Brother's Visit

Yesterday saw a visit from my younger brother (not much younger, he still has a bit to go to catch up.) It is always so good to see him and to catch up with all his family news. He and my sister-in-law have three “children” spread quite widely apart in distance and so they both spend quite a lot of their time travelling hither and thither to see them all and to help out when they can. His grandchildren (2 boys and a girl) will be aged 8, 4 and 3 months, the former two at their birthdays.

It is amazing how the time flies and how quickly they grow.

My brother is someone whom I love and admire; additionally he is sometimes used as our family’s unofficial unpaid IFA. His advice is always very thoughtful and sage.

When he visits we always have tea and “biccies”, but this time in his honour I made rice krispie cakes and Aunt Lily’s chocolate balls. When I looked at the recipes for chocolate balls which are all on one page, I noticed that my sister’s chocolate balls made with a different recipe entirely had cherries, so I thought that cherries could indeed be added to Aunt Lily’s recipe. They did well using half a glace cherry but I think the recipe could even stand a whole cherry per ball. I shall make a note of this in my recipe blog.

Now Aunt Lily was born in 1895, but she was not typical of her era. She went to Edinburgh University and graduated with an M.A. at a time when it was rare for women to go to University. Computers were not really around by the time she died, but I bet she would have embraced them to keep in touch with family and to pass on some of her knowledge which is now largely lost.

It is such a pity that the young do not always appreciate the wisdom and knowledge of their elders until it is too late.

Shopping

This morning a phone call from TBSITW led to a trip to a near by small town which has a really good fishmonger; my eyes were out on stalks as I surveyed all the merchandise. In the end I settled for some broken haddock fillets and a smoked haddock fillet with which I plan to make a kedgeree.

Now that I know the extent of fish which they stock, I shall decide on a recipe beforehand and then go and buy.

After that we went on to the big supermarket which starts with T. It was actually rather fun to go round it with TBSITW - much better than on my own.

After that we came home and had a small glass of Manzanilla, nicely chilled out of the fridge.

So, having had a brief rest it is now off to the stove!


Later:

when I went to pay for my shopping in T@@@@, I could not find their credit card, so paid with my other one. I knew I had had it out at home to update the details on Amazon, so expected it to be beside the computer.

Oh, no.

So, I did a real search and still could not find it (and yes, I did empty my bag and my purse completely.

So, of course I had to report it lost. That's it now stopped and a new one should arrive in about a week.

Not a problem, but a bore.

So that dealt with, I made a kedgeree with the fish I bought earlier. It is my daughter's recipe, shamelessly stolen!

You will find the recipe on my recipe blog.

Paces, and Exercises

On Tuesday, after the trauma of a very early delivery of my organic vegetables, I decided to have an easy day.

First of all I took some refuse to the bin for disposal (we have 4 large bins for ordinary waste and one for paper). Sadly there is no bottle bin. There are quite a few of us who could make that worthwhile!

I then did my walk. 10 lengths each of 48 – 50 paces, and I was striding out.

This was followed with as many of the other exercises from the class that don’t involve special equipment.

Then I had a rest.

Went to make my evening meal and realised I had forgotten to take anything from the freezer.

So here is a very easy recipe (sadly not low fat!)

Potatoes, cooked and chopped.
1 onion chopped.
Cheddar cheese sliced thinly.

Cook the potatoes in boiling water for about 20 mins
At the same time fry the onion in butter
Drain the onion and place in the lid of a casserole dish.
Chop the potato and mix in
Slice the cheddar thinly and lay over the top

Place under a hot grill until the cheese is melted and starting to brown.

I made it with every single ingredient being organic.

Scrummy

Pity it has rather a lot of calories, not to mention fat!!

A Cookathon

Today I set to to cook two lots of pork cheeks, possible as I went to the farm shop yesterday (in the rain and a gale)

So here’s the recipe followed this time; as with many of my recipes, this one varies form one time to the next depending on what is in the house.

6 pork cheeks, cut into bite sized pieces (a sharp knife is the easiest way)
3 onions, chopped finely
3 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
Half of each of a red pepper, a green pepper and a yellow pepper, chopped
3 tomatoes, skinned, cored and chopped finely
about 8 good sized closed cup mushrooms, chopped
Left overs from a bottle of light beer.


Fry the onions and garlic in a herb infused oil (or other oil - I am just boasting here - in fact it was a gift from Le Chef) - until soft.
Add the peppers and fry till soft.
Add pork cheeks and fry until brown.
Add mushrooms and stir through.
Add tomatoes and beer

Stir through and bring to the boil.
Cook slowly with the lid on until tender

It is now bubbling away on the hob.

…and I am thoroughly discomknockerated.*

* no, this is not another Scots word, just a made up one. I am sure you can work it out.

Archimedes Lives On

Yesterday morning arrived the organic vegetable box, with potatoes, carrots and onions together with purple sprouting broccoli, 2 leeks, celeriac and cauliflower; the fruit part had 2 oranges, 4 apples, 2 pears and a kiwi fruit. I also had, as usual, the addition of 6 organic free range eggs.

The last time I had celeriac from them, it had sprouting bits (very scientific description here!) like rather sad celery, so it was easy to identify, even although I had never seen (or cooked) one before. This one looked more like a nobbly turnip, so I did not recognise it and had to phone the farm to ask for help. This turned into one of these comedy sketches as I could not hear what she was saying, and she kept repeating herself a bit louder. We got there in the end when she moved on to C for Charlie, E for Echo, L for Lima, E for Echo…. At which point I cottoned on! I love celeriac.

I made a chicken casserole for last night, tonight (and to freeze) made with:

8 organic mini chicken breast fillets from M&S, cut into strips
2 leeks, chopped finely
2½ onions, chopped finely (Because I had a half onion left over from the stroganoff.)
1 large carrot, chopped finely
About 8 mushrooms (of average size, ie not button but closed) mushrooms, chopped

I layered everything into a casserole dish and added stock made from 2 Kallo organic chicken stock cubes, and then added enough white wine to cover (about a medium glassful.)

After that I cooked it for an hour at 375 degrees, gradually turning the temperature down as I could smell it cooking.

I served it with a mash of potatoes, celeriac and crème fraiche – scrummy.

When I was preparing the vegetables, I also prepared the ones for tonight (and this should finish off the crème fraiche). The potatoes I put in a plastic jug covered with water, and I did the same with the celeriac.

Except it floats…

The jug was too narrow to use a plate to hold them down, so I resorted to a glass, which held most of them down…

At this point I rediscovered Archimedes principle (no, not me in the bath, you fools (I wouldn’t share that awful mental picture with you), but that the glass, as I pushed it down into the jug, started to displace the appropriate volume of water.

Stroganoff!

Yesterday, I took a pheasant breast (from the best sister in the world) and made a pheasant breast stroganoff.

Pheasant Stroganoff & Basmati Rice (serves 1)

This recipe is reduced and reduced again from one for a serves 4, so no need to be too particular about measurements


Butter for frying
½ onion, finely chopped
2 oz button mushrooms, sliced
1 pheasant breast, cut into thin strips (check for shot / feather bits)
¼ teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 dessertspoon brandy
50 mls (minimum) crème fraiche or soured cream (She used single cream and lemon juice and it worked very well)
Freshly chopped parsley

Melt butter in large frying pan. Add the onion and fry gently till soft.
Add the mushrooms and fry for two minutes.
Add the pheasant to the pan, season well and stir in the mustard.
Fry briskly for 5 mins, turning the meat frequently.
Stir in the brandy and crème fraiche. It says if using soured cream don’t boil or the cream will curdle. The single cream and lemon juice did not curdle.
Check the seasoning and serve with parsley.

Delicious served with basmati rice – rinse rice, cook for 10 mins, stir in some butter, cover for a few mins before serving.

Sister's comment was: "I'll have what she's having"!

I think this recipe would convert to being used for several different stroganoffs – liver, sirloin, or fillet, or mushrooms for the vegetarian – use your imagination and look in your fridge/freezer/store cupboard.

Today, I went again to the Bridge Club, where I had, once again, a great time. I did not play with my usual partner (last time we came last!) Arriving back at the ranch, I had a cup of tea with the Scrabble players, and then came home to eat the rest of yesterday’s stroganoff.

Visit to Daughter

Yesterday I went to visit daughter and had a wonderful dinner with her and her partner. She served up rib roast of beef, with 2 ribs! It barely fitted into the oven. The meat was delicious and she served it with roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, and greens. A glass or two of a nice Rioja helped it all down. After I thought I was sunk without trace, she served up a lemon cheesecake. Lemon is a good way of cutting down that "I ate too much" feeling. We then sat down and watched a DVD of The Interpreter. I was really late in bed (11pm!) and slept the sleep of the just till 10am.

After a light breakfast of a satsuma I left to come home and start on the mince for the shepherd's pie. I put it in the pan, added 3 chopped onions and browned it all, then added chopped mushrooms plus a few cooked carrots which had been left over. I then added a mix of cornflour and Bisto, draked with a little water then made up to a mugful, brought it to the boil stirring all the time and simmered it for 20 minutes.

It now needs to be left in the fridge till tomorrow so that I can get rid of the fat. I may prepare the potatoes today to save time tomorrow.

Elastic stockings - and another recipe

Yesterday morning our excellent House Manager came and took the necessary measurements for my new elastic stockings. She said, after taking foot, ankle and calf measurements that she had been somewhat anxious that I might require a thigh measurement too! I telephoned the pharmacists with the measurements and hoped that the prescription did not get lost this time. In fact the delivery man from the Pharmacy arrived with my 2 pairs of stockings in the early evening.

Then later I got an apologetic phone call about the delivery of my Jacobs’ sheep lamb chops and lamb mince because it had not been delivered (in fact I had no idea when it was due to have been delivered before now, so no problem). They were hoping to deliver yesterday, and so, in fact, they did. I have 2 packs of 2 lamb chump chops and a pack of mince. Great! I look forward to cooking and eating this – it makes for delicious eating.

I had lamb chops for my dinner tonight (it has been some time since I had a meat dish that wasn’t a casserole) and served them with steamed leeks and cauliflower/

I have a wonderful new steamer which is a part of the pan set that I have and sits over the water with the pan lid providing a seal over both the water and the veg that is to be steamed. The potatoes were boiled for 20 minutes and as soon as they boiled I put on the water for the steamer and placed the steamer part over it, starting at high until was sure it was steaming, thus giving the cauliflower and leeks about 15 minutes steaming. As soon as I put the water on for the potatoes, I sprayed olive oil over a small frying pan and added the chops.

I cooked the chops at a brisk heat (5 on my settings of 2 to 9) and left it like that, turning frequently, then slowly reduced the heat until they were really just “resting.

The chops turned out nice and browned on the outside and pink (but not raw) throughout.

As for these elastic stockings………..

It took me about half an hour to get them on.

What a struggle!

Another Recipe

Yesterday I went to the residents’ lounge for a cup of tea and to wait for the fish van (and for the milk man to come for his money). I decided to go once again for salmon fillet and cooked it in the usual way (fried in butter with a little white wine added part way through to stop it from catching), with Brussels sprouts and potatoes.

I don’t know what was wrong, but this time I did not enjoy the salmon. I sat down to eat my meal and after a couple of mouthfuls had to give up, although I finished the vegetables no problem. I would hesitate to say that there was anything wrong with the fish because it certainly looked and smelt fine; perhaps I was just “off my eggs”.

However, I do have a recipe (or in fact a recipe and a half) for my faithful reader.

Mince

“Oh stop being boring” you cry, but in fact mince is anything but boring.

Given a pound (about 0.6Kg) mince.
2 onions
¼ pound (0.125 g) mushrooms.

The first thing you do is put the mince in a heavy bottomed (and better yet, non stick) pan.

To brown the mince, you add no fat as there is enough in the meat, even very lean meat.

You add the chopped onions at the same time as the mince to the pot

Once the heat is on (a medium, rather than a hot one), keep bashing at the mixture with a wooden spoon to break up the mince.

Continue doing this till all the mince is browned and separated.

Next put 2 tsp Bisto and 1 tsp cornflour into a mug and drake it with a little water until liquid. Then fill the mug with water while stirring.

Add this liquid to the mince and onions and bring to the boil stirring all the time. Reduce the heat and cook for ½ hour, then add the mushrooms and cook for a short time further.

That is BASIC MINCE

To make SHEPHERD’S PIE you should, strictly speaking use lamb mince, but if you do, you have to chill it after cooking and spoon off the fat (lamb mince is very fat).

However, whichever you use, take a casserole dish and spoon the meat/onion/mushroom mixture onto the base.

Then cover this with a layer of mashed turnip (swede)
Then cover the whole with a layer of mashed potato.
Grate some cheese over the top
Place in an oven and cook till bubbling and the cheese is starting to brown.

Another thing you can do with basic mince is Bolognaise Sauce

Later: SEE COMMENTS

how could I forget chopped garlic, added with the onions, and chopped tinned Italian tomatoes and a splash of red wine.

Before adding the liquid, add some chopped peppers (daughter adds chopped carrots at this time too) and torn basil leaves .
Then carry on as for basic mince.

Serve over cooked spaghetti (I use 100g per person) with grated parmesan cheese.

Quite often I use one lot of mince to make plain mince, shepherd’s pie and bolognaise.

A variation of plain mince, which makes the meat go further, is to add a tin of baked beans. I don’t care for baked beans (haricot beans) but love them in mince. They have an added benefit of making the mince go further.

Salmon and another Recipe

This morning I worked on my jigsaw for a while, then after lunch went to the residents’ lounge for a cup of tea while waiting for the fish van. Today the choice was rather poor – wish I had a good fish shop that I could get to easily. However I managed to secure the second last salmon fillet, and cooked it for my tea.

It is very easy, coat it thinly in seasoned flour, then fry in butter on all sides till cooking nicely; then add some wine (not a lot, and I tend to use white as the salmon has a delicate taste.)

This I served with my organic potatoes and carrots.

Today I also made bread in my bread maker. I was given a super recipe, but today I substituted butter for the oil.

The recipe is:

9 fl oz water
2 Tbsps dried milk powder
1½ Tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp salt
2½ Tbsp sunflower oil or melted butter
4 oz wholemeal flour
4 oz granary malted flour
4 oz strong white flour
1½ tsp yeast (or a bit less)



If you use butter, you should be careful, when you melt it in the microwave, to use a bowl, rather than a side plate. It did actually stay in the plate until I lifted it out of the microwave, when I managed to spill some…… oops!

Anyway it is now turned out and I shall report on its merits after breakfast tomorrow/

A Chance Missed

Today I have been doing the work I had promised, the dark wash and the bedding wash. Came upstairs from the laundry room and just sat down to draw breath when the phone rang, and it was daughter calling to invite me over for lunch. At that point, I still had to put the dark wash onto a fast spin, followed by a transfer to a tumble drier and then load the bedding into the vacated machine. It is often quite difficult to find a washing machine free here, so really couldn’t afford to give up this chance (and anyway the dark wash would still take a further hour to dry.

This is a great pity as I very much enjoy my visits to daughter and her family; however we have fixed a date for next Wednesday (her day off from work).

Daughter in fact had been planning to call an hour earlier, but got caught up in reading my blog as she likes to know how I am getting on and what I have been up to!

My ribs (or the “muscles” over them are still painful when I take a deep breath in and also on turning over in bed). However I see no point in doing anything about it, as the most that would possibly be done is strapping and I think I would find that at least as uncomfortable – (can’t hurt that much, then).

Sitting here at my computer I look out and am pleased to see that the weather is dry, although the tree opposite is fairly moving in the wind. The leaves are well turning to their autumn colours, and look so attractive.

Washing finished I went to cook some mince that I took from the freezer last night. Now that it had defrosted, I was able to determine that, while the label (from the farm shop) Said Highland Beef, Beef mince, what was actually there was chunks of beef for making a casserole.

Just to show that anything goes for my famous casseroles(I used to be known as the casserole queen), I looked in the fridge to see what ingredients I could use:

First I tossed the beef in flour in a poly bag and left it to one side.

Then:

half celeriac. chopped (left the other half under water.)
2 carrots, chopped
2 onions, chopped
half a pack of mushrooms, chopped.

Sauteed the onions in a mixture of a flavoured oil (part of a Christmas present) and butter
Added the vegetables (not mushrooms) and stirred around in the pan
Added the floured meat and gave a quick saute.
Poured over a pint of beef stock made using a Kallo beef stock cube
Poured on a bit of red wine (from an opened bottle)

After about an hour added the mushrooms.

Left all to cook for about 3 hours on a very low heat

A visit, and another Recipe

Yesterday Mr and Mrs B came for tea and biccies, plus a grand blether; Mrs B is very interested in genealogy and came armed with a couple of booklets, which I look forward to reading.

We tend to exchange books and this time I have introduced Mrs B to Conn Iggulden (the Emperor series); I am currently reading the first of the following series which leads to Genghis Khan.

They left me with a cheese loaf and a pain au chocolat from the French market. Scrummy! After they left, I joined the ladies having afternoon tea in the lounge, but the holiday relief milkman did not appear. So, I have made a start of clearing some of the obvious stuff from my filing cabinet and printing off new file labels, with a whole bagful going to the refuse room.

Usually I give you lots of recipes, but this week I have been going through an “I can’t be bothered” phase, and haven’t even got around to taking food out of the freezer to reheat. Part of this is that I intended making a macaroni cheese as I currently have a lot of milk left. I know it is really easy, but something just reaches into the lazy part of me and says “I can’t be bothered.”

I really might make it today, especially if I get going in the morning.

My recipe for macaroni cheese comes in many varieties, but nowadays I don’t cook my famous one (not since I had gallstones and a gall bladder removed). The basic one consists of a mugful of macaroni, cooked in lightly salted water until al dente, (if you add a few drops of oil to the water the macaroni separates more easily), drained and placed in a casserole dish, with a good pint of cheese sauce poured over it and then all mixed together.

The cheese sauce is just a basic white sauce made usually with the roux method, using 2 oz butter, 2 oz flour, half a teaspoon Dijon mustard and a good pint of milk, with grated cheddar to taste added after it is ready and off the heat. However I do know someone who makes it thickened with cornflour.

After, grate some cheese over the top. It is then cooked in the oven at about 180 for about 40 minutes, or less if just cooked.

The super duper one has the addition of an onion, diced and sautéed in a little butter until tender, then drained and added to the macaroni (before the sauce is added)
It also sometimes has some lean bacon grilled, chopped and added to the macaroni with the onions, and also added before the cheese sauce.

Invitations and a Cook-In

Well, yesterday I had planned to be a cook-in day. On Friday evening I removed two chicken legs (rather large ones of the Marks and Spencer “Oakham” variety) and four chicken thighs.

I had intended to cook the chicken legs to have one for yesterday and one cold for today, and to use the thighs to make a curry for freezing.

However, “The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley”, so firstly daughter phones and suggests lunch followed by the cinema on Sunday. Great idea, so I suggested a garden centre near the multiplex for lunch. She would pick me up after church. After the cinema she would come back to inspect my new kitchen (but not stay long enough for the boys to get bored: it is hard to find enough to keep them occupied in a small flat.)

Secondly, I was sitting at the computer yesterday updating the previous blog off line prior to posting it, when in comes an email from S. inviting me over for dinner and a sleep over. Of course I jumped at the offer.

I then decided that the first priority was to cook the meat – can’t leave defrosted chicken hanging around uncooked. So I quickly looked in the fridge and cooked:-

CHICKEN CASSEROLE

2 chicken legs
2 leeks, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 onions, chopped
1 organic chicken stock cube

Place all in a casserole, cover with boiling water and cook at 180 for ½ hour, then 160 for 1 ½ hours. Leave to cool and put in the fridge till tomorrow,

CHICKEN SOUP

This is just a variation of the chicken soup I wrote about before. These things all depend on what you have in the store cupboard.

4 chicken thighs
1 leek, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
Handful of long grain rice

Place the first 4 ingredients in a heavy pan and cover with boiling water, bring to the boil and simmer for 2 hours.
Remove the thighs using a slotted spoon and leave to cool.

Add the rice and season to taste.
Bring to the boil and cook for 10 minutes

Remove the skin from the meat, then take the meat from the bones and cut it into the soup

Phew!

Well, today I went for my second session at the Bridge Club and it was great (in spite of / because of a couple of mistakes). Got back to the ranch to meet the scrabble players having their cup of tea - invited to join them. After, as I was heading home I said to J. "Do you fancy a G&T?" Oh, yes, so we repaired to my flat and got stuck in, when there was a face at the window (french window). It was the tiler, coming to do more of the work. So, now I have all the tiles above the worktop in and grouted and sealant round the edges. I must say, he is a meticulous worker.

I think he might have carried on till bedtime (mine) except that I mentioned (sort of subtly) that I hadn't eaten today, so we agreed that he would finish the grouting - and then I said I was happy for the sealant to be done as that gives me my kitchen back if you understand what I mean. All the stuff is back, but I want to give it a good clean once it has dried.

So, tea was 3 left-over portions of potato and half an onion. I chopped the onion and fried it in butter then added sliced cooked potato and left that to cook for a bit, then added 2 whisked eggs and stirred that all around in the frying pan until the eggs were cooked. It was surprisingly delicious.

Now I have set the alarm for tomorrow and will catch up with my blogs before going to bed.

Recipe

This morning I am doing nothing, and this afternoon is taken up with appointments with the dentist and hygienist (joy) and the nurse practitioner at the GP surgery for a respiratory review.

None of that is worth a blog, so here is another recipe.

Remember I bought shin of beef at the farmers' market? Well last week I took it out of the freezer and defrosted it. Here is my recipe:

SHIN OF BEEF

500g/1 lb2 oz shin of beef
1 litre/ 33 fl.oz of beef stock
2 medium onions
1 red pepper
225g/8oz mushrooms
2 cloves garlic
Red wine (glass or so)
15 ml/1 Tbsp flour
30 ml/2 Tbsp oil

Trim the shin of outside fat and fascia and cut it into bite size squares.
Toss the meat in the flour (I use a polythene food bag to do this).
Chop the onions, garlic, pepper and mushrooms into small pieces.
Heat the oil in a heavy frying or sauté pan and add the onions, peppers and garlic.
Sauté gently to soften.
Add the coated meat and carry on sautéing until the meat is browned.
Add the stock and red wine (to taste).
Add the mushrooms
Leave to simmer in sauté pan on a low heat for a good 3 hours, until tender.

In the absence of a sauté pan, transfer to a lidded casserole and cook at 190 for ½ hour then at 170 for 3 hours.

This should melt in the mouth.

(I always use the wine I shall drink with the meal – there is no such thing as a “cooking wine” in this household, unless it is the end of the day before’s bottle! and in fact I think I used only a glass of wine as that was what was left at the time.)

I divided this into 6 portions to freeze it, but if you have hungry folk in your household it may serve only 4.

Recipe

Yesterday the sun shone and in the afternoon I played scrabble, losing one game badly (came 4th!) and coming second in the second one. One person managed to get all her tiles down in one go, gaining 50 extra points which gave her an unbeatable lead.

At the end, instead of a cup of tea, one of the players produced a bottle of sparkling Perry - a most pleasant change.

Today the sun is trying to shine through an overcast sky, and I am dealing with some of the contents of this week's organic veg. box delivery. I got potatoes, carrots, onions, pointed cabbage, oak leaf lettuce and spinach, so the task today is to make spinach soup. Here is my recipe:

Spinach Soup

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
440g/16oz spinach
2 large or 3 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped to half inch cubes
600ml/20fl oz double cream
1200ml/42fl oz hot water
2 vegetable stock cube
4 garlic clove, crushed
toasted bread, to serve

Method
1. In a saucepan heat the oil and add the chopped onion, garlic and potato for five minutes to soften.
2. Add the spinach, hot water, vegetable stock cube and garlic and bring to the boil.
3. Cook for 20 minutes.
4. Blend the soup, together with most of the cream, with a hand-held blender and serve with fresh brown bread.
5. Add a swirl of cream to each bowl.

Sunday

Today the sun shone after a wet start, which brought out more hats instead of umbrellas to the Church. Our Minister once again spoke to a series of hymns from CH3, which we sang. I had thought that, by implication, these hymns would be absent from CH4, but I was corrected by my faithful reader (thanks MikeG). Todays hymns were all by Cecil Frances Alexander, who wrote hymns based on parts of the Apostles' Creed. As we were singing them, I hoped that they would not be left out: two of them took me back to childhood and Sunday School: "All things bright and beautiful" and "There is a green hill far away". Coming home, I checked that they were, indeed, in CH4. All is thus well with the world!

In fact, it was only on one occasion that we sang hymns through a whole service that would no longer be sung from CH4. Obviously I wasn't paying attention at the back.

We have been collecting donations towards the purchase of CH4 for visitors to the Church as well as copies for ourselves. As usual, I jumped the gun and paid £2 more for mine than I need have done.


Left a loaf of bread to bake while I was at Church and am now making my famous potato salad.

Here is the recipe:

Potatoes (peeled if old, scrubbed if new) boiled and sliced - leave to cool.
pancetta or bacon bits fried, or crispy bacon crushed - leave to cool.
shallot diced
parsley, chopped.
chives, chopped.

Mix all together with Helmanns mayonnaise sufficient to coat.

Extremely moreish

Soup

I said I was going to make chicken soup today and I thought I would share this recipe as it is so cheap and easy, so much so that my family know it as Soup soup. In fact a lot of people have asked for the recipe and I found it very difficult as I just throw it together. However, as I have just made it, it is fresh in my mind and the quantities are more or less right.

I often make it with real chicken stock made from boiling up bones from a whole chicken or even just chicken legs or thighs or drumsticks with a carrot, onion, bit of celery and some herbs but that is not necessary. If I ever cook a chicken I always try to make stock and put it in the freezer for later if I am not making soup right away

2½ litres water
3 large carrots, chopped
2 large onions, chopped
a large handful of long grain rice.
2 chicken stock cubes (I use Kallo organic ones, but any will do and Marigold stock powder will substitute if you are vegetarian)

Put all the ingredients into a large pan and bring to the boil. Boil for 1 hour. Check seasoning.
Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve.

It is cheap, cheerful, tasty and filling.

This soup freezes very well.