While its immensely tempting to rest every single bed under a thick layer of mulch, cardboard or black plastic and head north to the sunnier states for winter, I try to rest one bed and plant lovely greens to enjoy for winter suppers.
While I have grown potato onions and spring onions widely at times, the Negi onion is the one that remains outside my kitchen door and never dies off. Happily this year, they self-propagated (perhaps from the east winds swirling around the place), so now I have three pots outside the kitchen door.
Is there nothing a potato can't do? Just like eggs, they are a chameleon of the kitchen, one minute you're digging into homemade crunchy chips, the next you are enjoying leftover mash in an apple tart made with potato pastry. The wonder of it all.
These days, with many people staying close to home, we found that there are not many rescue dogs available for adoption. Some that we looked at did have very severe problems, they wouldn’t be suited to going home with a family that had children. Never having had a puppy ever before, we were resigned to the fact that we’d know when the right little personality came along. We knew it could be a few years.
This christmas we aimed to keep it simple, using what we already had, and making the most of nature and what was growing in our garden. Making gifts became important and catching up with people was extra special.
While both muesli and granola are a mix of grains, seeds, nuts and dried fruits, the main difference is that granola is sweetened with honey or maple syrup and is baked. Muesli is not baked.
They each are regarded as a healthy breakfast.
So here it is, jam drops for everyone, even those with coeliacs disease. The recipe is fairly simple, with the addition of almond butter and flax meal, the biscuit crumb is a little denser, crunchy on the outside, chewy in the middle, and less powdery than usual. I used homemade mariposa plum jam for the middle. Needless to say, they were gone in a couple of hours!
A productive household is simply one that is working and productive for the good of the people that live there.
If our mortgages are the biggest expense of our lifetimes then why aren’t we producing more from our households?
These quick Banana Bread Bites have been the most requested and most popular snack in our home for most of winter now, so I thought I'd share them with you.
One of those recipes that can be made without much thinking, grab a fork and a stainless steel bowl to mash the bananas and then whip them up. Simply pour into a cake tin and pop straight into the oven. No fuss, just like most recipes that appeal to me!
The shortest day has arrived. It was memorable and beautiful and I can’t remember a Winter Solstice quite like it. We woke up to a pink, purple , blue and apricot-tinged sky. The sun was enlarged by the misty fog, becoming a gigantic round ball of light that beamed across our winter flowers, which were glistening like jewels under the magical glowing light.