Egg-citing Times!

Egg-citing Times

Despite it being early February, in the depths of winter, there are subtle changes out there that indicate that change is on the way. If you find the winter months to be long and drawn out, and if you find the dark nights and gloomy days really test your mood, you’ll be so pleased to see little indications of a change in the season.

Each week since the new year began, has seen the days lengthen. These changes take place at a snails pace but by now, four weeks in, we are no longer walking in the dark at 5pm! As we enter the shortest month these changes will accelerate, or at least they appear to do so! February will come and go, and soon we will be entering March, and we’ll be weeks away from  pushing the hour forward to welcome spring! Now that is a pleasant thought.  

Until then, we have potentially the coldest month of the year ahead. In Polish and Ukrainian respectively, the month is called luty or лютий, meaning the month of ice or hard frost. Interestingly, January and February were the last two months to be added to the Roman calendar, as the Romans originally considered all of winter to be a monthless period - just winter!

I have to confess, as I write this the wind is howling through the trees and the rain is lashing against my kitchen windows. Despite this, I maintain that spring is just around the corner! How do I know? Well my chickens told me! Don’t laugh, of course they didn’t actually TELL me, but they gave me the biggest hint.  

Last week, following a spell or a rest from egg laying, they delighted us with the first eggs of the year!! It may be cold out there, but the little chooks are obviously feeling cheerful about the longer days. It’s a good sign, and that combined with the emergence of little shoots pushing through the bare soil, tells me that I’ll be out in the greenhouse within no time. Obviously, it’s not time to get digging quite yet, but it’s certainly time to start thinking about and planning the gardening year ahead. It’s a pleasant thought! 

With a sudden abundance of eggs I’ve been busy in the kitchen. Last week at the Teens Cook Club on monday night we made creme brûlée, and with the spare egg whites we later whipped up some delicious meringues for tea. With their deep orange yolks, the free range eggs from our hens made an amazing custard for the Portuguese tarts, with added raspberries for a wonderful treat.

Though I love all these lovely sweet cakes and puddings, my favourite egg recipe has to be this weeks recipe of the week,  a Spanish tortilla - omelette, served with aioli, a sauce made from garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and egg yolks, or simply made from mixing mayonnaise and garlic for a quick fix! A tortilla can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, tea or supper, and can certainly be enjoyed as after school snack. So simple to make, nutritious and very economical, it is a real winner.  To glam it up, add it to a platter of cold meats, salami, chorizo, hams, add olives, capers and some fresh home made bread (see Journal 22nd Jan) for a real feast.

If you like the idea of having your own supply of eggs, consider keeping a couple of hens. It may seems like a crazy idea, but seriously, they are great pets that pay for their keep! Provided you have just a little time and a little grass, a small coop/shed you have all it takes to keep a pair of happy clucking chickens. Forget about the cockerel crowing in the early hours, laying hens don't need a man about the house, but they do need the companionship of another hen. There are regular poultry sales at Ffairfach Llandeilo, where you can pick and choose your perfect feathered friends to take home. 

On the last Saturday of the Month, the BJP poultry sale commences 10.30am, but be there early to suss out what you want in advance of the sale, which is by auction by the way! So you’ve a few weeks to get ready, read up and prepare, before you embark on a new poultry adventure! Don’t forget….. don’t get carried away! Leave the ducks, geese and peacocks for another adventure, another time, when you’ve done your homework, and you know what your doing!!  You can however, visit the adjacent machinery sale and discover all manner of tools and equipment that you may need, or not! Enjoy! :)

Christmas Terrine! Yum :)

Leftovers!

Not everyone’s favourite! Leftovers, can conjure up images of inedible, weird combinations of old and dried out veg and gravy! Well, this needn't be the case! Any leftover vegetables, meat or salads, if well looked after, can be made into fantastic meals of their own. When I say well looked after, I mean, treated with the respect they deserve, stored in air tight containers, in the fridge. Unfortunately, after a fantastic Christmas lunch, nobody wants to get up and take responsibility for putting it all away in appropriate packaging for next time. Just remember, the sooner it gets into the fridge, the better it will be next time around! 

Years ago, in the day when most houses especially farmhouses had a pantry or something similar, food was taken into the pantry, covered and left. These rooms and were draughty and cold, and were significantly cooler than the rest of the house. Today, our houses have either central heating, underfloor heating, or air conditioning, draught free windows, and often a roaring fire at Christmas! Not the ideal conditions for allowing our leftover vegetables, let alone the turkey to sit out, uncovered in the kitchen (often the warmest room in the house!!) 

So before, you sit for the Queen’s speech or to watch your favourite Christmas film, if you can’t find a plastic box to fit, cover the turkey, ham or any other meat with foil and pop it in the fridge. 

This weeks recipe is a Christmas terrine. I was asked to come up with an alternative to the usual Christmas turkey for Prynhawn Da on S4C.  After a lot of pondering, I thought that a combination of all the Christmas flavours in one dish would work well. So here it is!

I’ve made it with a combination of Pork tenderloin (a favourite of mine) and chicken, but this could so easily be changed to turkey and ham or just a combination of leftover meats you have available boxing day, or after Christmas. 

In a loaf tin, or similar shaped deep tin, line the bottom and sides with streaky bacon and then it’s simply a matter of layering the meat, stuffing, the cranberry sauce and spinach (the Christmas colours!) until you fill the loaf tin. Bake in the centre of the oven (180˚c) for 1 hour. Once cooked, turn it out and decorate the top with a line of apricots down the centre, and top with more homemade chunky cranberry sauce (see recipe in last week’s Journal). I love this hot, but as it cools it firms up, and can be sliced beautifully to accompany salads and other cold meats. Sam my eldest son also reckons that it makes the best ever sandwich filling!!

The Christmas Kitchen

I love cooking at Christmas – what can beat the cosiness of being indoors creating delicious extravagant treats as the cold December rain hammers against the windows?  What can beat the pleasure of working with a hot oven when it's cold, dark, wet and windy outside?  I love to decorate the kitchen with fairy lights and then to watch their reflection bounce off the windows as night closes in, whether I’m cooking supper for the family or luxurious puddings and cakes the Christmas kitchen is a delight!

For me, as Christmas approaches, I dust off the familiar Christmas CDs and torment the rest of the family with endless hours of Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole, the smooth velvety voice of Michael Bublé, as I settle in the kitchen weighing out ingredients for what feels like hundreds of Christmas cakes!  Then of course, I have The Pumpkin Patch Christmas workshops, full of excited children who can hardly stand still for long enough to mix, let alone weigh out the ingredients!! 

Probably the best Pumpkin Patch Workshops of the entire year have to be the Christmas Cookery Club ('though Easter isn't far behind!).  It's a great time to get creative and experiment with icing and sprinkles and a little craft.  We forage the hedgerows for what remains of the winter berries, and cut down buckets full of ivy and holly ready for the Christmas table decorations.  My usual boring shed looks more like a florists workshop as scissors and secateurs cut and chop lengths of ivy to size, and rolls of ribbon are creatively used to tie them all together for Mum and Dad's Christmas present.  With gold and silver spray their efforts look wonderful and don't come with a £35 price tag!  The best things in life are free ... or nearly, anyway!

I dream of snow and frosty mornings, the traditional Christmas card scene, but, this winter has (so far) been a wash out of mediocre temperatures and nondescript, fairly uneventful weather. Maybe I should be grateful! However, whatever the weather, I shall still hide away in my kitchen, oblivious to the rain, or the dull overcast days.  The outside will be hidden under the blanket of darkness which descends each late afternoon.  Inside will be warm and cosy: the fire lit, the oven on, and I will be content cooking and baking away with the numerous Pumpkin Patch Cookery Classes, the family and friends. 

The best Christmas recipes should be simple; why get stressed by crazy and  complicated recipes when all the children want is company to play or to watch a good Christmas film? That said, it's good to have some me time; and if that means experimenting with a few recipes in a cosy kitchen whilst listening to Bing Crosby and sipping a glass of mulled wine ... then so be it!  The best and easiest compromise I guess, is to invite the kids to join in; Experimenting with recipes can be hard work, some work and others not, but that's the best way to learn and gain confidence in the kitchen! 

Start with something easy, and sweet! Christmas cup cakes are usually a hit with younger chefs and cooks, or the gingerbread biscuits printed in last weeks Journal.  Let them go wild with the icing and decorations and they’ll have such pleasant memories of cooking at Christmas, that they’ll never understand what all the stress is about!!  When they're fed up of Bing Crosby they'll soon find something else to do!! For a savoury recipe try Belinda’s rissoles recipe, also printed last week, or the Christmas cole slaw below. This is great alongside any leftover turkey or just part of the boxing day or tea time salads.

A little activity for little people:

Make list of ten things that remind you of Christmas (here's mine):

A log fire (Nuts roasting on … of course!)

Sparkly fairy lights 

Making stuffing

Mince pies with stars on to top

Dark evenings

Choosing the Christmas Tree

Hats and scarves

School Christmas Concert or Carol Service

Christmas Music

Friends and visitors

Our little Nativity scene ( yes, OK, that's eleven!)

My top ten Christmas Recipes

Starry mince pies

Honey Glazed Ham

Christmas cole slaw

Mulled Cider with fruit

Cinnamon Palmiers 

Cranberry compote with ice cream

Cranberry and port sauce

Magical gingerbread house

Mince and apple filo parcels

Christmas cake

Thrifty Ideas for the Kitchen

Getting ready for Christmas!

Well, we are now well and truly into November! The excitement of Autumn washed away by days and days of drizzly weather! Welcome to reality.....the wet Welsh winter! Oh well, we’ve had it good ‘till now, with the clocks turned back, we now have to face the facts, dark evenings, and sometimes dark afternoons, either wet weather or cold weather! In other words, a great time to cosy up by the fire, or face it head on, with wellies, a warm coat, hat and a flask of piping hot soup! We have a simple choice, take it or leave it!

I’m looking on the bright side, Christmas is fast approaching, bringing with it the shortest day, and from there on, day by day, as the earth tilts, we gain daylight hours right through till spring! That’s great news. I love christmas, but it is an expensive time.     

The annual cutting and sticking to create  personalized Christmas wish lists has started in the Fearn family! 

It started as a bit of fun, a learning and craft activity when the children were small. It involved sitting, reading, cutting, sticking, naming (with name of shop and price!) and these lovely pieces of works of art would then be proudly displayed on the fridge. A useful reminder of what I should get for the four, six, eight, ten and twelve year old! It saved a lot of Christmas shopping hassle on my part, and they loved the activity! 

Now, with most of them well into their teens, the lists have got shorter and shorter and have almost disappeared. That’s a good thing, I hear you say!  A good thing? Oddly enough, the shorter the list, the larger the price tag!!

However, there are great ways to save pennies between now and the big day! By being careful with weekly food basket we can easily make life easier and save ourselves some money. Being thrifty may sound old fashioned, but being thrifty is also being clever! It doesn’t mean compromising on standards or quality, it simply means you get more for your money. 

I’ll write these as points so that you can tick them off as you read through - pin them to the fridge next to the christmas wish list!!

Make a list - Check what you already have in the fridge and in the cupboards before you leave for the shops. This prevents overstocking and buying too much of the same. 

This is especially true for perishables, the things that have a short shelf life such as soft fruits and salads, herbs and juices. When you see what you have already, that’s also the time to conjure up a recipe idea to use up what’s about to go off, for example a banana loaf, a mixed fruit pie or a salad for tea.

Bread - Don’t just throw the stale loaf ends away, blitz them in a blender or food processor to make tasty bread crumbs. Blitz french sticks, paninis, or a focaccia bread for tasty and different flavoured bread crumbs for making stuffing and pie toppings. Use them to top stuffed peppers and mushrooms, and home made chicken nuggets, or garlic croutons for soups and stews - they will come in handy, I promise!  PS Stuffing the Christmas turkey in 5 weeks time!!  Don’t forget how tasty a good bread and butter pudding can be, even made with stale fruit buns!

Lemons - If you have half a lemon in the fridge, don’t leave it there till it’s all dried out and ready for the compost bin...... Slice it up thinly, and freeze, ready for Christmas drinks. Use the lemon straight from the freezer and this way the lemon stays fresh and it cools the drink at the same time!

Store things well - Root veg and certain fruit store better in a cool, dark place rather than in the fridge. Never put bananas, avocados and basil in the fridge, as they will turn black and soggy. Root veg such as carrots and parsnips, swede and potatoes are better stored out of the fridge, but somewhere cool and dark.

Herbs - rather than put herbs in the fridge in the hope that you may use them eventually, chop them up and place them into small bags or containers and pop them straight into the freezer. Use them in soups and stews. 

Herby butter - A great way to save and preserve summer herbs such as basil and garden mint for use in the winter, is to make your own herby butter. Chop the herbs up and mix well into some soft butter (left at room temperature). Place the soft butter on a sheet of cling film and carefully roll to make a sausage shape. Twist the ends and refrigerate until firm, then slice into little patties and store in the freezer until needed. Don’t forget to label the pot, once frozen you wont be able to smell the herb, or identify one from the other! 

Double up - It’s as much work to make one lasagne as it is to make TWO lasagne! 

So, when you make a tray bake or a stew or a soup, try doubling up and making two.  Eat one and put the other in the freezer for another day. Easy! This won’t necessarily save you lots of pennies, but it will save a lot to your time and energy. There is nothing better that tucking into a delicious meal that you didn’t even make that day!! Coming home to your very own ready meal, means you don’t have to call in the supermarket to buy something on the way home, and there are no pots and pans to wash either. 

Chicken - Go for a whole bird not just the thighs or breast portions. Kilo for kilo or pound for pound it is far cheaper. Invest in some decent scissors or meat and poultry shears and carve the bird up into portions and freeze them ready for another day. 

Cheese - Most cheddar cheeses and stilton freeze perfectly. Buy it in bulk, cut up into chunks and freeze until you need it.

Meat - Try buying cheaper cuts of meat such as stewing lamb and brisket, they are packed with flavour and make delicious dishes when slow cooked.

New recipes - Experiment with new recipes that allow you to vary the ingredients to suit what you like and what you have in the fridge. I love recipes such as a frittata or Spanish tortilla (posh name for Spanish omelet!) that allow me to use up what I have left over or unused in the bottom drawer of the fridge. 

A Half Term Treat

A Half Term Treat

Fed up of pumpkin soup?? Fed up of bonfires, fireworks and toasted marshmallows?  How about  multi coloured autumnal leaves and Conkers? 

Well, we've had a long autumn! Yes, of course autumn is always the same length in days and weeks, but this year it feels longer. It's been exceptionally mild and dry, apart of course for the blip of a storm that whipped at the end of October. 

This year, I bet the majority of us didn't even think about the heating until November was upon us.  It seems to have been autumn since forever, but that's a good thing! A long autumn extends summer and shortens the dark winter months. 

During half term, I visited Wassenaar a lovely little town in the Netherlands. We discovered it  as a family over a decade ago, and have returned as often as possible ever since. Wassenaar is a little known but beautiful town in the middle of a woodland, and surrounded for sand dunes along the Dutch coastline south of Amsterdam. It's a town that celebrates autumn to the full, in the most natural and simplistic style. There is nothing fancy.

In the Netherlands, pedestrians and cyclists take priority. Cars are forced to travel slowly and always stop for cyclists. Every road has a cycle path alongside it, and it certainly appears that everyone cycles! Young children, too young to ride a tricycle ride in special child seats, in pull along trailers or sit in specially made trolleys in front of the bicycle!  When they are old enough, children sit on an additional seat alongside Mum or Dad and by the time they're four ,they have a bike of their own! The system encourages this lifestyle, no shortage of paths and parks, plenty of street lighting and of course, reasonably flat land!! At any one time, five or six bikes could be cycling past in both directions, the cycle paths are as busy as the roads. As a pedestrian of course, you are as likely to be run over by a bike as a car!! Step into the cycle path at your peril......these cyclists are serious commuters and travellers. They have a destination in mind.. The road systems in and around the towns are slightly 'toy town' with dainty little paths here and there, quaint markings, and raised crossings. It seems like a very healthy way of life, it all seems very perfect! 

As winter approaches and clocks go back (yes, they even go back in Holland) shops and houses seem to celebrate winter with the same enthusiasm as we celebrate Christmas.  Winter lights and candles decorate their doors and windows, and cafes offer blankets and fleeces to those who chose to enjoy their coffee and spiced apple cake outdoors in the winter sun.  The cakes, pastries and biscuits all take on a warming comforting feel, mildly spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. The cool crisp air seems to justify the goffres, (waffles) the syrup and pure chocolate dipping sauce.  They really know how to celebrate winter.

Even wind swept and cold, the Dutch jump on their bikes and enjoy life.  They cheer themselves up with large bowls full of home made soup and garlicky croutons. It's simple but effective. Yes, the grass is always greener, but if there's one thing I can take away from our mini break, it's to enjoy the moment, enjoy winter; come hail or shine! If it takes winter lights and candles, spiced cakes, warming drinks, and a log fire to bring a smile to my face, then so be it! 

I don’t wish to bring Christmas forward, nor see Christmas decorations in the shops in October, but surely, there's no harm in brining the joys usually associated with Christmas forward by a month or two. We are a country with four usually, very distinct seasons, we really do need to learn to celebrate them to the full just as our continental neighbours do.  To make the most of the weather, the colours, the foods and the spirit each season brings.