This morning I broke down in tears - I knew it would happen at some point - in fact I was amazed that I got to almost a week without it happening. The pressures of having my home ripped apart and wondering if it will ever go back again was just too much. That and the fact the back refused to extend our overdraft and didnt even give us a chance to explain and all at the front inquireys desk 🙁
I did loose it a bit and demanded of the woman 'well what are we supposed to do now?' She then informed us that if we incure any charges over it then come back and tell them and they might not actually take said charges - sigh. This is all becuase I was supposed to collect payment from customers on Friday which obviously did not happen - grrr.
Still on the plus side it turns out that Jean hasn't got a bad tummy from the flood water but instead has chicken pox - in hind sight she was refusing to drink the tap water and informed me that it was errrr and hit the bicker repeatedly away and in fact got upset when I drank it to show her it was yummy water. I am actually quiet relieved about this.
The other bonus about today was that we traveled to a clients house today for a shower (blessed be the shower and all that lovely warm water and tap water - joy oh joy!) and the most wonderful vegatable resotto. It was simply fantastic food and this astonished me as it contained one of my dreaded foods - leek. I detest leek thanks to a chocking insident when I was in the about 10 but this tasted divine and the leeks weren't chewey - I never realised leeks could be non-chewey! 🙂
I like Pesto sauce with pasta, and so does Sarah - as long as it's freshly made pesto, as encountered in restaurants. I'll tolerate pesto sauce from a jar, which she won't, but I still vastly prefer the fresh stuff.
One day I'll set up the resources needed to make it, but in the meantime, today we found a way of reviving jar pesto... we were having gnocci with sun-dried tomato pesto, but were both craving garlic, so I decided to liven the pesto up by pouring a bit of oil into a pan and frying a crushed garlic clove, then adding the pesto, then the gnocci.
The result was YUMMY. Not in the way that freshly made pesto is, but in a different way; the garlic somehow took the bitter edge off of the pesto's taste, and made it lovely instead.
I plan to experiment with doing this to other types of pesto and seeing what the result's like - but I'd still like to make my own fresh pesto sauce one day.
Some of our favourite sandwitches - thought it would be unfair not to share!
1) Fruity stilton rolls
* sesame seed roll preferably the long 'finger' kind - crusty naturally.
* roasted mediteranian vegetable humous
* mango chutney
* blue stilton cheese
Put spreed/butter on bread to taste.
Then generously smear the humous on.
Cut thickish slices of stilton - careful too thin and it crumbles! But beware stilton is a strong cheese! Probably best if you just put chunks on do not cover the entire surface.
Then drizzel mango chutney - the runnier the better over the top.
Options are do you have it as an open sani or as a closed roll? Its up to you
2) Avocado and Walnut Sandwitch
* Bread of your choice.
* Walnuts - preferable fresh
* Avacardo (1/2 per person/sandwitch on average) - quiet wripe ones are best.
* Salad cream
De-shell the walnuts and brake up into reasonable chunks.
Spread/butter to taste.
Peel, pitt and slice avacado and place on bread.
Place walnuts on top and drizzel salad cream over.
Best as a closed sandwitch!
3) Toasted Cheese Heavan
For this you will need a flat bed toater - ie two hot plates that you close on the sandwitch - not the 'shell' patterned traditional sandwitch toaster. Flat bed toasters are the kind used for paninis.
- Sliced square bread - bog standard loaf kind. Brown/white/whole meal you choose.
- Hard goat's cheese - looks like a pale chedder.
- Black olives - pre sliced ones will save you alot of work though they go off quicker!
- Red Onions chopped into 'strips'.
- Sweet corn
Put spread or butter on bread to taste.
Cut thin slices of cheese and arange on bread.
Put on the onion, olive slices and sweet corn.
Put other slice of bread on top - make sure the spread/butter sides of the bread are inside the sandwitch and not on the outside as with traditional toasties.
Put in toaster until ready (this will depend on the toaster some experimentation maybe needed.).
4) Bread Pizza
- French stick
- Pasta suace - the more garlicy, oniony and chunky veggy the better
- Sweet corn
- Onion
- Pepper optional
- For meateaters bacon, sausage and salami are also extra toppings!
- Grated chedder/hard goats cheese
- Blue cheese optional
Chop onions, peppers, and any meat things.
Cut french stick into approprait sized pieces - 25 cm long is good.
Slice each section longways to make two pizza bases out of each.
Toast the crust side of the bread.
Spread pasta suace on the non toasted side.
Place topping on.
Sprinkly grated cheese on liberall.
Add a few small chunks of blue cheese to taste.
Grill to perfection - eat making satisfied noises.
5) Olive Pannini Yummyness
Get/make paninnis with black olives inbedded in it - again this recipe calls for a flate bed toaster!
- Walnuts - broken up preferally fresh
- Brie or stilton depending on taste
- Avacardos if you Alaric - sliceds
Make the dam paninni and put in toaster!
Eat!
Well after you've taken it out of the toaster of course!
6) Cheese sarni ideas!
- Chedder and sliced apples
- Chedder and spiced pear jelly
- Chedder and cranberry jelly
- Chedder and picallily
- Chedder and apple sauce
- Chedder and silton
- Chedder, lettice, and salad cream
- Replace the chedder with red lesture, cream cheese or cottage cheese.
- Wensledale and cranberry cheese with apple sauce in crusty rolls
- Mexician cheese with lemon corriander and humous
Ok well actually I went hawing but I couldnt resist the pun!
I went for a walk this afternoon with the idea of picking elder berries but found there to be very few elders all of which where behind barbed wire even if they where heavily laden :/ There were however loads and loads of blackthorns heavey with sloes which after picking five I realised were not quiet ripe!
I then looked around and realised that the hawthorns where groaning under the weight of their little red berries - well they are one of the most prevalent hegderow plants - I started picking the little beuts! Got nearly a whole basket too 🙂
Some trees haws were not quiet ripe so there will be plenty for me to pick all the way through the autum I feel - there are so many of the berries that I didnt even have to think about how much to leave for the animals! I gave up on trees when I got bored rather than when I couldnt reach any more berries 🙂
What am I going to do with them all I hear you cry!
Well I am going to dry as many as I can for use in a berry tea - a tea that is supposed to be good for those with high blood pressure and/or heart problems - I'm going to get mum and dad to check with their drs if its ok for them and add it to the dandilion tea I force feed mum.
There has been much merryment here whilst me and Al have been 'doing' the haws i.e. pulling the storks off of them - but well this is us and our wrapped and twisted minds so innuendo here we come!!! I also said quiet innocently that I couldnt do all these haws tonight! 🙂
Al is currently hawing away!
Of course any left over haws will be frozen for incoporation into hedgerow jam and/or haw jelly. Mmmm I'm sure that you can make a coffee substituet too but now cant find the recipe :/
Ok on the cooking front I have learnt two valuable leasons this week 1) when making a sponge don't use the electric whisk as the cake collapses and 2) don't try and soup Protien Chunk Gunk unless you like ministroni type soups and even then beware!
p.s. Al eat the soup!
Domestic, Recipies | sarah | 
Thu 26th Jul 2007 11:29 pm | 
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