To friends I know and to ones I haven't yet met

Wishing you all A Very Happy New Year

 Thank You for your comments and friendship this past year, cheers me dears
Cate x

Red Lentil & Cauliflower Cobbler Recipe

Here is the recipe as promised, see last post. I didn't put any Tabasco in with the veg or oregano in the cobbler and it was still good :)
Make sure you have a big dish. I can't remember what the elec oven temp is sorry

Cauliflower Cobbler Serves 4 - 6
Ingredients1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
8 small onions, halved. I used 2 large ones
1 medium cauliflower, broken into florets
2 – 4 carrots, sliced
200g mushrooms, sliced
400g can tomatoes, chopped
60g- 80g red lentils
2 tablespoons cornflour
3 – 4 tablespoons water
300ml vegetable stock
Optional: 2 teaspoon Tabasco or other hot sauce
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Ingredients for the Cobbler Topping 
 225g self raising flour
60g butter
125g mature Cheddar cheese, grated
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 egg, beaten
150ml milk
Salt
Method for the filling
Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Fry the garlic and onions for a few minutes, then add the celery, carrots, cauliflower, mushrooms and stir fry for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and lentils. Mix in the cornflour and water and add to the pan with the stock, hot sauce and oregano. Bring to the boil. Transfer to an ovenproof dish, cover and bake in a preheated oven Gas Mark 4 for 20 minutes.
To make the cobbler topping
Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Rub in the butter, then stir in most of the cheese and the chopped herbs. Beat together the egg and milk and add enough to the dry ingredients to make a soft dough. Knead lightly, roll out to 1 cm thick and cut into 2 inch rounds.
Remove the dish from the oven and increase the temperature to Gas mark 6.
Cook for a further 10 – 12 minutes, until the topping is risen and golden. Serve immediately.
And enjoy

This came from Shaheen at Allotment 2 Kitchen

What a bad blogger I am

I havent had a lot of time lately, work gets in the way. I have been doing a bit more cooking now the nights are getting darker, how do you fancy
Red Lentil and Cauliflower Cobbler

I haven't used red lentils before I always use the brown ones, although a bit fiddly as there are a lot of ingredients it tasted great and everyone asked for more, if you would like the recipe let me know and I will post it.
We also had apple pie with Heritage apples from a friends garden, they had such a lovely flavour I think we have been spoilt .

I can't believe it's almost that time of year again the one where you write long lists and spend too much, this time last year we had snow, this year we still have roses. All the little ones at school are practicing for the Christmas play, so we have lots of  lambs running around :)
This is just a quick post to get me going again, hubbys test results are next week so hopefully it will be smooth running from now on.
You all seem to be busy I have just had a fly around cyber space for a read.
Hope to be back soon
Cate x

Betty Butter

Betty Butter bought a bit of better butter
The butter Betty bought was bitter
So Betty bought a bit of better butter

or so the poem goes something like this :) try saying this after a drink ( of milk )

I had a large tub of cream lurking in the freezer, lets use it I thought, apple pie with lashings of double cream, it looked ok but for some reason it was very grainy when defrosted, not one to be defeated as I hate waste I thought I would have a go at making butter, it was so easy,
looks like everyone will be getting homemade bread and butter for Christmas :)
This isn't a very good picture but now I have the bug I am going to try using the paddles and stamping my mark just like they did in the old days

  Does anyone know where I can buy one of these

Bye for now
Cate x

Brooches

My name is Cate and I'm a broochaholic
There I've said it, what started out many years ago when I was a little girl (hording all things shiny) has now turned into a bit of an obsession, well why have one when you can have more.

It seems an age since I blogged properly. Over the summer  I have found a few more bits of treasure, nothing of value except that wonderful feeling you get when you find something in a box or tin of rubbish and you just know you have to rescue it. These little china pin sticks are one of my favourites, my daughter bought me the pink one from a charity shop, it's so nice having a daughter who loves the same things.  

 Thought you might like a nose around at my latest finds, I know I like to see what you all find

The crazy thing is I rarely wear them, I'm always worried I will lose one, some are very fragile with loose pins.
My original plan was to incorporate them into the brooches I make, but it's getting harder to part with any.

I'm not much of a Winter person and am already missing the lighter evenings with that in mind I took a few pics of the last of the summer toms

 and unrelated greenhouse junk I'm glad to say I have since found the little boys spade. I bought this ornament years ago as it reminded me of my son as a toddler :)

Jutst a few Autumny pics before I go

I hope your all well and happy, hopefully I can get back on here now things have calmed down a bit at home, but of course then there is the latest distraction, Pinterest (it should be called Pinterpest ) although I do enjoy going on and have managed to collect a few boards, purely for research of course.
hope to see you all somewhere in cyberspace soon
.Cate x

Roses

I received a very pretty package this morning all the way from Australia. It was from the lovely Pam  at Bayside Rose

 http://baysiderose.blogspot.com/

It is always a pleasure to go on Pams blog she takes some lovely photo's, if you love flowers you won't be dissapointed, and go and have a look in the archive pics of her soap the packaging is so lovely.
This is the giveaway I won

A very neatly stitched cushion cover which I will have to hide from my daughter, she has a thing about red at the moment :)
Thank You Pam it is lovely
I really must have a go at making something as long as it doesen't need a zip I might be ok.


 Can anyone give me advise on which is the better Folksy or Etsy I have almost made enough brooches to  start selling

Hope your all enjoying the heatwave in the U.K. it may just make the Winter seem shorter. I know all of my plants are very confused but that can be for another post
bye for now

Cate x

Autumn Freebie

I'm not too happy once the weather changes, we live on the edge of the water so are at the moment being bombarded with stormy rain and wind, lovely to watch but not when you  have to fight with a tarpaline on our summer house roof, with all the hospital things going on we didn't get around to fixing it

.I saw this ad on google I think it's lovely

I thought a bit of comfort food was called for and all the better when it's for free, blackberries from the hedgerow hazelnuts and apples from the garden and a sqiushy pear from the fruitbowl

cook the fruit with sugar and a touch of vanilla essence

Make a crumble with flour, butter, oats and chopped hazelnuts and sprinkle on the fruit.

Bake untill golden brown

Grab the dish before it's all gone and spoon a big dollop into a bowl with icecream.

Yum

Ahhhh only 7 weeks to half term

Have a good  week
Cate x

Come and have a nose around

We had a trip out yesterday as it was our Wedding Anniversary, sometimes it's nice to just have a wander, we went to a local antiques centre, and for once I had my camera with me, do you see anything you fancy ?

 We arrived rather late so I didn't take many pics outside they have a lot of tin signs etc I will have to go back.

There are floors crammed with furniture.

With something for everyone.

sorry you can't see the prices

Next time I go I will take pics of the outside.

My lovely daughter brought these sunflowers home for us, they are so cheerful and a nice change from the usual flowers florists sell. Thank You :)

Lovely to see the sun is shining, I am trying to catch up on all the things I haven't done in the school holidays as it's back to work next week for me, it's always lovely to see the 4 yr olds arrive on their first day, they look so tiny.

I'm off  to have a cup of tea in the garden before I get to work,  you can join if you like

 Sorry about the bad manners

I hope your all having a good week


Cate x   

Whats the time Mr Wolf ?

We had a walk today in a short spell of dry weather, on the edge of the wood these lovely orange berries were growing, I wasen't in much of a doing mood so here are a few lovely flowers to cheer up what has been a miserable wet day, did anyone else get caught in yesterdays downpour ? I'll say no more except I think I'm growing web feet :) like my friend

 These are the biggest one-o-clocks (what do you call them ? ) that I have ever seen.
The story goes that you have to blow off the seeds, one blow is 1-o-clock when there are no more seeds left that is the time, this was taken a couple of weeks ago the flowers are just like Dandelions only taller.

Flowers in my garden

Poor Zara and her best friend Mog are so fed up with the rain, they hate to get wet, they have taken to their bed untill there is a more clement forecast.
 
I think I might dust off the paintbrushes and do some decorating, unless of course the sun comes out. 
Have a lovely Bank Holiday Weekend 
Cate x

Glad to be back

Hi all, we have had  many stressy months but at last things are getting better, my hubby has recently had brain surgery and I'm glad to say he is recovering well, it's early days and he will be off work for a while yet but the relief is amazing nothing seems that important anymore except life itself.
I made him a bit of a celebration tea to welcome him home would you like a slice of cake?

 or a choc chip cookie.
I thought I woud push the boat out and have a go at making meringues, after a lot of whisking and bad language I and ended up with a mountain of  fluff, I used unbleached castor sugar which gave them a lovely toffee taste the problem is I'm still not sure what I did :) if anyone would like to try I will get my thinking cap on for you.

I still have a couple of weeks left before I go back to school, I have spent far too much time on the garden, it was good to go out there and forget things for a while, maybe its time for a bit of housework :(  or maybe a couple of days out to celebrate a bit more.

Pop over let me know what you have been doing.

Have a good week wherever you are and
Give someone a smile you never know they just might need it.

cate x

Ben Shaws

This is a short post to say Thank You to Ben Shaws
I sent them an E mail saying I like to stick to my Northern Roots and purchase said products. I also like the fact that their lemonade doesen't have any funny stuff in it (aspartamine) but sadly I couldn't find it anymore, they sent me a very nice reply and offered me some cloudy lemonade for free, it made my day :)

 If you haven't tried it please do, it's lovely, and we need to support all our traditions before they disappear forever.
Cate x

 

Ladybird Ladybird

Hi everyone hope your all enjoying the lovely weather, I have 5 more weeks of the school holidays left, not that I'm counting :)

Yesterday I started a work on the path surrounding my old summer house, it was bulit in the 1930's and still desperately needs a renovation, if you want to see what it's like there are some pics in the archives just a mess really, at lunchtime there was suddenly an influx of these sweet little creatures or so I thought.

if you've never been bitten by one the first time can be a bit of a suprise. It was like the annual outing of the Ladybird Club they were everywhere and I had to come inside, I can remember a few years ago we had swarms of them, people were having to sweep them up there were so many, there are some pictures on Google.There is a link below if anyone is interested

We had a gas barbecue given to us last week by a friend which was very kind, well this thing is huge and we all stood looking at it and then promtly covered it up, it looks like you should have a license to use it and to be honest were not sure how to drive it yet, so if anyone knows of any good vege recipes or web sites for a gas barbecue I'm all ears,
I'm off now to get some L plates.

Have a lovely week wherever you are
Cate xx

http://www.ladybird-survey.org/

Good Morning

Here in the U.K. we are having a rainy weekend now I for one sometimes welcome a weekend in, it means I can do a bit of this, easy peasy coconut macaroons.

If you do venture out please remember to take one of these, this was taken at Hampton Court Flower Show they were just a little too pricey for me.

But most of all have some fun

And please do remember to wear the correct attire :)

                                                       
                 Wherever you are have a lovely weekend
                                         Cate xx