Glanbrydan’s Weblog

You will need time for your pastry to cool in the fridge and your sausage meat to develop so I suggest you make the pastry and the meat mix the day before you need it.

 Pastry

250g plain flour

125g of fat made up of equal parts stalk cake margarine & Trex. Or your preferred choice of pastry fat (lard, butter or whatever you like)

A pinch of salt.

Enough water to bring the mix together

 For the filling

We use

350g of unseasoned sausage meat

1.5 teaspoon of sage

A really good pinch of salt & pepper (it really needs this as it’s only seasoning so don’t skimp)

A good handful of diced onion – this helps moisten it.

Cheats filling

Your favourite sausages with the skin removed – no prep required but only do it if you’re short of time.

You also need extra flour for rolling out and a beaten egg for glaze.

 Make the pastry by putting the ingredients in a food processor whizzing it up for 20 or so seconds and then put in the water, I use about 4 & a half table spoons. Whiz again until it all comes together.

You can rub the fat in by hand until it resembled breadcrumbs then add the water. Mix it all together with your hands until it binds together.

Put the pastry in cling film or a plastic bag in the fridge until you need it.

Put the sausage meat, sage and seasoning in a bowl. Add the onions.

Now squidge the lot through your hands and fingers until it is all mixed together.

Pop this in the fridge overnight or for a few hours.

 To make the rolls up you will need extra plain flour.

Cover your rolling service with flour and get a handful of sausage meat. Form it into a thick sausage and roll it into a tube shape with your hands. It can be a bit naughty at this stage but try rolling from the centre outwards. If the end drops off just chuck it back into the bowl and add it to the next lot. I like my sausage meat tube to be end up about two fingers deep.

 Grab some pastry  -  a handful will do. Pat it into a rectangle shape to make it easier to roll out and then use the rolling pin to roll into a nice oblong long enough for your sausage tube and wide enough to wrap round your sausage tube with a bit of overlap.

 Straighten up the edges with a knife and then use beaten egg to coat the pasty as it faces you. Place your sausage tube on one edge of the pastry and roll it up. If the ends look messy then trim them neatly.

Cut the rolls to your desired size. We make them about 3 inches long, place them fold side down on a baking tray. I suggest you grease the tray or cover it in a sheet of silicon paper so they don’t stick. Make a few slashed cuts on top of your sausage rolls and coat them in beaten egg.

Repeat this until all the meat is gone. If you have any pastry left roll it out and cut into strips. Twist the strips and sprinkle with sesame seeds or a tiny bit of mustard powder and some strong grated cheese and cook them at the same time to make cheese straws. They can be cooked at the same time but won’t take as long so remebr to check on them after 20 minutes.

Cook them at 180 degrees C or gas mark 4 for about 40 minutes in the middle of the oven but keep an eye on that pastry as all ovens vary!

 Enjoy!

You may be wondering why at 03.40 I am sitting in the cabin and finally getting around to writing a blog. The reason for this apparent insanity is that there is an awful storm blowing outside which keeps shaking the caravan, blowing the bins over and wheeling the bin lid somewhere up the lane, so not surprisingly perhaps I cannot sleep. But at least it does give me an opportunity to let you know what is happening to Sam and I.

We are getting on OK in the caravan and cabin but have to be very careful with our electrical appliances as we only have a limited supply and if we put too many items on at once, it cuts them all off, not too good for the freezer! The washing machine and tumble dryer are now up and working in the new shed we bought (when we move back into the house it will become our garden implement shed) although the plumbing and drainage for it all was quite challenging.

On the downside the fridge in the caravan is not working on any of its three power options so I fear it may be terminal. I need to get it out and down the caravan refrigerator hospital to see if they can put life back into it.

They are getting on with the house to the point where we now have an upstairs again (but no stairs!) and we can see the various elements of our bedroom area taking shape. The cheeky builders have reconnected both of the wood burners and have been burning lots of the scrap wood to keep warm which is a shame as we had our eyes on it all-seeing it as a brief respite from the search for good fire fodder. But at least it does mean that the fires haven’t suffered from being moved about. We are still waiting for the doors and windows for the back of the house to arrive and be fitted which is when they can really get on with the inside. The specialist who is making the front door, windows and stairs is refusing to fit them until the builders have finished their work for fear of them damaging them. The rebuilding of the chimney seems to have been successful as since then we have seen no water coming down it at all.

On the down side the cost of doing the extension has rocketed way over budget but given our desire to retain the character of the cottage, improve the structure and quality of our home overall, it isn’t really too surprising. We have had to increase our mortgage now to pay for it and may need to go back for yet more.

Vicky seems to be over Bert but she has become awfully whiny especially as she can see us for most of the day, and we can hear her! We got Bert’s ashes back a week or so ago so now his passing doesn’t seem so bad. He has joined Puds our first dog and no doubt one day when we feel our wanderings are over we will bury them both together. The cats are becoming more friendly towards us, it’s only taken a year and a half. Tats doesn’t swat as much and even can take a light fuss whilst Smudger just loves a fuss, but only in their home. She still hunts for Britain and a week or so ago we had a thick cock pheasant come into the garden which gave Smudger much fun in stalking him. The pheasant was too big to be taken but I think Smudger thought it would be good practice.

The pies and pasties part of our lives is manic at the moment due to the number of events we are attending between now and Christmas. We have brought in a number of new lines to make our offering more interesting, these include a chicken leek and Stilton pie, a steak and Brecon ale pie (you ought to try the Brecon ales, they are fabulous), a steak and kidney pie (in addition to the traditional steamed suet steak and kidney pudding we already do), a sausage roll with proper sausage meat and seasoning and a Christmas pudding. All very traditional, very simple and very tasty. We still can’t do the dog treats as the smell would be unacceptable (we feel) to the place we are currently cooking in. The result is that lots of people keep asking us when we are going to do them again. We do like the dog treats as they are easy to sell on the stall and by post.

The new grandchildren are doing very well and growing by the day. Sam and Leah are now home with mum and dad, hopefully they will have a larger home soon as it is all a squeeze in the flat. The Chard end of the family are also doing well with Amy and Abi both having their birthdays in recent weeks. Lisa and Iain have both so far escaped the job cuts that were being made at both of the places were they work whilst Gail just meanders through life as she has always done.

I would post some photos of the house etc but our camera is in the caravan whilst the charger for camera is somewhere in one of the containers so we are unable to use it at all at present.

How nice, it has just started raining again. What with the rain and wind we have had more than our fair share of nasty weather so it can stop now if it wants to.

I hope you enjoyed this long-winded (appropriate description in view of the weather outside) narrative and if this weather keeps up I just might be writing another one tonight.

T W O

News

The good stuff:

We have some new additions to our clan:

Baby Thomas  – son of Ali & Burtie. A beautiful little boy, delivered at home and doing well. He arrived later than expected but made his appearance just before the end of August

The Twins Leah & Sam – delivered very recently to our youngest son they are perfect, tiny bundles. They are still in hospital where they need to gain weight before they are allowed home.

The sad news

We lost our Bertie dog after some years of battling with pancreatitis, blindness (cured by an operation) and ongoing diabetes poor Bertie finally went to the rabbit filled field in the sky.

The business

We have a list of farmers markets and events we will be attending. I am going to change one of our pages to reflect a list sould anybody be around to come and say hello to us. We often put out samples if anyone fancied a taste of our goods as well.

The homestead

There have been some big changes here which are very much a work in progress. We are occupying the garden room and the caravan whilst the work is happening around us. The old extension has gone and has been replaced with the newer, larger version. We have a roof and exterior walls but now are awaiting windows and doors to make it water tight before the colder weather comes.

The field – now known as the marsh!

We put in a grant application some time ago and were initially turned down. We have recently heard that they are opening up the process to the ‘next level’ down applicants and they have prepared a report about our small holding – which spends most of it’s time as a boggy holding. So now we wait and see if we are successful.

my coat gets recycled

Very recently we had a new bin collection scheme introduced. This combined with our house clearing trips to the tip have made me aware of how much ‘rubbish’ has changed and how the authorities have cleverly moved the responsibility of how we dispose of unwanted items right into our court.

The weekly collection scheme has moved to an ‘every other week’ collection with added complications. They collect recycling one week and landfill the next as well as a small food waste bin that is emptied every week. With me so far because many of the residents are struggling to comply? They kindly sent out a fridge magnet with the weeks highlighted but ……….not one person we know is entirely sure what exactly constitutes recycling.

They don’t want glass only paper, plastic, small amounts of polystyrene and card. Here is where the issues start. What plastics do they really want. I have had many a discussion about plastic trays  – some of which are marked with numbers to indicate if they can be recycled and some aren’t.

Moving onto the stuff we take to the tip …..

As you may have read we are rebuilding much of our house and the builders having arrived early decided they wanted to knock down our kitchen and bathroom sooner than had anticipated. We were left with a short space of time to clear everything out and I confess I put some bottles/boxes  from the kitchen in a few black bags as I didn’t want to store vast quantities of condiments and took them to the tip.

They refused to take them on the basis that it would cause rats but advised me that the bin collection (of black landfill bags) would take them. I would normally empty the jars, wash them then take them to recycling. This is in fact what I ended up doing from my house without a kitchen in.

Then there is the question of clothes. If the clothes are good then we take them to the charity shop but if the clothes are past their prime and we have removed anything that would make reasonable cleaning rags there is no provision for these or old shoes to be left at the tip.

I was left standing by my car thinking I would be better off going home and digging hole in the back garden (just as they did for hundreds of years) to bury rubbish in.

The odd thing in all this is that we usually have very little rubbish and think of ourselves as quite good recyclers or reusers.

We took the business to Lampeter food festival last Saturday and woefully underestimated the amount of people who would be buying pasties. Having sold out by about 1.30 we had a good look round ourselves dipping back into our stall when the heavens opened up and drenched the town in rain. The day then brightened up and again and we packed to go home. The festival attracts many Welsh producers and even brings out some of the bigger companies.

We were pleased to say hi to Love Spoons galleto  -and have a tub each. Yum, Yum also buying in fresh loaf of bread and some lovely cheese for our dinner. We made our way back to our temporary cooking home and baked for Sunday market at Llanganydr.

Sunday was a quietish day but the morning passed pleasantly and we met a new cake making lady ‘Cullens Cakes’ from Abergavenny. We tried out her carrot cake and Chelsea buns which were scrummy!

The house has been on hold because of the rain and we delighted that the builders came to mark up for the footings on Friday and return to put them in today. It’s remarkable how the rooms look so small and yet the finished dimensions are not a palace but certainly make for normal sized (UK normal) rooms.

Our veg has also been suffering with the huge amount of rain. The carrots are passable and the cucumbers are good but the tomatoes and runner beans are looking a tab small.  I have moved the none performing courgettes to a more open site and they are picking up a bit. The parsnips are starting to look better with nice green leaves wafting about and some of the onions are almost ready. The broccoli has run to seed but the cauliflowers are making a go of it with a couple miniature hearts peeping through the leaves.

We have come to love new potatoes in the last week. When you don’t have much of a kitchen to play with they are wonderful. We cook 2 days worth and have one days hot and the next days cold with mayo or onion or something!

Yesterday I wondered up to the veg patch thinking my 2ndearly spuds must be about ready. A bit of scratching around and I came up with 7 quite big fresh new potatoes! I gave them a squirt with the hose pipe to clean them and then popped them in the fridge to have this evening.

I keep thinking that many people around the world live with much less of a kitchen than I have now. I now have a washing machine in a temporary location and a dishwasher but no sink. There are no work surfaces other than the tops of the dishwasher, washing machine or cooker and all the cupboards are gone. We have a stacking shelf unit in action until we leave the house completely.

• The worst thing is making thing stay put on the stacking shelf – I have sent a few things flying!
• The best thing is not being able to do any washing up so it makes you really careful about making things dirty.

Our very kind friends fed us last night and sent us home with a food parcel of soup, bread as well as a couple of portions of crumble. We now have a good lunch with steak with new potatoes for dinner. The steak was on the reduced counter and I may go searching for a few pea pods and broadbeans in the garden if the rain stops.

A note on the wardrobe sorting – I’ve done it!! The charity shop has several bags of clothes that are too small for me and as T-W-O says   ’If I loose the weight then I get to pick up a few new bits!’ (Maybe I’ll be buying back my favourites from the charity shop   ). I now have a rail of clothes I can see and a massive pile of ironing we are going to share.

In a recent poll (conducted and answered by me )100% of participants agreed that steak tastes nicer when cooked on a BBQ when it’s nice summers evening with a gentle breeze blowing.

Having no kitchen to speak of we are now migrating towards the caravan. We are still in our bed and will hang onto that for as long as possible but overall things have been boxed, bagged or thrown out. This is except for our bedroom including clothes.

I’m not sure why but sorting my wardrobe is like a big wall I have to climb. There’s no quick way over it or round it and so far I’m just ignoring it. I promise myself I’ll do half an hour an evening and I really don’t think it’ll take more than a couple of good goes at it.

I think the problem is those nice clothes I don’t use because of putting weight back on. I don’t want to take them to the charity shop as it’s  admitting the truth but then storing them isn’t really a good option.

My only thoughts so far are if I make 3 piles. One pile of the clothes I actually use at the moment. Another pile of winter warmers that fit me but are not in use just now and a third dreaded pile of the things I can’t do up. Once completed I can agonise over just what goes, at least I’ll have done the job.

Once again back to food……

They say it’s difficult to cook a steak and get it right. My own experiences are that it’s best if

1 – You choose a steak with a bit of fat on  – this gives it taste and helps it to stay moist when you cook it

2 - You season the steak with a bit of salt and pepper on both sides before cooking

3 – I find a griddle pan or a BBQ cooks the steak best.

Timings are difficult so I won’t even try  here but if it’s  medium steak and you like it medium cook the outside quickly to seal in the moisture, then turn down the heat and cook it until it’s how you like it. I use a sharp fork to prod it every now and then to get an idea of how much blood there is inside.  I like mine when the juice runs clear of blood. The best way is to practise a few times and note roughly how long it takes to cook.

I like to serve mine with a salad – mixed leaves, tomatoes, cucumber with a bit of balsamic on the side along with a new potato salad. 

For the new potato salad

Choose small waxy new potatoes that will hold their shape when boiled. Put the quantity you want to serve in a pan of salted water and bring to the boil with the lid on.

Boil gently checking them to make sure they don’t overcook. I use a pointed knife  – you can feel the centres then without breaking up the spud.

When ready drain them and leave them covered to one side to cool off (or if you are in a hurry forget the cooling bit).

Chop up some onion finely – about half an onion to 250 gs of potato and put this in a bowl with the onion. Add mayonnaise to taste. I like my spuds coated but not swimming in the stuff. add a sprinkle of fresh ground black pepper and lightly salt.

Give it all a good stir.

Optional extras

Sultanas – throw in a few to give it a sweet taste

Parsley – chop up a few sprigs finely and mix it in

Chives – chop up a few stalks finely and sprinkle on top

red pepper – take a few bits of pepper finely chopped again and mix in.

left over cooked peas and a chopped up mint leaf make a colourful addition.

Our long awaited trip to the British Grand Prix took place last week.

The caravan (our home in a few weeks time while the builders are busy) was thoroughly cleaned and the clothes wedged into the cupboards last Tuesday. The fridge was stocked, the wine carefully boxed in the boot of the car and away we went for the long journey back to the small village we called home for some years.

We pitched on the golf course camp site and spent two days meeting up with family. Our youngest daughter has a bulging tummy full of baby Thomas who should be with us in about 9 weeks. Our youngest sons girlfriend is not far behind with a tummy full of twins, one of each, who should arrive around the end of October. The elder children all came to the Grand Prix with the various arrangements for who stayed where having been organised some time ago.

We watched the cars fly round the track spending much of the time out of doors. The race delighted us with it’s speed, noise and the general atmosphere of Silverstone filled with thousands of F1 fans. All too soon the holiday was at an end and we hitched up the caravan to return home.

As soon as we returned we went to see the chickens and let them out into the field. They, as well as the cats and fish are looked after by a very nice lady (Angela) but they do stay in their run while we are away to help Angela keep them safe. We haven’t spotted Nemo yet, but will have a look again this evening – he is very good at appearing missing. So far I have only seen Smudger cat who meowed at me a lot, but Tatty cannot be too far away.

The plumber is working away at the back of the house putting in some temporary washing facilities so we can at least have a wash when they remove the bathroom and kitchen. At the same time the builders have been putting in site markers in preperation for commencing the work in earnest.  We are a trifle concerned as the markers bear little relationship to the plans but hey ho!

I have noticed that building work happens in bursts around here. The garden now has more of a quarry feel to it with the digger  half way through removing the large bank of earth from behind the house. Once this is gone we can think about foundations.

The digger man deposited his big digger last night and this morning a dumper truck arrived. He promptlygot to work (I had just had a shower and was scrabling round trying to dress quickly)  his nephew  drives the dumper truck while he takes charge of the digger. He has considered and thought through exactly what will go where with the earth being moved up to the field along with ruble and clay.

The large plants have been lifted in big balls and deposited to either side of the field gate while the ruble is being laid down the pathway he created when he dug the pond to form a bed over which he will put clay. We hope this will improve the drainage and at some future point (when we eventually find more money) we will top this path with stone of some sort to make a sweeping walk up to the pond. The top soil is in one heap and the clay in another.

We suffered a thunder storm with lightening and heavy rain after lunch so digger man and his nephew have retired for the day.

T-W-O and I are hot footing the final structural engineers measurements into the post so Son-In-Law architect Iain can add the last details to the buildings drawings this weekend and we can submit them to the council.

We have hired a metal container to move our furniture into. The container arrived at lunch time and we managed to cause a traffic jam down the lane – ok two neighbours and a lost coach which is a traffic jam around here. The container is insulated so we hope will not suffer condensation and looks rather like a building site office, with a door and windows at either end. The floor has lino on and it all looks very civilised from within but with good sturdy locks on the outside. The exterior is green but it doesn’t really camouflage it too well.