TARRAGON & THYME

Another last minute drink for the Christmas drinks trolley which does not take long to make at all. I have used a 450g bag of frozen mixed fruits for this quick home-made liqueur.  I already had a bottle of vodka in the cupboard.  I tend to call any mixed red fruit combination "Jumbleberry" and have done for many years. You will need a large preserving jar with a rubber seal.  This will need sterilising in a hot water bath, in the oven or with baby sterilising solution or the dishwasher if you have one. Once the jar is sterile you can then proceed to make the liqueur. Decant the frozen fruit into the jar and then add in the vodka or gin.  You can use rum as well.  This one involves a little patience but it is worth the wait. Add a little sugar stir it up and then seal the jar.  Leave for about a month shaking the jar everyday to make sure that the sugar has dissolved.  I have initially used only about 100g of fruit, and will taste after the month if no...

We have had a moochy day today as I have not been firing on all cylinders again.  OH needed to go to his local fish lake as he had participated in a raffle and won a prize which we had to collect.  So we called in there on our way to Harvest Barn Farm shop for a few more bits and bobs.  We needed something for tea, so I bought chicken and some veggies (veggies for tomorrow) and some other bits and bobs including bread buns, picallili, veg, chicken and beef stock in tins I am slowly getting to grips with my Ninja Foodie and it is fast becoming very much used in my kitchen. Please note that this is not an advert for Ninja just a personal opinion. Their equipment is well built and does last.  I have gone off piste a little with the recipes and at the moment I am using the bake/roast function on the machine and just simply roasting the chicken whole.   I set the machine for 190 degrees C for an hour and the chicken is completely cooked and lusciously tender and...

It has been a quiet day here as I have not been firing on all cylinders so I have taken time out to just potter, watch the TV, do some research, walk the dog, have some tea.  I had to nip to the shop for a few things and came back with a few reduced chillies which I need for my pickled shallots and pickled onions.  I always dry these myself and I thought that I had enough already dried and to hand but on checking the jar there were very few left.  As I have plans to do the shallots and onions shortly I thought I had better get these sorted; I will therefore prep these tomorrow.  We then settled to watch the Greatest Showman on TV which I thoroughly enjoyed OH did not seem to mind it either. Whilst out I also bought a couple of small pumpkins.  There will be more to come as I initially use for decoration but have plans to turn these and other pumpkins into preserves as well as freeze some as well.  I particularly like pumpkin marmalade on toast in the winter...

I have not been particularly warm today and as a result was very much looking forward to my tea tonight.  Homemade stew from the Ninja Foodie.  I was not disappointed it was tasty and rich however you have to do the thickening right at the end with the Ninja when everything is cooked.  Originally I was going to do mashed potatoes, changed my mind and used the pressure cooker to cook the stew.  Then OH wanted his potatoes so I chopped them up and popped the pressure cooker lid on to cook but it kept throwing up a message saying that needed more water.  So stopped it and did it again and the same message came up but by that point the potatoes were cooked. The pressure cooking is brilliant.  The meat was lovely and tender , although it is still early days for playing with the machine and getting used to it. We were both pleased with tea and a good couple of bowlfuls have gone down well.  It is relatively quick to use and will be pressed into use a lot thi...

Thursday morning we went to the Fish man and OH came home with some Brancaster mussels, Cromer crab, crevettes, brown shrimp and cockles.  We had the mussels for tea last night and they were delicious.  They were Brancaster mussels small and sweet. (Brancaster is on the Norfolk coast) not far from Cromer). OH also nipped into the Butchers in Ramsey and bought some stewing beef to start off a stew in the Ninja Foodie for Saturday night, just simple ingredients, leek, onion and carrots accompanying the stewing meat to be served with mashed potato.  For Friday night we are having some very large gammon steaks which have been soaked in water to reduce the salt and then gently fried accompanied with pineapple rings. We also went to the Bread shop and came away with crusty rolls for ourselves and daughter and a cake for her and the children. We also called into the Harvest Barn Farm shop and got some leeks, carrots and onion for the stew.  We find that stew is best cooked ...

 OH wants to go away again, but I am mindful that we have an awful lot to do in the house and I want to make a significant start before going off on our travels again. I have told him that I need at least two weeks at home and this time is for seriously getting stuck in - the pair of us. Yesterday I did not stop all day. and was absolutely shattered by the time I did sit down. Today, I have a load of washing to do, then the ironing and before I can do that I need a new ironing board so that is something may well have to do tomorrow as well. We are off to the Fish man first thing, then off to step-daughter to pick her up to take her somewhere. I am then going to start getting stuck in, in the loo.  Once that is done the bathroom.  Depending on how well I get on I may need to re-evaluate what I do next.  The loo is definitely doable tomorrow and maybe some of the bathroom. Once these two are cleaned and sorted out will then look at the kitchen. That may well be Friday ...

 We left out from the camp site at 10:00am.  It was sad to say goodbye as I have really enjoyed this part of the country and all the wildlife.  We have plans to come back all being well next year. We have had pheasants Cock birds and females, grouse and Heron, bats and Owls as well as the trout in the Mill Race and the river and lots of lovely different birds. This time we headed towards Exeter to hit the main roads as we could not face being sent up tiny narrow hardly negotiable roads in the Quantocks.  Doing this saved a lot of stress for the best part of the journey.  However, we did get sent down narrow roads although bigger outside of Leicester.  We came back a completely different way to the way we went in many instances bypassing those towns we went down on. Our Sat Nav is built into the car and you cannot adjust it for towing a caravan and it has very few adjustments all round.  We have been advised today by fellow caravanners that we should pu...