Ok so it's not the most exciting thing to anyone else, but the one strawberry we have is starting to blush and resemble a fruit, instead of a green nobbly thing... so here you go - for us it's a major moment!
Also the dill is coming along nicely as you can see, so although it will take some time, I imagine some nice Winter dishes will be complemented with this hopeful batch... and we simply placed the seeds in a strawberry plastic container from the supermarket, so there was no need to spend cash on the pot.
I have had a busy weekend so am very tired, but my husband made some fresh bread this afternoon, which technically cost us nothing this week, seeing as we bought the main ingredients from last weeks budget. With the price of bread going up and up, I think he's enjoying making it himself and producing something almost for nothing. It's cooling as I type and only our second ever loaf, so this shows anyone can make it!
We're following Delia's recipe, as we found that the recipe on the back of the Somerfield 'strong' white flour pack didn't work as well (it was too yeasty, they suggested 2 tablespoons of dry yeast, Delia uses 1 teaspoon and also lets it sit and bubble with warm water up prior to starting the recipe).
As you can see, it's just cooling on our grater as we don't have a wire rack, but this works just as well and saves on buying anything fancy. I am looking forward to trying some of it in a while, perfect as a little snack before we have tuna gumbo - this is a delicious and easy dish:
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
'TUNA GUMBO'
3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped, then cooked
1 chopped white or red onion
1 clove chopped garlic
2 tomatoes, chopped
Small bowl of sweetcorn (frozen is cheapest but small tin would work)
Handful of peas
1 tin of tuna
Handful of green beans, topped and tailed, cooked/steamed
Some black olived, de-pipped!
Fry onion and garlic then tomatoes, when done place in a big bowl. Heat sweetcorn & peas (just pouring boiling water over them does the trick) and drain the cooked sweet potato. Then pour these into the bowl with the cooked green beans. Mix all the ingredients together, add olive oil and seasoning (oregano and paprika work very well). Add a couple of tablespoons light mayo and the olives, serve with mixed leaf salad. Delicious!
7 comments:
Just a thought re cooling off bread - I dont have a wire rack as such - but I cool my bread off by pulling out the grill pan from the cooker and leaving it on top of my stove. The bread sits cooling on the grill pans' wire rack.
Re the yeast - the recipe I use for bread is on my blog - under the "food" links if you want a looksee. But - yeast-wise - I use 1.5 teaspoons of the quick-acting yeast per large loaf. That type of yeast doesnt need to be left sitting "doing its thing" during the course of the recipe. One just adds the yeast straight out of the tin into your breadflour - then add the other ingredients (water - and, in my case, honey and oil) and start kneading. With the increasing price of honey its possible to substitute molasses for the honey - or indeed use sugar instead of the honey.
Just a leetle unrelated thought - it would be easier for those posting comments to do so if you had the standard 4 options to do so (including anonymous). Some people dont have googlemail addresses or owt. I do myself - but always tend to wonder if the blog "owner" then has my email address if I leave comments via my Googlemail address...though I never fill in the "email follow up....." comments box.
Thanks Ceridwen - I did not know about the settings of the post so have now changed them, thanks for letting me know.
I will put my grill pan wire rack to good use - would you believe I had not thought of that!!!
I will take a peek at your recipe - very happy with what Damon did last night as it came out great, so gradually we're getting there. I'd love to do a brown/wholegrain flavoured bread - maybe sundried tomatoes and olives...
Hi
LOL. I'm still on the basic bread myself - will get onto something "fancier"....
One other comment re functioning of your blog - maybe you might like to consider setting up the "home page" link on M.S.E. - then when someone clicks your "name" on M.S.E. "homepage" will come up in the links list. "homepage" means your blog - as thats where you give a link to your blog - if you want to that is.
regards
ceridwen
Thanks C - I have now updated my profile on MSE to inclue this 'ere blog! x
Hi
I've just made my own bread by hand for the first time for ages and am feeling very pleased with myself because it turned out well. I used fresh yeast given free at the supermarket which helps to trim the pennies off the cost. The nice man at the bakery section gave me a lump which will do about four times and I'm told you can freeze it in suitable size pieces.
Regarding gardening, one of the readers who posted a comment at the weekend on www.shirleygoode.com gave this list of veg that can be planted at this time of year. Quite a few could be grown in tubs on your patio. Hope this helps:
Turnip - sow July - Aug, crop Aug - Oct
Spinach sow July - Oct, crop through to Nov
Cut and come again salad (on windowsill or greenhouse) – all year round
Radishes - sow Aug - Sept, crop Sept - Oct
Hardy Salad leaves - sow July - Sept, Crop Sept through to March
Carrots - sow now, crop through to Feb
Spring cabbage - sow now, crop April to June
Chinese cabbage - sow now, crop Oct
Kohl Rabbi- sow now, crop Oct
French beans - sow now, crop Oct
Spring Onions - sow now, crop April - May
Greens (Advantage) - sow now, crop Oct
Baby Beet - sow now, crop Oct
Swiss Chard- sow now, crop Oct - Nov
I'll be growing cut-and-come-again salad leaves on the kitchen window ledge and in a tube outside while it is warm enough.
Thansk Jo that's such a helpful list! My carrots and lettuce are now indoors as they were damaged by the wind and rain - it's amazing how protective of them you get! My peppers are yet to grow to the 'right' size, although I am now wondering if they are just meant to be littler than the supermarket ones...
Post a Comment