too............gorgeous!

So thats my Savouries and my Sweet Stuff in the freezer and that will keep us going for a while.

I'm taking my Mum clothes shopping today so I will probably have lost the will to live by lunch time!!!

Have a great day whatever you decide to do xxx

What a cook up!!

Following on from my shopping post below I decided to have a big cook up with the meat I had bought and get some basic dishes stashed away in the freezer, it also makes good use of the cooker. I made 2 pots of beef casserole, 2 pots of beef goulash, 3pots of chilli and 3 pots of bolognaise, each pot is 2 portions. I will just have to reheat them and cook either rice, pasta or potaotes and veggies, makes things so much easier. First we have the bolognaise ingredients

Brown the meat and onions, add the tomatoes, tomato puree, herbs,mushrooms,garlic,frozen peppers and stock and simmer until cooked

Whoops posted the same photo twice...sorry

Then we have the chilli ingredients, the same method as the bolognaise.

Next we have the beef casserole.

Again brown the meat and the onions add 1 tablespoon plain flour and stir in to cook. Add chopped carrots mushrooms stock and salt and pepper cook for 2 hours at 180*c

A lovely rich and thick casserole, enough for 4 portions with either dumplings or potatoes and some vegetables.

Last but not least we have the Beef Goulash, this is one of my favourites, slightly peppery and rich tomatoey flavour.

Brown the meat and onions and the garlic, add 1 tablespoon of Paprika and 1 tablespoon of plain flour stir, then add the chopped tomatoes fill the tin with water and add as stock, add about 175g frozen peppers, give it all a good stir and cook in the oven for 2 hours.

Its delicious and rich and will serve 4 people, so thats another 2 pots of 2 portions for me.

I think its been easier to do the cooking than its been to do the post, sorry I got a bit mixed up and posted the same piccie twice. I also did some baking while the oven was on but I will blog that lot tomorrow. Everything is cold now and heading off to the freezer.

Enjoy your evening x