Here they come!

The beds are coming to life.

Red and white onions coming along nicely.

Potatoes just peeping through.

Sugar snap peas looking good.

Mixed lettuce, thinned them out a bit today and had a huge plate of baby leaves for my lunch

Strawberries are flowering.

Tomato plants have zoomed up in size.

Pepper, chilies and aubergines coming on a treat.

Finally its time to plant and sow

My lovely tomatoes, peppers, chillis, potatoes and onions all ready to be planted

My Thompson and Morgan seeds arrived in the post today....don't they look gorgeous? The swiss chard looks so colourful..I can't wait to get them in the ground.

This years garden plan..I'm going to try lentils and aubergines this year

Lots of manure to dig in...one of the muckier jobs

That lovely moment just before planting.

Finally the weather has warmed up here. I am feeling a bit behind on my planting but it's been so cold and wet there's no way I could have got anything in the ground. So now its all systems go. I'll put another picture on when its all done in the meantime I've got to roll my sleeves up and get to work! 

Limoncello recipe

This is an amazing drink I discovered last week whilst spending a night in St Ives. We had a great meal at St Andrews Bistro. The chef bought this out as a little treat at the end of our meal. It's so easy to make. I now have a rather nice bottle of it in my freezer!

I used cheap Tesco vodka and bought 6 shot glasses from Amazon. It's now a great addition to all my dinner parties!

Limoncello

Ingredients
5 unwaxed lemons
1l bottle vodka
750g caster sugar
700ml boiling water
Pare the zest from all the lemons, try not to get any white pith. Put the zest in a large clean jar and pour over the vodka. Cover with a tightly fitting lid and leave for a week, shaking the jar every  day.
Put the sugar in a saucepan and pour over the boiling water, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Once slightly cooled, add to the vodka and peelings and leave for a further week.
Decant into bottles ( I used the original vodka bottle...you'll find you have quite a large quantity of it, I'm keeping the bulk of mine in the storage jar then topping up my vodka bottle in the freezer when its running low!) add a few strips of lemon zest to each bottle. Just keep an eye on the bottle to make sure it doesn't completely freeze as its not pure alcohol!

Foraging

Picking the berries

Juicy

I love to forage this time of year-its amazing what you can bring home in a very short space of time...and all for free!

Alfie and I have just spent an hour up the fields gathering blackberries....they are ripe and juicy, I'll wash them and let any creepy crawlies make an exit then I'll bag them up and freeze them till I want to use them. 

We then raided the sloe bush.....abundant with big purple berries. Dean's off to buy a large litre bottle of Gin. I'll wash and weigh out 450g of berries then prick the skins with a sterilised needle and put in a large sterilised air tight jar along with  225g of  sugar. 

I'll put it in a cool, dark cupboard and shake it every other day for a week then once a week for a couple of months, should be ready in time for Christmas!

We came across a hop plant growing up a telegraph pole-I feel my own brewery coming on...maybe not! Some apples, quite small and some cob nuts. Also a passion flower growing in the sloe bush..bizarre- I've taken a cutting to see if it will grow.

Hop

Our hoard

I love ruby chard

I've just harvested armfuls of delicious vegetables from my garden. Ruby chard, french beans, potatoes and red onion...I've never grown ruby chard before, it's absolutely lovely. You just need to cut the stem out and chop it up then chop the remaining leaves and saute all of it in a bit of butter with garlic and mushrooms, its a great side dish. Ruby chard doesn't have that horrid green taste that spinach gets when the leaves get too big, so don't throw any of it away-eat it all!

Lemon chilli prawns in Armona

Lemon chilli prawns

Beach house in Armona

Supper on the verander

Another amazingly relaxing summer holiday on the island of Armona comes to an end.

One of the highlights for me is preparing food on the BBQ.. it's by far my favourite way to cook.

King prawns are so cheap in Portugal it's hard to fit them all on the BBQ.


Lemon Chilli Prawns

3tbsp lemon juice
half teaspoon hot chilli sauce
1 tbsp grated ginger
2 crushed garlic cloves
2 tbsp chopped  coriander
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp honey
20 raw tiger prawns

Combine the first 7 ingredients together in a bowl then coat the prawns. Marinate for 30 minutes then thread onto skewers.

Grill over hot/grey coals for about 3 minutes per side until the prawns are pink.

I made a simple pepper salad to go with it: 

Red pepper salad

4 red peppers
4 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp chopped coriander
2 crushed garlic cloves
squeeze of lemon juice

Chargrill the peppers over a flame until the skin starts to blister then put them in a plastic bag to sweat.

Meanwhile put all the other ingredients in a bowl. Chop the sweated pepper and add to the bowl, coat evenly.  

Happy holidays!!

Planting garlic

I planted garlic a couple of years ago without success, it rotted in the ground. This year Dean has decided to give it another go. 


He planted two rows-1 inch deep and 5 inches apart - fingers crossed!