Teach my son to cook - Week Two

This week I hope Hamish will be happy to attempt something a little more complicated.

This recipe is an adaptation of something I remember watching Rick Stein cook, as a simple, earthy, and satisfying meal.

Again, it's a one-pot wonder.

Sausages & Potatoes (for 1)
You will need: Frying Pan, lid or tinfoil for the pan, knife, spoon, cup

Ingredients:
2 large potatoes
2 sausages or 4 little ones, full flavoured, preferably a bit spicy
1 large onion
1 clove garlic
1 lemon
1T or so of butter
some parsley if you can lay your hands on it

Peel the potatoes and chop into 2 inch pieces.  If you have large sausages cut each into 4 pieces, if you have little sausages twist them in half and cut at the twist to make 8 pieces.  Of course if you think you need more sausages feel free to add them!   Cut the onion into largish pieces.  Grate the peel off the lemon, and squeeze the juice into a cup.

Add the onion, butter and garlic to the frying pan and cook for about 5-10 mins till onion is soft.  Add the sausages and potatoes, fry gently to brown a little.  Add the lemon zest and juice.  Add only a tiny bit of water - this is not a stew.  Turn down the heat till it is just simmering, add the lid.  Leave to cook till the potatoes are ready, about 30 mins.  Check often, and add a splash or two of water if it needs to stop it sticking.  To serve stir in a few tablespoons of chopped parsley.  Heap onto plate and eat.

Do Dishes

UPDATE: 21/6/16
Hamish reported that these were absolutely delicious!

Planting and Pruning

Winter is upon us, but work in the garden continues apace.

I have been planting garlic, pruning blackberries and boysenberries, removing nets, cutting things back and generally tidying up.

A mini project - Teach my son to cook

I was proud to attend Hamish s graduation on Friday, and while we spent the weekend together we talked about his new job (with the gaming  company Camshaft in Wellington).  It seems his domestic skills are still limited and we hatched a plan to branch him out a bit.

I'll write a recipe once a week and he promises to cook it...I hope he photographs the result so that I can see how he is getting on.  I hope to be able to gradually expand his repertoire, so here goes the first one.

Lesson One - Omlette

You will need: 3 eggs, a small piece of cheese, salt and pepper, a small amount of butter, a bowl, a metal spatula, a grater and a frying pan

Method
Break the eggs into a bowl, any bowl will do
Add 1 tablespoon of cold water from the tap, add a pinch of salt and a shake of pepper
Whisk well with a fork
Put the frying pan on the heat and wait till it is very hot
Add 1 teaspoon of butter,  swirl the butter to coat the bottom of the pan
Add the beaten eggs
Cook for one or two minutes till the eggs start to set
Take a small pice of cheese and grate it over the surface of the Omlette
At this point you could also add slice olives, tomatoes chopped or cooked ham
Cook a minute or two more till almost all set
Put the spatula under one side of the Omlette,  lift the edge and fold the Omlette in half with the cheese trapped inside
Cook one more minute then tip the frying pan to slide the Omlette onto a serving plate
Eat
Finally step, do the dishes

UPDATE

Hamish made the omlette for a lunch on Wednesday, and said he loved it, despite the electric "devil" cooktop.

This was his finished lunch!

What a fabulous start to his cooking adventures...now...what next, hmmmm?

Round up for April/Early May

What a strange, mild time we are having with the weather.  The drought continues into it's second year.  Our paddocks are dust and stone, and we are feeding out.  The ewes + rams have gone off for grazing elsewhere, we only have Willow the Cow, Lucky the PetLamb, and Cecil the Ram here for feeding.

Dry days and beautiful sunsets have graced our Autumn

Things that have done well this year so far, Artichokes, Basil, Grapes, Apples, Strawberries (in fact, all our berries) and Asparagus.  

Our strawberries have been so fantastic I have frozen kilos and kilos of them.  I think there are about 20kgs of them in the freezer, which should last us all year.  We also made Strawberry Jam using up a few kilos.  Fresh, sun ripened, warm strawberries straight from the garden just can't be beat.

Things that have NOT done well this year so far, Tomatoes, Rhubarb, Potatoes.  The tomatoes were a complete failure! I've never not been able to grow them.  But, this year, an early hot spring, followed by a hot summer just didnt provide enough moisture for them to fruit properly.  The only ones that did any good at all were ones which self sowed in my flower garden.

My "Secret Garden" has really grown.  The Griselinia has bulked up, and will make a good hedge some time soon.  The pond plants have done well also.  Thyme has self sown all over the place which means one less chore filling in the gaps.  

Feijoas coming into season

On a Side Issue

I am succumbing to a bit of self promotion...I have another website and blog, advertising my work as a writer.  

Just to get it out there, yes, here is the link!

www.annaandersonwriter.weebly.com

and on facebook https://www.facebook.com/The-Scoundrel-and-The-Songstress-193315494385345/


Perhaps you might like to check it out and see some of the excerpts from the novel The Scoundrel and The Songstress.  Being bogged down in the middle of the manuscript, I find that I am in need of some encouragement!  I'd love to see you there.

Ups and Downs for the year so far

Harvest time is so exciting, and it amazes me each year the different foods which have thrived and those which have not.  So much is dependent on the weather, how hot it was, how dry it was, how wet it was, as well as the variety planted and what their optimal conditions are.

We have had a difficult year.  It was very hot and dry extremely early on in Spring (September/Oct/November), and with only a large downpour in Janaury to ease the drought a little many things have suffered.

Successes this year have included:
Grapes
I have six vines, 4 varieties.  HIMROD a seedless eating grape was early, it has all been picked and either eaten or made into something.  Juices, jellies, and grapes in alcohol were some of the ways I have processed them.  I also tried fermenting fresh juice, just to see what would happen.  The old Roman way apparently to make wine, just put the juice in the sun till it ferments, bottle when fermentation has finished.  Wait 6m.  We shall see...
Our Sauvignon Blanc is coming along, I have managed to pick a few bunches so far. This is not nice eating, being quite sharp, but I hope to make some nice juice from it.
Pinot Gris is almost ready and tastes like it will be good for eating.

Carrots
These have loved the weather, and I have grown many rows of lovely carrots, I even had some seed in my flower garden!

See the carrot down there under the Roses!

Corn
This benefited from a large amount of fresh rotted pig poo being added to the soil before planting.  The plants were vigorous and have many cobs each.

Beetroot
Usually this stuff can be difficult to grow, it often bolts to seed bypassing the "make a root" stage.  This year I was given my Mother in Laws thinnings which looked like they would die when I first put them in, but now they look amazing, the tubers are large and cook up well.  Delicious with sour cream and salt over hot boiled roots.

Failures this year
Tomatoes 
It was too hot to early for these to thrive, and once the January rain came it was too late.  Most fruit that has formed is shrivelled and nasty.  But there is so little fruit that I would be lucky to have picked 2 dozen tomatoes off about 10 plants.  Now they are dying with the cold weather coming, and there is nothing for it but to pull them out.

Pumpkins
The seed I was given wasn't Grey Pumpkin, but Kamokamo which is a kind of squash.  I have never cooked it before, supposedly you can only eat it when younger, and I let mine get too big.  The seeds are then inedible and render the growing fairly pointless.

Kamokamo now too big to eat

Grapes and what to do with them

The weather seems to know that March is the first month of Autumn and all of a sudden gone are the 30C+ days and nights are a lot cooler.  We even had our first frost two nights ago.

My six grapevines are getting ready to be harvested.  First ready was Himrod, an eating, white grape.  Second was the Pinot Noir, a dark black, small round, very juicy grape.  I am now picking these every day for daily fruit.  But there is a glut and so I started searching the internet for things to do with them.

Black Pinot Noir waiting to be simmered, Green Himrod for juice and Pinot Noir in a jar with Martini Mix

The first bucket of grapes 

I remember my mother talking about Grapes in Brandy, and though I trawled through our hard liquor stash I couldn't rustle up any brandy.  Voila!  the Martini mix leftover from my 50th looked pretty good, so I put grapes in a jar, and poured over Martini Mix,  It looks pretty edible and yummy...

Next I followed internet instructions for heating and mashing grapes and putting into jars for juice.  This was fun, and I processed in the Pressure Canner for 10 mins to preserve it.

Finally I fresh pressed the Himrod for fresh Grape Juice.  I'm tempted to try to turn some of it into wine..more on that later!