Courgette and Tomato Soup

I went for a lovely camping trip, Mr Pickles loved it!!! Here's my favourite picture

And one of him actually in the tent!!

Anyway, upon my return to the allotment, as a few days turned into a couple a weeks because we were having so much fun, I arrived to this!!!

So, just what am I going to do with these! First things, a soup will hopefully use up some!!!

Ingredients

1 large courgette

A few left over cherry tomatoes knocking around in the fridge

2 red onions

3 garlic cloves

500ml or less of chicken or veg (or both as I do) stock *remember that courgettes will release a lot of water and its easier to add then take away!!!*

Tsp lemon juice

2 tsp caster sugar

Fresh parsley and basil

Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

3 Tbsp tomato purée

Can chopped tomatoes 

Salt and Pepper

Drizzle of olive oil

Put everything into your slow cooker, cook on high for an hour and the turn it down to low and enjoy the smell for a couple of hours!! Wen ready to eat just blitz with a electric whisk!!! Yummskylicious!!

Slow cooker blackberry jam

In my slow cooker adventures I have decided to try jam out and it's worked pretty well

I went out to Mersea Island in Essex and saw these blackberries and thought why not

I found this recipe card on google images; not bad, and I don't have to type the receipt out!! Beautiful laziness at its best :)

Plant hanging basket

Yesterday I went to a car boot and picked up some pictures for £1 each!!!! This finally provided the motivation to crochet a hanging basket that I've been meaning to do for ages!

I used twine from wilkinsons for 79p and a size 5 crochet hook

Start Chain 6 and join together to make a circle

Row One chain 6 and then single crochet (sc) into the circle and repeat this 5 times to get six loops

Row Two chain 8, *sc into the top loop, repeat 6 times, still maintaining the six loops

Row Three chain 10 and repeat * 

You can carry on doing this (increasing by 2 chains) until it covers your pot and then its time to move up the side where I increased my chains by five and looped in as before

I choose to do 80 chains up (160 to go back down) to make my pot hang approx 2 foot, going up and hooping a chain around my fitting to make it big enough and as a marker and placing a sc to secure on the last loops.

i then cut a length of twine and wrapped it around the top of the strands to add security and wrapped it a couple of time around the hook for a bit more support (remember water+soil is rather heavy)

Make sure you find a beam to screw it into or else it will fall out and potentially take some ceiling plaster with it!!

And here are my awesome bargain watercolours that Gen doesn't like but I do so they're up!! Hehehe

 

Nameless poetry

As I was cleaning my loo today I though of my esteemed writing friend and wrote a little poem for her :)

Poetic quintet
Rhyming couplet

What will make me sound....great?!

Furiously working-
Sweat dripping-

My husbands a cheapskate
'Own brand' bleach on this state!

London's elite will want me out,
Just as soon as I put this washing out!

A literary genius behind this mop
just dying to get out

After I take the kids to Scouts.....

1950's kitchenette

I love these old cupboards and was fortunate to pick one up from ebay in my local area and I am currently upcycling it into a dresser for my pretty things and a living home for my GHD's :)

Courgette loaf

I have an abundance of courgettes, yet again =D so I have many recipes that I have come across over the years to keep them out of my freezer!! This is a family favourite; courgette loaf.

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 125ml vegetable oil
• 85g soft brown sugar
• 350g courgettes, coarsely grated
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 300g plain flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 85g walnuts, roughly chopped
• 140g sultanas
• What to do
• Heat oven to 180C and Butter and line a loaf tin with baking parchment. 
• In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, oil and sugar, then add the courgettes and vanilla
• In another bowl, combine the remaining ingredients with a pinch of salt.
• Stir the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, then pour into the tin. Bake for 1 hr, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool, then serve, or freeze for up to 1 month.

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White current wine

So we have been very busy recently that I have been forced to neglect my blog!! I resolve to do much better and post all the new stuff I've been up too!! I just need to sit down and post :)

In the mean time, just a quick one, our lovely allotment neighbour kindly said I could help myself to his white currents as he didn't have a purpose for them, which in my mind means only one thing when one has too much of something with no use.....turn into booze!!!

900 grams ripe whitecurrants

900 grams sugar

Pectin enzyme

Yeast nutrient

Wine yeast

Make sure the fruit is clean with no stems still attached and then press them and squish them with your hand (clean obviously)

Pour enough boiling water to cover the fruit but not filling up your container and add the campden tablet (obviously with clean hand no removed)

Cover and leave to stand for 24 hours then add the sugar with some more boiling water and stir to make sure the sugar is dissolved and leave until cool enough to add the yeast and nutrient (25 degrees or less) 

Cover and leave for seven days and then strain through a sieve and put into a demijohn.

When fermentation has ceased, rack the wine into a clean jar and add pectin when the wine is clear and siphon into bottles.