I have Twitter friend Whoopsie (http://z00ts-space.blogspot.com/2009/03/friday-fun-what-do-you-like-to-do.html) to thank for this bit of Friday fun. Give it a go:
1. Go to Google
2. Type in "(yourname) likes to"
3. Copy and paste the first 10 search results back into this email, and share the love
Here's my results (abd some personal comments which seemed necessary):
Michele likes to dance (true
Michele likes to sew (can't even sew my son's Beavers' badges on straight - husband has to unpick and redo!)
Michele likes to pile on the flower brooches (not really)
Michele likes the music (depends what it is)
Michele likes ball park food (? Is this dodgy pies and hot dogs?)
Michele likes to eat (of course)
Micheler likes hammers (scary!)
Michele likes to say that you've got to use your fun tickets (hear, hear)
Michele likes to shop (especially if bargains are involved)
Michele likes to do everything but she doesn't drink if you take her to a bar (the biggest lie of all!)
Give it a go, share the results via Twitter, Facebook or add your blog post's URL to the comments.
Friday 27 March 2009
Sunday 15 March 2009
All's good in our garden today
What a lovely family day. Sunshine, a frustrating trip to Morrison's (okay nothing's perfect!) then back for sinful burger and chips with the kids for lunch (well it's better than Macdonalds!) then spent the afternoon in the garden preparing for our growing onslaught. Few fraught words over exact placement of new plastic greenhouse contraption due to arrive from ebay on Tuesday apparently - concerned it was taking up all my sun space on the decking for table and chairs and got cross! This was after had spent near on an hour with disposable gloves and a bin bag collecting stray dog shit from the entire winter season from grass and beds etc. Not pleasant! Back now aching furiously from this and lots of weeding. Boys spent most of the afternoon playing war between tree house and back door although a little help came our way somewhat reluctantly.
Dogs enjoyed being out with us all but Thierry has a serious problem with wanting to hump hs mum Treacle at the moment and there was at least one serious scrap on the the lawn as a result - can't say I blame Treacle.
So beds now all ready, greenhouse (plastic house) number one ready to go, Wilbur (God rest his soul, 10 years now since he left this earth and left me with an out of control bay tree via Dick Dock 'We don't have a Dick, we have a Richard') is back out sunbathing in the Spring sunshine, deck is brushed and awaiting a jet wash, tree house emptied on lots of sodden moulding books the kids had left in there all winter, grass clear of crap, new Forsythia (Dad, it's three years since you left us yesterday and this reminds me of you, sunny and yellow), washing line at the ready (including new nifty peg basket and pegs courtesy of Morrison's) and we're ready to go. Boys bathed, nice chicken roast dinner, bottle of red wine, kids finally asleep, paper read, Martin playing online backgammon, MOTD 2 about to start, retiring to bed with book, perfect!
Dogs enjoyed being out with us all but Thierry has a serious problem with wanting to hump hs mum Treacle at the moment and there was at least one serious scrap on the the lawn as a result - can't say I blame Treacle.
So beds now all ready, greenhouse (plastic house) number one ready to go, Wilbur (God rest his soul, 10 years now since he left this earth and left me with an out of control bay tree via Dick Dock 'We don't have a Dick, we have a Richard') is back out sunbathing in the Spring sunshine, deck is brushed and awaiting a jet wash, tree house emptied on lots of sodden moulding books the kids had left in there all winter, grass clear of crap, new Forsythia (Dad, it's three years since you left us yesterday and this reminds me of you, sunny and yellow), washing line at the ready (including new nifty peg basket and pegs courtesy of Morrison's) and we're ready to go. Boys bathed, nice chicken roast dinner, bottle of red wine, kids finally asleep, paper read, Martin playing online backgammon, MOTD 2 about to start, retiring to bed with book, perfect!
Wednesday 11 March 2009
What's growing?
This Spring sees the Hungry Harts venture into growing their own produce for the first time - well apart from a few cress heads on the windowsill with the kids and a few herbs in pots on the patio that is.
I grew up with growing so to speak. My Dad was an avid gardener, not only devoting much of our large family garden to veggies but also, I recently found out from my mum, owning two allotments when they were first married and had just built their house back in 1952.
Some of my earliest memories are of me making mud pies in the garden, picking peas and popping them in my mouth fresh from the pod and then, as I got a little older, actually helping out both by potting up tomato plants (I got a penny a pot) to be sold on in my parent's DIY and garden shop and also - oh how I hated this job - peeling endless shallots with my Nana who then bottled them and pickled them up so we had a fantastic supply of pickled onions all winter. I suppose the amazing end results were worth all the suffering and tears.
Have to say you couldn't beat being sent down the garden with a basket to pull spuds and carrots and pick a head of cauliflower or a cabbage, for example, to accompany a nice roast on a Sunday. Later in the day it would be back down again to pull a head of lettuce, some spring onions and a cucumber and some tomatoes from the greenhouse (is there any better smell in the world than a warm greenhouse full of ripe tomatoes?) to have with a nice bit of ham or a tin of salmon for our tea.
It's an experience I want my own kids to enjoy so we now have Pink Fir spuds chitting indoors, basil (the chef has big plans for pesto) and pepper seedlings growing on the windowsill, tomato seedlings taking root and ready to be potted out in grow bags in our own mini plastic greenhouse and a whole array of other seeds ready to go.
Other great foodie childhood memories:
Piggy potatoes - whenever we pulled potatoes we left the really tiny ones in the bottom of the basket then, where there were enough of them, they were washed, cooked in their skins and served just as they were with butter and salt. Amazing!
Freshly cooked and still warm beetroot - pulled fresh from the ground that day.
Stewed rhubarb and custard - we've got plans for our own rhubarb patch this year.
Home grown melons - very exotic for Northamptonshire in the 1970s believe me!
The first broad beans of the season - served with a boiled ham hock and parsley sauce.
And a far less pleasant memory was stewed gooseberries -always sour no matter how much sugar we used.
Away from the garden, I was also brought up on a diet of home cooking by my Nana Beal who incredibly produced everything on a two ring Baby Belling in her tiny kitchen. I mostly remember rabbit stew (complete with shot) thanks to the rabbits her neighbour Alan used to shoot and Tripe and Onions, a BIG favourite of mine as a pre-schooler. She also made a fine Yorkshire Pudding at our house every Sunday to go with the roast - and it was delicious cold for supper on Sunday evenings, sometimes with a bit of jam on but more likely with a bit of cold meat and a couple of those damn fine pickled onions I was talking about.
As we embark on our own growing experience this Spring and Summer, I hope to share our journey along with some recipes and more food memories along the way.
I grew up with growing so to speak. My Dad was an avid gardener, not only devoting much of our large family garden to veggies but also, I recently found out from my mum, owning two allotments when they were first married and had just built their house back in 1952.
Some of my earliest memories are of me making mud pies in the garden, picking peas and popping them in my mouth fresh from the pod and then, as I got a little older, actually helping out both by potting up tomato plants (I got a penny a pot) to be sold on in my parent's DIY and garden shop and also - oh how I hated this job - peeling endless shallots with my Nana who then bottled them and pickled them up so we had a fantastic supply of pickled onions all winter. I suppose the amazing end results were worth all the suffering and tears.
Have to say you couldn't beat being sent down the garden with a basket to pull spuds and carrots and pick a head of cauliflower or a cabbage, for example, to accompany a nice roast on a Sunday. Later in the day it would be back down again to pull a head of lettuce, some spring onions and a cucumber and some tomatoes from the greenhouse (is there any better smell in the world than a warm greenhouse full of ripe tomatoes?) to have with a nice bit of ham or a tin of salmon for our tea.
It's an experience I want my own kids to enjoy so we now have Pink Fir spuds chitting indoors, basil (the chef has big plans for pesto) and pepper seedlings growing on the windowsill, tomato seedlings taking root and ready to be potted out in grow bags in our own mini plastic greenhouse and a whole array of other seeds ready to go.
Other great foodie childhood memories:
Piggy potatoes - whenever we pulled potatoes we left the really tiny ones in the bottom of the basket then, where there were enough of them, they were washed, cooked in their skins and served just as they were with butter and salt. Amazing!
Freshly cooked and still warm beetroot - pulled fresh from the ground that day.
Stewed rhubarb and custard - we've got plans for our own rhubarb patch this year.
Home grown melons - very exotic for Northamptonshire in the 1970s believe me!
The first broad beans of the season - served with a boiled ham hock and parsley sauce.
And a far less pleasant memory was stewed gooseberries -always sour no matter how much sugar we used.
Away from the garden, I was also brought up on a diet of home cooking by my Nana Beal who incredibly produced everything on a two ring Baby Belling in her tiny kitchen. I mostly remember rabbit stew (complete with shot) thanks to the rabbits her neighbour Alan used to shoot and Tripe and Onions, a BIG favourite of mine as a pre-schooler. She also made a fine Yorkshire Pudding at our house every Sunday to go with the roast - and it was delicious cold for supper on Sunday evenings, sometimes with a bit of jam on but more likely with a bit of cold meat and a couple of those damn fine pickled onions I was talking about.
As we embark on our own growing experience this Spring and Summer, I hope to share our journey along with some recipes and more food memories along the way.
My Best Budget Buys
Now anyone who knows me will know I just love a bargain. Why pay more is my motto? Have never really understood the lure of expensive designer clothes, for example, although funnily enough I will splash out on fine food, wine and accommodation from time to time. There are some things in life which matter too much to skimp on.
So as well as being a charity shop devotee, freecycler, car booter and sad coupon collector, I have also started to shop smart in recent months in a bid to beat the recession and stop being ripped off by retailers.
I became a Lidl addict some years back now, - back in the days when the only other customers were a few lost looking pensioners ambling through the aisles. These days you have to fight them off!
Slowly but surely I have managed to convert many of my Sainsbury loving friends to the delights of Lidl. Great fruit and veg at great prices, stock up on juices, tomato pasata, part-baked rolls, jars of pesto and anti pasti, all sorts of pasta and not bad for the booze either - they have a very reasonable Bordeaux which has become my house wine. They sell great kids socks too!
Have flirted with Aldi but find them a little on the pricey side. Netto worth the occasional visit but rather an unpleasant shopping experience all round and tend to avoid in favour of Lidl.
Elswhere does everyone realise how much supermarkets are ripping us off for milk? And don't even think of going into your local petrol station to pick some up.
My local Esso garage recently charged me £2.09 for 2 litres. Most supermarkets charge in the region of £1.50. My local Cool Trader in Stockport (somewhat scary frozen food retailer that throws up some surprising bargains and delights every now and then) charges £2 for two (ie four litres). You do the maths!
Even better I discovered that our enterprising local convenience store Raja Bros also does two for £2 - guess who's getting my milk business these days.
It's the same for bread. Now I would always choose Warburtons who make the best bread in the universe, especially their Seeded Batch which is second to none but if times are tight, Morrisons has a great deal on Rathbones at the moment which stacks up pretty good. And their in-store baked jumbo bags of bread rolls are fantastic for lunch boxes - I make them up in batches for the freezer.
Finally no blog about bargain hunting would be complete without a mention of my best shop ever, the fantastic Home Bargains where I can be found pottering most Saturday afternoons hunting out everything from presents for kids' birthday parties to cheap LED light bulbs to great brand name toiletries to cut price cartons of juices for the kids lunchboxes.
I'm a discount diva and proud of it!
So as well as being a charity shop devotee, freecycler, car booter and sad coupon collector, I have also started to shop smart in recent months in a bid to beat the recession and stop being ripped off by retailers.
I became a Lidl addict some years back now, - back in the days when the only other customers were a few lost looking pensioners ambling through the aisles. These days you have to fight them off!
Slowly but surely I have managed to convert many of my Sainsbury loving friends to the delights of Lidl. Great fruit and veg at great prices, stock up on juices, tomato pasata, part-baked rolls, jars of pesto and anti pasti, all sorts of pasta and not bad for the booze either - they have a very reasonable Bordeaux which has become my house wine. They sell great kids socks too!
Have flirted with Aldi but find them a little on the pricey side. Netto worth the occasional visit but rather an unpleasant shopping experience all round and tend to avoid in favour of Lidl.
Elswhere does everyone realise how much supermarkets are ripping us off for milk? And don't even think of going into your local petrol station to pick some up.
My local Esso garage recently charged me £2.09 for 2 litres. Most supermarkets charge in the region of £1.50. My local Cool Trader in Stockport (somewhat scary frozen food retailer that throws up some surprising bargains and delights every now and then) charges £2 for two (ie four litres). You do the maths!
Even better I discovered that our enterprising local convenience store Raja Bros also does two for £2 - guess who's getting my milk business these days.
It's the same for bread. Now I would always choose Warburtons who make the best bread in the universe, especially their Seeded Batch which is second to none but if times are tight, Morrisons has a great deal on Rathbones at the moment which stacks up pretty good. And their in-store baked jumbo bags of bread rolls are fantastic for lunch boxes - I make them up in batches for the freezer.
Finally no blog about bargain hunting would be complete without a mention of my best shop ever, the fantastic Home Bargains where I can be found pottering most Saturday afternoons hunting out everything from presents for kids' birthday parties to cheap LED light bulbs to great brand name toiletries to cut price cartons of juices for the kids lunchboxes.
I'm a discount diva and proud of it!
Smoking Kills
Today is National No Smoking Day 2009. Having just come back to my desk from having a smoke in the garden I got to thinking about a conversation I had with my seven year old aspergers son the other day. It went something like this:
'Mummy, why do you still smoke when it says Smoking Kills on the packet?'
'Ah that's the problem with addiction you see. It over-rides common sense. Do you remember me telling you what addiction means? It means that when you try to stop doing something that you are addicted to you end up feeling poorly.'
'Well surely it's better to feel poorly for a while than end up dead'
Out of the mouths of babes!
So as I sit here on the day itself, three days off marking the third anniversary of my fantastic dad's death from emphysemia (caused by smoking) and with my little boy's words ringing in my ears I ask myself why I don't listen to his words of wisdom and just feel poorly for a short while rather than smoke myself into an early grave?
'Mummy, why do you still smoke when it says Smoking Kills on the packet?'
'Ah that's the problem with addiction you see. It over-rides common sense. Do you remember me telling you what addiction means? It means that when you try to stop doing something that you are addicted to you end up feeling poorly.'
'Well surely it's better to feel poorly for a while than end up dead'
Out of the mouths of babes!
So as I sit here on the day itself, three days off marking the third anniversary of my fantastic dad's death from emphysemia (caused by smoking) and with my little boy's words ringing in my ears I ask myself why I don't listen to his words of wisdom and just feel poorly for a short while rather than smoke myself into an early grave?
Doggy Diets
A big well done to Treacle, my lovely Jack Russell Terrier who attended her regular doggy weigh in today and was deemed to be near enough to her target weight to come off her diet.
Poor Treacle, we'd been feeding her the same amount of food as her much bigger son Thierry (yes after Henry!) and she was turning into a little barrel of lard. After a few stern words from our fantastic vet Treacle embarked on her new health regime last Autumn and is now a svelte, sleek little hound who looks the picture of health once more.
After a tricky pregnancy and a bout of eclampsia afterwards Treacle, like many new mums, found it hard to shift her post-pregnancy weight but not surprisingly increasing the length of her walkies and reducing her portions sizes did the trick. It's not rocket science is it?
Thanks to all those extra long walkies I too have managed to shift around a stone in weight but still have a way to go before reaching my target. Here's hoping my current calf injury sorts itself out and I can continue with my training for the Great Manchester 10k run in May where I am hoping to rase as much money as possible for the Seashell Trust, an amazing school and college for students who are deaf and have other communication disorders.
Treacle, Thierry and all the family are now looking forward to one of our favourite walks this weekend at the wonderful Lyme Park in Cheshire.
Poor Treacle, we'd been feeding her the same amount of food as her much bigger son Thierry (yes after Henry!) and she was turning into a little barrel of lard. After a few stern words from our fantastic vet Treacle embarked on her new health regime last Autumn and is now a svelte, sleek little hound who looks the picture of health once more.
After a tricky pregnancy and a bout of eclampsia afterwards Treacle, like many new mums, found it hard to shift her post-pregnancy weight but not surprisingly increasing the length of her walkies and reducing her portions sizes did the trick. It's not rocket science is it?
Thanks to all those extra long walkies I too have managed to shift around a stone in weight but still have a way to go before reaching my target. Here's hoping my current calf injury sorts itself out and I can continue with my training for the Great Manchester 10k run in May where I am hoping to rase as much money as possible for the Seashell Trust, an amazing school and college for students who are deaf and have other communication disorders.
Treacle, Thierry and all the family are now looking forward to one of our favourite walks this weekend at the wonderful Lyme Park in Cheshire.
The wonderful world of Twitter
Admit to being a very recent convert but blown away by the power of Twitter. In serious danger of becoming addicted. Within a matter of days I am following so many food and drink enthusiasts from across the globe. What an amazing way of sharing our passion.
Excited to be heading to my first Twitter event tomorrow night at Sweet Mandarin in Manchester. Will be great to find out who else in the local food and drink community is as excited about Twitter as me.
Excited to be heading to my first Twitter event tomorrow night at Sweet Mandarin in Manchester. Will be great to find out who else in the local food and drink community is as excited about Twitter as me.
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