Bangers n Mash

I love Bangers n Mash, not only was it one of my favourites growing up , but it always reminds me of home ( England ) , and is still one of my favourite meals today .  Now, mind you .. my Bangers n Mash dish , is not my Mums , which while delicious! Would be lacking in garlic and spice ... my two favourites :)  Hahaha  For those of you that have never had this , or don't even know what it  is ...     You are going to love it :)    Bangers are sausages , typically an English Banger is a short fat little sausage seasoned with herbs and spices, containing ground pork and bread .. but that can vary widely from region to region , fennel was quite popular when I was younger.  The name Banger , mostly got its name from WWII when rationing was in full effect and the sausages were likely to have a higher water content , causing them to explode if not cooked carefully :))
   Mash , well.. quite simply its Mashed Potatoes :) Either simple or spruced up with some garlic and herbs .. I much prefer the later ! I like to use Yukon or Russets , however any type will work , the ones shown here were white.

Less Words, More Food 15

Love this series..    as I don't have to write up recipes for my dishes .  Which are almost always just created , never following a recipe.  Just an idea, and a pantry full of goodies.

Red, yellow and dutch onions from my pantry , garlic from my garden. Helped keep me eating locally during the harshest two months of the year !  

Love this combination , caramelized onions, garlic, butter and peas! Mmmmm

Cheese on Toast :))  Ciabatta bread with 6 year old cheddar . 

Bangers and mash, with a nice pan gravy !  

Roast Pork Sirloin , with peas in a mustard butter , and roast potatoes :) 

I was hooked on cheese on toast for a few days last week !   This time with a little prosciutto salami , and 6 year old cheddar .  

So there you have it :)) What did you think ?
Peace, Love and Good Food to all

Gardening In June

First off.  I must apologize for being so far behind on my blogging , I just can not seem to get my writing mood working properly .   Now lets get caught up :))
June is an exciting month to be gardening ... everything is starting to takeoff, and if you planned it well, you can even have a few salads , and some tasty early crops.   Radishes , lettuces, spring onions, even peas ...  plus of course the herbs.  MmmmMmmm so exciting to watch, kinda painful to have to wait for it all though !

My 1st 3 sisters plot is doing well., I should have waited a few more weeks before planting the beans though , they ended up going a little wild without a nice corn stalk to grow up . 

1st week of June,  everything is safe from frost now , cold frames have been removed... its time to grow!! 

The peas needed a little help climbing the chair.  

The maple sticks were plenty strong enough to support the peas, but for future reference , make sure they are dried!!  Hahaha they started sprouting on me.  

June is great for lettuces.. not too hot . Mmmm fresh garden salad!   I'm not very good at thinning , but am getting better .. esp. now that I just eat the thinnings. 

Basil :)) My favourite herb.   This year I'm growing most of it in containers, and only one test patch in the ground.   

By mid June ..  the peas were flowering!!  

Mid June again , my first full salad from the garden .. lettuces, radishes, onions, and a few herbs. 

I cut a large bunch of my oregano, and hung it in a breezy sunny spot to dry out.  Funny, i don't like fresh oregano, only dried. 

TOMATOES!!!  Yeah !  I will have to wait at least another month to eat them ... but I'm so very happy.   Proper spacing of my tomato plants this year , has made a huge impact on how many tomatoes per plant I'm getting .  Don't crowd them, it does not get you more tomatoes.  

June is full of flowers!!  These are Scarlet Runner Beans.  

Radishes are a great early crop,  in less than a month you are eating them!  

By the 3rd week of June , things are really starting to pick up!  The squash is starting to sprawl out :)) 

Same with the peas, by the 3rd week ... I'm eating them on every trip to the garden . 

My Bright Lights Swiss Shard is doing amazing , and tastes just as good! 

This radish was growing for  about 35 days !  It was huge :)) 

The peas finally climbed the chair :))  Will be drilling a few holes in the seat for next season ...  to let a little more water underneath . 

By the end of June , the onions I left in the ground last fall have gone to seed.  Time to clip the heads and try and save some.  

That brings us up to July !  Ill be doing a two part post for that as there is so much going on !!   I have a garden journal , so If I have skipped something , or not explained it fully .. please just leave a comment below , and Ill happily fill in any blanks!!   Either that or jump over to my Facebook page , and check out the daily goings on there.

Happy Gardening !!

Starting My Garden Early 3

This year I started my Garden a full 6 weeks , maybe 7 before our last frost date ...  some things were kept inside , while others went outside with a few simple cold frames.  

Ill keep this brief , as I'm so far behind now , that most of this is slightly out of date. Well for this year anyways :))

Its always a good idea to harden your plants off for a few days, or even a week after starting them inside.  Gets them used to the outdoors. 

Garlic that was planted last fall ..  coming back strong!!  Can't wait :)) 

This will become my first 3 sisters planting :))   

Gotta watch it when you hardening off plants , Id left these outside and went to work , then we had an unexpected scorcher of a spring day ... All ten cucumber seedlings were burnt to a crisp in one afternoon :(( 

Oregano and thyme really appreciated the cold frame... they cam thru stronger than ever  :)) 

Onions I left in from last year , and a few that had sprouted in my pantry .
If they wont grow onions , I'm going to try and save the seeds this year . 

My Garden in mid - May , still 10 days before the last frost , but I thought Id risk a few things.  

Most everything in my garden is recycled .. including the plant markers, I got these strips from the scrap bin at a local lumber yard . Free!!  

Cold frames are gone , and tomatoes and pepper plants are in ... still one week of possible frost , but I was feeling lucky :)) 

Decided to try adding some straw to the garlic .. see if it would help with the weeds...  It did a little , but also makes it harder to use a hoe between the rows .. Hmmmm 

Well , I'm getting there !! This brings us up to the 3rd week in May :) Almost there....
As always , questions or comments are most welcome.
Happy Gardening !!

Starting My Garden Early

Last year when I started this blog , the growing season had pretty much ended ... So I was not able to delve into the growing side of Good Food .   Now that spring is here , I can :))  Our last frost date here is the 3rd week in May ,   most years I usually try and push that date by a couple of weeks , with mixed results. This year , I'm trying to get smart about it all, Ive FINALLY started a garden journal , instead of just scribbling things on a calendar ! I started planted seeds March 28th ,  more than a month earlier than I have before.   With  the help of a little mini greenhouse I built on the bottom shelf in my kitchen , and a few cold frames.. I'm hoping for this to be my most successful year ever :))  I also got a real jump start on things by planting 3 rows of garlic , and a couple of onions last fall :)) Things are looking good !!

I turned the bottom third of a kitchen shelf into a propagator/grow room .

This was the 1st green thing in my garden ,  The garlic I planted last October :))  I used the leaves I raked up as a mulch to help them thru our winters.  

On the warm days Ive been bring them outside to start hardening them off.  

I tried a row of Romaine , directly sowed on 3/28 ..  took a bit but it came up , the pot to the right was started the same day ( but inside ) a cold frame is covering this lettuce patch . 

Planting the lettuce ,  I like to soak the soil 1st to make it easier to separate these tiny plants 

Things are growing well,  everything has sprouted ,  Ill have lots of tomatoes this year , maybe even enough to do my canning with :)) 

I never planted enough Basil ,  but that will not be the case this year , 60 or so have been started so far , with at least that many being started today  as well.  

Peas sure do sprout quickly .. 5 days and they have already broken ground.  

Red Peppers are a different story , these took about 3 weeks to pop up  

Mystery seeds , I'm thinking Squash or Cucumber . 

My Garden in the early morning light ,  I free-cycled most everything in my garden ,  the cold frames are old packing crates , and cupboard doors  :))

 My Good Food Revolution is changing for the better , look for more gardening , and farming posts , as well as recipes, food porn , and kitchen tips & tricks :)
 Since its Earth Day today , its time to move away from the PC , and go plant something .   Happy Gardening !!

Less Words, More Food 2 :)

Its been a strange week for food for me,  a few days of cooking like a mad man ,  then a couple of days surviving on cheese and toast :)  Also,oddly enough it started with meatballs, and ended with meatballs :)

Here is a quick look at what has been coming out of my kitchen :)

Grass fed Beef Meatballs with Garlic Latkes

More free range beef, all from a local farm :) Today was -20C a good stew was needed .