Friday, January 20, 2012

Nut Roast

This is my nut roast recipe that meant I could never go back to meat ... I'll put a pic on here shortly ...

2 big onions, chopped
cloves garlic loads
medium mushrooms, i use frozen, chop em up
spoon of flour
cup of vegetable stock (or water)
150 gms finely chopped nuts
3 cups breadcrumbs
soy sauce
dried herbs
any fresh herbs very important !!!
Salt and pepper

Method

fry the onion in the oil for about five minutes or until soft. Add the garlic and mushrooms. Cook for a few more minutes.

Sprinkle the flour on top. Stir well. Add the stock. simmer sfor a while. Stir in the nuts, breadcrumbs, soy sauce, herbs and seasoning etc and cook it a bit.

squash it into a tin

Bake for 30 - 40 minutes

leave to go cold in fridge, slice onto plate, heat up in microwave

If all else fails



If my personal economic crisis fails to resolve then I am moving into this photo that is pinned to the wall. If the farm and the sheds and the gardens and the meadow and the children and the dog and the plants and the trees and the space have to go ... then I'll be heading into this attic space, alone. No hassles, no worries, no lists of things to do, no machinery, woodchopping, children or animals, no clocks or compass or obligations of any kind.

I'll just perch on the old leather sofa with the laptop and work, enjoy the oak boards and painted brick, stoke the fire, bathe in the warmth of the skylight, meditate in the easy chair ...



Thursday, January 19, 2012

the old stove


This stove came from the UK courtesy of the in-laws about 4 years ago and did good service. It's small but efficient in a small room, and you can see the flames dance through the glass doors. It has a sheen of rust on it but that can be cured with a good brush and some blackening paste ...

Renovating the lime fireplace



The limestone fireplace in the guesthouse is in a poor state, full of holes, chipped stone and discoloured with a black tarry substance. I decided to fill the holes with a homemade lime putty of lime and water. It worked OK for the small holes but in the larger holes the putty shrank and just fell out. It would have been better to make a stone substitute out of lime and water and silver sand. Silver sand is a very fine white sand, it's often used in kids sand pits, rather than the courser yellow builders sand. The sand bonds with the lime to make a better solution. Nevermind, after filling I gave the stones a limewash and now I just need to hand sand with a fine grade to remove the brushstrokes.