Cooking from the Plot: Caramelised Courgettes

Posted on August 17, 2017 by nicdempsey

We’re back to 101 ways of using up courgettes. This recipe. I use basil. It’s amazing. That it all.

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Allotment Adventures: State of the Plot

Posted on August 16, 2017 by nicdempsey

We’ve come a long way, this was the plot in August last year.This year there is more of everything and it’s much tidier. So let’s have a chat about what work we did on the plot over the last couple of weeks. First up we finally got around to framing another bed. Knowing that the nephews were due a visit, we framed the bed I thought would be most vunerable to small people walking on it, the one that was half french beans and is supposed to be half chard (if the seeds ever come up!) This is it a couple of weeks ago…And after my DIY magic. I took six of the metre long fixed lawn edging things, but because the bed it only 1.8 metres long, two of them had to be adjusted. Ma was very impressed and wants to do all of the beds, because it looks tidier, I agree but it’s a marathon not a sprint, I want to get four more and sort out the brassica bed sides this year. Then there are two other beds that need the same treatment (which will need another 18 panels) and we have plans to buy two or three more of the beds that we bought last year (that’s 2 1.8 by .8m beds and another one metre square bed) and then I’m probably officially out of room unless I put them at the top next to the shed and we already have plans for that area, that involve fruit bushes and wildflowers!

Speaking of the shed though. We go busy with some hooks and a drill and had a tidy up. Which also made Ma very happy.I had a tiny re-arrange of the greenhouse too and found a place for ripening some tomatoes, they were dragging on the ground so had to be cut off.We finally got a patty pan and it looks like more are coming. I’m pleased because the only thing in that bed is that plant so it would have been a total waste of space if it hadn’t sorted it’s life out!I trimmed the mutant, non-flower producing cosmos too, because they were over shadowing everything else in that bed. Lesson learned I won’t plant them in the salad bed. The nasturtiums also got a haircut…And so did the rosemary.The borage that I had to cut down because of the blackfly, self seeded and is coming up in the same place which is nice, I’m not sure that it’ll get through the winter but it’s nice to know that it’s been doing it’s things. Also self seeding were the poppies…The tomatoes are producing a little bit but some are still getting there.It looks like I have 4 solid butternut squashes ripening and they are big!There has been flowers and produce and it’s all abundant and lush.In addition to the stuff already mentioned, we pulled up the cucumbers because they had gone off the boil and gave the summer squash a mildew busting haircut. Ma did masses of weeding and there was feeding, watering and general work. The big thing was to get all the rubbish off the plot and into the dump. It was hard work and also involved meeting a mouse! We didn’t get to everything we wanted to do so the list is getting bigger, I’m dividing it into August/Sept work and Autumn/Winter list

August/Sept

  • more pruning of the plum tree
  • plant out and sow some of the things we have planned for autumn
  • sort out the raspberries (shorten the lines, work out the frames)
  • sort out the brassica bed (new sides and netting, put up the french beans)
  • extend the strawberry bed (weed and plant out new runners)
  • sort out the space for the new long bed at the bottom of the plot
  • plant potatoes in bag for Christmas (late but what can you do)
  • plant spring bulbs at front of plot
  • sort out paths on plot (weed/woodchip/make paths at front of plot
  • mark out space for gooseberry bushes
  • sow grass seed at front of plot

Winter/Autumn work

  • re-site the gooseberry bushes
  • sow broadbeans and garlic
  • clear up/feed/cover summer beds
  • new raised beds
  • clear/clean/secure greenhouse
  • decide what we’re growing next year
  • order what we need in good time

There is still lots of work but the nature of it is different, I was talking to someone the other day who was saying that she likes closing the plot down in autumn and coming back to it in spring. I like the seasonal change of the work but I do want to use the plot a bit in winter which is why I planted all the leeks and cavolo nero and why this year, I’ll sow broad beans and garlic and chard. It’s nice to feel the seasons…..

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A birthday in cocktails

Posted on August 15, 2017 by nicdempsey

I got 6 birthday cards this year, 4 of them were drinks related. According to Kathy, if my friends really thought that it was a problem, they’d tell me by staging an intervention, not send me cards about it. However, my birthday weekend did feature quite a few cocktails. I didn’t drink all of these but I thought that I’d document them.

My birthday weekend started with drinks at the London Cocktail Club with some work friends. It was happy hour!

Mine

The Last Word (Hendricks, green Chartreuse, Maraschino and lime) Manhattan Sour (Gentleman Jack bourbon, Martini Rubino, lemon juice, sugar syrup, egg white, angostura) and the look on Jess’ face when I told her that the foam was egg white was hilarious!Old Fashioned. (Woodford Reserve, demerara sugar, angostura and Ardbeg 10 scotch) this was much more orangey than the ingredients list would suggest. 

Everyone else.

The Dude. (Vodka, Tia Maria, almond essence, milk, cream and a marshmallow) Boogie Nights (Grey Goose, Le Citron, Crème de Pêche, amaretto, pineapple juice and peach puree) they came with sunglasses. Yes there is a photo of me wearing them somewhere!

Surprisingly, I was home at a reasonable hour and not hungover the next day! Which was Saturday, when I went to Charlotte’s W5 with Kathy and Adam. I had two Comin’ Thru the Rye’s. (rye whiskey, dry vermouth and a lime and clove liquer). They were good.So good that on Sunday (my actual birthday) I took Ma there for drinks. She had two of the ‘comin through the ryes and I had two silver bullets (Gin, lemon juice, cumin anise liqueur)

And now you know why this week, I am having a period of abstinence from the demon drink, my liver needs some recovery time!

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Best/Worst 7 to 13 August 2017

Posted on August 14, 2017 by nicdempsey

Happy new week people!

Best

Holiday. I didn’t go away but it was so nice not to be at work. A big part of my job is the administration for and minuting of a monthly meeting and I always give myself August off the minuting part of the work. So I have my birthday week off work and when I get back to work it’s like a holiday because I don’t have to type up minutes!

Tomatoes. Our tomatoes are starting to come in and I have discovered that I like some of them raw. I have eaten them raw before but I mostly prefered to cook them. Last week though, I have devoured them and found a new tomato to grow next year. Meet the Black Russian tomato, it’s delicious on toast..

Family lunch. I love my family and it’s always lovely when we are all together. The boys are a delight, Joe is a lovely tiny, garlic bread stealing, lamp breaking hurricane, Oli is just so much fun and is really interesting. We’re going up over the bank holiday to babysit while Ben and Laura celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary and I’m really looking forward to it although I expect to be exhausted!

Worst

The world. I haven’t commented much about this on social media but the situation with North Korea, Charlottesville and the ongoing trauma that is Brexit negotiations and the racist terrible attitudes that seem to have been given new (and disgusting) life. It’s a mess and it makes me sad.

Wednesday weather. London at an entire day of miserable rain, it was grim, even ducks stayed indoors…

Honourable mentions to work on the allotment, a patty pan, some sunny days, the gin related birthday cards, cinema in the afternoon, pavlova, reading and lying in past 7am and generally being glad to be alive.

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Friday Links:

Posted on August 11, 2017 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! 

Millennials v baby boomers? We all have more in common than we realise

When gut bacteria changes brain function. I’m interested in this because my diet has changed so much in the last couple of years and especially

US surgeon may be forced to quit UK because of visa nightmare I have been saying for years that the Home Office isn’t fit for purpose…this is just idiotic..

Petty Prince of Denmark Refuses to Be Buried Next to His Wife, the Queen. Honestly, if I was married to him, I’d be happy he spent most of his time in France. This is not a hill to die on…

This is scary. What European diplomats think about Trump.

Just about managing? For these Tory failures, life is sweet Marina Hyde perfectly sums up the problem with the political classes.

See also Sam’s description of the house as “slightly falling down”. Does anyone, particularly someone who, during the week, lives in the very shadow of Grenfell Tower, currently want to get into some hideously affected public riff on maintenance of their £1.5m-plus second hovel? I rather think they don’t, but then I’m not in fashion.

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Gin Club

Posted on August 8, 2017 by nicdempsey

The 28th July was the third gin club. Attending were me (it was at my house!), Ma, Christelle and Dionne

The gin was 6 O’Clock Gin and I chose it mainly because I liked the bottle.

Tonics were Fever Tree and East India Grapefriut tonin. The vermouth was Martini Riserva Special Rubino and Noilly Prat

6 O’Clock Gin is made by Bramley and Gage who are based in Bristol and it’s tagline is ‘strikingly smooth’, it’s a juniper led gin that has juniper, coriander, angelica, orris, savory, elderflower and orange peel in it and comes in at 43% ABV.

Bramley and Gage are best known for their fruit liquers, and already have a gin recipe for making their Sloe Gin but when they decided to make a gin (called 6 O’Clock because that’s the time their great grandfather used to have a G&T and it became a family tradition!) they wanted to do something different and this is the result. I bought ours from Waitrose and it cost £32 for 70cl.

The drinks

Neat and cut with water. 

It wasn’t smooth enough to merit it’s ‘strikingly smooth’ tagline. Neat the juniper dominated but with water there was more citrus on the nose but not in the tasting. Christelle’s comment was that it smelt like gin!

Gin and Tonic (50ml gin, top up with tonic, garnish lemon).

It was a gin and tonic but there wasn’t much else to it. This was nice enough but there was nothing about it that made me want more of it.

Gin and Tonic (50ml gin, top up with grapefruit tonic, garnish grapefruit).

We really liked this, but more because of the grapefruit than the gin. Dionne pointed out that it smelled like her perfume and now I want a gin and tonic perfume (they probably already make one.)

Negroni (25ml gin, 25ml aperol, 25ml red vermouth, orange peel)

I used aperol instead of campari because that sometimes makes a negroni more approachable. This was a mistake for Christelle (sorry C!). It was nice but again the gin didn’t come through at all.

Martini (50ml gin, 15ml dry vermouth, lemon twist)

This was the most disappointing drink for me, it just didn’t feel like a martini

French 75 (45ml Gin, 10ml lemon juice, 5ml sugar syrup, top up with fizz). 

This was the best of the bunch but this is the drink where the gin doesn’t shine through as much.

Overall, the best thing we could find to say about this gin is that we loved the packaging, it’s not that’s it’s a bad gin, it’s just that for the money we were expecting more of it.

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Best/Worst 31 July to 6 August 2017

Posted on August 7, 2017 by nicdempsey

Happy Monday! It is a happy Monday for me as I’m off work for a week and it was my birthday yesterday!

Best

Birthday. Although I’m not as bothered by birthdays as I used to be, they are a big deal in my family because the passing of another year is important! Ma took me for lunch on the actual day, I was out for drinks on Friday and Saturday and generally felt loved.

 

Oli’s cucumber. He’s excited and we are excited for him.

Worst

Cold. I caught it at the tail end of last week and so entered Monday feeling pretty horrible. I know a cold won’t kill me, I just want to die for it’s duration. Thank God for Night Nurse!

Honourable mentions to the joys of eating food that I’ve grown, the situation with the allotments making it to the Guardian website, dealing with other people being disorganised and not losing my temper (I never think I’m that organised until I come across other people who are so much worse and think they are efficient), birthday presents, the general joy of being alive.

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What I’ve Read – July 2017

Posted on August 5, 2017 by nicdempsey

The Last Four Things – Paul Hoffman (Kindle TBR)

The Beating of His Wings – Paul Hoffman (Kindle TBR)

So I said last month that in the Left Hand of God, it was hard to see the story because of the author’s voice. For these two books that was even more of a problem. I know that life doesn’t often give us concrete happy endings and I have no objection to a story that doesn’t, some of the best stories I’ve read leave situations unresolved. But this was an anti-climate mess. At the end of the story, some people are dead but there has been no real change, the characters we met at the beginning of the story, if they are not dead are pretty much the same people. The world has not really changed either, although the narrator is pretty pleased with himself. The story has so many threads that are picked up and then dropped for no reason, other than to sound clever. I kept thinking that something would happen but nothing did. There was a really interesting story across the three books but Hoffman failed to tell it.

She’s The One – Erin Nicholas (kindle free)

It was free and easy to read and there was a proper ending. I really needed that. Also the first couple of pages for “Babysitting had gotten a hell of a lot harder since she was 16…….Of course she couldn’t drink mojitos at any of her teenage babysitting jobs. So there was that” It just made me laugh and carried me through the book.

Hillbilly Elegy – J. D. Vance (library book)

I read this pretty much in a day, and I think it’ll probably require re-reading. I don’t agree with all the conclusions he comes to about how to change or even exactly what the problem is but it was his life, culture and observations. He doesn’t really offer answers to how you change it and doesn’t claim that his experience is the only experience. What I got from it, is that somewhere as a community, they lost their resilience and started blaming outside forces, he thinks it was the handouts and the Democrats, I think it’s something more cultural, something about a culture that doesn’t know how to control itself. I don’t think that this book is the one you need to understand Trump and Brexit, but I think it is one of the many books, we all need to read and think about to understand what’s going on in the Rust Belt and for the UK in the Brexit voting working classes. Also, I linked to this post, last week and I think its also worth considering. Because Vance and the author have very similiar mothers and that speaks to something, although right now, I’m not sure what.

Lady Midnight – Cassandra Clare (Kindle TBR)

I just finally go around to reading this as part of my clear the TBR list. It’s very Cassandra Clare and I’m enjoying it as I have the others although as I get older, I find the angst more amusing than anything. However, one of the things I’ve always found interesting in the Shadowhunter’s books is how rigid the Clave is and how Clare’s heros want to change things and how they struggle to change things. This book is set five years after the last ones and Jace and Clary did not change the world, people are still narrow minded and rigid. It’s more interesting to me than the romance. I like politics, I guess…

Plot 34: Blood, Sweat and Allotmenteers – Mark Keenan (library book)

I go to the library for one book, which I can’t find and come out with something else. This was funny and interesting. Keenan talks about his allotment experience, general allotment advice and the reasons he’s continued to grow as much of his own food as he can. He’s not advocating starting ‘a Good Life’ thing and doesn’t believe that he’ll be able to survive in the event of a zombie apocalypse but he makes a really compelling argument for growing some of your food. Worth a read.

 

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Friday Links

Posted on August 4, 2017 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday!

Trust me on antibiotics.  It’s one paper. More generally, we should be trying to take less antibiotics and then finishing the course we are given. The problem is that GP’s are prescribing for people who want antibiotics for every sniffle they get. I last had antibiotics in 2015, for a chest infection in February, that had me in bed for a full week and ill for about three weeks before that and again in the October after my foot surgery. Generally, I end up taking them every 5 years or so when I have a illness that that they will cure. When my GP says they won’t help, I take the advice but when I do take them, I finish the course. If everyone was more responsible about them, it would be better all round.

Over the last week or two, I’ve been having all sorts of conversations about depression, growing up and where sickness and personal responsibility meet. It’s been a laugh a minute around here. The weird thing is that it hasn’t been my stuff, I’m good, other people are not so great. Anyway, I find that when you are in a particular frame of mind sometimes, just sometimes the universe will find a way of expressing what you’re thinking or what you need. This really did. I can’t imagine what 2 years of living with a very sick partner would be like, Stef wasn’t ill very long and we weren’t living together but what she’s trying to learn and applying to her life is important even if you aren’t going through such tough times and this week is what I wanted to say to someone else…

I didn’t realise before the way that depression and dirt feed into each other, and in cleaning my house I have, in a small but real way, lifted my own sadness a little too.

I’m trying to see my friends; to listen to them; to accept their offers of dinner and not ignore their messages in favour of crying under a blanket. One thing I have learned, over two years: we have the most extraordinary friends. We have the kind of friends who do not give up. We have the kind of friends who deserve to be listened to; who do not deserve my prickly, hermittish I-can-do-anything-that’s-everything-all-on-my-own wall. I am trying to bring down that wall, and although I’m not there yet, I hope to keep trying.

How much equality is Britain willing to accept? Answer, not a lot

Green Space v. social housing. This is about my allotment site.

Is Aldi gin the best gin in the world? The ever excellent Gin Monkey on the Aldi gin and the IWSC.

We wrote about women’s health not being taken seriously, and your stories came flooding in. It took me over a year to get an appointment at the asthma clinic, I bloody told them that the coughing was not reflux…

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Pulled Pork

Posted on August 3, 2017 by nicdempsey

There are lots of recipes for what to do with a pork shoulder. If you were looking, you can’t go wrong with this one from Dinner: A Love Story, which is what I planned to do last week. Then I caught a cold. It wasn’t a bad cold but I felt slow and tired and things that were supposed to be cooked on Sunday, did not get cooked.

On Monday morning, I still felt lousy but I was in no way sick enough to be off work. So not only did I have to drag myself from my bed but I needed to make a plan for the evening that involved minimal effort before I could get an early night.

Enter the slow cooker. I sliced two onions and bashed three cloves of garlic and threw them in the slow cooker, they were followed by a cup of chicken stock (you could use a cube if needed, I had stock made in the slow cooker over the weekend). I mixed together 1 and half tablespoons of brown sugar, a teaspoon of sea salt, a teaspoon of smoked paprika and half a teaspoon of ground cumin and rubbed it into the 3lb/1.37kg (don’t be too precious about the weight) pork shoulder, put it in the slow cooker with the other ingredients and set it to high. It was 7am.

That done, I got ready for work.

When I got home it was all done. I took the meat out,  shredded it and dinner was done.

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