TARRAGON & THYME

OH is precluded from sweet because of the diabetes - I am more sweet toothed than savoury so I was looking for something that we could both have from the same base ingredients - and it took me a while to come up with it but when I did  it was "simples" like the Meerkat advert keeps telling us and the lightbulb went on. Its the end of the month nearly again its time to get stuck into the pantry stores and use what I have to hand.  This is the type of cooking I like best as its playing with the ingredients and coming up with something a little different and putting your own take on things. My Russian friend Veronika used to make what she called "blini" pancakes which unlike our flour and egg pancakes use a rich soft cheese together with the eggs, milk and flour mashed in.  They make a very substantial pancake which has a "sourer" taste but to tell you the truth its a pancake that I very much like. You can use  any soft cheese but the cheese Vero...

I hope none of you mind but I have gone for a larger font for writing my blog as by the time I get home at night my eyes are a little tired from having worked at a computer all day and it makes it easier for me to proof read as well.   However together with the larger pitch and a lot of photos, I pre-warn you this post is a long one. My plans with the garden this year are to reclaim it from its present jungle.  I have seen some garden furniture that I would quite like recently including a wooden swing with a canopy and I can just see myself whiling away summer weekends in the sunshine, sitting and just gently swinging.  That takes me back to my childhood as my Aunty  Rene used to have a very large smart garden swing decked out in green candy stripe and sitting in the garden with her and my uncle on a summers day is an early memory.  They had a lovely garden and I have memories of very happy times with them.  I have also seen some Triangular pot trel...

It has been a very busy day here today and quite frankly when I got in I was quite tired.  However we had home made hot dogs in buns for tea with plenty of onions followed on by our pancakes and they were delicious.  As I was tired I decided not to do the marmalade that will have to wait and I have to do some sorting tomorrow night so it looks as though it will be Thursday before I can start.  Hey ho these things happen they are in a nice cold place though. I then sat down for 5 minutes and the next thing I knew I had been out for the count for about an hour which has slightly thrown me out.  Never mind.  I obviously needed the sleep.  Its cold here tonight and the wind has been bitterly cold all day; the back of the house seems particularly cold again - I think it must be the way the wind blows as it is not always as cold as it is so I have closed the bathroom and kitchen off and restricted the cats to the dining room where it is warmer and I have...

Hello it looks as though I have some new followers, please grab yourself a cup of coffee or a mug of tea make yourself comfortable and have a good old read through.  There are no end of posts going back forever not just the recent stuff and if you want to comment please feel free to.  The more the merrier.  Please do not think I am rude but I do not always spot when we have some newbies with us, so please accept my apologies in advance if you are not welcomed in person!  You are more than welcome.  I am more up to date with blogger and google than bloglovin although do use bloglovin. Will you be having Pancakes for tea tonight.  I for one certainly will.  I am rather fond of pancakes always having enjoyed them as a child simply served with sugar and orange or sugar and lemon or served with golden syrup. Pancakes need not be sweet.  I was recently introduced to savoury pancakes with soft polish cheese in them the sort that is sold in a big ...

One of my biggest fears - its irrational I know it is but after OH was out of work for 3 1/2 years its left me with a fear of having nothing in the pantry.  My philosophy very much is if I have a well stocked pantry you can pretty much get through anything even if you have precious little else  you must always eat and must not skip meals.  There is always someone who can help and there is always a way round things - probably not the way you would go by choice but it may be the best for you in the long run.    I think to some extent this is why I am always very keen to try and keep everything fairly well stocked - as you never quite know what is round the corner or what is going to happen.  One of the main things I learned was to buy good ingredients and only the ingredients and if we wanted bread - then I would make it the same with cookies and cake, pastries etc.  Buy the ingredients and have a go and make it yourself it really is the only way t...

Apologies everyone I had hoped to finish and post this, this morning but real life got in the way. What I forgot to mention yesterday was that OH has managed to get all the walls painted in the Craft Room/Computer Room and its come up very well.  He just has all the white painting to do i.e. the skirting boards, doors, window frame and ceiling but so far am very chuffed with it.  Its lovely and clean.  Still a lot more to do where that came from.  However Rome was not built in a day. There is also a big pot of vegetable stock bubbling away.  I could not prepare all those vegetables earlier on and not use some of those good veggies for a good base stock. Utter sacrilege to waste a good resource.  This has now been packaged up and is in the freezer.  I have had a night off after yesterday's efforts and will probably finish the swede and carrot crush tomorrow. There has been a lot in the press recently about the stores only wanting perfect p...

I did not sleep well last night not sure why but I was still awake at 4:00am and not the least bit sleepy.  Whether it was the wind and its howliness that kept me awake I am not sure.  I was still awake at 7:00am wherein I seemed to have gone into a very deep sleep and did not wake until 11:30am.  I think I must have crashed as my back was not good again so I suspect I have been laid in the one spot for too long.  I do apologise for the length of this post especially as I seem to have been burbling and then we have the photos.  Its been a horrible day all day and the wind is getting even howlier and rougher and it is raining.  We get it light to the rest of the country which makes us fortunate and it is bitterly cold again. Since we got up I found that I needed soap powder so I paid a visit to the Cash N Carry buying more soap powder and fabric conditioner and some chicken thighs and some mince, some cheese, some Whelks for OH and then...