TARRAGON & THYME

Well its been an interesting week mum had her operation on Monday and was released on Monday evening. I stayed overnight with her on Monday and Tuesday night; she is starting to heal nicely, but I must say it was lovely to spend some quality time with my mum. Needless to say I left OH at home in charge of my moglets - or should I re-phrase that and say moglets in charge of OH! My mild mannered cheeky cats really took the michael - well at least Tyson did - OH could not get him in for his tea and so left him out overnight. Cat was easily locatable as he goes and spends his days in our Greengrocers shop curled up in a basket. Apparently he was extremely grumpy and slept for most of the day - I came home in the evening and went calling him and he came more or less straight to me and let me pick him up, he then proceeded to snuggle up to me moaning and whimpering and was very grateful to receive his tea. I took the precaution of leaving him in so OH did not have a repeat performan...

Just an update to let you all know everything is okay - am decamped at mother's home at the moment as looking after her after her operation yesterday but will log back on as soon as I am home again and hopefully will have my new laptop as well by then. Hope everyone is okay beautiful sunny morning here this morning. Got up at 7.00 a.m. made sure mum was comfortable and had a cup of coffee, had breakfast the usual routine OH arrived at 8.00 a.m. to bring me back into town. Surprisingly we were back in Peterborough in about 20 minutes obviously hit the traffic just right, as mum lives about 15 to 20 miles out of Peterborough and there is usually a tail back of traffic from the villages and outlying villages where she lives, so didn't do too badly. It was nice to come in from the villages - I really must escape the City its doing my head in. Oh for the peace and quiet of the countryside. Catch up soon hope everyone is okay xx

Sausage Sage and Apple Plait This makes a nice warming main meal if served with gravy and vegetables or you can serve it with a side salad. It is very tasty. Ingredients 9oz puff pastry 9oz sausagemeat 1 small onion peeled and very finely chopped 2 tsp chopped sage fresh 2 small cooking apples peeled cored and chopped 2 hard boiled eggs chopped salt Freshly ground black pepper 1 egg beaten to glaze Roll out the pastry onto a lightly floured board to an oblong approximately 12 inches by 10 inches. Transfer the pastry to a baking sheet. Mix together the sausagemeat onion sage apple and chopped eggs and season with salt and pepper. Shape the mixture into a roll and place it along the centre of the pastry. Cut the pastry on each side of the filling into 1/2 inch wide strips making diagonal cuts. Brush the strips with beaten egg. Wrap the pastry striops over the filling to enclose it and brush the top with egg. Bake the plait in the oven pre-heated to 400 degrees F Gas mark 6 for about 3...

Since I last posted, I have developed a terminally ill computer and am currently posting from a loaned machine. Which I must say is a lot quicker than my old one. I am suitably impressed. I should be getting another one in the next day or two. Sadly Bessie has gone to the big computer blog in the sky and is completely cream crackered. I have been reliably informed (from someone more computer literate than myself) that all my data and recipes, photos etc. can be retrieved. Fingers crossed and toes plaited. Yesterday evening OH treated us to fish and chips for supper - done in proper beef fat so proper fish and chips. They were lovely but not good for the waistline but very tasty. He was going to have Chinese ribs, and I was going to have smoked haddock with poached egg, so that was put off for tomorrow night's tea. Today I have finished off all my ironing which has been hanging airing in doorways through the house. I therefore decided to tackle getting it put away on the ...

I received a lovely surprise yesterday from my OH. I have been struggling with a digital camera that doesn't have many pixels and have been very disappointed with some of the results I have received. Especially with my attempts at photographing the lady Moon who is so beautiful but who I haven't been able to capture with any success. I was however quite happy to carry on and do the best I could with what I have. Bless his heart he has bought me an all singing and dancing digital camera as he knows I enjoy my blogging and its his way of helping out, so I am hoping that after I have got to grips with how to use that the photos will speak for themselves. He also bought a digital card that should hold approximately 1500 photographs - now that really does give me something to go at. I am really all excited. I am really looking forward to getting to grips with this and some of the technology on my computer which I have thus far not used or got to grips with. I think I am a v...

Especially for Anne of Silversewer Redcurrant Jelly 2kg/4lbs redcurrants Sugar - see below All redcurrants or a mixture of white and redcurrants may be used. Rinse then well in a colander but don't bother to remove any stalks. There is no need. Place them in a preserving pan and heat gently for about half an hour until pulpy softly crushing the fruit occasionally (a potato masher is good for this). Pour into a jelly bag and leave to drip overnight into a bowl. Measure the juice and allow 500g/ 1 1/4 lb sugar to 500ml/1 pint as redcurrants are rich in pectin and acid and will take more sugar. Warm the sugar in a bowl in the oven then stir it into the reheated juice, dissolve the sugar then boil fast (recipe says for one minute but in my experience it is invariably longer than this it varies) skim and then pour into hot clean dry jars. Setting will occur rapidly and speed is essential. Cover and seal in the usual way. The yield from this jelly is small but it has a wonderful ...

Ever get a fancy for something to eat that you haven't had in a long time. I am like that at the moment. I quite fancy a plate full of Herring Roe on toast. As a child one of the dishes that used to be served up on a regular basis for Saturday night tea was Fried herrings roe on toast. Argh you say but it looks wet slippery and awful. Well as the saying goes never judge a book by its cover. They taste absolutely delicious and are very simple to cook. No doubt there is a season for Herring Roe - one can never tell these days. If I remember rightly as a child I think it used to be the winter months when we ate this tasty meal for tea, but I may be wrong. The last time I had them was last year - I acquired two tubs at a knock down price from the fish counter at Waitrose. I have been looking for them since, whether it has just been me in there at the wrong time. I will just have to keep on looking. Anyway they are very simple to prepare: Quantity of Herring Roe Flour Salt and P...