Roasting Soup (by sarah)

Ok I bought lots of veg for a nice roast but with Jeans inpromptu hospital trip etc... it didnt really happen so I had stuff left over therefore I souped it! It was tasty too Al really liked it 🙂

*1/3 celeriack *1/3 swede *2 medium potatoes *1/2 butternut squash *3 salsify *1 couguette *2 large cloves of garlick *Black pepper *1 tbl spoon fennel seeds *pumpkin seed oil

I had par boiled alot of it all ready to roast and put in the left over roast veg (these had been roasted in sunflower oil with rosemarry and pepper). I had also kept the water a veg stock which I then boiled everything up in that hadnt yet been par boiled - these were the potatoes (for some reason there are never any roasted potatoes left after the meals reguardless of how many I cook?), butternut and courgette.

Then we blend the whole lot! Bzzzzzzzzzz

Into the suacepan about a quarter of it went, along with the garlick crushed and fennel seeds - also crushed. I also drisseled about 1/2 a tbl spoon of pumpkin seed oil into it and ground some pepper in (using our phallic pepper grinder from an Italian restruant!), add the fennel seeds and away we go!

Oh and don't forget to add a pint of milk - I use a 50:50 mix of semi skimed goats and skimed cows milk but thats cos of special dietry recurrements and should be fine what ever you use - it would probably be tasty just with a pint of veg stock instead!

Gentle heat until the odd bubble starts to appear, try not to let boil! This allows the garlick and fennel to permeate the soup properlly 🙂

I had it on the heat for about 1/2 hr.

Be warned me and Al have had this two days in a row and I have frozen enough (without garlick, fennel and milk) to feed 6 a thick soup and 10 a thickish soup!

Jean also loves this but she had it mixed with mash potatoe:)

Thinning the Parsnips! (by sarah)

What was I thinking!

I went to water the veg patch about 2 hours ago, noticed how big the parsnips were, thought, I'll just do some wedding around them and some how ended up thinning them and transplanting the leftovers!

Now I have a nagging feeling that parsnips dont transplant very well so most of the effort may have been in vain 🙁

Still next year we know to a)ignore the packet on how many to sow in a row and b) not to plant the radishes and salsify so near to the carrots and parsnips!

Still the garlic are taking root and I found a random mint plant in the patch - now if I can harvest it apropriatly it shouldnt take over and its a really nice tasting one too! (I'm not to hot on types of mint sorry guys!) That makes three types of mint I can locate in the garden now 🙂

Also we have loads of wounderful wild strewberries!!! Yum yum yum 🙂

Mouth Ulcers from Hell (by sarah)

I have mouth ulcers - you think not a problem - right?

Wrong!

I can hardly talk, eating is becoming a problem too - I mentioned it to the Dr during my three monthly check up and thats it its time for blood tests again - sigh 🙁

Not happy just want mouth to stop hurting 🙁

Oh well on the plus side its not as bad as labour!

The Duck Invasion! (by sarah)

This morning I heard lots of noise outside - I thought oh no Tims caught some gosling or something and is torturing it (Tim being the cat), I went outside the door only to be flown at by an irrate mother duck. I screamed - she quacked.

I could still here loads of strange quacking next to me - I looked down to fine juvinile ducks around my feet in a panic, they then hastily retreated into the dead end of the coal store! Trapping themselves - I thought they were going to have heart attacks! They were trying to climb the coal sacks and just sliding back down them.

I put out some bread for the panic stricken mother waiting up on the grass verge and then 'hid' inside and took photos as they made their daring escape!

We are very happy becuase we thought the magpies and that had eaten all their eggs but obviously not 🙂

Jeans Christening!!! :) (by sarah)

Ok peeps we have 2 dates for Jeans Christening/1st birthday party! These are Sunday the 27th and 20th of August. Her birthday party will be on the Saturday of which ever date is confirmed 🙂

So keep these dates free and you might want to let me know your current contact detials as I am a muppet and probably wont be able to find them in the chaos that is my office!