Mud Cakes and Wine

This week is a little different as Mr MC&W is away on business for a day or two but we have Grandma MC&W staying with us which means the kids are happy and sad all at the same time. Last week we had this smoked salmon dish for the first time and it was amazing  Smoked salmon and celeriac dauphinoise Friday - Sticky Chinese Chicken and rice this is quick and easy and tasty which also needs to be written up. The boys had school lunch so are all having tomato soup and bread. Saturday - Taco Saturday Sunday  - Roast chicken our favourite roast Sunday lunch ever Monday - Tuna Pasta Bake for the adults lots of peppers, mushrooms and courgette added not so much for the boys Tuesday - Super Smoking Bacon and Tomato Spaghetti Super smoky bacon tomato spaghetti Wednesday - Gnocchi with mushrooms and Broccoli this is from the madhouse cookbook by Jo Pratt and is a really good family cookbook Thursday - Jackets, beans, cheese and poached eggs

I am very much still learning about GYO, last year was our first real go, we had some success and some failures. A lot of the failures were down to my not planning the space properly. I have brought a lot of very similar seeds to the ones I did last year, but have a much clearer vision about how to plant them this year and more planning has gone into it all. Cut and come again lettuce was a total failure last year, I have got a wine create I will drill holes in the bottom, line this and fill with compost and use this for them, if this works I will get another one. Another post to follow about this idea. The tomatoes were massive but took up so much room so will put them in the smaller planter this time and then they will not grow over the other plants. I also think the courgettes I will put into pots next to the beds, as although designed for pots they took a lot of space. This leaves the raised beds for the beets, carrots, chard, sweetcorn, peas and runner be...

Ever so slowly the garden is coming back to life and here are a few highlights of what we are up to and plan to do..... 1. New Lawn beginnings, our lawn has been a right mess then last year our gardener did some work with seeding, scarifying and laying a layer of soil on top and it looked so much better. So they have been again this year and we have this, I am sure it will get better. Though the amount of mud walked into the house is never ending. 2. Seed arrival, our GYO seeds have arrived and can not wait to get planting 3. Prepared the raised beds and cleared out from last year. Now need to get a little more compost and we are ready to go 4. Forsythia is starting to bloom, the only time of year I like the plant. 5. Foxgloves, they had died down and I cut them right back as you can see the new shoots coming through. 6. The Viola's are coming back to life I am so happy about this and the wonderful Gill you were right they did. They really do ...

We have been so busy this week with grown up things like mortgages and hospial appointments and work it has not been nice to us so i am looking forward to some comfort food Friday - Fish, Chips and Peas for us all Saturday - Meatballs with Spaghetti Sunday - French Style Chicken with roast potatoes or mash if i am feeling lazy (yes from the freezer) French style chicken with peas and bacon Monday -  Bake in the oven Mushroom risotto with loads of cheese Oven baked porcini and thyme risotto Tuesday - Smoked Salmon and Celeriac Dish we have never had this before but it screams comfort food. The boys will have pasta Smoked salmon and celeriac dauphinoise Wednesday - Spag Bol Thursday - Pizza and Salad - from the shop afraid we are not making our own this week

I love a gardening bargain and every now and again you can find a great one, I had to pop to waitrose as I was feeling rough so needed paracetamol and soup, as I was leaving I noticed they were selling these hanging baskets for £2.99. Despite my cold I went back into the shop with two hanging baskets to buy. The reason I knew they would be OK was I could see the new buds forming and that would mean more flowers. I learnt this from the primroses I brought last year and was worried they had gone over so fast, but they had not and more and more flowers kept appearing. This weekend I got out my snips, a pair of kitchen scissors would be fine, you just need to get into little areas and cut carefully. I cut back as close to the base of the plant all dead flowers, then carefully removed the dead leaves and one one a whole plant had died. Now it is a wait and see and I am hoping these little primroses will give us some pretty flowers and then I will pop them in the garde...

Time is just flying past at the moment and yet again I am late with the meal plan for this week. Lots of simple and easy dishes for us this week Friday - Easy Chicken Burritos. Boys having sandwiches as having quorn burgers at school Easy Chicken Burritos Saturday - Lamb Burgers for Mr MC&W and I the boys wanted pizza Herby lamb burgers with beetroot mayo Sunday - The Busy Mum Cookbook homemade lasagna for us all. Its a bit of work but amazing. Monday - Smoked Paprika paella with Cod and Peas Smoked paprika paella cod peas Tuesday - Spinach and Courgette Fritata from Gions Healthy Italian. The boys will have omelets Wednesday - Bacon and Mushroom Pasta Bacon and mushroom pasta Thursday - Thai Chicken Noodles Child friendly thai chicken noodles

The meal plan is a little late and last week did not go at all to the schedule. I ended up with a nasty virus that knocked me for six and only today did I even feel like thinking about food.  Friday - McDonald's for the boys. Mr MC&W and I had fish, roasted new potatoes, homemade tomato sauce and roasted veg. Saturday - Pizza and salad for the boys. We are having Peri Peri chicken with chips, coleslaw, corn on the cob and salad Sunday - Sausages, red onions and mushrooms cooked in a beef style gravy served on a giant Yorkshire pudding boys will have sausages with gravy, Yorkshires and greens Monday - Pasta with mozzarella and fresh tomato sauce for us all Pasta with mozzarella, mint and fresh tomato sauce Tuesday - Crispy chicken pancakes with creamy chicken and bacon as i can make this ahead of time and put together last min. Boys will have pancakes with ham and cheese followed by lemon and sugar Crispy pancakes creamy chicken bacon Wednesday - Spiced Salmon wi...

The children's slide and swing set was beginning to make some rather dodgy creaking noises, as they spend most of their time on the trampoline we decided to take it down. Our first thoughts were, we would chop it down to manageable sizes and take it to the tip, then Mr MC&W had a rather good idea. The wood was not too bad, could we use it to make better edges to the garden borders? As you can see on the photo below, we had a sleeper that marked the border with the patio, we never really liked it as it was too big and there was nothing else between the border and the grass. We managed to remove the sleeper and save some of the pegs then used 4 posts to edge the whole new border,  Mr MC&W cut them to angles so they join well.  We are really happy with the end result. We even had enough wood to make a border by the shed that needs a lot of work but at least it has a nice edge. We also have this small patch under the clematis but it is reall...