TARRAGON & THYME

Sorry haven't been around to play but life has intervened once again and I am here there and everywhere.  When you work full time, time is of the essence to try and get things accomplished within a very short time span and its a case of get things done or be on the computer.  I am also off out on a social shortly and hopefully will be able to tell you more later on about what I have been up to it has been a very interesting week so far. So promise will play catch up later on Catch you all later Pattypan xx

Well its been a busy one yesterday was spent mainly washing and getting everything dried on the line as much as I could anyway.  I now have a lot of ironing to do, but will do this a bit at a time during the week.  I had a visit to the veg shop but didn't buy much just a few basics, and a couple of bargains.  I managed to get a porcelain mould from the Charity shop which I will either use for a jelly or for a cheese - jury is out at the moment as to what I do with it. Tomorrow evening I have some clementine water ice and also some clementine curd to prepare - I managed to get some clementines at a good price. Some of the peels will be dried the rest put into the vinegar cleaning jar.  My small ice cream bowl has therefore been put in the freezer in readiness.  I also bought carrots, coriander a large parsnip, shallots, pickling onions and some lemons, mangoes and eggs, cabbage, cauliflower and Yorkshire Celery. To start with today we have walked Missy a good...

I was given some of these the other day  - the skins are black and I have to strip them off and get rid of as much as the membrane as I can and then leave them, to dry.  Well that is what the book says - and being Walnuts I am afraid I will have to go in armed and wearing the dreaded Marigolds as they have an unfortunate habit of staining everything that they come into contact with. According to the book you get off as much membrane as possible I think I am going to need a small brush for this, (since originally typing this I have stripped the walnuts of their skins and scrubbed them up individually with a small nail brush especially sacrificed for the situation.  I love wet walnuts in any event and like to dip them in a little salt.  They really are scrummy and a treat.  Traditionally the nuts were stored in the earth or in salt to stop them drying out.  I have decided to store them in some rock salt I have.  Equally they can be stored in hessian or...

I have made these before and they are fruity and delicious.  The whole process takes about 7 days but it is worth the effort as to buy crystallised, or glace fruit costs an arm and a leg whereas you can produce quite a quantity for a reasonable amount of money, but there is quite a bit of time and effort invovled, which are small steps carried out on a daily basis. My fascination with having a go at preparing my own crystallised and glace fruits started with a heavy old glass tray which I obtained from a charity shop quite a few years ago.  My initial reaction was that it would look super on the Christmas table filled with home produced sweetmeats.  That's when I started playing around with home made fruits of this type.  To start with I could not find a recipe for glace ginger, crystallised ginger or stem ginger in syrup.  My first attempt wasn't  bad and my father certainly liked it and it kept for well over a year.  Since then recipes have become a...

I love stem ginger or preserved candied ginger both are preserved with sugar syrup but one is left in the syrup whereas the other one is dried off.  It is easy to make but a little time and effort is required.  This recipe produces the candied dry sugared ginger.  I will provide a stem ginger in syrup recipe in due course as I am particularly partial to this and I always add some to a home made stir fry.  Saying that if you have candied ginger and the recipe calls for stem ginger you can still use the candied in place  - the effect is just as good.  Buy the freshest looking ginger that you can if it looks as though it is drying and hard don't buy it if the skin is relatively smooth its good to go. This was the ginger I worked with I have done double the quantity. You will need Ingredients: 12 oz fresh root ginger 8oz granulated sugar Caster sugar for coating What to do Place the ginger into a saucepan and then cover with water and boil g...

I quite regularly from my local Asian store buy these lovely yellow sultanas - I like the colour and the flavour of them - in fact check out your local Asian store as they may have many items that you will use in your baking, like Rosewater, Hunza Apricots, Almonds, Walnuts, Dessicated Coconut etc etc at quite reasonable prices. Anyway back to the One Thing a Day thing - these Sultanas if soaked in Brandy make a lovely accompaniment to home made vanilla ice cream.  They go lovely and plump.  I also use them in my fruit cake mixtures. All you do is take a jar, fill the jar to about the neck (room must be given for the sultanas expanding when the brandy is poured on).  Pour on the brandy, seal and leave for a couple of weeks.  Serve with ice cream of your choice, or fill a bramley apple with a little butter, a little brown sugar and some of these raisins and bake in the oven either in a pastry coat or just as they are. Now how easy is that! Its the little thin...

Sweet potatoes when they get older can suddenly without warning go wrotten very quickly therefore it is worth keeping an eye on them and if they start to discolour deal with them quickly by preparing them for the freezer.  That way you won't waste precious ingredients.  All I do is peel them chop them into cubes, blanch in boiling water, for 2 minutes, straight into cold water, drain and dry off and package in either freezer bags or little plastic boxes and pop into your deep freeze.  I usually cooksweet potato in the oven in oil with Rosemary - roasted but you can use it in stews etc, or mash it with a little cream and butter.  Its a good all round vegetable that appears regularly on my repertoire.  We are very fond of roots of any description.  Plus its alwayts handy to have vegetables of any description to hand and it makes sure none of  the fresh vegetables I buy each week go to waste an important crtiteria in this day and age.  You can do the...

I have made the Bay Salt I weighed out 4oz of Maldon Sea Salt and then added approximately   6 large leaves; placed the ingredients in a food processor and pulsed, The salt goes a pale green colour - taste to make sure you are happy with the flavour; adjust if necessary.   I have left this to dry overnight to ensure that everything dries equally.  Smells very aromatic and goes a very delicate pale green colour.  Decant into a screw topped jar and use a little to add a little more flavour to your cooking.  Use sparingly though.  I think it looks quite pretty My main reason for making this is that I have read about it being used in charcuterie and I thought it might be a different way of adding flavour to a piece of pork by rubbing it in the fat.  Apparently I will not need very much of the salt as it retains the full flavour of the bay leaves .  Am looking forward to playing with this next time I have a piece of pork for dinner...

 Ingredients Sugar of choice Couple of proper Vanilla pods (Holland and Barrett sell these as do some of the larger food stores) I am attempting to try and do one item a day for the next few weeks.  Tonight's item is Vanilla Sugar  stocks are low again and I love this incredible sugar in custards and home made Victoria Sponges - I am making it two different ways one the Jamie Oliver method just put a kg of sugar in the food processor and a couple of proper Vanilla pods and blitz it.  The other way which takes a month to mature is to fill a jar suitable to take a kg of sugar and then pop in the whole Vanilla pods and leave to scent for a month.   Doing it this way you can still use the vanilla pod in making home made custard. This is my usual method but I had a yen to try the Jamie Oliver method and then I feel I am getting something done in the run up to Christmas.  You can use different sugars too - whichever takes your fancy. Here is the previous ...

Ingredients For one part of celery seed used two parts of sea salt i.e. if you use 1oz celery seed use 2 oz sea salt plus additional flakes for added texture Take celery seeds and salt and place into a pestle and mortar and grind together until well blended.  Then add some whole peppercorns or large flakes of sea salt and mix together to give more texture. Dip softly boiled eggs into the crushed salt mixture and enjoy Pattypan x

I didn't rise very early this morning as I slept like a log.  I went over to check on Tiddles and stayed with him for about half an hour and had him playing, fed and watered him.  We then went for a walk down by the river.  It wasn't cold the breeze although gusty was warm although underfoot was damp and there was that peculiar damp woody smell in the air; but it was pleasant and it was good to get out in the fresh air to blow the cobwebs away.  We are going to get the horseradish this week and I am going to put this up in the freezer.  We are both partial to horseradish sauce but also put this into dips etc.   Autumn is really with us now.  Its a day for hugging the house and hopefully next weekend I will get to my mum's and also be able to go and get my crab apples for another preserving session. Needless to say the washing machine has been in overdrive - due to my absence yesterday the soft rythmic swishing of the water in the machine greeting you ...

Its been a very busy day today. It did not start too auspiciously as OH had indicated that he would get me up.  The alarm went off he went back to sleep so I sort of got up in a hurry.  I attended my course which was very intense, thought provoking and by did it get the little grey cells working overtime.  A very successful and enjoyable course.  Thank you Jackie.  I walked home choosing to do so in order that I could put my rambling random thoughts into some perspective.  I always think deep and long when I walk  a habit that my Pop cultivated in me as a youngster as he and my father used to walk me everywhere. As a result I am completely shattered and intend to have an early night tonight however at the moment I am still not ready for up. I have been sat in the silence and the dark with only my small TV lamp on, thinking, enjoying the peace and quiet and not even having the television on.  It has been nice to sit in the quiet and let my rambli...

Crisps are a moreish snack that we quite frequently buy a lot of and sometimes at over 60 pence a bag it makes me wonder whether we have our priorities right in this respect or not.  Don't misunderstand me I like Crisps as much as the next man but I only buy them these days if there is a really good offer on. When I tell people that I buy a sack of potatoes for two of us and they say to me  oh we buy a small bag there are just the two of us we wouldn't use a sack of potatoes its too much for us.  You would be very surprised at how quickly a sack of potatoes goes down.  I have been paying about £6 for a big sack of potatoes that bag lasts us approximately 7 weeks and we don't have potatoes every day.  People quite readily moan that they do not have the funds to buy this or that but quite readily go out and buy crisps and pay over 60 pence a bag and yet there is less than one medium sized potato in that bag.  Something is not quite adding up somwhere especi...

There are some items I just have to keep in the Pantry at all costs as with these few items when the budget is stretched you can always get a meal from this little lot and a good meal at that.  It need not be exotic but they can be simple meals that get you used to cooking again without being extortionate, but which have a multitude of uses and can cross over into other dishes. Sack of Potatoes Sweet Potatoes Squash Parsnips Frozen peas Tray of Eggs Milk Plain Yogurt Cream Bicarbonate of Soda Baking Powder Butter Sugar Stork or similar Lard SR Flour Plain Flour Bread Flour Yeast Onions Carrots Leeks Apples Cabbage Cheese Soup Mix Pearl Barley Pasta Home made Passata Sauce Rice Chicken Chicken portions of one description or another Bacon Sausages Porridge Oats Not many ingredients in the larger plan of things but with these few items if you keep a good stock of them in at all times you should be able to rustle u...

This week has been a busy week from one day to another hence my reason for not posting very much.  Well the temperatures dropped the nights are drawing in and I am in the process of cooking tea. We are having toad in the hole together with shredded cabbage, mashed potato and lashings of onion gravy.  It is nearly ready just waiting to the yorkshire to brown off and then it will be all systems go.  I had an appointment with the physio yesterday  - my last one although I have to go to a back clinic exercise class for the next six weeks to build up my core muscles even more. Wednesday I got my shoe inserts and at the moment it feels like I am moonwalking - they are holding my feet correctly and I am walking properly for the first time in two years.  The pain is for the best part under control although we have odd days where I am not so good but at the moment I am a lot better than I have been for a long while which is good news as far as I am concerned and all do...

 Evening everyone sorry am later on parade. Its been a busy day which started off with me  going to the hospital to have the shoe inserts fitted.  Must say that they are making me walk properly but I feel as though I am moonwalking at the moment as they are making me walk properly and am at a different angle to what I have been.  Will take some getting used to but I intend to persevere.    No sooner had I got in this evening than I had to leave out for an evening at the Spiratualist and Psychic Fellowship, where I help on the Committee and also in the kitchen etc.  Its been a very enjoyable evening and we had a very good visiting medium come to pay a visit.  Have only just really managed to touch base, grab a bacon sarnie (did not manage tea before I went out). I intend to do a few rows of cross stitch and then up away to bed, so it is just a touch base job this evening.  It hasn't been too bad a day although the wind has got up and be...

I have always used a slow cooker, (even my Nan had one of the first electric crockpots available) especially in the autumn/winter months with me being at work full time it means that we can have a nice hot meal within half an hour of me being home (half an hour to steam the potatoes) as I invariably serve mash as an accompaniment and to soak all the juicey gravy up with a side helping of bread.  However, I have had my eyes open a tad by doing a little research.  The aim of which is to use the cheapest form of power to still get a nice hot meal and a little more besides.  To tell the truth I had not before now thought of using the slow cooker to make my stock  [I just hadn't twigged]  This will be far cheaper running the stock through the slow cooker on the low setting for a little while rather than on the gas hob.(I have three different sized cookers).  You can also use it to keep food warm whilst I was waiting for something to cook.  You can apparentl...

Evening ladies and gents Hope your day has been a happy and busy one.  I have had a very busy day at work which is par for the course. I am cat sitting again with my feline friend Tiddles.  His Mum/Owner has gone to the seaside for the day and I have been left in charge.  She went out over the weekend to, so every few hours I was going over to play and keep him amused.  Tonight though he has taken the net curtains down in both windows and I cannot get up to put them back.  He had been dragging some string around it was between three rooms and I found this up near the window so I can only assume that he has got it taffled round the nets pulled and bought the lot down.  Yesterday it was a sponge ball that he had torn to pieces and I had to get the vaccum out to clean up.  I was fretting a bit yesterday as Gizmo (a cockatiel) has free range in the flat and I found feathers in a couple of places as though the cat had got hold of him.  My concern ...

I bought one of these during the week after saving for a few weeks £1 her 50 pence there.  Ok so it did not cost a great amount, but having little treats like this is for me a bonus when most of the money is allocated  for other purposes.  Plus the fact it has been truly earned, with the saving a little here and a little there it makes you appreciate things more as the hard work in attaining them makes them more "valuable". I thought it might be different to be able to present apple pies in a different format for a change. - well it would certainly be a topic of concersation,  I obtained this from Lakeland.  They do a small round pie cutter with a lattice top too.  You cut the pastry out thisway on then place the pastry  in the mould and add your filling bring the two plates together and crimp. Then take your pasty out of the mould and put on a baking tray to cook or put in the freezer until a later day, Something else to play with. Catch...

There are about three ways we can go with the dog; all variants on the same route.  The walk we went on yesterday is the higher walk - today's walk was the middle route and there is also a walk down by the river.  Parts of the routes are communal and somewhere or another they run alongside as well, but each has different scenery and different routes. Whilst out I picked some more rosehips and also started to pick up some twigs to make some Christmas ornaments and also some wild rose bush leaves {I will do a separate post on these later on).  All will be revealed in due course.  Today's walk led us through the boardwalks a secret place down by the river - which is now very peaceful.  At one point there were a lot of youngsters having parties down there at the weekends.  Nobody minded them enjoying themselves unfortunately they caused a lot of damage down there.  It is after all a wildlife area and they were leaving all their rubbish down there, building...

I received another little gift from my friend Eve who I have been mentoring in the cooking and sometimes the craft department.   She knows I love fir cones, and that I collect them to put in the brass log bucket by the side of the fire place. [ We have a gas fire unfortunately that does not work but I have the companion set and I normally have brass and copper ornaments scattered around the fire hearth, but it all helps create an illusion a set if you like.  One day I will have my real fire but in the meantime I have been building up the basics so that I have them to hand when I do eventually get the said fire.]   Everytime Eve goes for a walk if she sees some decent cones then she brings them back to me.  I am very grateful for these cones and they are going to be turned into Christmas garlands for both Eve and myself.  A way of acquiring nice things to decorate your home with for very little money just a bit of time and effort.  The bonus is ...

When I went to collect my crotchet tablecloth yesterday morning, I had a roam around the charity shop to see if anything else took my fancy and I found these glasses on the shelf for £1.80. They are pale green cut glass.  I particularly collect this pale green glass in the hope of making it a larger collection eventually, the idea being that I will be able to have it all out at Christmas to complement my Colclough Ivy China pieces (I am still collecting this as well).  That's the overall plan, anyway. I love pretty things - I suppose I collect anything and everything that takes my fancy, but I do love Green glass. My interest in green glass was sparked after inheriting a set of six cut glass, liqueur glasses from my grandmother.  Therefore whenever I see any green glass if I can afford it I always try and snaffle it.  It always looks so elegant. It was also an unexpected bonus to be able to bring two lovely items home. Now I just need to find somewhere to d...

Last night for the first night in a fortnight Demetri did not come home!  Dirty stop out. I was a tad concerned, but left the window open for him to get in to bed.if he still wanted to.  I came down this morning to find the wanderer snuggled in his blanket bleary eyed and with the expression do not disturb written all over him - very sleep.  He is now snuffled down on his blanket catching uop with some shut eye as if butter wouldn't melt.  I don't like my cats being out overnight and I am hoping this does not become recurrent especially with the colder weather yet to come as the window will not be open then.  Will have to see how it goes.  Needless to say he has had his cuddle and some food. - lets hope he doesn't repeat the performance. Some hope  - lets be realistic he is a cat

I was browsing in John Lewis the other day when I came across a gadget that I quite liked the look of for £14.99.  Yes I know I am supposed to be not spending at the moment but on further investigation this little machine would save me putting the cooker (which is gas)  which is a lot more expensive to fund.  Sometimes I just fancy a little bit of sweet something or the other and this would complete that objective.  So today I went up town to collect the said gadget and got another £5 off it.  It only cost me £10.  Its a Breville Cupcake Baker that cooks 8 cupcakes in 8 minutes.  The recipe for said cupcakes makes 24 cupcakes (24 cupcakes with 24 minutes cooking time) so this could be quite economical - especially if you have kiddies at home and after all wherever we save the pennies with getting more for our money the more money we have to put towards some treats. So I am going to have a little play and will let you know how I get on.  £10...