TARRAGON & THYME

Well I have been playing around in the kitchen again.  Essentially Freezing stuff that has come my way.  Oh how I have missed doing this, sad person that I am! The first element on the list is Mashed potato.  I have the end of a sack of potatoes to use up.  I am not wasting them so mashed potato it is.   All I do is cook my potatoes until they are cooked through.  I then put them through the potato Ricer into a clean bowl until all the potatoes have been used up.  Even though I was bought up wielding a potato masher, when it comes to nice smooth buttery mashed potato, the potato ricer wins hands down.  I then add butter (depends on how many 1lbs of potatoes you prepare as to how much butter goes in but for a standard serving for four a good knob of butter).  I then add a little milk and using a fork mix the butter and the milk into the potatoes.  Not too much milk to start with as you need a light smooth, but firm texture.  Dec...

Hello everyone, hope you are all okay.  Sorry I have not been around much this week there has been an awful lot going on here. There have been one or two major life changes here in the past few weeks.  OH retires this Thursday being the chief change.  He was 65 in February and wanted to enjoy retirement.  He has it in the back of his mind that many of his loved family members went far too early including his elder sister and his younger sister, who died tragically about a week before her marriage to her long term partner.  One is never quite sure what life has in store for us.  It was his decision to make and his alone. He has also invested in a touring caravan again.  There are many places in this wonderful country of ours that neither of us have seen and having the freedom to get up and go when we feel like it will be very liberating.  It should be ready in a couple of weeks as we are having some extras fitted  and then we will have to make...

One of the things I love to do is to squirrel away lots of useful bits and bobs for the freezer that you cannot necessarily buy. These are usually items that adds to a meal or enhances it, or provides me with a useful ingredient from the freezer which does not limit my options.  In particular I always check out the reduced items section for suitable items to get at a bargain price but which are more than useful for cooking generally. In the past few days I have prepped and popped the following items away. Little plum tomatoes.  These are washed, dried up with a clean tea-towel and then bagged up as they are.  I use these in sauces and soups, casseroles.  I also fry them from frozen and serve them as part of a full English breakfast.  They are very fresh tasting and OH is particularly fond of them.  I just take out how many I need from the bag  and then return the rest to the freezer.  The bonus with this is if you grow your own you can get them st...

For the past nine weeks or so, OH has taken me on a shopping trip to get fresh fish.  He did not mention anything about going today though so I assumed he did not want to go.  It was only when we got up a little later and were just generally chit-chatting that he had assumed I did not want to go.  Despite being late we decided to go over to see if we could get anything and I managed to get a piece of natural smoked haddock for me, some Tuna for OH, some Crevettes and some crayfish.  They had sold out of dressed crab but they still had a couple of whole crab and he cracked the top off both and then left me to dress them.  Never done it before, but hey ho cannot be that complicated can it? After the fish van we nipped to the bakery and then OH took us to do some window shopping on some items he is interested in buying.  So we went and had a look but this has raised more questions and potentially raises other questions which are going to have to be discussed t...

Despite well laid plans to get organised and sorted in plenty of time, OH managed to scupper this by adding something else into an already tight schedule, hurrying me out of the house to the extent I forgot to put my eye drops in as I had planned!  Despite this we got there in the end and I attended for my eye test and I must say that it has been pretty thorough and I am pretty impressed with the service I have received at the Bridge Street Peterborough Branch of Specsavers.  Please note this is not an advertisement for them, but credit due to a very professional and efficient experience, despite Covid 19.   I was also extremely surprised in how much eye tests have changed. I had the eye pressure test and the view of the eyeball and also a photo scan of the eyes and drops in the eyes and then had to wait a short while to see the Consultant Chitu. I was right in that my prescription has changed for close work and computer work.  However my eyes themselves are in ...

I am off for an eye test and examination this evening as over recent weeks my eyesight has been a little bit fuzzier round the edges than it used to be.  I now need my glasses especially for close work near enough all the time which is frustrating to say the least so time to get this particular gremlin under control. (There are several to be addressed).  I am very good at looking after others but not so hot on self-care and the time has come where I am having to be a little selfish, although this does not sit well with me.   I am trying to concentrate on sorting myself out, as I am starting to appreciate that I count too and that I cannot solve everything although I will always do my best to help.  OH had arranged appointment for me, but the Opticians rang yesterday as a questionnaire needed to be completed prior to the appointment.  They also offered an upgraded examination for an extra £10, so I have opted for this so we shall see what happens.  I am...

Are starting to fruit in what was my herb garden.  I bought the plants off of Ebay last year and since then they have made themselves very much at home.  The fruits are weeny and so as not to waste them I have decided to freeze them in ice cubes to serve in drinks as I do not think for one moment that this year there will be enough to make any form of preserve.  Maybe an alcohol infusion - may be not but I thought that if I put some of the leaves in with perhaps some mint at least then it is making the best of something small. from the photos above you will just start to see a flash of crimson in amongst the greenery as well as the promise of flowers and fruit yet to come. I am amazed that the plants pulled through as quite a few were lost because of the dry conditions.  However I am encouraging them to spread their wings so that I can increase the stock.  Will have to see how things go, but I have some plans to put some in some tubs as well. Catch you soon. Pat...

As most of you regular readers are aware I am in my element if and when I can make something out nothing and more so if it is out of something I already have.  In this instance, it is something from my Pantry shelf, so a little different. Predominantly for the winter months I keep in house dried marrowfat peas.  I make mushy peas, good solid English traditional food.   However at this time of year, I also grow in a planter, pea shoots for garnishing a home-made pea soup (the pea soup is made from frozen peas or indeed a different type of dried pea) [Ham and Pea soup comes to mind when using the dried pea.  However, before I make the soup we need to get the garnish growing.  In this instance we cannot put the cart before the horse! To prepare your pea shoots, you will need: Dried peas A planter Compost Water A sheet of glass or some clingfilm Get a planter, make sure it has the drainage holes drilled out.  Add some material such as broken crocks in the ...

I was up reasonably early despite not sleeping very well as I could not get comfortable with it being warm and muggy an all.  Despite the best of intentions however, I did not get into the garden until about 1pm.  I managed to sow some peas in a planter - see tomorrow's post for further details.  I also had a surprise in that some of my sweet pepper seeds have taken at long last which just did not seem to germinate.  Will see if anything else puts in an appearance. Then I did not progress very well as each time the fork went into the soil it felt like it was hitting concrete.  On closer investigation what I was actually hitting was a giant Tap root.  Believe it was for the dead Cherry tree.  Anyway not to be phased I dug out part of the root and got my garden saw and set too and made three serious cuts which took some time - hot work in muggy weather.  Here is part of the root which has been extracted. It was absolutely rock hard.  I also did...

This post should have been posted last night unfortunately my photos had not downloaded.  I think technology and I are fated to never blend!  I had 74000 emails and I am now down to 66000.  Still a few more to go before puter will be working correctly. I have been in the garden for most of the day and now am absolutely cream crackered.  Very slowly am edging my way to the end of part one of operation Tugging Ivy.  Further fun in this regard is planned for tomorrow weather permitting.  I hope to start early.  I have split the garden from the tree to the shed into three parts.  I think the Ivy section is the toughest part of it.  I have dug out massive roots today and the soil in parts is like concrete.  Very hard on the hands.  More garden rubbish is piling up. Section two is where the bush remnants, Buddhlia and bramble section are and then lastly Section three the area designated for the patio which has all sorts in it and on it. W...

Yesterday the sun was out and after coming back home from our unexpected trip out.  I decided it was high time I checked out the growing houses to make sure everything was okay.  I am happy to report that everything is tickety boo although I seem to have had a complete fail on peppers of any sort, yellow ball courgettes, yellow courgettes and chilli peppers.  My green courgettes are through though. The rest of my plants are all looking extremely healthy and lush especially my herb planters and my salad leaf containers.  There is lots of Basil, Thyme, Garden Mint, Parsley plain leafed and curly leafed.  They are looking really productive. Due to the bad weather I have not been able to get out to make more progress with pulling up the Ivy.  I need to get the greenhouses up as I now need the space in the growing houses.  So yesterday I jumped right in and cleared the pots out of the area I am temporarily going to use for the greenhouses and swept and clea...