Gardeners World Live

Last week I had a little trip out to the Gardeners World Live in Birmingham.   The weather had been pretty awful all week with torrential rain and gales a plenty.  I lived in hope that by Friday the sun would have his hat back on.  I have to say it tried but didn't all together succeed but that didn't stop me having an amazing time.

I hadn't been to the show in a couple of years so I was looking forward to seeing all the beautiful gardens and the displays within the floral marquee 

One of the things I like about this show is that when you go through the entrance you are handed a free yes I did say free programme which contains lots of useful information not least two detailed maps. One for Gardeners World Live so you can find your way around all the gardens and stalls but also one for the Good Food show which happens to be on at the same time and one ticket gains you entry to both which to me is a fantastic bargain.  

I have to say we were a little overwhelmed at just how much there was to see and we couldn't decide where to go first.  As it was drizzling with rain we decided to head to the floral marquee and within minutes we were already mentally spending lots of pennies. By the time we had finished in there having not yet bought any plants, keeping our powder dry as my dad would of said, we ventured off to try and find the gardens.

This veg patch was part of one of the display gardens but it just reminded me of my little nan who came from the north east and was a no messing kind of lady and definitely didn't suffer fools gladly. She had two green houses and a veg patch just like this one but hers also had a chicken coop. It was definitely an alien thing to us to buy veg from the greengrocers and she had numerous fruit trees and bushes around the garden.  I think this is probably where I get my seasonal foodiness from. 

Making our way to the gardens we also spotted a bit of yarn bombing going on in this display and at one point later in the day there was a lady sat at a table crocheting away.

We came across the beautiful  MS Society garden  designed by Mike Baldwin and the young people of Derby College. Although it looks pretty empty I can assure you it was chocker block with people I just happened to get a reasonable shot with my camera but you can find out more information about this garden here. 

Working within a Children's & Young Persons' Cancer service I knew I had to go and find the garden The Children with Cancer UK Humanity Garden designed by Ben Stubbs.  The bell is very significant to children and young people with cancer as every child and young person who undergoes cancer treatment gets to ring the bell when they have completed their last chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatment. You can find out more about this background to this garden here.

The Watchmakers Gardens designed by Alexandra Frogatt was very popular winning Best Show Garden.

So this is just a snap shot of the gardens we saw there were just so many gardens and plants that I took photographs of but this would turn into a very long post if I were to show them all to you.   If you didn't catch it on Friday night Gardeners World came from the show, probably filmed on the Thursday to give them time to get it ready to air on the Friday, but it was a really good representation of what was there and they went behind the scenes of some of the growers who were exhibiting at the show and I would say it was definitely worth an hour of your time to watch it on BBC iplayer if you missed it. 

We did venture into the food show where there were lots of foodie goodness to sample and purchase especially if you like gin.  It seemed to be wall to wall gin and lots for you to sample.  Unfortunately I am not a gin drinker but I did try lots of other things and did enjoy a nice ice cream instead. Needless to say I didn't go home empty handed.

Now whilst I didn't get to bump into Monty in the tea tent I did catch a brief glimpse when he was finishing off one of his Q & A sessions and whilst I'd  like to tell you he spotted me in the crowd and this is him letting me know he's seen me that would of course be a big fat lie........

If any of you are interest this is the link to the show programme which  contains several free recipes by all the celebrity chefs who were in attendance over the four days as well as all the information on the gardens and exhibitors at both the Gardeners World Live and the Good Food Show. 

My last photograph is part of the Macmillan Garden and I loved the saying.  In case you can't see what it says,  it says

To plant a garden 

is to believe in tomorrow

and I suppose for many people going through any sort of treatment at the moment you have to believe this to get through each day. 

Mx

A pigeon pair

Earl & Mabel our resident pigeons 

"A pigeon pair" how many times did you hear that said when you were growing up?  Certainly it was a phrase that was used a lot in my own family. For years I didn't know what was meant by it. There was a time when a family friend was having a baby, a little brother or sister to her first child a boy. When her second baby arrived and was a girl my mother announced 'oh a pigeon pair how lovely'.  It was at this point I asked the question as to why people always said that if someone had one of each they called it a pigeon pair.  My mother told me that in folk law pigeons tend to lay two eggs at a time which would go on to produce a male and female chick hence the saying 'pigeon pair'. Well it made perfect sense but I have no idea whether this is true or not I suppose I would have to ask a pigeon fancier to get the answer to that particular question. 

I recently received news that a friend was to become a grandmother for the first time when her daughter announced that she was pregnant with her first baby.  As you can imagine this brought great excitement and much debate as to whether they would find out the sex of the baby.  The day came when she was going for her 12 week scan and my friend sat eagerly by the phone waiting to hear news that everything was as it should be.  The call finally came and her daughter announced that she was not having just one baby but two.  Twins how wonderful and the first in the family as far as they knew.  The weeks ticked by and as she was having twins a close eye was being kept on her pregnancy.  It was at a scan to check on how the babies were doing that they found out they are having a boy and a girl.  Their own pigeon pair.  They were immediately nicknamed Janet & John in the office. For those of us old enough to remember they were the set of books that you first learnt to read at school back in the day.  Janet & John were also made famous by the great late Sir Terry Wogan when he read the alternative Janet & John stories on his radio show. If you've never heard these you can still find them on You tube, just a warning you'll need tissues as they will have you in tears of laughter.  

With some twins being delivered early (they've already said no later than 38 weeks),  I set about getting their blankets made whilst grandma got on with knitting lots of first size outfits.  

Two solid granny square snuggle blankets were soon underway:  

Pretty in pink for 'Janet'

Mr Blue Sky for 'John'

They are made to the same pattern as the Que Sera Sera blanket I've posted previously and you can find the details of the pattern here average cost for the wool to make a snuggle blanket is £14 or approximately $18

and the details of the colours used for all three versions of the blanket  here .

The babies are due imminently so I am pleased that I have been able to get them both finished and ready to gift at her baby shower.  And I think its safe to say when they do arrive that they won't be named Janet and John, not that these are not good solid names but not those that seem to be on the short list at the moment.

If you're in the UK and have been experiencing the awful weather then I hope you are all safe and warm.  Our garden looks a little like a water table at the moment, but I'm sure the plants are appreciating a good watering.  There are those that have been a bit battered so I hope they will perk back up once the wind dies down.

But seriously this rain needs to stop,  I will be visiting Gardeners World Live and the Good Food Show at the NEC in Birmingham on Friday if the rain doesn't stop  then wellies and a big umbrella it is. There's always  lots of coffee drinking to be had and sampling of the wares or dodging the rain drops to be able to get around the gardens.  Either way I'm sure a good time will be had and you never know I may bump into Monty and the team in the tea tent.

Hope you have a good weekend whatever you are up to. 

Mx

Salmon & Broccoli Quiche

, 

What sort of things do you like to eat at this time of year?

On Saturday the weather  was such that we could get out and get a few jobs done in the garden.  We usually intend to get out there for a couple of hours but once you get started on a job you then tend to find another and before you know it its 2 O'clock already.

Because I know that this inevitably happens every time we plan  'Jobs for the weekend' as Monty Don would say, I try and plan our evening meal before we get started. I do like making a quiche as its so simple to prepare and easy to make, both of which are good in my view. The last thing I want to do after a hard slog in the garden is to stare into the abyss that is our fridge and come up with some culinary delight when in reality all I want to do is get a shower PJ's on and rest my weary bones in front of the tv.  I've shared with you previously my potato pastry as it goes with any type of quiche you care to make.  If you've not tried making the potato pastry before then you can find the details here and its certainly worth a try even if you consider yourself the worst pastry cook known to man as its a lot more forgiving with the starch from the potato and doesn't rip and up to now I've not found that you can over work it like short crust pastry.

As we  were having mashed potato with our meal on Friday evening it meant that I could add in an extra potato and make my pastry and store in the fridge over night so that I could bake the quiche on Saturday.

For the filling I use:

2 cooked fillets of salmon, I steam mine and leave on a plate to go cold
Head of broccoli cut into sprigs and boiled and drained and put to one side.
4oz/115g grated cheddar cheese
300mls double cream
3 eggs


Once the pastry has been put into a loose bottom quiche tin and left to rest in the fridge for at least  30 minutes then you're ready to add the filling.  Remember not to trim the excess pastry at this stage as its likely to drop a bit once you add the filling and will then shrink further when its baked in the oven, this is another life lesson learned over the years.

Preheat the oven to 180 at the same time placing a baking sheet in the oven so that it gets hot at the same time as the oven. This helps to cook the bottom of your pastry as soon as it goes in the oven as there is no pre-cooking.

whilst  your oven is getting  hot remove the pastry from the fridge so that it comes up to room temperature especially if its been in the fridge overnight.

spread the grated cheese evenly around the bottom of the pastry case.

Remove any skin from your fillets and pull the flesh of the fillets into chunks and put in the bottom of the pastry case.

Add the sprigs of broccoli leaving a space between it and the fish for the cream mixture.

In a jug add 300mls of double cream and 3 eggs and mix together.

Pour the cream mixture around and over the salmon and broccoli

At this stage I trim off any excess pastry.  I use my rolling pin as the quiche tin I have has a serrated edge so makes it easier to remove the excess pastry.  Some people prefer to use a knife.

I also like to grate a little  nutmeg over the top of the filling before it goes in the oven but this is optional its not to everyone's taste.

Once the oven is hot I place the quiche onto the hot baking sheet and bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown and the mixture is just set.  Once out of the oven I leave it in the quiche tin for 5 minutes before removing from the tin.  Removing from the tin can be no mean feat as many will know if you have ever tried. I discovered this week that if I put my mortar (the bowl to a pestle and mortar I can never remember which is which) on the worktop, because its made of marble it doesn't move, I then place the quiche tin on the top and gently tap the sides of the quiche tin until it comes away from the sides of the quiche and eventually drops leaving the quiche happily sitting on the bottom of the quiche tin.  I'm sure you will all have some sort of kitchen implement that will serve the same purpose and some much more obscure than mine.  I've also used a tin of baked beans,  the top of a kilner jar and even the biscuit tin but having recently discovered the mortar works I will be sticking with this from now on.

The best thing about this quiche is that its just as delicious hot as it is cold.  In fact its the one quiche I prefer served warm with salad and new potatoes and there's usually enough left over that I can take to work for my lunch if we don't finish it off the next day that is.

I think food can be a great icebreaker and facilitator for communication. For the most part we eat  al-desko in the office as so often happens in a busy working environment. But occasionally we pick a day and we will stop and have a proper lunch break, this does not happen very often and so we will push the boat out a little bit  and one of us will bring drinks (non-alcoholic of course), one will bring the main, one will bring salad and one will bring a desert and we sit like civilised people and eat and drink and converse, you would be amazed what you will discover about colleagues. One wanted to learn to crochet and we have now fulfilled that dream. These days have become known as our ladies that lunch days and  we must be due one soon and I'm thinking that this little quiche might just fit the bill as my contribution next time.

Mx

Traditional granny square baby blanket

Most of the time I make my little Solid granny square baby blanket for friends and family and colleagues who are expecting a baby.  But just every now and then I get the hankering for making a traditional granny square baby blanket like the one my mother made for my eldest son. She had started making one for me for my second son but never got to finish before she passed away.  It did get finished by another relative in the family and has now been passed on to my little grandson.

They are so easy to carry about if you are out and about and like to take a project with you. For most of us,  myself included they are the first baby blanket you learn to make carrying on from learning how to make a basic granny square and you can find details of that here.   Depending on how big the blanket needs to be, some only want a blanket that will fit over the pram or pushchair whilst others want one large enough to use for a christening.

The one I recently made for a colleague at work was made up of forty rounds which will normally take 400g of wool plus an additional 300g to fringe and measures approximately 42" x 42" / 107cm x 107cm without the fringing and approximately 52" x 52" / 132 x 132cms with fringing.  

When I'm making a traditional baby blanket I tend to stick to either white or cream DK wool but if the intended recipient knows the sex of their baby then they may choose to go for baby pink or baby blue and for the most part I use Woolcraft Faircroft Junior Shades DK yarn.  The reason being that it comes in 500g balls so no need for starting a new ball.  Now although I usually favour a 3.5mm hook for my blankets when it comes to this one I use a 4mm it keeps it to a nice tension and creates nice neat treble. The average cost to make one of these gorgeous blankets is around £14 or $18.

Once you get going you can actually make your blanket as big as you want it to be and there is nothing stopping you changing colours along the way, whatever takes your fancy. If I am going to use more than one colour then I use either Woolcraft babycare DK or if I want a bigger colour range then Stylecraft Special DK 

Once I have completed the amount of rounds to complete my blanket I finish off and sew in any ends.  I then work on the fringing and I have added a how to add fringing to your blanket in the Hints, Tips & know how or by you can just click here .

and once I've finished adding all the fringing and trimmed all the edges to the same size then I put my finishing touch

a little personalized label 

& 

I love these little hands aren't they cute

So far I have made three of these blankets this year already, I wonder how many more baby blankets I'll be making in 2019.

Mx