Happy Birthday Dad

Wishing my lovely Bloke a very Happy Birthday today (even though today is nearly over!)
Don't eat all the chocolate at once. Unless it's because Mum is threatening to.
Thankyou for all that you do for us, it is greatly appreciated.
Lots of love
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Rhubarb Rhubarb

Dad and I have been busy at the allotment this weekend, getting it ready for planting. We now have the bean canes in situ, pea nets sorted and a frame to grow Gladioli up. One surprise I wasn't expecting was that the rhubarb would be ready to cut..

I had a couple of bramley apples left from the week when I had all good intentions to make baked apples for pudding, but didn't get around to it. Largely because I couldn't be bothered- it's all we can do cook one course on a work night, let alone two. Anyway, they came in useful for...

Rhubarb and Apple Crumble
500g rhubarb, trimmed and finely chopped (destringed like celery if it is thick)
300g apple, peeled, decored and roughly diced
200g caster sugar
100ml water
1 cinnamon stick

Oat Crumble Topping
250g plain flour
100g brown sugar
100g butter (soft)
1 tsp cinnamon
100g rolled oats
To Serve
Vanilla Ice-cream, Custard or Cream (or all three in some cases...)

Method
Preheat an oven to 200C (180 if fan assisted-sorry- not sure about gas!)
Rhubarb and Apple Filling: Place the rhubarb, apple, caster sugar, water and cinnamon stick in a saucepan. Place the saucepan on the stove at a moderate heat and stir the mixture so that all the ingredients are well combined. Leave the mixture to simmer gently for 10 minutes stirring regularly until the rhubarb and apple is soft and tender but still holds it shape. Remove the filling from the stove and take out the cinnamon stick. Spoon the puree into individual or a single pie dish. Set aside while you prepare the crumble.
Oat Crumble: Place all the crumble mixture except the oats into a food processor and process it briefly so that you have a rough crumb mixture. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and stir in the oats until it is well combined. Scatter the crumble mixture all over the filling.
To Cook: Place the rhubarb crumble or crumbles into the preheated oven and cook it for 30 minutes or 20 minutes for individual ones until the crumble is crisp and golden brown. Remove the crumble from the oven and serve.

Mum and Dad came over for dinner last night as a belated Mothers Day meal. Rob cooked rack of lamb with a herb crust and roasted new potatoes with french beans for the main course. I was on pudding duty.

I really should have taken photos of the finished article,served up with a scoop of Ben and Jerrys' finest, but to be honest by that stage I really couldn't be bothered to find the camera. It tasted so good, and all the better for being homegrown. Well, the rhubarb if not the apples!

Today I have planted what seems like hundreds of bulbs in the back garden. We have a Lidl supermarket in the town where I work and this week was their gardening extravaganza! Although I am a bit wary of the weird tinned goods they sell, they do particularly well on their garden stuff. I was elbowed out of the way by little old ladies (seriously) at the bin that was selling bags of bulbs for 49p...the containers of wild flower mix were snatched from the shelves before I even got through the revolving doors. I did manage to buy a huge carrier bag full of bulbs and seeds for £7. I have gladioli for the allotment, to give it some colour, lily of the valley in the back garden as I love their scent and they look so pretty. There are yellow alliums and purple iris, and big spiky purple thistles. Well they looked good on the packet!

I have planted two seed trays up with peas, and another of sweet peas. They are now on various windowsills around the house, waiting to germinate ready to be transported down to the allotment.

May now be time to get the oven on ready for that second, smaller crumble..

From Welly to Belly

We live a street away from the railway line and sometimes when I'm laying in bed at night and the wind is blowing in the right direction I can hear the gentle vibration of the last train on its way to London for the night. We also walk over the railway bridge on our way to the allotment.

I have been guilty of not having visited our allotment for a while. Largely due to wet weather, cold weather, feeling rubbish. Enough excuses for you?! The sun was shining beautifully this afternoon though and I was itching to go down there for a nosey around to see what was going on.

Part of the reason could have been a present bought for me by my lovely husband on our trip into Cheltenham this morning. There I was, all ready to leave Waterstones empty handed when he appeared with this treasure. I do already have Andi Clevelys' other book, 'The Allotment Book' but this is his long awaited follow up. It's full of useful info, articles on people who have allotments and what they like to grow, and original seasonal recipes. Even if you don't have an allotment but like growing vegetables in your garden I would recommend it.

We're quite lucky at out allotments in that there is a carpark (not that we use it much- we have a shed and only live around the corner, but still useful to have a carpark if you're heaving bags of compost about or transporting trays of seedlings from home). We also have water on tap ( I didn't realise that many sites don't and owners have to survive by keeping huge water butts, old baths, any large container you can think of and just being very sparing with water, or planting drought resistant varieties and mulching a lot) We still use water butts as the tap is quite a distance and we like to recycle as much as possible, but it would be a nightmare not to have a tap with such a huge plot.

The plots are full of imaginatively built sheds, greenhouses, tables and benches. I could wander around for hours just looking at everything. It's so interesting to see how people set up their plots..some are a jumble of plants plonked here there and everywhere, others are strictly uniform rows of plants, not a weed in sight (impossible! How do they do it?!) One old chap, Len, practically lives at his plot. He has a shed with a toilet, a cooker, armchair and resident dog. The allotments are his life, and fellow allotmenteers his friends. He will do anything for anybody and is always on hand with advice (but equally happy to tell you where you are going wrong!)

And this is our plot. The photo is taken from the top, and it slopes down to where the shed is at the bottom. On a clear day we have an amazing view across the town and over the Cotswolds. The crop in front are broad beans, beyond that Purple Sprouting and then Leeks. Behind where the photo is taken from are 5 massive rows of strawberries. Yum.

This is the view from the bottom looking up, as far as the blue water butts. The plot is terraced which makes life a lot easier when you realise you've left something in the shed.

Dad has been very busy in recent weeks getting the soil ready for spring planting, and it's looking great now, like a blank canvas ready to be filled. We have grand plans for lots of potatoes, cabbages, cauliflowers, courgettes, sweetcorn, carrots, parsnips, peas, runner and borlotti beans...the list is endless. I want to grow sweet peas up the side of the shed this year as well.

At home I am going to grow tomatoes cucumbers and peppers in the greenhouse, and continue to nurture the herb garden as it develops...it's looking good so far, just needs some sunshine now. Like the rest of us!

Q and A

I have been tagged by Carolyn from Craftsby Carolyn to fill in the following info about me..not very exciting news I'm afraid, but here goes!
What were you doing 10 years ago?
Hmm, I was 19 and working as a private nanny for three children, a 6 week old, a 3 year old and a 7 year old. How did I do it?!
What were you doing 1 year ago?..
celebrating just over 2 years of wedded bliss, doing the same job I do now, but didn't have a blog and hadn't learnt how to make jewellery! Had just found out I had an allotment from the local council.
Five snacks you enjoy:...
1) Marmite on toast
2) Mini Cheddars
3) Pitta bread and houmous
4) Digestive Biscuits
5) toasted teacakes with butter (it did say enjoy!!)
Five things you would do if you were a millionaire
1) Buy a cottage by the sea in Cornwall
2) Fly out to Canada to see my brother and his wife (do I get brownie points for that, Nic?!)
3) Buy my husband an Aston Martin
4) Quit the day job (I don't get people who say winning the lottery wouldn't change their lives- why bother doing it then?)
5) Have a shopping splurge in Selfridges
Five bad habits
1) Leaving ironing until the last minute
2) Being rubbish at housework
3) Pulling faces down the phone at boring clients (like I'm doing now...grrrrr)
4) Putting the phone down and saying 'Oh shut up' after a conversation with boring clients...(just being honest)
5) Not being very good in the mornings until at least 2 cups of tea have been consumed.
Five things you like doing
1) Sleeping in on Sunday mornings
2) Sitting in bookshops surrounded by loveliness with no time constraints
3) Camping
4) Walking on the beach in winter in Cornwall
5) Looking out to sea in Cornwall from the warmth of a cafe with a latte to hand and the papers spread out
Five things you would never wear again
1) A mini skirt- I would be locked up
2) This shirt- I have managed to dribble tea all down the front of it this morning and I fear the stain will never come out
3) Linen trousers- I love them but always look like a hot sweaty crumpled mess by the time we arrive anywhere
4) A pink dress which I wore to a wedding about 4 years ago- I love it but it doesn't love me. I can't part with it though, it's beautiful.
Five favourite toys
1) Our camera- blogs wouldn't be the same without it
2) Ipod- brilliant.
3) Laptop- ditto
4) Our combi charger which we take camping, does a camera, ipod, mobile phone, the list is endless. A fab piece of kit
5) My big bead box- It relaxes me instantly, looking at all the glittery sparkliness.

So there you go, hope you haven't dozed off. Sorry no photos today but am at work ..shhhh!!

Let there be love...

Hope everyone had a lovely Valentines Day, it certainly seems like there are lots of lovely chaps out there from all of the blogs I have been reading today at work (purely for research, obviously)

Rob surprised me with tickets to Dirty Dancing in London, which was great fun. We drove down to London on Thursday morning and spent the day ambling around in the sunshine, having lunch and shopping before seeing the show at night. Great fun was had all round. We had good seats (nobody puts Baby in the corner) and the dancing was out of this world. All very fabulous indeed, thankyou Mr F.

Also I received my Valentine Swap package from Jo at French Knots. I am so thrilled with it, and her cleverness!

Inside my personalised bag were beads, buttons, ribbons, heart shaped chocolates (see above!) pins, a beautiful pin cushion, a needle book, a hand sewn card....LOOK!

Jo is aware of my inability to sew, and in an effort to encourage me included the lovely bits and pieces above. Thankyou so much! I'm looking forward to next year now! I may have sewn a whole button on by then...

Pancakes and peanuts

Sat at work on Wednesday morning, my boss and I were discussing the previous evenings success of various pancake toppings. My personal favourites were chocolate chips from my basket of cake decorating paraphernalia. And golden syrup (but not together) My boss has a 4 year old son who has serious food issues. The only thing he really loves to eat is marmite on toast- as a marmite lover I can see the attraction, but can also see why my boss and his wife are quite worried. I think they have visions of him going on a hot date one day and be sat there with a couple of slices of Hovis and a jar of the black stuff. Anyway, as a result they like to try and tempt him at mealtimes with all kind of weird and wonderful things, and this was the first occassion little Charlie had tried a pancake. To his credit he had a mouthful of pancake before pulling his favourite Bart Simpson face and pushing it to one side. Mum suggested drizzling a bit of honey on some pancake. Nope, not interested. Peanut Butter? (Yuck, that cannot have looked attractive) Still No. Whilst all this was going on, Jack, Charlies little brother was having a delightful time squeezing all manner of toppings on his stack of pancakes and finally settled on his favourite -honey and peanut butter. Together. I sat back in horror when I was told, but apparently it is a fabulous combination and has to be tried.

From pancakes my thought process moved onto cake (as is the norm) and I thought about peanut butter and honey cake and Googled it. Oh yes, there is such a recipe. And I have made it this evening whilst listening to Chris Evans and dancing around the kitchen to 'Jump' in manner of Hugh Grant in 'Love Actually' It is lovely, very very easy (the cake, not the dancing) and simple to make but looks quite disturbing whilst mixing. Stick with it though!


Peanut Butter and Honey Cake
* 1/2 cup peanut butter (crunchy if you want texture, smooth if not-or a mixture)
* 1 cup runny honey
* 3 eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 3/4 cups plain flour
* 2.5 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 tsp salt

Cream peanut butter and honey together. Add eggs and vanilla extract. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Add to the creamed mixture. Pour into a lined 9 inch square pan and bake at 180 C for 35 mins. (or 350 F)
That's it! It really is easy..I did cover mine with a square of greaseproof paper after 25 minutes to stop the top from browning too much. Leave it to cool slightly before peeling the paper off, and then leave to cool totally before slicing and spreading with butter. Mmmm.....
The cake above is travelling over to East Anglia tomorrow to my Grandad. I don't think I will be admitting straight away what's in it though. I doubt very much he has ever tried peanut butter and I want to break him in gently!

p.s- not necessarily in the same league as the 'Sticky Ginger Cake' but much less faffing about!!

He was a skater boy...

Who says Graffiti artists write a load of rubbish? I thought that this was actually very helpful advice for all those novice chefs out there...and we certainly stood in awe as we watched the skater boys do their stuff. I did have to restrain myself from telling them to be careful though.

This was the scene of the dedicated skateboard area/park whatever the dudes themselves would call it on the South Bank in London. We watched them for ages on boards and bikes throwing themselves up slopes, bouncing off walls and generally just being pretty damn cool. They certainly pulled in a crowd of admirers, and lots of photographers as well.

We had a lovely weekend in London, starting off on Saturday afternoon at Twickenham to watch our boys and Wales in the 6 Nations. Oh dear, we lost horribly in the second half but the atmosphere was electric. Unfortunately the promised muddy rugby players thighs photos didn't turn out as hoped. We were sitting quite a way back and the zoom wasn't up to it! Instead you get these..

I had 36 layers of clothing on and it was still blimmin freezing, but the Christmas Hat helped a lot. I also wore the scarf that I started knitted last millenium but decided to finish on friday night. If you are a knitter please don't zoom in or examine it too closely, you may start to cry. It served it's purpose!! Despite losing the match we had a great time, and then drove into London and stayed at a hotel, went to the bar and then ordered room service. There is something quite decadent about eating steak sandwiches whilst snuggled up in a fluffy dressing gown!

On Sunday morning we met up with Nancy, G, O and C and had a sunny walk along the South Bank before demolishing more food in Giraffe. I have never been to a Giraffe restaurant before but the food was great, I can highly recommend it, especially if you have little people in tow- they get free balloons and colouring in sheets! (children are so easily pleased aren't they?!)

Hope you all had a lovely weekend as well, I am now off to make a start on the enormous pile of washing that seems to have been breeding whilst we have been away..