Birdcakes

Here are our latest batch of birdcakes. The birds in our garden can't get enough of them and especially like the large cone!

I used a mix of:

Mixed bird seed

Sunflower hearts

Grated cheese

Raisins

Peanuts (Not whole if there are baby birds)

Melted lard

Just mix all the ingredients together with the melted lard in a large bowl/pan. You can the fill coconut halves, large cones or plastic yogurt pots with the mixture allow to set in a cool place and then hang out for the birds to enjoy. Blue tits, long tailed tits, Blackbirds and a number of other small birds love the mix, though so do the Magpies!

My version of an Irish classic

This is today's version of the Irish classic Colcannon, yum! Made with broccoli rather than kale or cabbage as that is what I had.

I took about 9 large white potatoes and peeled them, they were boiled for about twenty minutes till tender. After draining I returned them to the pan and laid a tea towel over the top (off the heat).

Meanwhile I washed the broccoli and cut, then boiled for about 7 mins drained, mashed and set aside. Finally I sliced a bunch of spring onions.

To make the Colcannon I mashed the potatoes with a little milk and margarine, mixed in the mashed broccoli and spring onions and seasoned with black pepper. Lovely!

I served the mash with Quorn sausages and gravy.

Mothers day Daffodils

This is one of my beautiful Mothers Day cards, made by my eldest son, 5.

I just had to take a photo of it in front of the daffodils, I bought them a few days ago and they have just bloomed.

I love getting cards made by the children, my son had bought it home on the Friday and hid it in a drawer to surprise me with on Sunday morning! How lovely!

Fruit and veg box

Every week, on a Friday afternoon a lovely lady called Sally brings me a fruit and veg box. I can't wait to see what is inside, and the children find it very exciting!

This week we had carrots, parsnips, purple sprouting broccoli, potatoes, onions, pears, apples, mushrooms, cauliflower, swede and the first crop of spring onions.

I usually make some king of veg stew in the slow cooker, maybe with chick peas added, though this week after a trip to the library I had a new cook book to try out called 'Super Duper Soups'. So after a quick flick through I plumped for 'Perfect Potage' as I had a few stalks of celery in the fridge to use up.

The book is divided into different chapters such as immunity boosting, skin reviving and sexy soups. Most of the recipes use only a few ingredients and are easy to substitute if you don't have the exact bits.

So for the 'Perfect Potage', I put the chopped carrots, celery, onion and rice into a large pan, added about three quarters of a litre of stock and the bouquet garni, simmered for 20 minutes or so, fished out the bouquet garni and blended with my electric hand blender until it was smooth, I then poured it back in the pan and added about a quarter of a pint of stock to thin a little. That's it.

It went down very well, the three little boy's loved it as did husband and myself!