Apple and Sultana Drop Scones

I don't know what it is that makes children so hungry after school, but the truth is they are generally ravenous when they get home. Consequently I am always looking for a snack that will satisfy them, act as a bit of treat but not ruin the chances of them being hungry enough to eat all the vegetables I live in hope that they will consume at dinner.

As a child my mum would cook the classic drop scones (also called Scotch pancakes) as a treat every once in a while. I remember the warm stack of mini pancakes would disappear in minutes, there never seemed to be enough. Because of their Moorish nature, and quite frankly my lack of will power, I sought to see what could be done to perhaps make them slightly healthier.

So here is my take on the classic drop scone. So essentially the main difference is I have added chopped dried apple pieces and sultanas, ok so lots of sugar here but its natural sugar and has the benefits of fibre and other nutrients. Another way to increase the fibre content was to substitute some of the flour with wholemeal flour, only about a fifth so it's not too dry (or noticeable). I actual replaced the caster sugar with granulated Stevia (a natural sugar alternative which has all the sweetness without the calories and doesn't give you the sugar crash of regular sugar). I also used rice bran oil, which as all the health benefits of olive oil, plus it has a higher smoking point so more of the nutrients are preserved, it also has more vitamin e.

Ingredients

• 100g  white self-raising flour
• 25g wholemeal self-raising flour           
• 2 tsp caster sugar  (I used Stevia instead to reduce the sugar content)          
• 1 egg, beaten (I had to use two but that's because I was using our bantam eggs) 
• 4 tbsp Rice bran oil           
• 150 ml (5 fl oz) semi-skimmed milk or water 
• Small handful sultanas
• Small handful dried apple pieces
• 1/2 tap cinnamon (optional)          

Combine the flour, sugar (Stevia) and cinnamon if using. Make a well in the middle and add the beaten egg and milk/water mix to a smooth batter. Stir in the fruit.

 

Heat the oil in a heavy based frying pan. Add the batter in small dollops, may be four or five to the pan. When air bubbles start to appear in the batter its time to flip them over using a spatula. Once lightly golden on both sides remove and set aside. Best eaten while still warm. Now if you manage not to eat them all, they do freeze well. Freeze in small after school portions, they can be popped in the microwave frozen as needed (about 30 seconds). I have got to confess, I had to make two batches because I kept eating them as I was cooking them and there wasn't enough for the photo!

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Autumn Bounty Bowl

 

 

Decoupage Autumn Bounty Bowl

Make the most of your Autumn bounty and make a gorgeous display with this dead easy decoupage bowl.

I can spend hours and hours going through gardening seed catalogues. The gorgeous vibrant colours, the anticipation they bring as you look forward to the new season of colour. I hate to throw them away after I have made any selections, so we are always looking for new ways to use them. One creation was a decoupage shoebox for the copious amount of hair bands we seem to collect.

So inspired by the Autumn harvest we looked for something else to decorate. My daughter and I like to craft together, so projects have to be fairly simple, with quick results or attention spans tend to wane. Decoupage is a great kids craft, it fulfils the messy aspect required by children, and getting fairly good results from little skill or from tiny hands means it's a great craft to help build confidence and creativity. To make the Autumnal Bounty Bowl you will need:

1 balloon

Bowl for keeping balloon steady

Watered down PVA

Scissors

Magazines or catalogues

Marker pen

Gold acrylic paint
Paint brush

Instructions

1.Taking a balloon and using the traditional paper Mache technique of laying strips of newspaper

over the upturned balloon (use a bowl to steady it), brush over each strip with PVA glue, I guess you could use the wonderful modge podge for this too, but I had just PVA to hand which I slightly watered down.

2. Once two or three layers of newspaper cover half the balloon, it's time to select the images you want to use.

Single colour themes look really effective but I chose a multi-coloured range of images with different shapes and textures to reflect the colourful bounty of Autumn.

When you have got the coverage you like, leave to dry at least overnight. The more generous you are with PVA the more rigid your bowl will be.

3. Once dry and hardened, pop the balloon and carefully peel it away from the shell of your bowl. My daughter particularly enjoyed this bit. You will need to trim the edge of the bowl to give a pleasing finish.

You could go for a regular straight edge but is actually quite tricky and a shaped edge can look very effective.

4. Using your marker pen draw the shape of your
desired bowl edge. Use sharp scissors cut your bowl edge.

5. Once you are happy with the border of your bowl, paint the inside with a tough acrylic paint and leave to dry.

To give the bowl a glossier finish, give a light coat of spray varnish inside and out and leave to dry thoroughly.

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My Number 1 Garden Plant for September - Heliniums

My Number 1 Garden Plant for September - Heliniums.

As the summer starts to fade so to do some of the more blousey blooms of the hot months. However I love the garden as it slides into Autumn. Daisy like plants come into their own bringing with them deep warm colours. So my Number 1 plant for September was a hard choice, as so many gorgeous Autumn daisy like plants seem to have caught my attention this year.

I have narrowed it down to the  Heleniums. Heleniums are members of the Aster family (Asteraceae). The species from which the garden forms of Helenium have been bred grow wild in North America.

According to www.helenium.net  "Heleniums are much under-rated hardy perennial garden plants. They are a mainstay of the autumn border but are so often overlooked by gardeners, garden journalists and growers. Why can this be? They are hardy, colourful, easy to grow, tolerate difficult growing conditions, provide months of colour, are attractive to pollinating insects and unaffected by most pests and diseases."

Having a small garden every plant counts, so choosing plants to extend the season with little effort are well worth investing in. Heleniums have everything I look for in a plant, they provide deep warm colour, with strong architectural shape and are perfect for a cottage garden border. Easy to grow and suited to a wide range of garden conditions, however they are often found in very moist or even wet conditions making them ideal for our British climate.

They are at their best right now so pop to the garden centre and give your garden a colour boost!

Keeping Chickens as Pets



 Keeping Chickens As Pets

I don't know why but a life long ambition of mine was always to keep chickens as pets. I just love everything about them, their quirky personalities, the noises they make, for some reason they just make me happy when I'm with them. So as my 40th birthday present my husband finally gave in and we went and collected Alice, Martha and Heidi.



Peacock, Bonnie & Bluebell

Since my girls came and joined the family they have proved to be everything and more, that I'd hoped them to be. As a novice chicken keeper, I chose the comical Pekin Bantam, which are a great breed to start with. A small bird, with short squat body, pom pom tail and fluffy feathery trousers. We are now on our second set of girls, Bluebell, Bonnie and Peacock. Every bird has a distinctly different personality. Bluebell, soft cuddly and affectionate, Peacock, the Barbie doll bird, a little bit ditsy but truly beautiful, and then Bonnie, a little bit grumpy and a little bit of Mrs Mangle about her, for those that remember the matriarch from Ramsey Street.

So what makes Chickens good pets?

Friends with benefits

 You get all the love and interaction of a regular small pet but of course you get the eggs, just like friends with benefits! I'm often asked how can you keep chickens and have a pretty garden. Well my garden is far from perfect but I grow a huge range of edible and decorative plants in a small space and still let my girls have free range of the garden.

 

Chickens - great pets for the garden

My Garden, not too shabby, although we have chickens

They do love to scratch for grubs and do eat lots of different vegetation but it's a balance. They keep the creepy crawlies that can harm the garden down and in return some of my plants have doily like leaves. Now I don't know about you, but I'd rather have a few doily leaves, knowing that they will be turned into delicious fresh eggs, rather than providing food for slugs, and the loss is tiny and unnoticeable across the whole garden. Perkins are also the one breed that are least likely to wreck your garden, their fluffy feet mean that they don't like getting muddy feet and consequently don't scratch up the grass. The only adjustment I have had to make to the garden is to edge the borders. The girls love where boarder meets lawn and will extend the boundary given the chance. So to keep things neat, I have edged the boards with log roll, it keeps the lawn edges crisp and gives the girls handy garden length perches. They also keep the lawn length down, together with help from the guinea-pigs, I have only had to cut the grass twice so far this year. Obviously they help keep the nutrients in the soil tip top, chicken poop is a fertilizer second to none, helping me grow a wide range of fruit and veg in a much smaller space than normally possible. Also reduced chemical fertilizers and pesticides means gardening with a clearer conscious.


A quick after school cuddle with Peacock

Chickens as family pets

Perkins are incredibly friendly, they will follow you round the garden, they genuinely want to be where ever you are. So whether you are working in the borders or relaxing reading up on the decking, they will always want to be within a few feet of you. They adore my daughter, as soon as they hear her voice, they will charge the length of the garden, doing their fly running, galloping wildly, while madly flapping their wings for extra oomph! I love the little tap on the back door while I'm cooking dinner, just their little reminder to make sure they get their dinner too.

 

Sanity Saving Crock-Pot Ready Meals

How a trip to Essex has given me back an hour everyday and saved me some sanity?

A late summer trip to see a very dear friend of mine, who had recently moved back home, led me to a huge time saving practice for the kitchen. She introduced me to the art of pre-prepared freezer meals that you pop straight into your crock-pot ready to give you warming nutritious meals at the end of a busy day.

 

Her actual words were "I thought you would have known all about crock-pot ready meals". I let the annoyance, that she had discovered this wonderful kitchen art before me, slide and then raided her Pinterest boards when I got home.

 

And so after 4 hours (that includes the shopping time) I have 44 meals sitting waiting to be devoured, and all I have got to do is pop them in the crock-pot and maybe do some extra fresh veggies on the day, if I'm feeling all righteous and Super Mum.
 

We in England call them slow-cookers, but I have adopted the Americanism 'Crock-pot' because 'crock-pot' actually sounds quicker and as this has probably bought me an extra hour each working day, I think it's appropriate.

 

So that's the time saving, lets look at the cost saving. Total ingredients for 44 meals cost approximately £39, giving me a portion cost of just short of 90p, throw in some rice and veggies and stuff and you are probably looking at £1 per portion. Now in this day and age, I don't think that is bad, I used to budget for a £1 a portion fifteen years ago when I first moved in with my boyfriend (He hadn't earned his promotion of husband at that point). So time and money saving, together with trying some new recipes means, I think this experiment is going to be a winner.

 

So what did we cook?
 

Sweet Teriyaki Chicken
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup sugar
1tsp garlic salt
1/2 an onion
1 1/2lb chicken breasts

 

Chicken Curry (which I can't wait to try, loads of Mangoes and sweet potatoes)
3tbls flour
4tbls Curry powder
2lbs Chicken
2 cups set potatoes
2 cups baby carrots
2 cans Mango
1 Cup of Onion
2 cloves garlic (minced)
2 cups good chicken stock
 

Orange Chicken
2 cups carrots
2cups bell peppers
1lb chicken
3 cloves of minced garlic
1/2tsp pepper
8oz orange juice
 

Beef Stroganoff
2lbs stewing beef
2cans of condensed mushroom soup
1cup onions
2tbls Worcestershire sauce
1/2cup water
2 cloves minced garlic
1cup chopped mushrooms
 

And a spicy chicken thing I forgot to note the name of (sorry)
2lb chicken breast diced
1/8tsp cayenne pepper
1tsp paprika
1/2tsp ground ginger
3 sweet potatoes
1 onion chopped
1 cup apricot preserve
3tbls cider vinegar
1tbls soy sauce
1 cup chicken stock
2tbls cornflour
 

 

There are loads of great sites with crock-pot ready meals but the ones I have use so far are can be found on my Pinterest board slow Cooker.

So thanks to my dear friend from Essex, for giving me the extra hour in the day I have been looking for!