A foodie confession...broad beans!

I must admit I always felt a bit confounded by ye ol' broad bean. I mean I love the look of them all shiny and green sitting above a toasted piece of sourdough or pasta dura....just like the guy does from River Cottage. But, I had never tasted, cooked or grown them ever, ever before.

That is before last weekend when my first batch were ripe for the picking. Assisted by my able undergardener I began to change my food existence. I consulted a cookbook by Raymond Blanc, known round here as Ray White. My mate Ray had me peel the pods, extract the beans, blanch said beans for 5 seconds then refresh under cool water. Then a tiny incision in the skin and out popped the glorious bean. A bit of a fuss, but well worth it.

So what did I do with the beans? Cooked them in a mixture of cream, garlic and parsley of course! And it was yummy. Since then I've just steamed them with our normal greens and we've enjoyed them so much I think I will be growing them from now on. Plus it's nice to have a crop that grows over winter and enjoys the cold as much as we do!

Making an entrance

This project has been on the backburner for a while, along with soooo many others. But this morning I just felt like a quick crafty pick me up and it was just the solution.

Firstly I asked Dr Google for some recommendations of stencils and voila...I then cut out the said stencils with my trusty craft knife.

I laid the cut out numbers on the mat for positioning and then overlaid the stencil.


A quick spray with some black matte spray paint that I had sitting around and I'm fairly happy with the result. I may add some small diamond embellishments either side to soften up the jailbird numbers, but I think I'll just live with it for a few days before I decide on that.

It might be obvious to some...

...but sewing and children do NOT mix! This, yes I've known for a while. Firstly because I've got bugger all sewing done this year at home with two kids, particularly with a wee bairn. And secondly because when I do try to sew something it is usually met with "mummy can I help" and now a standing 10 month old tagging at my apron!

So what am I going to do...move my sewing corner. At the moment it resides in the family room right next door to the baby's room. This makes using the overlocker during sleep time or at night absolutely impossible. So at the next opportune time it will move location......stay tuned!

...and what's the photo of the tulip (Floriade circa 2006) in aid of I hear you ask? Well a blog post without a photo is selling you all short and I needed something pretty to offset my dark words above.

Is this thyme or thyme?

I must share with y'all my fabulous pot of thyme. It's been going strong since early Autumn and I've raided it so many times for roasts, stock and any other uses I can find. But I've run out of ideas - any suggestions?

Saturday night boongfest (@#*&^@)???

Boonge in our house can mean various things, but most often it is - fatty, but usually yummy and always a bit sneaky food. Ergo boongefest for our Saturday night desert (recipe below).

The fruit topping was made on Saturday afternoon and I let it infuse away in all it's glory - doesn't it look delicious?

Bay Scented Creams with macerated berries (Delicious Magazine Sep 2007)

Place 1/2 a vanilla pod seeds scraped with 300 ml of thickened cream and 600ml of pouring cream, 60g caster sugar and 3 fresh bay leaves in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and remove from heat and allow to infuse for 30 minutes.

Sprinkle 2.5 teaspoon of gelatine on some cold water and allow to set, then dissolve over low heat. Stir the gelatine mixture into the reheated cream and strain through a sieve. Pour into serving bowls.

Heat 1 cup of caster sugar,with 1 cup of water and 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped. Stir until sugar dissolves then heat for 5 minutes without stirring, remove from heat. Add 1 punnet of strawberries and 1 punnet of blueberries and two fresh bay leaves. Set aside in a covered container and allow flavours to infuse.

To serve top the set cream with the berries.........yummo!

I nearly forgot

Yes I know two posts in one day - shocking. But I nearly forgot to play show and tell with my most successful winter vegie crop - broccoli. I must admit I was a wee bit sceptical about growing this one but it was easy peasy! And the florets just kept a coming and coming. I planted eight seedlings out and had more than enough for all four of us. Interestingly one of the plants produced not a single floret. I've let them all go into full bloom of flower now as it's just so pretty and it fills the space nicely before I can plant out my summer crop. Speaking of my summer crop...I just need winter to disappear totally and we'll be on our way. We had a frosty start to the morning and are heading for a top of just 10 degrees Celsius - crazy!

Pop quiz - what's a polpettone?

Seriously I had no idea until I cooked dinner last night.....Italian meatloaf thingo...mine are wrapped in pancetta and cooked in a tomato sauce and the result - yummo!
And always, I say always use a 50/50 mixture of veal and pork mince whenever you make meatballs or anything like it...the flavour beats plain old beef mince any day.