TARRAGON & THYME

During the summer months I love to grow fresh herbs and then put them up in various formats.  One of the yearly makes for me is making the most of the mint harvest.  OH is mad about mint sauce and eats it with everything therefore I make as much as I can for the pantry shelf.  It is lovely to have something on the pantry shelf that you have grown and then turned into a shelf preserve.  It tastes good too.  If you grow your own mint and it takes over then the long keeping mint sauce, mint vinegar and mint butter are all good ways of using up this precious herb which can be a bit of a thug. Long Keeping Mint Sauce First of all you need to cut a good couple of bunches of your mint out of the garden.  Wash the mint and then dry with a tea towel.  Take the leaves off the stem until all the mint leaves have been removed.  You only need to use the mint leaves for these preserves but you can set aside the mint stalks and let them dry out and use them in k...

My Nan was a fantastic cook and housekeeper who worked hard all of her life.  Always in motion, and if you wanted to talk to her you had to follow her around as she never let up was always doing something.  Even when she was in the house there was always baking, sewing, knitting, making wine, making Christmas cakes, preserving food in bottles, jams, for the freezer.  Not only did she do all this she worked full time at the local Junior School until it moved full time as the School Cook as well as doing service at the local Church (St Clements) Nevin the property that my grandad and her owned in Fiskerton just outside of Lincoln was mostly set to food of some kind or another. They lived in the village for over 60 years.  The garden (2 acres) was mostly set to Orchards but also livestock chickens and pigs and lots of vegetables, bees and soft fruit. She also made the most of the wild larder and during the war years my Dad used to go out catching Rabbits to fill the pot...

Saturday started early with the alarm going off and then me nabbing an extra 15 minutes.  Then it was up, getting ready and then going off heading towards Ramsey for the Fishmonger.  It started off bright and sunny, but decidedly colder than it has been.  Overcast for a while and looked as though it was going to rain but it has turned out for the best part to be a sunny day.  Autumn is well and truly with us though. We did call in at the Bakery on the way there and came away with some crusty buns and a couple of cakes. We arrived at our destination and surveyed what goodies were on offer today.  I bought a naturally smoked haddock fillet to be chopped in two and for two separate meals.  I cook it in  milk with a Court Bouillion and then cook a couple of poached eggs on top (which are also cooked in the milk).  Cooking it this way makes it nice and tender and the poached egg white does not go everywhere.  Served on a plate with the eggs and so...

 Has not worked out how it was planned to be.  I ended up going late to bed last night as a couple of kitchen bits had gone pique tongue and scattered everywhere so I ended up sorting those out.  So there was a lot of washing going on in the kitchen as well as washing churning round and round in the washing machine.  As a result I was not as early up as I had hoped to be. I had also been looking for my herb chopper.  I have found part of it, need to locate the rest then the Long Keeping Mint Sauce can be made. I usually use Persil for washing the clothes and household stuff and I use a heavy duty stain remover which I buy from Wilko.  I have had trouble getting hold of it though since the Covid 19 restrictions and have ended up buying it when I can.  It is not only used in the washing machine but also very good at stain removal around the house as well so it does get well hammered.  This is the only stain remover I recommend.  I had used the ...

Usually one of the busiest months of the year in the preserving calendar for me and lots of other busy people.  However it is one of the most rewarding.  I cook because I love it, and it is also a way of folding up the love I do have and  showering people quietly with that love is also very rewarding for me on a personal basis. September is also the main foraging month for the hedgerow fruits and wildings.  It is the start of a lot of work going on quietly in the background in order to get ready for Christmas.  I thrive on all the hard work and preparation and get much pleasure from doing it.  It is a way of marking the seasons and the passing of time.  When we are younger time takes forever, but as you get well over the halfway mark you realise that time is very precious and we need to make the best of it. That differs from person to person and the aims and the contents of your own personal bucket list vary an awful lot. September and October for me a...

 We had the cats booked in for their injections yesterday in readiness for their sojourn at a local cattery.  We duly took them, they behaved themselves beautifully; the Nurses thought they were lovely.  I had warned them that Molly in particular if she did not like something you were doing was likely to nip or bite or indeed push you out the way with her paw, but apparently she was an absolutely good girl.  I also had them micro-chipped as well. However, it turned out that after the deed was done I then had to bring them back to the surgery in effect whilst we were on our first week's holiday for their second injection.  I had not appreciated this or indeed been told about it but I was told categorically that if they did not have the second injection within a three week period of the first then we would have to start again with the injections and pay again.  This kind of threw a spanner in the works as we were told to go to speak to the cattery to see if t...

I started this post last night but got interrupted.   Saturday It has been very cold here today in Peterborough. Autumn has landed in a rush and I just do not know where this very peculiar year has got to.  Lets just say it has passed me by a little bit to say the least. For many months I have been in my own little bubble not needing or wanting to do much just being on my own with OH which has been less stressful for me in many respects but it has thrown up other issues lack of self worth, not counting, having no real purpose. I have been trying to heal myself in a gentle fashion but also trying to re-discover who and what I am and what purpose I have to play in this mortal coil.  Self-doubt and lack of confidence as well as not feeling 100% have not helped. I am a natural loner it is how I am built.  Every so often I become totally overwhelmed and need space and time for myself to heal and regain some equilibrium.  This is time out and something I have to ...