Casserole or stew?

I'm much perplexed by what the Americans call a casserole. To me a casserole is a load of vegetables (and meat if you are inclined to eat such things) in some kind of gravy like sauce. An American casserole seems to run something along the lines of mixing grated vegetables in mayonnaise, adding some grated cheese and topping with breadcrumbs or crushed crisps. Not that American style casseroles aren't delicious, just that I would call them a bake.

I certainly can't grumble as I've tried some delicious recipes from American and Canadian cookbooks recently. My (almost) father-in-law kindly gave me lots of produce from his allotment when we saw him last. Hence I've enjoyed a variety of salad leaves, cucumber (great with peanut butter), aubergines, beetroot and chillies.

The beetroot I used to make Garden Vegetable Borscht from How it all vegan. It's utterly divine. Such a shame Holland and Barrett are out of Better than sour cream because that would really set this off a treat. It would also go nicely with tonight's tortilla chip soup (from the same source). The fresh chillies were marvellous in this. Just the thing to eat as the cold begins to set in, here in England.

Other 'interesting' cooking was Cobb nut and spelt fairy cakes. I shelled and roasted the nuts a few weeks ago. I was expecting friends for Shepherd's pie and mulled wine after fireworks on Saturday night. I needed to get organised on Friday night as I was expecting to spend most of Saturday carting wheelbarrows of manure around my allotment. Friday night I rolled up my sleeves ready for a few hours in the kitchen. I whizzed through the preparation for the Shepherds pie, stuck the oven on to bake some potatoes for dinner when it occurred to me that I needed to make some kind of dessert. I had a quick rummage in the bottom of the newspaper box and dug out this recipe. They didn't turn out quite perfect (I'm useless with desserts) but I renamed them chaos theory butterfly cakes and enjoyed icing while listening to Alice Cooper.

My preparation paid off and I was able to enjoy fireworks and serve dinner to my lovely friends despite spending all day behind a wheelbarrow. Next project: preparation for a Thanksgiving themed lunch.

Have you been on holiday?

I haven't been away (accept for the briefest of visits to Dear Heart's lovely family), but I've had a lovely week and a bit at home. It's ages since I had more than I couple of days off in a row so I've been looking forward to time at home.


I finished work on the Thursday and Dear Heart and I went for dinner at the Italian near our house. We sometimes go out for a bottle of wine on a Thursday and then have a takeaway but we thought it would be good to try and have a meal with wine rather than a takeaway from time to time. I had the Caponata salad as usual but they make it so well.


Friday morning, I attempted to dye my hair green with Kool Aid while I sorted out my wardrobe. I seem to far fewer winter clothes than summer clothes. It was so nice to have the time to sort through and pull things out that needed washing or repairing. The dye didn't take which actually turned out to be a good thing when we went to watch the rugby the following night. I had no idea that South Africa played in green! I felt wonderfully domestic and autumnal pinning my clothes onto the line with scrunchy leaves at my feet and the sky a bright cold blue.


Wardrobes also featured on Saturday when I cleared two and a dressing table out of a storage unit. They came from my grandparents house and are Victorian/Edwardian. A lovely lady who I found through staff adverts at work was going to take them home and use them.


Sunday was brunch club and it was a truly lovely day. I so enjoyed spending such quality time with my friends. The food was lovely with much cider to be drunk (the hardship!). While everyone watched the motor racing I read through The gentle art of domesticity. If you haven't read the blog by the author, Jane Brocket, do have a at Yarnstorm. with so many family changes this year (relatives moving house and moving on), I really do appreciate my friends and what an important part of my family they are. We've got a few more things planned for the coming weeks which I am anticipating with delight.


I always feel that when I'm not at work I should be doing all kinds of useful things and worry that I'm not be effective enough. However when I look back on what I achieved in between a few lovely pub lunches I've actually done loads (ordered composter for my allotment, dug part of allotment, repaired clothes, made sourdough bread, vegan brownies, chestnut soup, shelled and roasted hazelnuts, made a curtain for the utility room , ordered 90% of Christmas presents, ordered seeds for allotment, found new second hand jeans, dyed hair purple to cover grey, cooked a new courgette/carrot casserole recipe, sorted out more boxes from my parent's house to list on Ebay). I do really do want to clear all of the boxes cluttering my study though.


The end of the week was great as Dear Heart and I went to the Midlands to visit his Dad, Stepmum, brother and sister. It's been an age since I've seen them and it was such a nice visit. I really feel like one of the family and time just flew by as we chatted, ate and drank. Lovely stepmum also sorted my hair out for me. I just didn't feel entirely happy with my last cut - it was sooo nice and I don't want my hair to be nice, I want it to be funky. It's now the shortest it's ever been and I love it. She also told me the right way to apply Henna so watch this space for further adventures with dye.

And now it's back to usual routines for a month or so before seasonal festivities begin to interrupt. I've pulled wads of fabric out of the cupboard to begin making bags for Christmas presents to go in. I've made weekly and monthly job lists using the planner at Brocantehome. November here I come.

Soup and sourdough

I made some bread from my sourdough. I was really worried that the starter wasn't actually ready because the bread was didn't seem to rise very much, but then I popped in the oven and it began to swell. Next time I need to put it some where warmer to prove. It tasted good anyway. I always thought that tang it had came from rye or something. I now realise that is the taste of sourdough.

Dear Heart has been reading Bad Food Britain. It appears to be having a bit of an effect on him. Often we have a takeaway on Friday and Saturday night. This week we enjoyed stir fry and pizza - both totally homemade. Sunday I wold normally make a big chilli or stews that we can eat it over two nights. Dear Heart suddenly announced he fancied soup. What kind?, I inquired. Potato he stated. Well, I have lots of potatoes because they are the one thing that grows well on my allotment whatever. I suggested the hearty winter potato soup from How it all vegan. So that' s what we ate it was delicious. I hope this will be the start of even more home cooked meals.

Food is a simple pleasureand since we have to eat we may as well enjoy it as much as possible. We're eating the other half of the soup tonight. Yum!

Why do these things only happen to me? - enter Cinderella

I usually get off the bus about three miles from work on Wednesday morning and walk in. I pack my clothes into my rucksack and, if there is no room for my shoes (as often there is not), I pack them in another bag. I have been using a sort of drawstring carrier bag (I got it years ago when I bought some dresses in Elle). It seemed to make sense to use it until it wore out.

Well, I think I can conclude that it has worn out. I arrived at work this morning, changed my clothes and then went to retrieve my shoes from the bag. However, there was only one in there and a big hole in the bottom! I clearly didn't hear the other fall out as I was listening to MCR as I walked (nothing like some angry rock to start the day).

So it will either be go barefoot for the rest of the day, buy some new shoes or hope that people think my my pairing of slightly grubby trainers with grey linen trousers and a lilac cardigan is a fashion statement.

Furthermore, what on earth should I do with the remaining shoe?

Nasty 'n' nice

I have a horrible secret. I like sweet and sour sauce. The nasty type that's all sugar and colouring and cools to a kind of gel. I ordered a pot on Friday night to go with my boiled rice and tofu.

It's been a while since I've ordered it but a book I was reading made me crave it. Amusingly the book was Bad Food Britain: how a nation ruined its appetite by Joanna Blythman. The left over sauce took revenge on me this morning when the polystyrene container it was in split on the bus and smeared itself all over the inside of a cotton bag.

So let me whisk you away from orange coloured nastiness and instead tell about my Sunday afternoon. I often cook on a Sunday afternoon and just as often feel that maybe I should be doing something more important instead. Blythman's book points out that in Britain we are taught to worry more about the cost of food (it's got to be cheap) than the what it actually tastes like. We are taught (by adverts and marketing campaigns) that cooking is something difficult that we want to avoid doing if we possibly can. But an afternoon of cooking delicious things to consume over the following week should be something to celebrate, not seen as a time wasting eccentricity.

So here's what I cooked on Sunday afternoon:

• I made a big pot of popcorn.
• I started my sourdough (which looks marvellous in one of the kilner jars from my Grandma's).
• I made caraway crackers (following Hugh F-W's recipe in Saturday's Guardian).
• I whipped up some fruit and nut bars. I've done these several time now and have started adding a variety of fruits.
• I also had a go at classic white uncheese (the shop I buy canned tomatoes from most unexpectedly had agar on the shelf). It didn't come out as firm as I expected. Maybe I need to add more agar. It tastes delicious anyway.
• Then I made a big vegetable casserole with lots of herbs for flavour and mashed potatoes for dinner.

Next weekend I hope my sourdough will be ready to make bread with. I'm also planning to make some digestive biscuits. If they turn out OK I'll use them as a base in future for lime tease cake.

so, dear readers, respect yourself, rise above the hype and adverts and cook yourself food from scratch at least once a week. Cherish time preparing and eating. Food is a necessity, so it may as well be a pleasure.

You can't park there!

One of my pet hates are people who park in bus stops. As some one who makes extensive use of public transport I find it really annoying when the bus has to let people off in the middle of the road. It also makes it difficult for people with buggies and the less mobile. No point in having buses that can lower themselves to the kerb if the bus is nowhere near the kerb.

I also find it quite annoying when people park on double yellow lines. I see the on the narrow High Street of our town quite often in the evening when people just can't be bothered to park in the car park and walk a short way to the bank or to collect a takeaway.

This morning as I waited for the bus I saw not one, not two but three vehicles all parked on double yellow lines on the High Street. One was using the cash point. One lorry was unloading. Two men with high visibility vests labelled GWC where doing something around water mains (and dropping their cigarette butts on the pavement!). I'm hoping that they were unaware of the car park just behind where they stood.

It's obviously the day for it. The poor bus driver after navigating his way around this lot, then was bought up short by another trade van on a country road.

I got off the bus at the hospital (one of my days to walk in to work) and was forced to take a detour because someone was parked across the 'ambulances only - do not park here' area and obstructing the footpath to boot. If it was A& E they were after the entrance and drop off point was just round corner.

This has been a really grumbly post so I'm going to finish by sending out waves of good thoughts to all those people who make my easier by driving around doing deliveries and providing services. Next time you pick up a newspaper or switch on a tap remember that in order for you to do that someone drove van somewhere and send a happy thought to the driver (wherever they are).

Where did it go?

It's just really hit me that summer is gone. This isn't a couple of days of rain in August. I can't assume that normal summer service will be resumed soon. It's October. It's Autumn proper. It's serious.

Things that have made me realise this:

• I'm wearing my new winter boots and thick tights.
• I've been cooking cold weather dinners for a few weeks.
• I've planned 90% of my Yule shopping.
• Manure day at the allotment is a month away

I've also looked at my entries for last October and realise that I changed my wardrobe over on 10th October last year.

Time to accept it's not going to get any warmer for a least 5 months and start taking action to take advantage of this.

Bliss is...

I seem to have had a very busy weekend what with one thing and another. I'm not quite sure that I am fully ready for the coming week. Last week seemed to be crammed with activity as well.

However, let me tell you about Wednesday night. I arrived home as the rain started and it was cold and grey outside. Dear Heart had gotten home before man and had made a fire (the first of this autumn). He insisted that I sit by the fire and warm up while he made me a cup of tea. It would have seemed rude to refuse so I did just that until he went to his Round table meeting at 8.30 p.m. I read the marvellous Bread Alone by Judith Ryan Hendricks and felt inspired to start making my own bread again ( I want to play with sourdough).

Anyway after Dear Heart had gone I needed to make myself some dinner and sort out some lunch for the next few days. I had a look in the fridge because I do like to see what I have in the way of leftovers and create from them. I found 2 rather dried out sweetcorn cobs, some melty pizza uncheese and a spoonful of chillies. So I boiled the sweetcorn until it looked a bit fatter, let it cool and then sliced it off the cob. I made a batter from gram flour and water and added in my leftovers. Ideally this batter would make little pancakes but mine always break up so I go for something that looks more like scrambled eggs. With lunch for the next couple of days sorted I popped some gnocchi from the freezer into some boiling water and enjoyed them with a splash of olive oil, salt and pepper.

Feeling blissfully warm in my belly I washed up and headed off to bed where I feel asleep with a contented smile on my face.

Here's to the week ahead.