weekend 28/29 mar 09

Posted 30 March 2009 By mac and has no comments yet.

by Gatcombe Farm
Originally uploaded by ramtops

We did shopping stuff on Saturday, as blogged earlier.

Sunday was a beautiful day, and as we had a letter to deliver to someone in Flax Bourton, we decided to walk. It’s not far, and would have taken about 15 minutes there and back in the car. We went up over Gatcombe Hill, one of my favourite walks, then down along the main road a little, only to find that the path across the railway is shut for still more diggering. We went down to the old (closed) Flax Bourton station, but couldn’t get through there either, so had to go down past the Bathing Pond Field (lovely name, home of the North Somerset Agricultural Show) and on to Jenny’s.

Letter delivered, we came back along the relatively new cycle path to Gatcombe Farm Shop, where we availed ourselves of a cracking roast beef carvery dinner for £7.95 each, before walking home the other side of the railway line, through the mad killer sheep. Out for about 4 hours in total, and my knees feel just about every step.

I did about 3 hours work when I got home, while Pete was brave and tackled Behind the Television, where the kittins have been bad. He also took the opportunity to finally put in the remote plug thingies we bought ages ago, and now we can turn everything off with the click of a button (apart from the Tivo and Freeview box or we wouldn’t get anything interesting recorded).

So that was it. Very nice.

did you get the things we needed? (an occasional series)

Posted 28 March 2009 By mac and has no comments yet.

We have been Out Shopping.

Scrambled egg and bacon on toast (for me) in the Better Food Company, where we bought two lots of sausages (Merguez and lamb/rosemary), herbs, redcurrant jelly, hair conditioner, and … other stuff which I now for the life of me cannot remember, and filled up two Ecover washing up bottles.

On to Gloucester Road, to deliver still more books to the Amnesty Bookshop, and purchase in various delis of crispbread, chilli chocolate, geranium chocolate, lots of chickpeas, blackcurrant juice for P, and .. other stuff that I cannot remember. Oh, and a freezer from Nailsea Electrical, as you do. And a string bag’s worth from the greengrocer – apples, pears, oranges, bananas, rhubarb (rhubarb! English Rhubarb! There’s a Pig’s Bum in my immediate future), sweet potatoes, leeks, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, coriander and mint. Forgot the red onions.

Came home with a huge sigh of relief, then realised that we had forgotten to buy the castors for the coffee table (which is heavy, and needs moving when I use the Wii). So we put everything away and set out for B and Q, where castors were purchased (and white planter), and Pete was allowed a skeg at the tool porn.

Then we swung round by Asda, and bought 8 bottles of their 12p fizzy water, various cheeses and some cold meats for next week’s lunches, a basil plant, red onions (see above), some part baked baguettes.

Thankfully I had the foresight to make a vegetable tagine this morning and bung it in the slow cooker, so dinner is easy, cos I’m knackered; just got to do some rice.

Going to finish off Gavin and Stacey tonight, which we just love.

The law of fives

Posted 24 March 2009 By mac and has 2 comments.


The Tribe

Originally uploaded by perlmonger

We don’t often get the entire tribe in one place at a time (though we have shared ourtheir bed with the lot of them a couple of times in the current chill weather); yesterday, I found this collection in the shelves to the right of my desk.

I really cannot comprehend people who dismiss cats. Not liking them; oh, I can understand that, but their evil, scheming, murderous, loving beings are as individual and unique as human-style people. I haven’t the words, the eloquence, to do justice to the ones we live with or the ones we’ve lost, but I’ve just been smiling in recognition through prickling eyes at this posting about a cat, twenty years on from Crescent Dragonwagon. Just a cat, you know, they’re all the same.

Originally published at the Tribe.


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step *away* from the apostrophe

Posted 23 March 2009 By mac and has 1 comment.

It’s not so much the greengrocer’s’ apostrophe (although that makes my teeth ache), but more the inconsistency.

Why put an apostrophe in Floor’s, and not in Worktops?

Forgive the quality – the van was parked outside the house, and clearly the kitchen window needs washing!

bzzzzzzzt

Posted 22 March 2009 By mac and has 1 comment.

This afternoon I found Henry and Ron busily investigating a bumble bee which had somehow fallen into their clutches. They were fascinated by the sound it made, and had batted it about enough for it to be not very well at all. Pete removed it, as what we really don’t need is a kitten with a stung mouth.

However, I fear this may be inevitable, as they are sproinging round the garden chasing anything that flies. Or buzzes.

Originally published at the Tribe.


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a weekend’s cooking

By mac and has 2 comments.

We had already set aside Saturday evening to make a batch of Pete’s Wondrous Chilli – the beans were boiled and slow-cookered on Friday night, and we set to and made it yesterday afternoon. 4lbs of lovely Dexter stewing beef was turned into 10 really rather generous portions; we shall have some for supper tonight, and four tubs have gone in the freezer. We cooked it overnight in the slow cooker, and the smell drove us quite demented.

Yesterday, Pete sallied forth with his bicycle and trailer to do the shopping, and returned bearing (amongst lots of other things) two huge bunches of herbs; one of coriander, and one of fenugreek, which I’ve never seen before in its fresh form.

The coriander was easy – we found four chicken breasts in the freezer (we are really getting it under control now!) and a batch of lemony coriander chicken is in the slow cooker now.

I’ve never cooked with fenugreek before, but we put some leaves in the chilli (well, why not?!). I also minced up the last of the breast of lamb we had last week, grated up carrot, celery and onion, chopped garlic and fried it up with the lamb. Added my version of the Ras El Hanout spices I love so much*, and bunged in about a cup full of lentils. And more fenugreek. That’s currently cooking slowly downstairs on a diffuser, for a moussaka in the week.

I’ve had enough now, although I might just whip up a pear and chocolate crumble, as there are pears that need eating. (Pete has just said “ohmigod”).

* I should have made a note, but I used lavender, rose petals, paprika, cloves, cinnamon, ground ginger, galangal, coriander seeds, cardamon seeds, peppercorns, mace. It might not be authentic, but it smells nice.

Originally published at Reactive Cooking.


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and so it begins …

Posted 20 March 2009 By mac and has 1 comment.


and so it begins …

Originally uploaded by ramtops

We were musing last night on how the kittens would behave when confronted with wildlife, as we tormented played with them with a bird on a wire (a toy! bird, I hasten to add).

Ron just sorted of batted it, but Henry went straight for the back of the neck of this thing (it’s remarkably realistic – I must video them with it).

And lo, we talked it up – Ron came in this morning with his first catch, a small finch (I think). He hadn’t killed it, but had it grasped firmly in his mouth, and when I picked him up to try to make him drop the unfortunate bird, he was going “thrum” in a most thrumming manner.

He wouldn’t drop it, and instead got away from me and legged it up the stairs, where Pete caught him, picked him up and scruffed him. Whereupon Ron opened his mouth to scream in rage, the bird seized the opportunity and flew down the stairs, past my face, and landed in the shopping bag hanging from the rack in the hall.

With some presence of mind, Pete kept hold of the infuriated Ron, and I legged it through the house and out the patio doors, and decanted the bird amongst the flower pots, shutting the door firmly behind me when I came back in.

Had Henry had the bird, I think he would have killed it, killed it dead – playing with it isn’t his style. But Ron has had his toy taken away, and he is officially Not Pleased.

Click the image for a bigger version – I thought I’d spare you the full horror of a large picture.

Originally published at the Tribe.


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great Google logo today

By mac and has 2 comments.
google logo

slow cooked breast of lamb

By mac and has 3 comments.

slow cooked breast of lamb

Still on the freezer clearout, we liberated a rolled breast of salt marsh lamb, and a cooked chicken breast. This is what I did with the lamb.

Put some haricot beans to soak overnight, then simmered them for 30 minutes.

Browned the lamb in some groundnut oil.

Into the slow cooker went: lamb, beans, one courgette, two carrots, two leeks (all diced), about six cloves of garlic, crushed, about 3/4 pint apple juice, some woody herbs (rosemary, etc). I drizzled a little honey on top of the lamb too. It smelled lovely, but something seemed to be missing, and after some consideration, I added a couple of generous teaspoons of harissa.

Left it on low for about 9 hours, topping up with a little boiling water part way through the afternoon.

Served with boiled potatoes and steamed broccoli.

The rest of the beany vegetable stock will go for soup, and I might well mince up the remainder of the lamb for a shepherd’s pie – I can always boost it up with lentils if need be.

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nom nom nom

Posted 18 March 2009 By mac and has 1 comment.

Henry likes porridge!

Originally published at the Tribe.


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