New paintings and regular art updates.
Days are getting shorter now and the fruit is getting ripe. We have plenty of pears on our tree, but of all five apple trees only one fruit. But then after weeding the allotment this morning we were allowed to get a tub of apples in exchange. Some of them are different varieties, a lot of them are a bit holey but I’m hoping they will taste nice if I stew them up or cook them in a cake. If it turns out OK I will post about it.
X
Went out for a belated birthday meal, everywhere has been shut down for months except for takeaways.
We had simple starters including small vegetable spring rolls, chicken wings, small spare ribs, satay chicken and chicken dumplings. Then I had a papaya seafood salad. It was delicious, spicy, lime and lemony, mixed green papaya and shredded carrot and sliced tomato and cucumber and other vegetables. Also a pile of spicy noodles and beansprouts, broccoli and other veg. The seafood were large king prawns, squid, and mussels. So tasty. Good prices too. Not to expensive, all cooked fresh.
Tonight was busy, I don’t think I’ve seen so many people in there for ages but it was worth the wait.
We went out to meet the art group this morning, but after half an hour in the hot sun on our own we went up to the local cafe. We both ordered full English breakfasts (you get a choice of ingredients, I had egg, tomato, hash browns, bacon, sausage, black pudding and mushrooms. That came with toast. We both had coffee and I had an orange juice. Not the healthiest food I know, but on the odd occasion its delicious (apologies to vegetarian friends). I appreciated not having to cook in this heat. After the meal we went and waited for our friends again but they never arrived. So we came home.
I cooked this tonight, lentil and chicken curry with tomatoes, ginger and garlic. ingredients
Two chicken breasts
A cup full of lentils
Chopped tomatoes
Spring onions
A sweet pepper
Two garlic cloves
Grated ginger.
First I boiled some red lentils for ten minutes, then fried some chicken pieces, a couple of spring onions, a sweet pepper and four large tomatoes. I added a small teaspoon of hot curry powder and the same of medium curry powder. I added a pinch of Fenugreek and then grated about an inch of ginger and two cloves of garlic into the frying mix. I’d cooked the lentils for a further twenty minutes then added it to the stir fried mix, covered it over for a few minutes more. It ended up being really tasty.
Just wanted a cool meal
Lettuce and radish
Avocado and tomato
Tsatsiki and spring onion
Spiralised cucumber
Egg and celery
Potato Gnocchi
Low calorie Mayo,
Yum!
Oh dear! My blancmange was too warm when I put it on top of the jelly. And I got extra thick cream which I over whipped. The whole thing is a delicious mess!
Now, trifle dipping, what is that? The act of knicking an extra spoonful of trifle after you’ve had your fair share! I’ve been known to slice a thin sliver off our Christmas trifle late at night. It is my favourite dessert.
X
Hubby went up the step ladder this afternoon and got some more delicious ripe cherries off the lower branches of the tree. The really bright red and dark red ones are too high up. A lot of the ones he got had peck marks in them and splits where they had started to burst their skins. I put about twenty or so on the bird table and then more bad ones in the bin when we came in. But it’s still a good haul. I’m thinking of doing another trifle…. Yum.
Now they are safe and washed and in the fridge, but they won’t last long…
Sunday tea. Trifle. Raspberry jelly with cherries and blueberries, raspberry blancmange, whipped double cream.
I made up a pack of sugar free raspberry jelly with half a pint of boiling water. Then I added almost half a pint of cold water (you can substitute a small amount of sherry) and mixed it up. I washed and pitted the cherries and put about a mug full of them into the jelly liquid so they covered the base of an ornate glass bowl I use to make trifles. I added about the same amount of washed blueberries, spreading them out with a spoon to give an even coverage. I put the bowl in the fridge to let the jelly set fully. (there are alternatives that don’t contain gelatin). This afternoon I made up a pint of raspberry blancmange (you could use custard instead). I left it to cool in the pan rather than putting it directly onto the jelly as it’s heat would melt the set jelly. Once the blancmange cooled I spooned it onto the jelly. After a couple of hours in the fridge I whipped up a tub of double cream. I added a bit of sweetener before I whipped it. That goes on top
Serve in a glass bowl if you want to be posh. I just got the breakfast bowls out. In this case the cream slid off the blancmange and the jelly broke up because I’d put too much fruit in. So beware spooning it!
The result was delicious. Yum
X
Used a hoe to pull the branches down and caught all these cherries in a brolly today. It was sunny for a couple of hours and the wind had dropped so we took the chance and dodged the rain showers. Picked loads, but there are loads left on the tree.
Now I’ve got to decide what to do with them. I might add them to some gin. Or I could make cherry pancakes.
This is a glut of cherries. If we were not in lockdown I would be sharing them with friends. It’s the biggest crop we have ever had from the cherry tree. If I could freeze them I would but I think they would spoil.
X
Got to try and harvest some more cherries between the thunderstorms.
We got a lot off the lower branches. We need a rake or something to grab some of the other branches. We have almost eaten the other ones we picked. I’m jealous of the birds that can get at the ones on the top branches. It’s great to have fresh fruit grown in your own garden. My friend bought a cherry tree but hers was a sour type. Ours is sweet. It’s worth checking and this tree is self fertile which means it sets fruit without the need of a companion tree.
Happy gardening.
X
Mallaband-Brown