Glanbrydan’s Weblog

I am currently working on a beef and ale pie in a heart shape for the valentines day market we are attending at Brecon. I am also attempting puff pastry for the first time since starting Glanbrydan.

Today we went into Llandeilo where we have an excellent cook shop called Peppercorns, to find a heart shaped dish. We were faced with a cake tin or a flan dish so  a flan dish with a push out bottom (rather similar to my own). Tonight I have hidden myself away in the kitchen to cook up a beef, carrot, mushroom and ale filling then put together what should be a puff pastry.

We will see how the experiment goes but T-W-O has approved the filling so far and the pastry is now resting in the freezer for 20 minutes, not quite the thorough overnight cooling required but we cannot wait for our tea until tomorrow morning. My dealings with puff pastry have had a chequered past, disaster and semi success. I have looked at many recipes on the net and in my cookbooks finally deciding to go with St. Delia.

I will inform you of the results tomorrow.

We are still trying to fix the camera/computer problem so if it turns out well I will be most upset if we cannot post a picture!

You going anywhere special today? (A grandad, T-W-O & his granddaughter)

The photo is nothing to do with the post but I came across it today when looking through some old shots. I love this picture, taken on the morning of middle daughters wedding, T-W-O and Granddaughter (niece of middle daughter) went to look for the horse and trap that were to transport the bride and her Dad to the church.

I’ve now purchased some broad beans, peas and aubergine seeds. This weekend will see me plant up the first batch in the greenhouse. I already have some sweet and hot pepper seeds from last year so I can get on with planting them. It’s time to get the seed trays out and give them a clean up. I’m really itching to get into the greenhouse!

I will be pulling up the last of my turnips tomorrow and using them in a turnip mash, another recipe from the chef at Brecon farmers market.

You need

Turnips – as many as you would use potatoes for mash.

Horseradish sauce

Seasoning

Peel your turnips and cut into chunks.

Pop into a pan, cover with water, add a good pinch of salt and then bring to the boil.

Turn down to a simmer, put a lid on the pan and cook until tender.

Drain and mash well

Stir in salt and pepper to taste

Add half a teaspoon of horseradish sauce, stir and taste. If you want it stranger add some more and keep trying until you can taste the horseradish but it doesn’t wipe out the turnips.

Serve as a healthy option instead of mash potatoes – for a less healthy version stir in a couple of spoons of cream and a slither or two of butter.

This works well with chops or boiled gammon.

I am also trying to buy some horseradish roots so I can make my own horseradish sauce next year.

We both had to go London way yesterday on quite separate errands and spent last night in a motel sort of place with a pub next door. It was nice not to have to get up at 4.00am to leave home but it did mean putting the dogs in the kennels and all that goes with the animals had to be sorted out.

The cats just got an extra big helping of a meal (as they were  to miss breakfast) and Tattycat thought it may have been her birthday. She sorted her way through the dried food finding the chopped chicken I had tried to hide underneath. Smudger may never have seen any of the fresh food and if Tattycat finished it all I’m sure she would have had a nap in a quiet corner to sleep it off.

Making our way to the pub this evening as we hadn’t sorted out or given any thought to eating something and didn’t fancy fish and chips we were surprised to find friends of ours there waiting for a table. .It’s amazing how a bit of company and chat wakes you up; poor things probably wanted a quiet meal (they look knackered having been up to all sorts of hard work).

Now we are back home having a quiet sit down for a few minutes before going to bed.

Short entry today – work pressures unite to destroy my leisure time again.

I went into the kitchen earlier to make myself a cuppa and I noticed a very agitated Smudger cat in the garden. She was being disturbed in her bird hunting by 3 chickens who had wandered down the garden to peck about under the bird feeder to perform their daily bird seed mop up duties .  

They all looked at each other – a stand off! Suddenly the chickens clattered back into life and Smudger just watched  – I’m sure if cat looks could kill hers would have!

I have been planning the move of my garden to make way for the extension and new parking area. I am taking a portion of the field behind us and putting a gate from the garden for easy access. I have a vision of an orchard for my apple, plum and pear trees with a wild flower meadow growing underneath. There will be 2 paths meandering through the meadow with a couple of decorative seating areas as you go. One path will lead to the yet to be dug pond, where our ducks and chickens will enjoy a new home fenced in from beasties but with a swing bridge to allow day time escape while the other path will lead to my new kitchen garden.

The kitchen garden will have new raised beds, a fruit cage and a poly tunnel (when money allows). I have been imagining this as our arcitect (son-in-law) imagines how the house will look when it’s finished. I am as excited about this project as I am about our extension.

Now the time is over for planning and somehow my dream needs turning into reality. My first jobs will be to organise a digger for the pond and order the raised beds. The weather has been against us though and the ground has gone from hard as rock to mushy wet clay. However the seasons wait for no-one and there are seeds that need to be planted in the greenhouse this month.

I intend to start with aubergines as I understand they need to be planted now and then at the end of the month move onto peppers, broad beans and peas in modules. I may put some more onions and garlics in old tyre casings in the field roughly where I want my veg beds to go.

Another issue is the fruit trees. They need good soil and flower meadows need poor soil. A puzzle to be solved. Once it all starts to come together I would like to put a bee hive at the far end of all this, away from the seating but close enough to the veg for the bees to work their magic. I hope they will have a nice life pollinating my fruit and veg and in return provide us with pots of honey.

Lastly when we have the areas separated my dream is to put a couple of pigs in the rest of the field held in smaller areas with a temporary fence I understand they are great for rooting the ground over – which it needs and then they would give us meat for the freezer.

Here in the cottage we enjoy a glass or two of red wine and over the Christmas period we have enjoyed a glass or two more than we should have. With company through until Sunday we had every excuse to open a bottle, having managed to open lots of bottles and enjoyed every one of them our livers and our bank account deserve a rest.

Tonight was a hot chocy night but the high cocoa content of the chocolate somehow made our special treat a bit bitter. Also not heating the milk enough made it bitty. Not my best effort and such a shame.

In true British fashion I must complain about the weather, the amount of water falling from the sky is amazing. It feels as if the sky has been saving for one big delivery and the valley has been flooded in the deluge.

The day job has been encroaching on the evening, merging it’s way into dinner time. I like to switch off, forget the work pc and get on with a bit of living even if it’s just watching TV for a couple of hours. T-W-O prepared a very nice meal for us; cold chicken veggies and mashed potato as I worked away.

 I fear I may be coming down with the lurgy as well. For about a week now I have been feeling a bit less than good. It seems to come and go; with achy body, saw throat, tiredness, a headache. Hopefully I won’t succumb to the full blown version that’s all around me. People I know have been dropping like flies with the bug.

Still no joy from Cannon so the camera remains in it’s case and having ordered our heating oil before Christmas no sign of that either. The oil is getting desperate despite calls to the office of our supplier to remind them we are running out they have managed to somehow ignore us. If you’ve ever watched the musical Chicago you will understand we our feeling like Mr Cellophane.

Gosh I feel sorry for myself today!!

I am sorry to have neglected the blog over Christmas. It was a time filled with familyand now (today) we have returned to a bit of normality for a few weeks. The day has consisted of tidying and sorting out bedding, towels, the house and ourselves. We still don’t have a camera we can download from which is annoying  and so far Cannon have been less than helpful. Answering our query as if we had asked a completely different question.

I have found many times that emails where you have requested help from a large organisation are often answered in a strange and unrelated way. We found this when wanting help from BT and again with IT support . It’s as if they have a set list of top 10 problem solvers they need to work through before taking note of your question. IT support always ask you to switch your PC off and then log back on as if you haven’t tried that (lots) before contacting them.

The cold snap seems to be over and today we have had rain for the first time in weeks, the sky is closing in around us with gloom leaving us no opportunity for spotting the full moon tonight. I confess that over Christmas I was tracking the moon phase and when it disappeared for a few days I was puzzled. I have managed to get through all these years of life without realising that the moon does disappear for several days each month.  We have low levels of light pollution here so the stars are magnificent when the cloud moves out the way.

I know nothing about astronomy, I  can spot the sauce pan (Ursa Major – I just looked it up) or Orion’s belt. I have also spotted an unmoving bright light towards the West which we think this must be the space station. It’s the brightest thing in the sky at the moment. When I finally remembered to take the binoculars out it was cloudy so I am none the wiser. I will now wait for the next clear night.

What can I say????

Day 1 back at work and it’s my birthday. Never mind our daughter, son in law and his Dad have arrived safely and are settling in as best they can. We have an interesting spare room which is currently reached via an outside staircase with no en suite (hence the need for an extension to bring it all under one roof).

They have Fido puppy dog with them and our Vickie dog is not in the mood for playing as Bertie dog is with the vet for the night as he needs to have lots of tests done.

The ground is frozen and everyone is off to bed; an early night is needed by all. Birthdays are not what they used to be, dancing till the early hours is not an option.

Goodnight, sleep tight!

Christmas is over, the tree is down and the decorations are all boxed up again. Tomorrow I return to the day job and this evening I shall collapse on the sofa. My Mum has returned home after our Christmas and New Year together, we had one of our daughters and her husband visit in the last few days (Lisa and Iain) to regale us with stories of Christmas spent in New York but now all is quiet for a day.

Tomorrow sees the arrival of another daughter with her husband (Alison and Burtie) along with his Dad to stay for the week. This afternoon I have walked the dogs, cleaned out the chickens and fed the cats. T-W-O has been working away at the huge pile of ironing while the football is on the telly.

The world outside is smattered with white after a few snow flurries today, this all looks set to freeze in place as the temperature drops and the evening closes in around us. We had a lovely roast beef dinner for our lunch with a new veg dish I learnt at the last farmers market and I’ve used at every opportunity since to show it off.

Very sadly I am unable to get any pictures downloaded from camera to computer as they appear to have fallen out with each other. We are trying to rectify this but like all software it has a will of it’s own, worryingly we think it’s a camera problem and have emailed Cannon to see if there is any easy fix. I will be lost without it should it need a repair.

Mashed Parsnips

Take a couple of parsnips per person (or more if you love them like I do)

A few spoons of cream

A couple of ounces of grated cheese

salt and pepper

Top, tail and  peel the parsnips. Chop them into chunks of about an inch deep and them boil them in a little salted water. You can steam them if you prefer. Once they are cooked through drain the parsnips and mash up to look like mashed potato.

Put them in an oven proof dish, mix in the cream with half of the cheese. Grind on a bit of pepper and then sprinkle on the rest of the cheese. Pop in the oven for about 20 to 30 minutes. The cheese top should be melted. If you are in a hurry you can grill the dish until the cheese melts and bubbles a bit.

I am going to try making this with creme fraiche  instead of cream next time be a bit more healthy. I am also looking for none cheese topped veg dishes to drop a few calories as I seem to be obsessed with cheese coated dishes just now.