TARRAGON & THYME

Well we are only second week into the New Year and already I have been playing with a find of 2kg of limes for £2.  As per last year I include a list of those items I manage to get put by for this New Year.  I am afraid it is looking a bit naked at the moment but no doubt it will soon fill up once I get cracking! This year on the preserving front things haven't quite happened How I have wanted to hence the reason for popping this up again.  I hope to get busy again in the next few weeks and thought that having this to hand might prompt me to get a wriggle on, and hopefully I will be able to take advantage of what comes my way in the coming weeks. I have also been experimenting with home made pie fillings as well; I had a go at some strawberry pie filling/puree the other day and it seems to have come out fine so far but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating as they say.  In this format you can add the puree to some rhubarb and end up with a strawberry an...

Never was a phrase so apt for yesterday's fun and games as Keep calm and Carry On! I eventually got the freezer all sorted but I think it will be next month before we can afford a new freezer.  I would like a chest one again  - I have an upright but I do love my chest freezer and we have lived out of it for the past 24 years and I nearly always have them stacked to the gunnels as when pennies are tight you can always make a meal from stuff esconced within the freezer.  I usually take advantage of meat pies etc (M & S) fish belly pork stuffed  by me and then rolled now that does make a cracking meal. etc. etc. This morning I got eventually to go to Dunhelm Mill and I have come back with a load of preserving jars - some small ones Kilner ones but I have bought 20 250ml jars at 89 pence a throw and you can use the replacement kilner seals on them as they are the same size (I haven't told you that though).  I also bought four more small kilner ones (I have 8...

I saw these words written down today on a piece of wall art the words struck home and resonated with me I hope you like them too as they have their own feeling Have a Grateful Heart Be Yourself Dream Big Say I love You Believe in miracles ************************  

Three old ladies locked in the lavatory...... so the rhyme goes. We have had a bit of a calamitous day in that everything we have touched has gone wrong. We went to take Missy for a walk first thing (we we out the house by 8.30 am) on a Sunday unheard of.  However OH had promised himself a cooked breakfast only problem was we had run out of the ingredients hence he was in a rush to get to the butchers!.  Came away from walking Missy the car was mis-firing and playing up since it has done ever since we acquired it.  Enough was enough we called a mobile engineer in he couldn't get to us until 2.30 p.m.  So I did not get to Dunhelm but I am going tomorrow. So we let the car rest a while and then went tot he butchers and stocked up on the meat front.  We then had a bagging session and persuaded the upright that it really did want the majority of goodies that I was trying to force feed into it.  Then realised could not get the beef joints in so clea...

After weeks where I haven't had time to do anything really substantial I landed at the veg shop this morning and had a very successful shop I have the following to deal with over the course of the next few days: 4 Cauliflowers 80 pence each [destined for home made cauliflower cheese to be stored in foil containers in the freezer] £3.20 (we love cauliflower cheese but it is a bit of  a bind to make it each time you need it so I came up with this way of doing it 4 bags of peppers [basically I just deseed them and cut them into thin strips and throw into bags in the freezer] [reduced to 50pence per bag = £2.00 (they can be added frozen into my chicken and peach dish or in stir frys 5kg of tomatoes [destined for some passata sauce if I can some more jars tomorrow] £1 x 5  = £5.00 2kg vine tomatoes 2 punnets of plum cherry tomatoes (going to be used on home made pizza, with fresh basil leaves and some mozzarella or goats cheese then drizzled with home made basil olive oil and...

I seem to go into periods where my mind is overactive and all sorts of planning and plotting goes on, but in reality I seem to get very little done or I become impeded in what I would like to do.  Such is a time for me at the moment, where the thought processes are going on and I am backwards and forwards to work slogging away with a little chill out time with close friends and then back on the wheel again.  Then of course there is the thought process whereby those ideas and all the plotting and planning needs to be translated into words, thoughts and feelings ie communication and this is where it becomes very difficult for me; trying to convey those things that I would like to do without offending or upsetting anyone in the process.  Its a fine line often that we walk but sometimes you just have to do some of those things that you want to do without compromise to satisfy your own inner needs.  However whenever I try and do anything for myself I think perhaps I am b...

I have been on my own and it has been brilliant - no one to argue with time on my hands to play and do the things I want to have a go at and generally have a good play.  I have found the bits that I was looking for so pasta here we come. I have also had a sort out in a couple of my kitchen cupboards to see what equipment I have actually got and reackerfurbitate items a bit better so they fit into the cupboards. Last week I came across a very interesting article about Tiger Bread and making it at home.  Here is the link from my friend Moontide of Going my Own Way. http://goingmyownway-moontide.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/tiger-rolls.html   I just loved the look of those buns that  he had made and  as we are very partial to Tiger Bread in this household I decided to have a go myself; so that is what I have been doing.  The mixture has gone into my Panasonic Bread machine and is busy prepping as we speak.  The paste is curing on the window sill and I ...

I have been awake since 5.30 a.m. having had all the windows upstairs open overnight as it has been far too warm as a result my sleep has been disturbed but I have just laid resting in the quiet until feeling the need to stir.  I didn't pop any of the spray on before going to bed, as I had had a reasonably good day yesterday; but this morning my back has been giving me some serious jip so I have put the one application on.  I don't intend to use it all the time just when it is too much for me to be reasonably comfortable. OH has now departed for work and I have time to myself he will probably be home about 5.00 pm and I just now have some time to chill.  I am out tomorrow evening so I intend to make a batch of flapjacks to take with me a little later on and if the fancy takes me I might add one or two more items to the baking list and I have new gadgets i.e. the pie maker and the pop cake maker to use and I still want to play with the home made cheese.  I must s...

All this week I have had sciatica and have not been sleeping too well the weather hasn't been helping either.  I have been doing all the usual things but I must say I have been in a bit of a grump because of the discomfort (those of you who suffer on a regular basis with pain will know what I am on about as the pain does wear you down), but I am intent to keep on moving no matter what.  Today I have been particularly bad as I did not sleep too well at all with the sciatica and cramp all down my right leg and pain in the base of my back a very restless sleep not helped that a couple of nights this week I have gone extremely cold. I hobbled in to work this morning and my boss bless her had bought a spray in for me to try which helps with the pain relief all made from natural ingredients which impressed me even more.  I decided to give it a whirl and went to the ladies and sprayed my lower back and my left calf muscle which was particularly bad thinking that perhaps it was...

My apologies for not posting so much just recently real life has got in the way quite a bit - we have some work scheduled on the house (ie they are going to skim the kitchen walls as the pain will not stay on the walls I have two new doors to come sink unit and new toilet and cistern and with me walking to and from work every day now It leaves me precious time of an evening to get everything sorted in time as I have found I am also going to bed earlier than I used to.  We are also having new fencing put in th the garden and once that is sorted we may be able to reclaim the garden so that I can get it ready for growing veggies next year. On my way home of an evening I have been managing to pick a few blackberries and bring them home and depositing them in the freezer.  Last night I ventured into our jungle of a garden and found blackberries.  I have picked about a kg and quickly deposited them in the freezer as I have no time to process them this weekend.  Come pay d...

Sorry I haven't been around again for a few days I have rediscovered one of my early passions in life of reading.  I haven.t had much time for it of late.  I was taught from an early age that if you have a book you always have a friend.  I have also found myself reading when I want to escape my real life when I am not coping with things (it happens periodically)  and just give myself a breather.  Unfortunately when I read I am anti social and tend to closet myself off and escape into the plot of of a good book where I become the character and am besotted to the end of the book.  Unfortunately I am not a the end of the book yet; I have had a lay in where I have been reading but OH has moaned to me to get up (possibly because I have left one of the back rooms in a blinking mess , so I had better go on,  if I had my way I would still be curled up with my book deeply engrossed.  Will have to wait until later on before I can continue but I am not impr...

On Friday I popped into Wilkinsons and found quite a display of the Kilner preserving items and yet I went Ouch at the price, although bore in mind in case I could not get what I was after elsewhere. I have seen packs of three medium sized jars for about £7 at  Lakeland which are not a bad buy as well. Yesterday I also had an unexpected trip out to Dunhelm Mill; its the first time I have been in the last 18 months or so and I am glad I did.  The reason why I am so excited is that they are the cheapest place I have come across for proper Kilner jars and associated items, including replacement seals.  I was able to obtain four of the smaller jars at £1.19 each  Often it is the smaller jars you need for bits and bobs.  The inner seals are also £3 or so compared to nearly £5 elsewhere.. They also do the smaller sized glass jars ideal for making home made pate  Here are the jars I obtained yesterday, hadn't got much money on me but they will com...

  Its been a busy old week and next week looks as though it is going to be just as busy. Wednesday  It was the monthly meeting of the group I belong to the Psychic and Spiritual Fellowship for any of you in the Peterborough area who are interested in spiritualism and the opportunity of a reading we hold a monthly meeting on the first Wednesday in the month.  Please see here for more information http://www.jacquelinelesley.com/psychic.htm and for the programme. Last Wednesday three of the mediums I train with held the evening between them and they have grown in leaps and bounds; it was a very successful evening.  And indeed some of the mediums will be holding a readings evening at the Plough Inn Farcet Fen this coming Wednesday evening for any of you wanting to get in touch with loved ones   Please see the details here http://theploughonline.com/4438/what-s-on   I do so hope that you will be able to make it; all the girls belong to the Psy...

One of my earliest memories is being at my Nan's with her and my mother being in the kitchen working away as usual. If you wanted to be with my Nan you had to be where she was as she was always on the go and rarely sat down for a break.  I was always a curious child a trait that is still with me today.  I used to watch and listen drinking in knowledge without realising it as my Nan or my Mum went rythmically about their tasks.    One of which was making home made mint sauce first stripping away the leaves from the stems and chopping the freshly plucked fragrant mint a very finely.  Chopping with a sharp knife at the mint sprinkled either with a pinch of salt or sugar to give some purchase to the knife. Some of it I have frozen and at other times I have put up a few jars of long keeping mint sauce as well so that I can get the best of both worlds from the stores I have popped up for darker days. With all the rain that we have been having this year my mint in my ...