Busy week!

This week I am doing all I can to help youngest son before he returns to university, washing, ironing, proof-reading, shopping, all sorts of things!  I am loving every minute, and we will all miss him when he goes back.

To relax, I have been watching more Heidi Baker videos on Youtube.  This morning I have been watching this one called Riches of the Poor.  God is doing amazing things in Mozambique.

I recently bought this book.................

and yesterday I attempted Mushroom Risottioni.  It tasted very nice, but maybe wasn't too healthy, as there was a lot of creme fraiche in it, but we all enjoyed it nonetheless.  If you want to see a picture of it and have the recipe, you can find it here.  You'll have to scroll down a bit.  I doubled the ingredients to make enough for four people, which meant wiping 1kg of mushrooms!

Braised Chicken Chasseur

I had a new recipe book of slow-cooking recipes from youngest son for Christmas, so I've been trying out some of the recipes.

The other day I tried Braised chicken chasseur.

It is supposed to take 1 3/4 hours and serves four, but I like to use my slow cooker and let it simmer for a looooong time, and I always cook up a double amount to save time on another day.

The ingredients stated in the book are:-

4 chicken legs (I used 8 chicken breasts)

2 tbsp olive oil

2 onions thickly sliced

250g/9 oz mushrooms

1 tbsp tomato puree

300 ml/half pint white wine

400g can chicken connsomme, or stock (I used good old oxo cubes)

3-4 fresh tomatoes, quartered

This Tesco market value vegetable stir fry is one of my kitchen allies.  It's fairly cheap, and I use it in heaps of things, sometimes I even use it in a stir-fry!  On their own, I don't find frozen veg to be great, but the secret is to combine them with fresh veggies, and then you really cannot tell the difference between the fresh and the frozen veg.

First I browned the chicken and popped it in the slow cooker.

Next I browned the onions, along with the mushrooms and some dried apricots and sultanas I happened to have in the cupboard.  I usually start off with a recipe as a guide, then I add whatever I fancy to make a concoction.  I also added carrots because I had a few that needed to be used up.

Then it was all popped into the big 6.5 ltr slow cooker.  Can you see his little brother alongside?  He only cost £9 from Tesco's a few months ago, and it is so handy for smaller meals, soups, sides or desserts.

And here is the finished result, with the fresh tomatoes added a few minutes before serving.  It was delicious!

And here are some of my recipe books, I love to flick through them and plan meals, although I often make meals up as I go along too, especially at the end of the week, when I have an odd assortment of foodstuffs to use up!

The Year End

I cannot believe that tomorrow is not only the start of a new year, but it is also the First Birthday of Letters From Home!  It has been a busy year, and I haven't blogged nearly as often as I would have liked, but from now on I want to to try and post on most days.

Yesterday I bought my granddaughter Poppy a lovely coat from an 'upmarket' charity shop in Leamington Spa for £2.50, originally from Sainsbury's.

This afternoon I have made a big vegetable curry, mainly using veggies left over from Christmas, so this is almost a free meal!

I chopped and boiled some potatoes, carrots, Brussels sprouts and a cauliflower in hot water with a teaspoon of turmeric, which gives the veg a lovely colour.

In another pan I fried onions in a little oil, along with chopped garlic, and when softened I added a tablespoon of curry powder, some cumin  seeds and some paprika, just because I happened to have some.  To this I added chopped mushrooms and some yellow pepper. I threw in a handful of sultanas and some dried apricots.  Then I added a can of chopped tomatoes and about 250ml of vegetable stock.

When the veggies in the other pan were cooked, I drained them and added them to the curry mix and stirred it all together.

This is now sitting in a pan, waiting to be eaten!  I am going to serve this on a bed of rice, with low fat fromage frais on the top, along with some fresh pea-shoot salad, that I have just harvested.

I simply planted some dried peas, from the box above, in compost, a couple of weeks ago, and spread a thin layer of compost over them and kept them watered.  Ta-da!  A free, fresh salad in the depths of winter!  If you want the full instructions on growing pea shoots, go here.

Just a little walk this morning, 1.25 miles in 30 minutes, along our local streets, as the pavements were wet, so the fields would have been really muddy.  It's such a good feeling to be out walking, getting fresh air and exercise, I am feeling so much better for it, and so is Mr LFH too.

Happy New Year to you, here's to a healthy, happy, frugal 2012!

Books!

I just thought I'd tell you about some of the wonderful books I've been buying and reading lately.  Many years ago, when I was working in Africa, a colleague gave me a slow cooker book.  I have used this book many times over the past twenty years.  About a year ago, I lent it to a friend, who promptly lost it!  I forgave her, because she is a good friend, but I missed my book.  Imagine my joy a week ago when it turned up at a local charity shop for 30p!

I am so happy to have it back, in fact I think this one is in slightly better condition than the one I lost!

I also bought two books for 99p at another good charity shop.

"Wait for Me" is a wonderful autobiography written by Deborah Duchess of Devonshire, in her own words.  She is the youngest, and only surviving member of the Mitford sisters, and this autobiography gives a marvellous glimpse into her character and her life.

The other book, which I am currently reading, is "Just a Little Run Around the World" by Rosie Swale Pope. Her husband sadly died of prostate cancer about nine years ago, and in order to highlight the importance of early diagnosis, Rosie decided to literally run around the world, sleeping at night in a tiny bivouac at well-below freezing temperatures.

She is a remarkable lady, very inspiring.  She set off, running around the world, from her home in Tenby, on 2nd October, 2003, her 57th birthday.  She ran for four and a half years, non-stop, around the world by herself.  I am really enjoying reading this.

On my reserve pile I have The Mitford Girls by Mary S. Lovell, which is a biography of the Mitford family. I don't know if I will like this as much as "Wait For Me", as it is not in their own words, but I'm looking forward to reading it.

I haven't watched much TV over Christmas, I have an extremely low boredom threshold when it comes to TV!  But I have spent some happy times curled up with these books.

Christmas is saved

I have a Cannon cooker, similar to the one in the picture above.  I have noticed for a while that the oven doesn't get as hot as it used to, and I put it down to the fact that the cooker is 12 years old.  Anyway, yesterday the knob for the oven broke, so I couldn't use the oven at all.  I had visions of trying to cook Christmas dinner in my combination microwave and two slow cookers. The thought of that didn't exactly thrill me!

So today I have bought a replacement knob in a specialist electrical store, and I bought a spare knob for the hob, just in case.  These two tiny lumps of plastic cost me the princely sum of over £26!  At least now my oven seems to be working absolutely fine, so the Christmas dinner has been saved.

Why do these things happen at Christmas?  A couple of years ago, our dishwasher died just before Christmas, so we had to order a new one and get it installed quickly.  There was also the year that we got up on the Saturday morning before Christmas and found that someone had removed the wheels from my husband's car.  As if Christmas wasn't stressful enough!

So hopefully that's it now, no more annoying problems, at least until after Christmas!

Indoor Barbecue

Here at Letters From Home, we are not really into barbecues.  In our part of the world, it is rarely warm enough to actually eat outdoors, at least that's how we feel.  So this weekend I have discovered I can do barbecue food, kind of, in my trusty slow cooker.

  

It was so delicious, I want to get it all down here before I forget what I did!  

Firstly, I browned some veggies, 2 onions, a sliced red pepper, 2 sliced courgettes, some sweetcorn.  I put all the browned veggies into the slow cooker, then I browned 8 sliced of pork fillet.

This meal was to serve 4 people, but I usually cook a double amount and chill or freeze half of it for another day.  I love the fact that I only have to cook about 4 times a week!

I placed the pork on top of the veggies.  I find that slow cooked meals always work best when the veg is at the bottom, otherwise the meal cooks well but the veg can be a little undercooked.

Then I heated about half a jar of barbecue sauce in my pan, along with a can of chopped tomatoes and a can of vegetable soup (Sainsburys cheapest, about 17p a can, probably not very nice taken as soup, but fine in the slow cooker.

I then tipped this sauce mix into the slow cooker, and switched the cooker onto High for about an hour, the length of time it took me to get ready to go out to lovely Stratford upon Avon for a shopping trip.

Then just before leaving the house, I switched it to Low.

About 5-6 hours later, i.e. the time it took us to go to Stratford, buy a new dress at Laura Ashley, some new shoes, have a coffee at Cafe Nero, just next door to Shakespeare's birthplace, etc. etc, I arived home and boiled up some rice and peas and served this with our "Barbecued Pork".  

I had never cooked meat in barbecue sauce before, I just used Sainsburys own brand of sauce, and it tasted absolutely delicious.  

That was yesterday.  Today, we came home from church and ate the rest of the barbecue pork sauce with pasta, which was nice and quick and just as delicious.  You could serve this with salad and crusty bread, maybe with a little crème fraiche on top.  With a little imagination you could do all sorts of things, maybe some tortilla chips alongside would be nice.

Here is the dress I bought from Laura Ashley.  There was a 25% discount on all clothes, so it was a bit of a bargain, although as I usually buy a lot of my clothes from charity shops it still seemed quite expensive, but it's beautiful and comfortable, and I'm sure I will wear it a lot, so well worth it.

 

We are all on tenterhooks here at "Letters", as we are expecting the birth of our first grandchild any time in the next week or so.  You can imagine how excited we all are.  This baby will create two new parents, four new grandparents, and three aunties and two uncles!  I'll let you know when we have some news.

I am currently reading The Book of Margery Kempe, the oldest known biography written in the English language.  I hadn't chosen it, it is a set text for my son's English Literature degree for this year, so I am reading it before he returns to university, and I am enjoying it immensely.  She was a Medieval Mystic, who had an extraordinary life.

I'll try not to leave it so long before my next post, although the new term starts at the University next week, so that means I will be back at work, but I am looking forward to meeting new people and taking on new challenges.

Enjoy your weekend!

Random thoughts

Is it just me, or does anyone else detect some similarities here?!!!

Today, I am having a relaxing time, sorting out some recipe files.  I've got lots of Weightwatcher recipes culled from magazines, and I am getting them into order so I can find and use them regularly.  Also, I keep a recipe folder in a Word document, so if I find a recipe I like online, I can file it away for future reference.  This seems like a good idea, but there are some recipes on there I use repeatedly, and I have to open up the laptop every time I cook them, and sometimes the laptop is in danger of being smeared with eggs and butter!  To save my laptop, and my patience, I am gradually copying out my favourites whenever I have a spare few moments, and then adding them to my physical recipe files.

Here is the first one I copied out, a real favourite here at Letters From Home, I think it was originally from Attic 24  I do hope it becomes your favourite too!

LEMON DRIZZLE CAKE

125g butter

175g caster sugar

Grated rind and juice 2 lemons

2 beaten eggs

175g self-raising flour

A little milk

50g granulated sugar

• Cream butter, caster sugar and lemon rind until fluffy (You could put it all in food processor and give a good whizz)
• Gradually beat in eggs (add to processor and whizz)
• Mix in flour and add about 4tbs milk (yes, whizz again in processor) - mixture should be soft enough to drop off spoon when gently shaken
• Grease a 1kg/2lb loaf time (I usually line with baking parchment instead of greasing)
• Bake in moderate oven gas 4/350F/180C for 45 to 50 mins until risen and golden, firm on top.
• Just before cake comes out of oven, prepare lemon syrup: Heat lemon juice and granulated sugar gently until sugar has dissolved (45 secs in microwave and a good stir)
• As soon as cake is out of oven, while still in tin, stab it all over top with a skewer and pour over the lemon syrup.
• Leave cake in tin until cold (The cake will soak up all the syrup, even if it looks very soggy at the start)



Recipe for Life

1 cup good thoughts
1 cup of consideration
1 cup kind deeds
2 cups well- beaten faults
3 cups forgiveness

Mix thoroughly and add tears of joy, sorrow and sympathy for others. Fold in 4 cups of prayer and faith to lighten other ingredients and raise the texture to great heights of Christian living. After pouring all this into your daily life, bake well with the heat of human kindness. Serve with a smile.

Enjoy your day!

A Rest on Sunday

Yippeeee!!!! My wonderful, clever, techie DH has sorted out my upoading problems, so I'm back in business!

Yesterday I went yarn shopping in Solihull.  Between John Lewis and House of Fraser I managed to find just what I was looking for, some soft, washable cotton yarn in beautiful colours for some technicolour crochet.  Yes, no more black hats and gloves, but this is going to be one big, beautiful granny blanket.  Here's some gorgeous, woolly eye candy.....

I wish you could feel it and give it a good 'squidge' like I can!

I bought yarn from a variety of different brands in order to get exactly the colours I had in mind.  But it will all be fine, as they are all 100% machine washable pure cotton double-knit yarns.  That's one thing I like about crochet, you don't have to match yarns up exactly as you would if you were knitting up a garment.

I really want to get started on this new project, but I have some knitting projects on my needles that I should really finish first!

On Friday, I spent some time at home, so here are some pics from my day, I did some laundry and made some delicious rice pudding.  Here are some of my aprons, fluttering in the breeze...

My Rice Pudding recipe is an old American one.  It is cooked on the stove-top, rather than baked in the oven, and it contains eggs, so it tastes like rice pudding and egg custard mixed together, very nice.

This time I can give you imperial and metric quantities.

Rice Pudding.

1.5 litres / 2 1/2 pints semi-skimmed milk

185 g / 6 ozs pudding rice

125 g / 4 ozs sugar

pinch of salt

250 ml / 8 fl ozs semi-skimmed milk

3 eggs

5 ml / 1 tsp vanilla extract

1.  Combine first four ingredients in a deep, heavy-bottomed saucepan over a medium-low heat.

2.  Let the mixture come to a slow boil (it may foam up, that's ok).  Continue the slow boil (too fast a boil will scorch the milk) for approximately 1 hour, or until almost all the liquid has been absorbed.  The boiling will start making a 'pop' or 'slapping' sound.  When it does, the rice is finished. 

3.  Remove from heat and add the last three ingredients.  Combine well and let it stand for 20 minutes.  Serve warm or chilled.

By a warm fire, on a cold winter's evening, this is very homely and satisfying!  We've had some bacon and eggs for lunch, there is a casserole simmering in the slow cooker for later, and now it's time to put the kettle on, put our feet up, and have some hooky fun.

I do hope you are also able to have a relaxing day, life can often be tiring and stressful, and sometimes we really do need to switch off and remind ourselves that God is in control, not us, so we can safely let Him get on with what He does best, hand everything over to Him and simply enjoy the day He has given to us.

A rest on Sunday

"What a splendid day!" said Anne, drawing a long breath.  "Isn't it good just to be alive on a day like this?  I pity the people who aren't born yet for missing it.  They may have good days, of course, but they can never have this one!"

Anne of Green Gables,  Lucy Maud Montgomery.

I am really enjoying reading this book, and I am very happy that I am in contact with L M Montgomery's cousin, who still lives where this book was set.  Thank you Kathie for getting in touch with me. 

Today we have enjoyed a lovely lunch, that I popped into the slow cooker early this morning.  Onions, bacon and mushrooms browned, pork steaks grilled, carrots and parsnips chopped, then everything added to the crock-pot with 500ml of cider and a can of lovely, velvety mushroom soup for good measure. No recipe required, simple!

I also copied my daughter's idea and scrubbed and halved some new potatoes and put these at the bottom of the cooker, so no need to cook any potatoes seperately, very easy, just the way I like it!

Then I simply put some yorkshire puddings in the oven and boiled some broccoli.

Then lit some candles and made everything cosy and homely for a lovely, relaxing Sunday lunch.

Then eldest son very kindly agreed to model the beanie hat and gloves I have been knitting.

The patterns were given to me by my sister, who has won awards for her knitting. In fact, if knitting was a martial art, my sister would be a blackbelt!

There's not much colour here, because he wanted them in black, so I am looking forward to buying some yarn next weekend, and indulging in some technicolour crochet.  Watch this space! 

"Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens.  I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you.  Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light."  Jesus.  Matthew 11:28-30.

The caring lovingkindness of God towards me and towards others is a continual source of amazement to me.  That He, the Creator of all life and the Universe could be so personal, so tender, so thoughtful, so kind and so caring that my heart runs to Him for refuge, shelter, security, and He never fails me, because He is all Love, from first to last.  He knows how many hairs are on my head, and I find in Him a sweet haven of companionship, of understanding, of comfort and of rest.

Enjoy a restful Sunday my friend.

A trip to York

Last weekend, we took youngest son back to University, and  had some fun in beautiful York.  The weather was unbelievably sunny, although a bit cold and windy, and we did some lovely 'touristy' things.

We walked around the Minster.......

It really was as sunny as it looks.  The above pic is a view from the Roman Walls.

We walked along the Shambles, which date back to the 14th century.  The shops seem unreal, like wandering into fairyland.

We had some retail therapy, in the form of bookshops.  I bought some lovely old books from Oxfam books.

I can't wait to a start reading these, but I need to finish Middlemarch first, and I'm not even halfway through yet!

This is the timber-framed National Trust shop...

There are lots of shops and buildings just like this in York.

Then we went to Betty's Tea Rooms, one of the most wonderful tea rooms in the world.  We stocked up on our supplies of Betty's Earl Grey tea.

Betty's tea shop is a wonderful building.

This is Betty's flagship cafe, inspired in the 1930's by the RMS Queen Mary cruise liner.

It's wildly expensive, a cup of tea starts at about £3, and the atmosphere is very traditional, but that's what makes Betty's so fabulous and unique.  I love it!

I can't take you all to Betty's, so instead I will give you a recipe for Fat Rascals, which are Betty's most famous cakes.

Fat Rascals

8 oz Self-Raising flour
half tsp. salt
4 oz lard
3 oz caster sugar
2 oz currants
1 oz sultanas
1 egg, beaten
milk to mix.

Pre-heat the oven to 425F or Mark 7.  Grease baking sheets.  Sift the flour and salt together in a bowl and rub in the lard until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.  Stir in the sugar, currants and sultanas and mix to a soft dough with the beaten egg and a little milk if necessary.  Transfer to a lightly floured surface and roll or press out to a good half inch thick and cut into 2 and a half inch rounds with a cutter.  Place apart on the baking sheet and bake for about 10 to 15 minutes until golden.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.  Eat fresh with butter.  Makes about 12 scones. 

These cost about £3 each at Betty's, so you can save a lot of money and bake yourself a treat by making them at home!

Today I have been back at work, which was a shock to the system after a three week holiday.  I got up early, got ready, drove to the Park and Ride bus stop, then a quick bus journey to my loooong working day.  It has been lovely to spend time at home, being with my family, cooking and baking, knitting, crocheting, reading, doing all the things I enjoy!  I do like my work though, it's very rewarding and I work with great people.

Thank you so much to everyone who takes the time to read these pages, and especially to those of you who take he trouble to send a kind word in an encouraging comment.

I may not be blogging quite so often for the next few weeks, but please do drop by and say hello.

Chocolate Crunch!

I won't be signing in tomorrow, as I'll be busy helping youngest son prepare for his return to university.  We are having a very happy, busy Saturday here.  The sun has been shining and I've pegged shirts and pillowcases outside on the washing line for the first time this year.  They smell heavenly. 

We had a big fry-up for lunch - bacon, sausages, eggs, beans, toast, the whole works!  Five of us ate together, DH and I, both sons and DH's sister, it was a lovely family feast around the table.  Then I baked a batch of Chocolate Crunches for my son to take back to uni with him.  In fact, he always take a boxfull with him, I think his housemates would be disappointed if he didn't now!

I've had this Chocolate Crunch recipe for many years.  They are quick, easy and inexpensive to bake, and everybody loves them.

Chocolate Crunch

Ingredients:

10 ozs margarine
10ozs sugar
14 ozs flour
1 oz cocoa
A splash of good vanilla essence

Method:

1.  Melt margarine gently in a saucepan and add vanilla essence.

2.  Mix the sugar, cocoa and flour in a large bowl and add the melted margarine.

The big, muscly hands in this pic belong to youngest son, they're not mine!  He's my kitchen assistant when he's at home!

At this stage, the mixture tastes gorgeous, irresistable, as you can see!

3.  Press into a greased swiss roll tin about half an inch thick.

4.  Brush the top with water and sprinkle with sugar.

5.  Bake at Gas Mark 4, 180C or 360F for 20 minutes.

6.  Cut into squares while warm, but leave to cool in the tin.

As soon as they are cool, they can be easily boxed up and taken anywhere.



I often increase the quantities stated, today I have increased all the ingredients by 50% to ensure there will be plenty to go around the whole houseful of hungry students!

Do try this recipe, it's so simple, and yet everyone will think you are so clever! 

Here are some Restful Thoughts for you to think about tomorrow, while I am away from blogland. 

"If you know the love of Jesus - as the deer pants for streams of water (Psalm 42) - so you will pant for deeper draughts of His love.  Absence from Christ is hell; but the presence of Jesus is heaven.  Rest not then content without an increasing acquaintance with Jesus.  Seek to know more of Him in His divine nature, in His human relationship, in His finished work, in His death, in His resurrection, in His present, glorious intercession, and in His future, royal advent.  Abide hard by the cross, and search the mystery of His wounds.  An increase of love to Jesus, and a more perfect apprehension of His love to us is one of the best tests of growth in grace."  (C. H. Spurgeon)

II Peter 3:18 "Grow in the grace and knowlege of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ"

If you love to read Spurgeon too, you can go here to read more like this every day.

I love Spurgeon's writings, and as two of my loved ones are members of a church he planted, I feel practically related to him!

Enjoy your weekend my friend.