TARRAGON & THYME

This was a favourite song of my Dad's he really related to the song, and the words.  He also loved France.  Did I tell you that after being  made redundant from a job, he and mum went on a trip to France on his BMW motorbike, for a holiday and he was convinced that he might be able to find work out there.  Perhaps that is a story for another time. However, later on in life, Dad and I used to meet up one night per month and go for a drink at a local pub, the thatched pub in the village of  Marholm,  known as the Fitzwilliam Arms, where in the summer you had the freedom to sit in the beer garden or in the cool of the bar.  In the winter there was always a roaring fire awaiting. Curiously enough, nearly every time we went into the pub over a number of years, this song used to be played.  I think perhaps the Landlord  liked it too. On Saturday just gone, I heard this on the radio again, the first time in a long time, and naturally...

I had a load of bits and bobs left over in the fridge that needed using up before their dates expired. I had a chorizo, some old potatoes, onions, Gruyere cheese and some eggs. I therefore turned it into a kind of hash to use all the bits up.  The potato was chopped into chunks together with the onion and fried gently until golden brown together with some garlic then the Chorizo was chopped up and cooked through.  I served it with a fried egg and it went down quite nicely as a brunch type meal.  Next time will add more onion and fresh garlic.  I had used the remains of part of a jar of lazy garlic.  However I will not be using that again.  I prefer fresh as it has more flavour.  Think it would be nice with some ham or corned beef. So being tight we ended up with a relatively tasty lunch using up what I had to hand. I have had internet connection, problems today have not been able to get online.  I am off to bed now as I don't feel...

I was taught to bake bread using fresh yeast, but as the years have gone on fresh yeast has become more and more difficult to buy.  I used to be able to buy this at my local bakers or indeed a local supermarket but a lot of them stopped doing this.  As a result, I found this more and more difficult to locate. However, it is available via Ebay.  Just type in "Fresh Yeast" and it should give you a list of suppliers.  Make sure that you get the cheapest price for the weight though, and do your research of the selection given.  Many of these are regulars so you can place repeat orders. Yes you do have to wait for it to arrive, and you do not have to worry about buying it in bulk.  This will not go to waste as you can keep this, prepped into a set amount once this is received and then packaged for storage in the freezer. You could also keep some of this out and stored in the fridge.  Then when you want to make bread, recover it from said freezer and le...

Am still full of cold.  That's the problem when you have a reduced immune system, it picks up anything and then hugs onto it for what seems forever. It also makes me sleep later than I should and the day ends up being gone before I know it.  In case you had not guessed I don't make a good patient at the best of time. Being as I am still wonky, I have been sorting one or two bits as I go along, something that does not require extra physical effort and in an effort to be doing something.  During this foray, one of my UFOs fell out of its box. It is a long stitch picture which I figure I must have bought about 23 years or more ago.  The kit is one of the Lakeland long stitch collection by Sue Daking and is of the mountains and one of the lakes. I sat and worked a little more of it. I am now going to have to try and find some more of the colours as I have run out think I have some spare from another one of these kits - leftover wool.  I shall look around to...

I have a major job in the next few weeks to sort out and that is to strip and scrub out all three freezers.  I have a large chest freezer and two upright freezers.  They are located in the shed. I also have the two wine coolers one of which is designated for a Charcuterie cave and the other for wine.  They are both due for scrub out.  I also need to get these sorted as to what I am going to put in which freezer.  The newest upright freezer I think will be designated for things I need to get to easily.  Meat will predominantly go into the large chest freezer and I tend to store veg in the other one. However in order to achieve this I also need to sort out the shed which has become a bit of a dumping ground.  I will need a good weather day for this and it will I think be a weekend job so that OH can assist me with this.   Once this is all done I can then go shopping and start to re-stock the freezers. I am lost without my freezers. The larg...

I keep looking at hand embroidered items.  I have a stash of embroidery threads so I do not necessarily have to buy any in.  A lot of projects have been worked on linen.  I have some new linen and some vintage linen.  However I have noticed that some people use calico.  I have a stash of this in the house as well.  This may prove very useful for some things I need to make for my bedroom in due course. I have also been looking at lots of different embroidered pieces and I am seeing an awful lot of stuff would like to have a go at.  Some are available in the form of kits some are freelance pieces.  Sometimes no details are given so that you can go out and source that kit (where applicable).  Frustratingly, there are a lot of lovely pictures of embroidery which supposedly link to a kit which in fact lead nowhere.  Etsy is proving useful for buying PDFs for the print out pattern to create some of the designs.  Some designs are free...

The house is currently in a state of chaos as a result of me doing a little sorting despite not really feeling up to it.  It is in a worse mess that I remembered, so going to have to keep slogging away at. This cold has caught me hook, line and sinker.  Hence the lack of posts today.  Fortunately I have a couple of large boxes which I can pack some of the stuff away in to tidy things up a tad. It is a slow old process but will be worth it in the end.  I have found things I thought I had lost and others which I had not seen for sometime.  For instance I picked up a patchwork quilt tutorial book before Christmas The Country Love Quilt and the Country Bouquet.  It is a Philadelphia style applique quilt.  I am nowhere in a position to do anything as complicated as this but as the book was from a Charity Shop and cost only £2 I nabbed it because I can always get to it in due course.  Both quilts are particularly pretty. I also found one of my ...