everything but the kitchen sink summer pasta

This pasta I cook often in the summer, basically bung in loads of fresh veggies in a frying pan cook till almost cooked, I like them to have a bit of crunch and retain that fresh taste. Add fresh herbs, good olive oil, toasted pine nuts, salt and pepper. Mix together with pasta and serve! For this one I used carrots, zucchini, yellow beans, cherry tomatoes, 1 large tomato (with the seeds taken out, a bit of pain but worth doing as you don't end up with soggy pasta), basil and thyme. A hint about thyme, the flowers are great to use in pasta and salads! Just don't cook them, add them at the end of a pasta dish or use in salad dressing or just sprinkle on top. If you have a little Parmesan kicking around that is great in this too. And for pudding...

Fresh blueberry pie! Very easy to make. Blind bake a pie shell and cool, make a glaze( I used a shop bought one) stir fresh blueberries into the glaze and turn out into the pie shell. Chill in the fridge for an hour. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Enjoy! I love this the next morning for a sneaky breakfast with a big cup of tea.

when you've got lemons...

You make lemonade of course!

Recipe for the best homemade lemonade!
-5 lemons juiced and the zest off of one of them
-make a sugar syrup about 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water,
-put in a pan and heat on low till sugar dissolves
-put lemon juice, zest and sugar syrup into jug

and top up with cool water to taste
-or don't top with water and leave the concentrate in the jug
-pour a glass half full of concentrate and top with sparkling mineral water
and a sprig of mint for a cool summer time drink!
oh, and don't forget the ice!

Relax and enjoy in the summer sun!

the joy of laundry

As domestic things go, cleaning is really very low on the list of enjoyable household jobs. I don't like cleaning, don't get me wrong I like having a clean house, but the actual act of cleaning I dread, I would much rather being doing something else like cooking. With the exception of laundry, I really enjoy doing laundry especially in the summer! Hanging the washing out on the line, the smell of summer on the sheets, towels and clothes. With the current heat wave here, everything dries in record time. Managed to get 3 loads wash, dried and put away in a morning! I have to say I love white cotton sheets in the summer, they some how feel cooler at night.

My recent addition to the laundry routine, Borax! I add a handful to every load and I it definitely makes for cleaner, whiter washing. Also I am a sucker for packaging! I love the vintage feel, and the random cow girl on the front. I like the way it looks on the shelf in the laundry room. I'm in the process of freshening up the laundry with a fresh coat of pale blue paint. In a another few days it should be finished! I think it will make the laundry experience a little bit prettier and with a baby on the way and the plan to use cloth nappies, I'm sure I'll be spending more time in there!

barefoot and pregnant

yep that's me. Sorry blog land, I have wanted to write to you! but, well various things have stopped me, for one 3 and 1/2 months of truly awful morning sickness(more like 24 hours feeling and being sick), then it was mothers day(work =crazy) then we were away on holiday and just were goes the time go? I keep meaning to post, I've taken the pictures, compose the post in my head and then? and then? well it just never made it on here. But onward and upward from here. I'm back!!!

I'm in the process of planning a lovely girly tea party with 2 of my dear friends tomorrow. It's going to be filled with lovely vintage tea cups and crockery, sandwich triangles, fresh fruit, homemade ice cream and scones with cream of course. Wanted it to be clotted cream but can't get it here in Canada, I googled some recipes but it sounds to long and complicated for me. By the way isn't the words "clotted" and "cream" together about the grossest sounding combination for something that is so delicious!

One of those English quirks! Will report back later this week with tea party pictures!

a mid-winter walk

A walk Marc, our dogs (Chocolate labs named Sula and Duffy) and I went on this past weekend. We often go here in the summer but I think it's just as pretty in the winter.

Icy creek water not a problem for these too. Splish splash!

I love this picture. This is Duffy he's 10 month old and is big goofy pup with zero grace or coordination.

They like to find the biggest stick possible to drag around with them, really only small trees will do.

Sula's duck to try and prevent her from dragging giant sticks around and taking us out at the knees every 2 seconds.

A lovely day full of sunshine and happy dogs.

big bowls of comfort

Comfort food usually comes in bowls and this week all I wanted was big bowls of it! There is something very comforting about bowls the way they feel when held, the warmth they give hands when their contents are hot and steamy. There is something almost primordial about them and I just can imagine that cave men (and women) sat around fires with bowls of warm dinosaur soup in their hands. This was one of those weeks where I was trying to use up stuff I already had, food was cooked by memory and feel with what I had on hand, tasting and adding as I went along. This is my favorite type of cooking although I love finding and trying new recipes and I have a vast cook book collection to prove it although I suspect I like the pictures and ideas more then anything else, it's nice to feel like an crazy chemist in the kitchen! Most of the time they turn out great but sometimes a gruel slop like thing comes out and it is usually when I have added to many ingredients, simple is usually better. This is most of this weeks fare.

Carrot and coriander soup with scones.

Leek and potato soup

A big bowl of cherries

Chicken wings BBQ and Franks red hot served with garlic bread.

Chorizo and bacon hash served with mash potatoes.

The worlds best mash potatoes, I use a food mill to mash them and then add lashing of butter and milk as well as salt and pepper. The texture the food mill gives the potatoes is smooth and creamy. I could literally eat this whole bowl! Homemade chicken strips with warm potato salad.

Turkey pot pie.
Vanilla ice cream.

Vanilla Rice pudding

Little lemon puddings!

It sure was a yummy week, tonight I'm having grill cheese sandwiches not in a bowl but very comforting nonetheless. February makes me want to wrap myself in warm blankets with a bowl of something warm in my hands.

new york, new island

This is my new kitchen island that my Dad(a man of so many talents) made for me. He finished it a while ago and it took me ages to paint it and put the top on but finally it's done. I found these wall decals at Jysk, and I think they are fab. They had Rome and London cityscape as well, but I settled on New York. The doors still don't have handles but I think I'm going to wait till we redo the kitchen before I decided on that. The island is on wheels so it can be moved when needed and I think it will work really well for serving large groups "Buffet Style", I'll put all the dishes on the island and everyone can just grab a plate and circle around.

It has 6 inch overhanging for stools to slide underneath . Hopefully I'll be able to find some to go with the cityscape.

Now both of us can be found leaning on the island top with coffee in hand, typing away on the laptop or having a chat. It nice to be able to stand across from each other with the island in between snacking, chatting and drinking, as one of us preps some food. It makes it feel more like the heart of the home, a place where everyone wants to be.It has definitely added some much needed counter space in our tiny kitchen.

I'm so pleased with how this turned out and now I have a New York island.