TARRAGON & THYME

As I have said many times before, I believe that food plays a big part in us helping us heal our own systems.  When food plays a double part in that it is both tasty, and healing - even better - a "win, win" situation.  Today I have bought some lemon thyme and intend to add it to a jar of honey so that I can keep it on the pantry shelf for both using as a glaze on cooked carrots and on meat which is delicious. However the main reason is also using this, is in soothing colds and also to assist in boosting the immune system.   When I get a cold it is always my chest and throat that is affected. I also have flare ups every so often with the arthritis and the other auto immune diseases and anything natural that helps me at these times is greatly appreciated. I am not one for popping pills.  When your body is constantly under attack from one condition or another or even a cold anything that helps soothe the system is a god-send. You can use different herbs in the...

I nipped over to see what they had available this afternoon.  Sometimes they have a bargain and another time not.  Have managed to pick up a nice large cabbage and cauliflower, as well as a couple of large leeks, some Persimmons/Sharon Fruit, some more of the Howgate Wonder Cooking apples and that was my lot for today.  I will however, be ordering in a sack of potatoes and also a net of Red Onions and White onions for general every day use so that we have basic ingredients to hand to sort a meal from.  I have a tray of eggs as they were bought earlier today. The leeks are destined for Leek and Potato soup, cabbage and cauliflower to accompany tomorrow night's Roast Pork, the Persimmons to be turned into Persimmon Jelly and the Apples I think am going to make some more Apple Sauce with or some Apple Butter.  So plenty to be going on with as usual. I am keen to make the most of anything that is coming my way. This evening I have been able to put my feet up and put...

It is a cold grey Saturday here in Peterborough and it has been all go here this Saturday morning; OH was scheduled for his Covid Booster (I have already had mine) and had an appointment just after 10:00am. So we went out for that, and then continued out to go to see the Fish Man in Ramsey. Where we picked up fresh Brancaster Mussels 2kg, and some brown shrimp, some whelks, a Lemon Sole and a Plaice Fillet.  The Mussels are for main meal tonight with some crusty bread and butter, cooked simply with water and with garlic and a little butter. I must say that I was eying up the Queenie Scallops as these are delightful served with garlic butter and a little seaweed salt however decided probably would have another week.   It is a while since we had a Fish Fest.  We had been during the week but he was not there.  His stall looked brilliant this morning all sorts of seafood and fish. I wish now I had taken a photo.  I also bought a tray of large eggs for general c...

Today has varied between very busy and has left me little time, so much so we ended up having a very late tea.  More on that below.. I ended up going into town as I had run low on jar lids again.  So I legged it in, and managed to get six packs of 12 jar lids which hopefully will keep me going for the foreseeable.  I have though decided that from the beginning of the New Year that I am going to buy a few each month and stockpile them so that I have them ready for doing what I need to throughout the year.  I have to be realistic on this score as I have not done as much preserving as I would normally do.  I have not been able to locate any Kilner or Ball seals both extra large and standard for sometime.  I am hoping to be able to get my hands on some more soon otherwise that is going to put a stop to any canning or bottling not that I can do a lot because of a lack of jars having lost so many in the fire and not being able to readily replace them as I am just...

I have been very interested in Fruit Butters, although I had not appreciated quite what they were. So I have been carrying out research over several sites as to how to actually make these unusual preserves. The site I plumped for in the end used a Crock Pot or Slow Cooker, the ingredients were in cups, but I had a set of these in any event so that was not a problem for me.  Essentially however it also gave instructions on how to make the preserve last longer on the shelf by hot water bathing the jars after bringing to the boil for 10 minutes.  The post and link I used as a starter point is here  Pear Butter The Spruce Eats . However I have read many posts in relation to making Pear Butter and this one seemed the simplest. This is the quantity I came up with to try initially, but next time I will use double the quantity which should fill my medium sized slow cooker and produce a few more jars of preserve. Ingredients: 3lb of Pears 1-1/2 cups of water 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar ...

Its been another day where the weather has been all over the place and is now grey and dull and windy again.  The kind of day where you want to snuggle up by a fire and just chill.  Unfortunately I do not have a fire and no prospect of one here either.  But hey-hoe, things could be far worse.  Needless to say I have had copious amounts of hot chocolate today sprinkled with some Cinnamon.  Very comforting it was too. I have just got in from being up town.  I am cold, very cold despite having had one of my winter coats on.  I ended up going out again as the dog needed walking.  However I have not been out since. I had gone into town as I had run out of whole nutmeg, ginger and ground cloves.   Whilst out I also picked up some persimmons to make either a jelly or a jam. I had been looking at some recipes earlier on today and it became quite clear that I would need some preserving jam for some of the proposed projects.  I do not normall...