New Year's 'Lunch' resolution

Just a week into 2015 and no doubt that despite our best efforts and intentions, some of our new year's resolutions have already been forgotten about. Making serious changes to our lives can be difficult, it really does take effort.  Many of us will have decided to make food related changes. Some will wish to loose weight, others may wish to simply cut down on fat, fizzy drinks, sweets, crisps or to reduce alcohol consumption, or even to increase their water intake. 

One easy way to improve our health without really trying, is to change our lunch habits! Sounds a bit obvious but most of us don't give a lot of thought to what they have for lunch. By the time lunch time comes around we are usually starving, and consequently either opt for the same, safe repetition of yesterday's lunch menu, whatever that may be, or we grab the first thing available. Obviously, we have special days when we meet friends, have to attend pre organised lunches/ lunch meetings, but on normal, run of the mill days we rarely divert from the comfort of our regular lunch routine. 

Children at primary school have very little choice, assuming they take advantage of Carmarthenshire's school meals which are conscientiously planned to offer children a tasty nutritionally balanced meal, offering meals containing carbs, protein, dairy etc and also giving our youngsters adequate energy (calories) needed to see them 'till tea time.

At secondary school, children have a little more choice made available to them, and of course, by the time our children get to twelve years and older, they really do have their own particular preferences and favourite foods. Trying to get a teenager to make the healthy option and to opt for a tuna salad over a pizza, is never going to be easy! The situation is made even more complex when you consider the differing nutritional needs of the thousand or so children at the school. The needs of the rugby firsts team, the sprinter, the ballet dancer, the actor, musician, the child with a high metabolic rate or the under active thyroid....the list goes on, and it's quite a challenge. Even within large family it can be quite a task to meet the nutritional needs of the energetic, the not so sporty, the weight lifter, rugby player, and those with a large appetite and those that rarely feel hungry, and yet each of them fall within the realms of 'normal'.

For me, the day passes quickly, lunch time often passes and it's school pick up time before I get my lunch, this is not ideal. For others, lunchtime is the highlight of the day. Escaping from the workplace to indulge in a cuppa and a panini, a baguette, a sandwich, a bowl of soup or even a sit down, two or three course meal at the office canteen with friend and colleagues is a treat, not to be missed, in the middle of the day.  

Whether you buy or prepare your own lunch box, it's important for our health (and our waistline!) that we take care to consider what we eat for our lunch. It goes without saying that a variation is key! It keeps us interested in our food as well as providing us a variety of different vitamins and minerals from the range of foods. Choosing different lunches also gives us the opportunity to balance high energy (the high calorie) luxury lunches with lower energy, high fibre foods such as a simple soup or salad. If you opt for the same sandwich on a regular basis,  and it happens to be the deluxe, highly calorific, mayonnaise laden, fatty option, then you'll soon see those pounds go on. The unfortunate thing is, you still go home thinking and exclaiming that 'I just had a quick sandwich for lunch'. 

Even if you haven't made any New Years resolutions this year,  make a decision to take lunch seriously.  If you've never considered it before, try making your own lunch and taking it with you a few times each week. Treat a bought lunch as a luxury, whatever the price. Make soups and bean or pasta salads, healthy sandwiches, add plenty of fruit and enjoy a lighter 2015. 

The Christmas Cake

The Christmas Cake

Stir- up Sunday has been and gone, but if you like many others didn’t manage to get stirring over the weekend, there’s still time! 

This week has been Christmas cake week at the Pumpkin Patch! Many of the regulars at the Pumpkin Patch have now weighed out, chopped and peeled, measured and stirred up a Christmas cake. 

It’s not as difficult or as time consuming as you may think. It does take a little organisation to ensure that you have all the ingredients, but from then on it’s prety straight forward. 

Usually, I’m one for throwing in a bit of this and a bit of that, and of not paying much attention to recipes. In making a christmas cake however, a little attention to detail is required. Leave out a few vital ingredients and your cake may become a door stop or just outright miserable!

I always recommend that you weigh everything out in advance, that way as you work your way through the recipe, nothing is left out or forgotten. Once the ingredients are weighed, you can methodically set about making the cake, but don’t forget to soak the dried fruit in a little brandy overnight. 

If you don’t want to use brandy, soak your dried fruit in some cold tea! Sound odd, but a traditional Welsh ‘barabrith' calls for just that - cold tea. It works well and adds plenty of moisture back into the dried fruit, which in turn makes a lovely moist cake. If you forget to soak the fruit, the fruit will swell and absorb the moisture from your cake, and leave the cake dry and crumbly.

Mix the cake early enough in the day, or early evening, as it takes up to four hours to cook! So, if you pop it in the oven at 9pm, you’re in for a late night!

I use a stand mixer, but the children in my classes don’t.  A large bowl and strong wooden spoon works well, combined with a bit of muscle power, and a lot of hard work!  To make life easier, line a cake tin with lining paper or grease proof paper before you start mixing, that way the awkward fiddly bit is out of the way. Simply use a pastry brush and a small bowl full of oil to brush inside the tin before you place the paper inside, this keeps the lining paper in place and makes the job considerably easier.  

Once the cake mixture is in the tin, trim the lining paper to the height of the tin and cover the top with more paper. For the past few years I’ve used foil baked parchment paper available in supermarkets to cover the top, it does the job, and stays in place whilst cooking. Why cover the top? Well, it prevents the cake from drying out and also stops the top from browning too much during the long cooking time. Keep the oven to a cool 140°C and just check it after about 3 ½ hours, just in case!

This is a lovely easy recipe for a dark moist, fruity cake.  When it’s cooled, wrap it in more greaseproof paper and foil or keep it in an air tight tin.  Feed it a little brandy on a regular basis for a boozy cake, and decorate it with candied fruit and apricot jam, or with traditional marzipan and icing. Good luck and have fun. 

If you don’t think you’ll find the time to get baking this year, don’t worry send one of the children along to the Pumpkin Patch Christmas Make & Bake sessions! 

We’ll have lots of fun, and you’ll have some Christmas treats :)

It's stir-up Sunday

It’s Stir-up Sunday!

I only became aware of stir up Sunday sometime during the last few years. I usually made my Christmas cake whenever I found the time, and it was inevitably during the last few weeks in the run up to Christmas. I was usually found icing it late on Christmas Eve afternoon! 

I was totally oblivious to any traditions or unwritten rules relating to the custom of pudding, cake and mince meat making. Obviously, for those who make and bake to provide cakes for friends and family, they need to be a little more organised than I used to be. For years, I made one Christmas cake per annum, and it was us, for the family to enjoy on Christmas Day and during the days that followed. It was fun to purchase the ingredients and to dedicate an evening to weighing out and soaking the dry ingredients, then to mixing the vast quantities of butter and sugar, flour, fruit and spices. The annual Christmas cake bake would, and still does, fill the house with the real aroma of the festive season.  

This Sunday - the 23rd, is ‘stir-up’ Sunday, the last Sunday before advent begins. It become popular during victorian times, but it does actually serve as an useful reminder that it’s time to get busy in the kitchen and to begin the festive baking. If you’re keen to get mixing this Sunday, making your own mincemeat is a great start, and believe me, it really isn’t difficult. 

Obviously, you can pop to the shops and buy a jar of mince meat, but you won’t beat the flavour of the home made version, and it’s a lot more fun!

The advantage of starting now, is that the fruit and spices in the mince meat, cake or pudding will have time mingle and to get to know each other  in the run up to Christmas! This makes for a much richer and fuller flavour. It also means you have more time to get on with other things like school plays, concerts, carol services and shopping as the Christmas season progresses.

To make your own mince meat, mix all your favourite dried fruity flavours together for your perfect mix. Use currants, raisins, sultanas, cranberries, dates, and prunes. To make it more exotic, and less traditional try using mango and pineapple, papaya and dried apple for an alternative flavour. To about ½ kilo of dried fruit, you can add a handful of chopped walnuts, hazelnuts or almonds, then add some citrus flavours like orange and lemon juice and zest. 

To bulk up the mix, add 2 chopped apples, and then spice it up with 2 teaspoons of mixed spice and a glass of brandy, port or another favourite tipple. Sweeten with brown sugar (150-200g ish!) and add about 100g suet for a traditional mince meat. Suet is now widely available in the supermarket in both traditional and vegetarian forms, so this shouldn’t be a problem. 

The children can take over at this point, pop the kettle on and relax, make a cup of tea, and allow the children to do the stirring!! The flavours simply need to mix.

All you need to do now, is to jar this up into sterilised jars ready for the Christmas pies. If you’ve made too much, use pretty labels and ribbon and give them away to very lucky friends and family as little pre-Christmas gifts, or take it one stop further, and add flour, more spices and eggs and turn the remainder into a Christmas Pud. Job done, well done!

Little Pumpkins

Having a large family, means that I’ve had more than my fair share of babies and and all the experiences that they bring. I loved every moment of time spent with each one of them at pretty much every stage of development. The odd sleepless night comes back to haunt me every so often, but on the whole, the early years of hands on baby care and toddler activity are happy and pleasant memories indeed.

Now, with my youngest well and truly settled into secondary school, those days are almost distant memories. The baby, who can no longer be referred to as the baby of the family, gives me a stern look and a little talking to if I dare to mention ‘the baby’ words! During house moves and  bedroom makeovers during the past few years the amount of toddler clutter has gradually diminished. Bagged up and stored for a while before I eventually succumb and resort to reluctantly giving them away. 

With each bag of jigsaws and lego, Barbie dolls and Action men that left our family, went a large chunk of Fearn childhood. I’m far too sentimental, but also far too practical to keep boxes full of unused toys. We will always have the memories and hundreds of photos to bring back those happy toddler days. 

More importantly, we n0w need the space to store all the gadgets and belongings that teenagers seem to collect. The digital gadgetry, the sports equipment, the art materials, the musical instruments, the list is endless but the space is not! Family life is never dull, and is always filled with memories in the making, so different now to ten years ago, but equally as fulfilling and exciting.

 The plastic toys in blue and pink may have been replaced by monochrome and metal, the fiddly boxes filled with tiny pieces may have been replaced by substantial items, and the small costs replaced by hefty price tags, it’s a different kind of family life!

Some special toys however, never made the recycle pile and on Saturday they were washed dried and enjoyed all over again. Just in case any rumours get stated, there are no grand children, not yet,  I think they’re a long way off! Saturday was the first ‘Little Pumpkins’ cookery class, for little children under the age of six. The boxes of blocks and traditional toys that I’d managed to save were put to good use once again.The little tables and chairs were used, and I even made another batch of home made play dough, though I have to confess, I had to check the recipe!! 

The look of total enjoyment on their little faces as they mixed and folded and made their very own batch of cup cakes  with their Mum was delightful. The morning wouldn't have been complete without a play time, so as they put my home made play dough and toys to work, the Mums enjoyed a slice of freshly drizzled lemon cake and coffee (well, we had to do something whilst the cakes were baked!) Once cooled, the cakes were transformed into a flock of Towy sheep, complete with little tails! 

It was a happy morning, no squabbles, no mishaps, just baking. It’s not difficult to decorate the cup cakes and they really do look great. Perfect for a child’s party or sleepover activity, or just for fun on a wet afternoon. 

Autumn Rain

Autumn rain

Last night, we experienced the first decent rain we’ve had in months!

I say experienced, I mean heard! I was tucked up in bed as the winds picked up and eventually started hurling rain towards my bedroom window. So in reality, I did not experience the first autumn rain. The garden this morning looks soaked, which is good! There is also the evidence of that angry wind that knocked over pots and brought down the remaining fruit on our apple trees - they are now genuine wind- falls and will need collecting very soon.

The morning after the storm is always eerily sill and silent, as though nothing really happened. I love mornings like this. The morning after the party. The event has been and gone. What remains, are the memories and the evidence!

This morning, the ducks and chickens are discussing the night’s events, relieved that this time the roof remained, tightly nailed to their sheds, though the ground is more than slightly wet beneath their feet. 

It’s funny how summer can last so long, the sun remain so warm and the sky so blue. Then suddenly, as though the nature has looked at the calendar, seen the month and responded with a catch up plan - it’s now autumn, and it’s time for change. If I’m honest, I’m ready for change.

That typical British conundrum of what to wear each day - cold in the mornings, warm by elevenses, hot by lunch and  yet cool in the shade was driving me bonkers! Having worn pumps and t-shirts for months, it’s now so comforting to get out the winter wools and jumpers and to rediscover the sock drawer! The tatty old garden shoes are now put away until next spring and the wellies are finally back in use. 

Despite all this, I can guarantee that although it’s officially autumn, and there has been a definite change this week, the seasons are bound to play a trick or two, and send more blue skies and sunshine our way. One thing is for sure, that summer heat  we’ve had for so long won’t return for a fair while. Instead, we have all the winter festivities and events to keep us busy. Bonfire night is just around the corner, then plenty of winter fairs, Christmas, new year… and new beginnings all over again!

A few years back I wrote a piece called ‘My year as a child’ about how I  viewed each month of the year. It’s fun sometimes to thing back, and to remember how we used to be, used to think and how we used to see things. This is how I felt about the last four months of the year.

“September in a child's life is the new beginning. It is the start of new year. New shoes indicate the arrival of change and of new things....a new class, sometimes new friends, new books, pencils, classroom, teacher and whole load of new procedures.  September is the scary month, a month to be feared, despite the welcome return to familiar daily routines and regular playtimes with friends.

October comes and goes, the weather cools, it rains, it's a dreary month, a sad month. Everything seems to give up...the weather, the leaves on the trees and the school heating!It seems to go like this..the school heating is turned on, leaks and is repaired. Fallen leaves blow about before the rain sticks them to the floor. Teachers get exited about a nature table, acorns and cones, mushrooms and colourful leaves.

By November, it's gone dark again. Winter has returned. Parents talk about the clock going forward ....or back... everyone seems confused. What is an extra hour in bed? It's cold outside and suddenly Christmas is becoming closer :)

December is a furore of school rehearsals for the Christmas play and nativity service. Teachers say they're tired, Mum's talk about the Christmas shopping and all I can think about is Christmas morning. I promise Mum not to get up before 4 am, Mum looks towards the sky. I thought that was a good promise.

Christmas is great but it's always a long time coming. I can't understand how it takes so long to get to Christmas Day, but Mum tells her friends that every year seems to go faster! I’m Puzzled, how can a year go faster”

So there you have it! Try it for yourself, what do the months of the year mean to you?