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Awww! Do I Have To??!!!!

Come wind, rain, hail, snow or shine, Flossie, Buttercup, Donkey, Matilda, Monsey & our 2 new additions (it’s amazing what you come home with when you’ve just been for a walk in the park!) Stuffin’ & Strudel all need feeding, watering & their eggs collecting.

We discussed all this with our Kids before we decided on getting chickens & ducks. We pointed out the up-sides & down-sides of having different animals.

We decided:

1. No to a dog as they need walking at least 3 times a day whatever the weather, they need lots of human company & food & vet fees are very expensive. Plus the thought of pooper-scooping with a little thin plastic bag & nowhere to wash your hands just really does not float my boat (although my mind may be changed when doggie-nappies are invented).

2. No to a rabbit because as well as feeding & watering it every day it would also have to be cleaned out most days. Plus we know people who get their kids a rabbit & after a few weeks the ‘novelty’ wears off because to be honest, a rabbit doesn’t really do much…..apart from settle down in your veg patch & eat the fruits of your labours.

3. No to a hamster/other small rodents because of the ‘novelty’ factor again & largely being nocturnal it’s not a good match for kids who go to sleep at night. Also when we’re up with the first sparrow-pump everyday I don’t want to be laid in bed listening to a hamster going for a 40k run on its wheel at 3am.

So the decision was made for chickens & ducks because:

1. They don’t need human company all the time.

2. Feed is relatively cheap.

3. They will help keep the slug & snail population down in the garden.

4. They will be interesting to watch when they’re let out of their run to roam & peck around the garden.

5. No vet fees! (If one gets poorly we’ll ‘Do the Deed’ of dispatching in a calm & relaxed manner).

6. Eggs galore!

7. When they’ve gone past their laying best we will ‘Do the Deed’ & use the chicken or duck to its full potential with no waste.

Yes! to those of you who are shocked. We would kill & eat our chickens & ducks. They will have had a fantastic life, lots of space, a wide varied diet & top quality care from our Kids. We even sat MissT down & showed her a video on YouTube of a lady dispatching of one of her chickens in a calm & humane way to give MissT an idea of what would happen & she was totally fine with it. I think she even asked ‘Could it be used in a curry?’.

So every morning the care of our chickens & ducks is carried out by our Kids. Our Kids aren’t perfect. Every now & then one of them will come out with the protest ‘Do I Have To!?!’. We tell them firmly ‘Yes you do, otherwise when we next have eggs for tea you will not get anything’. This soon gets them in gear, getting their wellies on & trotting off down the garden.

I have to admit it is easier with 4 kids. One does the food, one does the water, one releases the animals & they all check for eggs. Yup we’ve had a couple of dropped eggs but over-all it goes smoothly.

The chucks & ducks love seeing the Kids & will happily follow them around or be handled or stroked by them. In return our Kids have great respect for them & have learnt so much, such as, they love warm porridge when the weather is freezing, they’re a bit partial to left-over pasta, how to introduce new additions & ducks eat frogs (yup that was a bit traumatic)!

After over a year of keeping chucks & ducks the excitement of discovering a newly laid egg or actually seeing one laid has never lost its novelty…& I don’t think it ever will.

They all have their own personalities too. Matilda, Monsey & Strudel keep themselves to themselves & love it when it rains. Donkey & Buttercup are easy going & friendly. Stuffin’ is very loyal & will follow the kids all over & loves being fussed. Flossie….mmm…yes Flossie. She is a law unto herself. I’ve never known an animal kick up such a fuss just because a sparrow has landed on a branch near the coop. Or because one of the others is perched where she now wants to perch.

Put it this way, if chickens had PMT then Flossie would really need to stock up on the evening primrose oil!

Kit x

Pack Up!

The Kids are back at school which means we’re back to the dilemma of “what shall we give the kids for their lunches?”.

Except it’s not really that much of a dilemma. As a family that cooks a lot of food, we just cook… more!

Neither Kit nor myself have the patience to be making sandwiches for four hungry children every morning & to be honest I don’t think that eating bread every day in that quantity is a particularly good idea.

So, we are setting our Kids up in readiness for the life of a student! We find it so much easier to pack them off to school with a container of cold curry, rice and a dollop of yoghurt or a wedge of cold pizza. We’ve even sent them with leftover Beef Pie, mushy peas & gravy!

All you have to remember is that when you do cook, cook that little bit extra.

Our Children have never complained about having leftovers & always look forward to the delights that lie within their lunch-bags. The Teachers (and Caretaker who sometimes gets roped into the lunchtime supervisor role) always comment on how lovely the food our Kids take looks. At times it seems they are quite jealous & complain that they’ve only got manky sarnies for their lunch!

We recommend getting a load of plastic take-away containers in for pack-ups as they are ideal for portioning leftovers into and refrigerating or freezing until needed. We get ours from the Chinese supermarket – a pack of 250 usually sees us through a few years!

So if ever you are looking at a recipe and think crikey! That seems like a lot! Just think of the hassle it will save you of having to make up the kids lunches… or even your own!

Holidays Are Coming… Holidays Are Coming…

The countdown to Christmas has begun & it’s only September!!!

Ok, it probably started around August time with us. That was when I first turned to ‘Ome & asked ‘What are we having for Christmas dinner then?’. His face was a picture!

I then pointed out the fact that before we realize, it will be 4 weeks before the Birthday celebrations & we won’t have even started making the presents, the Birthday pudding will be nonexistent (like last year…we had to, umm, BUY ONE! AAAArrrghhh!) & we’ll still be having debates, arguments & bottom lips stuck out over what we’re having for dinner.

So here we go. ‘Ome wants wild boar, MissT wants ham, Dj wants turkey. CurleyE wants duck wraps & Lil’MrM wants ‘Macerwoni cheeeese!’. I want a holiday & a large mug full of ‘Ome mulled wine.

‘Presents’ I ask ‘What are we doing for presents?’ cue an hour long reminisce about all the stuff we’ve made over the years & how yummy the stuff was….the ‘Ome Made rum soaked dried morello cherries were a particular favourite as was the ‘Ome Made lime pickle & mango chutney.

So, are we any closer to a happy medium that pleases everyone for Christmas dinner? Nope!

Did we have any new ideas for presents? Nuh-uh!

So in October when the adverts start on television for the latest expensive toys, games & gadgets & the shops are putting up their decorations, we’ll be sat there moaning that Christmas is light years away & will they stop making this special time of year into a time of greed & selfishness. It should be a time for celebrating the birth of Jesus, goodwill to all, giving gifts with thought, mulling your wine & pulling your crackers.

Then we’ll realize that ‘S***!, we haven’t even started yet…..Buy a pudding QUICK!’

Kit x

Giant Christmas sausage & cranberry roll

Peter Piper Picked A Padron Pepper…

And it nearly blew his head off!

Well maybe not. Allegedly one in every thirty, or twenty % padron peppers is a hot one. So eating them is a bit like playing Russian Roulette… but with peppers.

For those that don’t know Padron Peppers are little chilli peppers that grow in the northwest of Spain in an area called, well, Padron of course.

I first heard of them when Rick Stein was doing his series on Spain. He cooked them the classic way, in olive oil until blistered and then sprinkled with sea salt.

I thought then that they looked delicious but that was a couple of years ago and it is only now that these little tasty morsels seem to be readily available. In fact they seem to be the new craze!

They are incredibly tasty, and generally not spicy. However it’s great fun when you get a spicy one and there is no way of telling!

We simply cook them gently in olive oil until the skin starts to blister and small flecks of charred flesh appear. They are then spooned into a bowl and sprinkled liberally with salt.

The bowl is then handed round the table and we all take one. The kids always look a bit apprehensive just in case they have picked one of the hot ones. It’s great to watch them gingerly take that first bite!

We always give the children a little pot of Greek yoghurt on the side which they dip their pepper into. And of course it helps if they do happen to get a hot one!

I whole heartedly recommend anyone to try these peppers. They really are tasty and such a simple little treat to prepare as a snack, simple starter or a full Tapas blow-out.

Just remember as they say in Spain; Os pementos de Padrón, uns pican e outros non, Padron Peppers, some are hot, some are not!

Hands, Knees & Bumpsy-Daisies….

Reyt Good All Purpose Seasoning by Ome Made

After a week of banged heads, broken teeth, teeth going through lips, split chins, bumps and grazes I’ve decided never to take our Kids out of the house again!

Trying to get 4 children (one badly injured) with 4 scooters on a bus with only a £20 note to pay the bus fare with so that we can get home, get in the car and get to the dentist to fix Lil’MrM’s tooth was, I have to say, a bit of a trial. Why do these things always happen when ‘Ome’s not there??!!! I’m good at these kind of situations when it’s someone elses kids but I panic & crumble when it’s my own. But to give the Kids their dues, they were fantastic whilst Mummy had a total breakdown. Oh the joys of being a parent!

I then retreat into my veg patch, large glass of wine well within reach and thank the last of the garlic, the sorrel, beans and courgettes that need picking, the beetroot and swede that have survived their late start and flowering pumpkin plants for not causing me any grief, stress or tears.

I have to admit I did feel a bit tearful when I decided I’d have to chop down the borage plant. It almost signals the end of summer.

It was so easy to grow it was astonishing. From 1 plant hundreds of flowers have been picked since May and added to salads, frozen in ice cubes and ice lollies, added to drinks (Pimms for us!) and generally used as Pick-Your-Own snack for the kids. Happy memories of summer.

It’s not all sadness though because when cut down, chopped up a bit and dug into the veg patch it will serve a further purpose by enriching the soil in readiness for more plants to grow as strong as the borage was.

Come next spring I can guarantee borage will be the first on my list to be sown in time for warmer weather, water fights and ‘Ome Made Pimms on the lawn!

Kit x

‘Ome-Made Pizza

So, I was going to do a post on pizzas at some point but not necessarily now… and then I get a tweet from someone saying they tried following my pizza recipe but it didn’t quite turn out right?

Right, so which pizza recipe was that then because I don’t recall putting one on here!

Maybe they were looking at someone else’s site?

No worries though! “I’ll put a fail safe recipe on the blog for you” I tweeted back.

So here is my guide to making a basic pizza, that’s a piece of bread topped with tomato sauce and cheese, I’ll save the poncey ones for later!

We will start with the pizza base. You can make a pizza base from a basic bread recipe. So if you have a favourite bread recipe that you are comfortable with try using that first. Otherwise give this one a go.

Pizza Base recipe (enough for 3 medium or two large pizzas)

You will knead… sorry need!

500g Strong white bread flour (you simply can’t use plain flour, well you can but it will go crumbly round the edges, soggy in the middle and just won’t be right!)
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoon dried yeast (or 1 x 7g sachet)
1 ½ teaspoon sugar
1 ½ table spoon olive oil (or sunflower/vegetable oil if you have no olive)
320ml/½ pint lukewarm water

Method

in a jug or bowl add your sugar and yeast to the water. give a quick mix and leave for 10 – 15 minutes (it should start to foam and bubble, if it doesn’t your water was possibly too hot, your yeast is old or your water is too cold. Don’t be tempted to dissolve your salt in the water as salt will kill the yeast)
in a large bowl (use a larger bowl than what you think… Trust me!) mix your flour and salt and then drizzle your oil in.
make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in your yeast/water mixture. Pull in some of the flour into the liquid to form a thick paste and then leave for another 10-15 minutes to allow the mixture to ‘Sponge’.
Now mix in the rest of the flour. You should end up with a nice smooth dough. If the mix looks too dry add a little bit of water. If the mixture looks too wet and is sticky add a little more flour at a time until it you get a nice consistency.
You now have to knead the dough. Sprinkle a work surface and the dough with either bread flour or even better fine ground semolina (semolina gives a lovely silky finish). Put the dough on the work surface, hold the near edge of the bread with one hand and with the other push the dough away from you. The idea is that you are ‘stretching’ the mixture. At first the dough will pull apart but after 5 minutes or so the mixture will become more elastic as the gluten develops. If the mixture is still sticky keep sprinkling with flour (or semolina)
when you have a nice stretchy dough knead it into a nice smooth ball rub some oil over the surface put back into the bowl and either cover the bowl with a clean tea towel or cling film. The dough now needs to rise for about an hour.

Step 2 Making the tomato/pizza sauce

You will need

2 fat cloves of garlic chopped
1 small onion chopped
100ml/3½fl oz white wine or cider vinegar
3 teaspoon sugar
small tin (140g) tomato puree
1 tin (400g) chopped tomatoes
2 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
pinch of dried thyme
seasoning to taste

Method

Gently fry the garlic and onion ’till soft.
Add the vinegar and sugar, turn up heat and reduce the liquid until it’s a thick syrup.
stir in the tomato paste and fry for a minute.
add all the other ingredients, stir to mix and let cook for 20 minutes.

Assembling The Pizza

Knock back the risen dough (knock the air out of it by giving it a brief knead) and divide the dough into two or three depending on how many pizzas you want to make.
On a work surface dusted with semolina (or flour) flatten a ball of dough into a circle with the palm of your hand. Roll out the dough in a rough circle to just short of the size you want it, it wants to be about 5mm thick for a nice thin crispy pizza. If you want a thicker pizza leave the dough a little thicker.
Place the dough on whatever you are cooking it on. I use either pizza screens (with the holes in) or a good heavy baking sheet is fine. If using a baking sheet grease it with oil and give it a dusting of semolina or flour first.
Pull the dough disk to the shape and size you want. If you have made a nice elastic dough it will keep resisting, push it down onto the sheet gently to help it along.
You are now ready to top. First of all you want your tomato sauce. Put a dollop in the middle and work out towards the edges leaving about 1cm free.
If you are just using Mozzarella cheese (you will need about 500g/1lb in total) the cheese can be put on. If you are topping with anything else then sprinkle a layer of cheese on the pizza before putting your other ingredients on (don’t overload the pizza!) and then finish with some more cheese.
to finish the pizza off give it a grind of black pepper, sprinkle with some dried oregano and then give it a light drizzle of olive oil.
If you like a thicker base allow the pizza to stand for 40 minutes to allow the base to prove again. If you like a thinner and more traditional Italian style base then put in an oven at 220°C/428°F (if using a fan oven lower the temperature to 200°C/392°F).
Give the pizza 12 minutes and then turn and give another 10 – 15 minutes. When golden and bubbling take out the oven. leave for about 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

I sometimes brush some melted garlic butter over the pizza about 5 minutes before it comes out of the oven. This gives it an amazing finish!

As for toppings? Anything goes. Our favourites are sliced chilli peppers, black olives, chorizo, sliced red onion and thinly sliced mushroom (not too many, they’ll make the pizza soggy). I tend not to put fresh tomato on as again it tends to make the pizza soggy.

You don’t have to use processed, grated mozzarella either. Try tearing strips off fresh mozzarella for the top of your pizza (don’t worry about having areas with no cheese on, we prefer them that way!). Goats cheese makes a lovely topping too, try a goats cheese and rocket topping for a sophisticated touch!

Happy Pizza making and eating!

To Sow or Not To Sow…

Right! I realized the other day that I wanted to try growing some swedes & beetroot…… Looking at my ‘Bible’ of ‘What to Sow, Grow, Plant-Out & When’ laminate on the fridge (yup, I am that sad!) I realize I’m possibly a tad too late. Never fear, my almost convincing & almost believable ‘logic’ kicks in.

Now, apparently, to grow said two items of rooters you usually sow the seeds, straight into the ground outside, up to the end of July. Well, it’s now August…quite a way into it. So I’m figuring if I sow the seeds into pots, leave them on a sunny windowsill & let them have a ‘speedy start’, then plant them out, I may well get away not doing what my ‘Bible’ laminate says.

So this I did & lo & behold, two days later my little seeds are sprouting!

It’s now been a week since I did this (If it hadn’t worked this would be a MUCH shorter blog entitled ‘Don’t Let Hungry Kids into Your Garden, They Think It’s An All-Day-Buffet’ or ‘Where Have All The Raspberries Gone Kids?’).

I’m giving them a couple more days to allow the roots to strengthen (the seedlings NOT the kids) & then I’ll be planting them out into the patch.

Then all I can say is watch this space! There may well be swede & chilli mash & beetroot soup when harvest time beckons….. or, tears before autumn… hmmmmm…

Kit x

Smoking!

you may have noticed that there are a few references to slow cooked smoked meats on the Blog. You wouldn’t be wrong.

I recently acquired a big American style smoker/BBQ and it’s been getting a fair bit of use.

I love proper American food, I’m not talking McD****ds or K*C here but big hunks of meat coated in secret dry rubs and cooked slowly for hours on end. Pulled Pork, sticky ribs, slow cooked brisket even a humble chicken simply seasoned and cooked in the smoker for three hours is transformed into something remarkable.

And then served with sour cream, chilli sauce, bbq sauce with a multitude of different “slaws” to go with it, quality.

I even like a simple beef burger, ‘Ome made of course! Given the right treatment, a nice cheese or two to top, gherkin, onion, tomato and some nice crisp iceberg and some lovely, mustardy mayonnaise (which has to dribble down your chin!) and of course a good squirt of ketchup. Burgers can, and should, be good and a real treat to eat.

Anybody remember a certain burger I created?

So yes there maybe some recipes for smoked meats or BBQ food on the Blog, that doesn’t mean that a conventional oven can’t be used. However I can recommend getting a smoker, it is such an enjoyable and slightly addictive way of cooking!

‘Ome-Grown Onion & Garlic the lazy way.

Growing your own fruit & veg can seem very daunting & hard work but, believe me, it isn’t!

I put my hands up & admit I am the laziest gardener ever. I break all the rules but somehow manage to get results.

I found the easiest way to get started is to choose something to grow that doesn’t take much maintenance….for me tomatoes wasn’t it! What the hell are the side shoots I’m meant to be pinching out?! Why are the tomatoes the size of bumble-bee baubles??!!! Why aren’t they turning red???

So I started with garlic & onion. Dib a few holes in your ‘plot’ in September, October or November, stick in your onion & garlic thingys & then leave alone. Depending on how cold it gets (I seem to find that the colder the winter the better the crop) you’ll be harvesting your crop in June, July & August time. The only hard work is pulling out a few weeds in springtime. You can grow loads as well as when you pull it up you can tie it together with string & hang it outside. When it rains it will wash all the muck off & when it’s dry & sunny it will dry the outer skins & then it can be stored in a cool, dry place. See, hardly any work or fuss or stress.

The satisfaction of cooking with your own freshly pulled garlic & onion is fab. Also, try pulling up a garlic thingy in February or March time (this is called ‘Wet’ garlic), chop it up & add it to any naan bread you are making…AMAZING!

Finding that I actually enjoy growing, cooking & eating our ‘Ome-Grown stuff & I became brave & moved onto the hardened gardeners stuff……..I’ll be getting a poster of Percy Thrower to adorn my bedroom wall next 😉

Kit x

A Note On Recipes…

I have always loved reading recipes. It’s funny then that I rarely follow them. I don’t know if this is because I have been cooking for so long that I just kind of know how things should go or I just remember the recipes?

Sometimes I will start making something for tea and I don’t actually know what I am doing until it’s finished! Thankfully It always tastes ok.

I suppose I have learnt a lot of techniques and methods over the years which means I don’t have to rely on recipes so much.

A lot of people don’t prepare food at home, it seems to have become that ready meals or RTU (ready to use) sauces have become the mainstay of many homes.

I sometimes think that many people are afraid to cook, too scared to have a go. There is a generation of people that didn’t learn how to cook from there Mothers or Fathers and have relied on convenience foods simply because they don’t know what else to do.

I was lucky. I grew up with a family that food (and drink!) was an important part of life, something to be enjoyed and relished. Sitting at the table for tea was something that was done on a regular basis, not just for special occasions.

So what I’m trying to say is that I get into a lot of difficulty when someone says ‘Oooh that was nice, you must give me the recipe’.

I’m there frantically trying to backtrack to remember what ingredients and amounts went into the dish because quite frankly there is no recipe!

At times you may look at a recipe on this Blog and think ‘ well that’s not much of a recipe’.

I think recipes should be a guide only. People need to learn to have confidence in there own abilities and judgement. I use a lot of garlic, onions and spices. For some people it might be too much. If you are not overly keen on garlic, add a bit less. It’s your food. I’m not going to be there tapping you on the shoulder saying ‘well you’ve done that wrong!’

I hope that people will look at the photos and recipes on this blog and be inspired to go out, buy some nice ingredients and have a go. You can keep it as basic as you want or you could really go to town and create something stunning.

Whatever you cook I can guarantee it will be tasty and enjoyable and far more satisfying than eating something that you have nuked in a microwave for six minutes.