a busy domestic blog of knitting, sewing and all kinds of needlecrafts, cooking my garden produce and preserving it

Tuesday 29 April 2014

Free Lunch - weeks 12/13

A fortnight of holidays and messed around meals but even so managed to include some salads from my garden/allotment produce - mainly involving spinach and baby salad leaves with radish and beetroot as available.


















Thursday 24 April 2014

Time for jam-making

 With masses of rhubarb down at the allotment this year, I thought I'd bring a couple of pounds home and start jam-making season.













I usually add orange and perhaps some ginger but, as I have a lot of left-over lemons in the freezer, I thought I'd try using them. It may turn out a little nearer to marmalade than jam but hopefully will still be tasty.

Sunday 20 April 2014

Free Lunch - week 11

Monday - a rainy day so time for soup from the freezer - tomatoes, corn, courgettes, broad beans and cabbagey bits (never any use as cabbage after being frozen but still ok for soup) plus the end bit of the huge 'gifted' swede and one of last years' chillies to spice it all up








 Tuesday - salad with spring cabbage, spinach and chives
 Wednesday - another salad - spinach, spring onions, radish and beetroot
 Thursday - lazy day, spinach, beetroot and my gooseberry chutney underneath it all
 Friday- guess what? salad! Shredded cabbage, spinach, chives, beetroot








Saturday - salad again *sighs* cabbage, spinach, gooseberry chutney










Sunday - surprise! salad  - this time with rocket and American land cress from garden, red lettuce from greenhouse and the faithful white cabbage


When I see how many times I end up eating more or less the same meal, I realise that all this 'eat-your-own- lark is quite boring!


Monday 7 April 2014

Free Lunch - week 10

Monday - allotment cabbage, garden red lettuce and stored baked beetroot salad
Tuesday - allotment spinach and radishes, garden chives and winter salad leaves









Wednesday - trying to find something a little different to my lazy leek and potato soup so chicken stock and corn from the freezer, with stored potatoes and fresh leeks.


 Thursday - back to salad - allotment spinach, garden lettuce, rocket and chives
Friday - yet another salad - spinach, cabbage and radish from Thirsday's allotment trip, beetroot and 'dried' apples, and chives.


Weekend - impossible to manage 'free lunches' for either day. It always seems to be weekend when I fall down on this challenge and just grab something quick and easy from the cupboard or freezer.

Sunday 6 April 2014

Green cable cardigan - update

Things are going quite well with my current project - though it rather depends how much I watch TV in the evenings as this is when I do most knitting. Since I last posted about it, I've completed one front and I'm now almost up to the armhole of the second. I'd rather wanted to have the cables on the second (right) side turning the opposite way to the first (left) but that proved too difficult without using a cable needle (something I don't like to do) When both are finished, I intend assembling the body, knitting up the front ribbing and neck - and then seeing how much yarn I have left. Then I'll decide whether to try for long sleeves or settle for short.