Sorry!

Hello and sorry!  I have not been here anywhere near as I much as I should have been but I have not been well (on top of the usual not well) and I have had no brain power to cook never mind write about it!   I will be back soon and I have treats up my sleeve for you later on today (whoo) and meanwhile I have been playing with PicMonkey and made a thing so I thought I would share it.

Want to download it?  Click here

Innocent on Pinterest. Amazing Resource.

and I thought I'd share it with you.  I am hooked on Pinterest and I am also a massive fan of Innocent.  I love their juice and smoothies, their cookery books, their amazing quirky-ness and their do gooddings.  I just love them.  I have innocent socks that they sent me and I love them too.  Enough gushing.... to the point.  Innocent have a seasonal produce board on Pinterest and I am going to share it with you.  Feel fee to follow me while you're at it if you fancy.  I pin a load of shit, but I love it!

Innocent on Pinterest

Produce Box Four

It's Monday so it's produce box day!  Whoo!  I made a special request for extra carrots this week for Brian's cake and it's all here and it looks lovely!

This weeks box contains:

2 portabello mushrooms,
a bunch of flat parsley,
3 onions (one red, two white),
a broccoli head,
cherry tomaties,
3 nectarines,
2 bananas,
5 apples,
3 oranges,
2 pears,
a leek,
a courgette,
half a savoy cabbage,
a yellow pepper,
a red chilli,
a swede,
sugar snap peas,
dirty fat carrots,
clean carrots for cake, and,
Edwards potatoes.

another marvellous haul I think

This weeks hot spot, what am I doing with these things are:

the swede, and,
the cabbage.

This chap is the biggest mystery...what do I do with him, answers on a postcard please!

Wish me luck!

Cupboard Soup

I don't know if it's the way I was brought up, or the fact I'm from a farming family, or if it's just a thing that happens to some people but I bloody love soup.  There is something so comforting about it and it can be an amazingly quick thing to make happen - yet it's still so rewarding!  I know opening a carton, a tin or a packet is for sure quicker but it's nowhere near as good, as healthy or as filling.  

This soup is based on a Hugh recipe, but I have put my own spin on it to use up what I had that needed using.  I intend to make many many variations of this in the future so I shall keep you updated on what works and what isn't so amazing....

This soup is cannellini beans, pearl barley, carrot, peas, chicken and chicken stock and it could not be simpler to make.

For two people as a main lunch course, or four as a side.

400g tin of cannellini beans,

50g pearl barley,

one large carrot,

chicken stock,

100g peas

a handful of kale (hard stalks cut out), and,

a few bits of left over roast chicken.

Bring the stock (around a pint) to the boil and add the barley.  Leave this to simmer till the barley is softened - this took about 20 minutes.  In this time cut up your carrot, roughly shred your kale, chop up your chicken and drain your beans.  Then have a sit down and relax (or get the rest of the lunch ready!).  Add the carrot, beans and peas to the barley and stock - let this to simmer again for 5 or so minutes till the carrot is softened and the beans are hot.  Add the kale and the chicken, let them warm and wilt.  Season liberally with pepper and a little salt and serve immediately.  

Brian enjoyed this so much that he didn't believe that it had kale in it (he's a kale hater) so I will for sure be using kale up in this way in the future.  It was very tasty and there is enough left over for my lunch another day too.  Excellent!  I think this would be a lovely thing to serve at a lunch this time of year (it's snowing here in Monifieth today, excellent, thanks weather man!), it's hearty, quick and it looks so fresh!  We ate far to many black olive crackers with this today and the salty taste of them went with the beans beautifully so crackers are highly recommended (the ones we are a bit addicted to are from Marks and Spencer's - thanks Mum!) no butter or cheese needed... but I wouldn't say no  if you offered.  

Seasonal Specials - February

February.  How?  Where did January go?  What happened? I think I have spent the whole of January going from appointment to appointment, doctor to doctor and meeting to meeting and I want it to stop!
So February is here and we need to think about what food is going on for February.  There are three special things happening this month, Brian's birthday is this coming week, we have Saint Valentines day to suffer through and at the end of the month we are going on a tiny holiday to the hotel we got married in to celebrate our first wedding anniversary - so for the last weekend of the month I don't need to think about food at all as the amazing team at Rufflets will be dealing with it for me, I shall be taking close notes, lots of photos and asking questions for sure!

But on to what to look out for this month.... to be honest not much has changed since January.  This is what I picked out for January, but of course the times, they are a-changin' - pears are out, apples are still safe in store over the winter so long as you stick to the right ones you can till have delicious fruits!

My beloved Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall (via the method of The River Cottage Year, I don't have him living in my garage, sadly) suggests rice pudding for February, this has been a highlight of my January so I'm not letting go of it any time soon!  He also suggests Spaghetti Cheese Soufflé, which just for the madness of it I want to make it!  I will of course share the results... and there there are pies, stews, soups, casseroles and such.

 I dub this month the
month of comfort food and getting fatter to stand the horrid weather.  Fact.