Iced tea - Take two

I had another stab at making home made iced tea last night. I've tasted the results today after getting in nicely chilled in the fridge for 24 hours and I must say I'm rather pleased with the result.

I used a 2 litre lock and lock jug to make it in, so you may need to adjust quantities if your jug is larger or smaller.

4 earl grey tea bags
1.5 litres boiling water
1 lemon
sugar to taste

Place 4 earl grey tea bags into your jug.
Pour on 1.5 litres of boiling water.
At this stage, add sugar to taste. (I added 8 teaspoons to the mix, but having tasted it tonight I need to add a little more as it's just not quite sweet enough.)
Allow tea to stand for a minimum of 30 minutes and then remove the teabags from your jug.
Drop in 1 lemon which has been cut into slices then make up the jug to the 2 litre mark with cold water.
When cold, place in fridge and allow to chill completely.

Lastly, pour yourself a glass and enjoy!!

Sunday lunch to Tuesday tea

On Sunday this week I had made roast chicken for Tea. I had lots of meat left over afterwards. Some of this was used tonight in club sandwiches and I used the rest to make pot pies for tomorrow night.

I chopped the chicken into chunks, added some chopped onion, peas and 4 tablespoons of chicken soup. I then added a splash of water to thin the soup and crumbled some fromage on top. The ramekins were then topped with shortcrust pastry, egg washed and part baked.

The fromage I used was a standard french garlic and herb one, but if you are feeling very adventurous you could try making your own!!

The chicken carcass was used to make stock and I have frozen this for use at a later date.

Currently I'm on a challenge to clear space in my freezer as I went slightly overboard during my visit to the farm shop on Saturday. Oooops!!

Use it up - leftover vegetables

I had leftover vegetables from yesterdays Sunday dinner. I decided to make bubble and squeak and some stir fry. Weird combination, but hey, it's good to be creative with leftovers!

For my bubble I used mashed potato and oven roasted vegetables. The oven roasted veggies were carrot, parsnip, asparagus tips and butternut squash.

I mashed all the veggies together and formed patties with my hands. Then I gently fried them in oil until crispy on both sides. As an added bonus, I sprinkled some grated cheese over the top and browned them under the grill while the stir fry finished.

Unfortunately I can't post a picture as there are none left! Still, I suppose that's a good sign?

The stir fry was made using left over crispy roast belly pork, baby corn, onion, red pepper and broccoli. Added to that were some sesame seeds, nigella seeds and toasted sesame oil for flavour.

Crispy belly pork

This is the gorgeously crispy belly pork I made this afternoon. Really simple to make and huge on taste. Here's how I did it......

In a plastic bowl mix together

2 grated or crushed cloves of garlic, big fat juicy ones
a grated thumb sized piece of ginger
1 tablespoon five spice powder
2 teaspoons salt

Mix well together and rub all over the meat side of the belly pork. Make sure you get it in all the nooks and crannies.

Heat oven to 230oc
Place pork on a rack over a tray with the meat facing the rack. In the tray have some water. This creates steam while the pork cooks to help keep it moist. I just use an old cooling rack over a metal oven tray as you can see in the picture above.
Place pork in top of oven and then immediately drop temperature to 200oc
Cook for 40 minutes and then check with a thermometer. You need the temperature to be above 75oc. If you haven't got a thermometer, the juices need to be running clear from the meat when pricked with a skewer.
A thermometer only costs a couple of pounds and I wouldn't cook without one now, seriously recommended!

After the pork is cooked you can chop it up in chunks and serve with salads, noodles, mash or whatever takes your fancy. It will also freeze well when sliced, defrost first then just make sure you re-heat it to piping hot when serving up. If freezing, I would remove the rind from the pork first as this won't freeze well.

Enjoy!

Hello Vera!

Say hello to the latest addition to my home. This is Vera and she's an Aloe Vera plant. I received her via a very kind person on freecycle. I'm hoping that as she grows she will be a very useful addition to my family!

the same lady also gave me a cacti and 2 succulents, so I will be off to do some research on those to see how to look after them.

A use up recipe for apples

I was having a bowl of weetabix minis tonight as a snack and this recipe sprang to mind. So here's an easy use it up recipe for apples and weetabix!
I made this first years ago as a kid after it appeared on a magazine programme aimed at young people. It's only recently I was able to get my hands on a copy of the recipe again after losing my original! (Thanks Blue Peter!!)

Kathryn Wheels

2 weetabix
250 grams self raising (cake) flour
3 teaspoons cinnamon
150 grams butter or margarine
150 grams demerara sugar
1 large or 2 small unpeeled and grated apples
1 large beaten egg



Heat oven to 230oc/ 450of

Grease and flour 2 round sandwich tins
Mix flour, cinnamon and crumbled what bicuits in a bowl.
Cut up butter into small pieces and rub into weetabix mix until it looks like breadcrumbs.
Add sugar, apple and egg.
Mix together until you have a sticky dough.
Divide the dough between 2 tins nad press down with a spoon.

Bake in the centre of a hot oven for approx 20 minutes and then leave to cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy!


(Just looked at the date on the recipe sheet, oh 1989, didn't think it was as long ago as that!)

Garden Update

This is how the bottom end of the garden looks now that we have finally completed the greenhouse and created a path for ease of access. Quite a few bags of stones later and we are all done. There is another little bit of stoned path to the left of the greenhouse that you can't see in the picture. I'm using that part to set my fig tree on once it's in its pot and also to set pots of mixed leaves on.
Inside the greenhouse we have at the top left of the picture, cucumber plant and pots of herbs to the front of that. On the right side we have 2 white buckets with mixed leaves just beginning to sprout, more herbs and you can just see the edge of my strawberry pot.
This lovely terracotta pot was given to me by my Mum. (thanks Mum!) I haven't yet decided if I'm going to use it for strawberries or if I'm going to turn it into a herb planter. It might actually be a little on the small side to use as a herb planter. Hmmm, decisions decisions!!

Outside in the garden this weekend I have also got some planting done. So far in the ground we have potatoes, spring onions, asparagus, onion sets and carrots. As yet the carrots and peas I planted in pots have yet to germinate. I might try soaking the peas for a few days to see if that helps the germination process? Pepper plants and aubergines have germinated and will be planted out as soon as the weather allows. Leeks are coming along nicely too. Other seeds planted this weekend are butternut squash and little sprog planted a pumpkin!

Tomato plants are coming along nicely at my Dads house and I think those will be ready to go in the greenhouse around the end of May. Dad is also starting off some sweetcorn for me to try in the greenhouse.

Last to go in the garden is a raspberry cane, currently residing in a pot, a blackcurrant bush in a pot at my Mums house and my fig tree which will be re-potted.

Pink Eggs

This is how our eggs turned out after trying Jane's egg dying method over on Barefoot Kitchen Witch. The bottom one looks yucky as the shell decided to explode while boiling in the pan!




Here's some eggs little sprog decorated so we can chuck them down the garden later!

Happy Easter everyone, don't eat too many chocolate eggs :0)

Weird stuff, muddy gardening and a few eggs.

This afternoon the little sprog and myself were out in the greenhouse digging in pots for the tomato plants. We had a whale of a time! The inside of the greenhouse was all sticky mud, this is due to the heavy clay soil that I have and lots of rain over the past few weeks. We nearly lost our wellies several times!

Between the two of us, we now have the pots in place and also one extra one to plant a cucumber in. We've also managed between us this afternoon to get some more peas planted and also we're trying butternut squash from seed we saved last year. Just as we had finished tidying up the yard, the heavens opened in a massive hailstone shower, think that's the gardening over for the day!

Now seeing as it's Good Friday, The small sprog and I are trying our hand at colouring boiled eggs for Easter. Jane over at Barefoot Kitchen Witch has been doing just this and her results are stunning! Pity I haven't seen a white egg over here for years, the colours used really pop out on the white egg shell. I doubt our results will be as spectacular, but I'll post a picture when they are removed from the shells tomorrow.

As for the weird part of the title today, that's all down to part of a swap I received recently. It's tapioca, but not as I've ever seen it before! It is a multitude of rainbow colours and according to the instructions this is how I cook it............

"Boil 10 cups of water for 1 cup of tapioca pearl into a large pot. Pour the tapioca pearl into the water slowly. Stir softly. After the tapioca pearl becomes plump, turn the heat to a medium setting and cover the pot for 5 minutes. Scoop the tapioca pearl out and it is ready to serve. You can also mix the tapioca pearl with sugar or honey"

Hmmmm, I think I might just cook this like normal tapioca, I don't fancy faffing about boiling it in water first and then adding sugar or honey!!

Home made iced tea

I was experimenting the other day and tried a home made version of iced tea. My kids are big fans of the Lipton Iced tea that you can buy in bags from the asian foodstore. I like this one I made as I find it very refreshing, the kids aren't so sure though, probably because it's not as sweet as the powdered version. Here's the recipe I made anyway if you'd like to try it.

I used the following.......

4 lemongrass and eucalyptus tea bags
2 litres of boiling water
1 unwaxed lemon

Simply put the 4 the bags in a jug, pour over boiling water and leave to infuse.
When cooled cut the lemon in half and drop into the jug.

My version has been in the fridge for 2 days with the tea bags still in and tastes good. If you like after the flavours have infused, remove the tea bags and the lemon.
It has a slightly tart taste so you could try adding some sugar or sweetener while still hot so that it dissolves as it cools.

I intend to experiment with other recipes to see if I can get any home made versions to taste like the powdered version! I'll use this recipe as a base to start with and take it from there :0)

Surprising

On looking at my blog stats tonight, it appears the most read post is for Mars Bar Scones!

I posted the recipe as a bit of fun after tasting these creations in a coffee shop. I didn't have an exact recipe and just made them up as I went along. They went down well in our house so I decided to post it up here.

Maybe I should start being a bit more experimental in the kitchen and posting the results here?

Greedy!

I made an Easy Peasy Lemon Cheesecake over the weekend. Then I discovered the kids didn't like it.

Damn!

So Hubby and I ate the whole pie ourselves over 2 days.

I really need to climb lots of stairs at work tomorrow after this *oooops*

It was really really nice though and I didn't want to waste it!

Greenhouse completion

My greenhouse is now completed. Hubs and my Dad took most of today to install the glass. At last now I can get on with planting my bits and bobs for this year.
I have to get gravel put round the greenhouse to create a pathway and make smaller raised beds for crops round the outside space, but at least now I am in a position to get going.
As you can see in the pic, the bottom of the yard is now fully doggy proof, although that doesn't stop doggles from pushing his ball below the gate and then standing barking at it to try and get it back!

My back yard looks a lot bigger now that the old plastic lean to has gone. It looked very sorry for itself after the battering it took during the stormy weather recently.

I have been looking online to find plans for my next project. I'd like to build a woodburning oven in the back yard. Dual purpose as we like to sit outside in the nice weather and this would create a heat source as the evening cools, but also to cook in!

Easy peasy lemon cheesecake

I have a few versions of this yummy cheesecake for you to try today. It doesn't take long to make and is a nice dessert for any time of the year , not just summer.

Cheesecake base
15 digestive biscuits (graham crackers)
3oz melted butter

Crush digestive biscuits into crumbs, add melted butter and place in a loose bottom cake tin. Press crumbs down to form a solid base and place in fridge to set. You can also substitute some of the digestives for gingernut biscuits for an extra tasty base. 3 or 4 should suffice.

If you have a large tin you may need to add a few more biscuits to make the base for the cheesecake. I don't tend to even measure my biscuits or butter, it's usually half a packet of biscuits to a large knob of butter


Version One

4 large unwaxed lemons
1 can condensed milk

Place can of condensed milk in a bowl
Remove zest from lemons and juice as well.
Start to whisk condensed milk and pour in lemon juice gradually.
As you add the lemon juice, the milk starts to thicken. You can add as much lemon juice as you want once it starts to thicken. It's all personal taste as to how zingy you want the cheesecake to be. personally I add quite a lot as the condensed milk is very sweet and the cheesecake is nicer when zingy.

When you have reached your desired level of sweetness/zingyness, stir in the grated lemon zest.
Pour over the cheesecake base and place in fridge to set



Version Two
1 lemon jelly
1 can evaporated milk

Make lemon jelly as per instructions on packet, omitting the step where the jelly is made up to one pint with cold water.
When jelly is just starting to set, whisk in can of evaporated milk until frothy. Use an electric whisk to do this as the jelly needs to be really frothy and double in size.
Pour over cheesecake base and place in fridge to set.


Version Three
1 sugarfree lemon jelly
1 -2 tubs of natural yoghurt

Make lemon jelly as per instructions on packet, omitting the step where the jelly is made up to one pint with cold water.
When jelly is just starting to set, whisk in natural yoghurt until frothy. Use an electric whisk to do this as the jelly needs to be really frothy and double in size.
Pour over cheesecake base and place in fridge to set.

German Potato Salad

The sun has been out here all day long and it is just gorgeous, pity I'm so tired I can't do much this evening. I think I'd fall asleep over my garden fork if I tried anything tonight :0)

Anyway, as the weather has been so nice here today I made pizza and a salad for tea tonight. I decided to make this wonderful german potato salad as a side too. It's quick and very tasty. It will keep in the fridge for a few days if you have any leftover, just as long as you have it in a sealed container such as a lock & lock.

4 small boiled potatoes.
1 onion
4 slices bacon
2 hard boiled eggs
mayonnaise
parsley
salt and pepper


Boil the potatoes in the skins and allow to cool before peeling. (I made this tonight with a 750g bag of baby potatoes and I didn't bother peeling them once cooked. It worked really well so I think I'll stick to this method. If you use regualr poataoes, a waxy variety would be good for this recipe as it won't go into mush when you mix the salad ingredients with the mayo. )
Slice or cube the potatoes.
Slice or cube hard boiled eggs.
Chop bacon into small pieces and fry off until cooked through. Drain and allow to cool. (I used pancetta cubes instead of bacon, you could use lardons too)
Chop onion finely, fry half and leave half raw. (If you don't like raw onion substitute some salad onions instead or you could just fry all the onion.)
Place all the above into a bowl and mix with mayo and parsley.
The amount of mayo and parsley you add is entirely up to you, it's all personal preference.
Mix well together, taste and season if necessary with salt and pepper.

Good with salads or as a side.

Enjoy!!


EDITED TO ADD - I just noticed that due to my photography skills or the lack thereof, the potato salad does not look as appetizing in the photo as it does in real life. My apologies!

Sore feet

Anybody got any new feet for sale? I have had a busy day at work and then spent a good part of this evening removing the moss from my lawn with a power rake.
Think I've done a good few miles on my poor wee tootsies today, glad it's nearly bedtime now so I can get a rest :0)

On the veggie front, some of my seeds have started to appear. So far peeking through we have leeks and parsley. No sign of the carrots or peas yet but as the greenhouse still isn't done I'm not in a mad panic to get things outside yet.