The Garden Fence - proper Old Style support and chat!

burtha

Merry Christmas all .
  work this morning then a quiet late afternoon lunch . chilling now with a glass of wine . 3 days off work to look forward to . 
hope everyone has had a reasonable day , despite what's going on in the world x 

pollyanna_26

Enjoy your time off burtha . I've had a strange home alone day like many others. Got through it. Had home made lamb casserole with parsley dumplings . Easy , little washing up and really enjoyed it.

Hope all the fencers have managed ok. Hopefully better days to come by next Christmas.

pollyx

MingVase

How do you make your dumplings Polly? I love thembut can't make them.

Nargleblast

Merry Christmas, Fencers, remember it's not just 25th, the festive season stretches into earlyJanuary so there's plenty of opportunities for fun and self indulgence!

pollyanna_26

MingVase said:

How do you make your dumplings Polly? I love thembut can't make them.

It's pretty well following the instructions on the pack Mar although I add some white pepper and lots of chopped flat leaved parsley.

I use the Atora vegetable suet but either is fine.

100g (4ozs) SR flour.

50g (2ozs) Suet.

PInch of Salt.

About 5 tbs cold water.

I also add some white pepper and lots of finely chopped flat leaved parsley but that's just me.

Slowly add water to the flour ,suet and salt I add white pepper and the parsley at this stage.. You may not need all the water or may need a little more just don't want an overwet dough.

Shape with floured hands into balls

Put on top of a simmering stew or casserole and cover with a tight fitting lid. They should be cooked in about 20 mins.

It's important not do overhandle the dough. I used to make large amounts when we were a big household which helped fill the hollow legged ones and stretched the meat.

pollyx

MingVase

I used to make them many mny years ago as well but forgot how. TY!  xx

pollyanna_26

Years ago I had a very heavy ss pressure cooker Mar. I used to make huge amounts of stew in it. Dumplings were made while the stew was cooking. The big chest freezer in the garage was full of homemade meals. I gave the pressure cooker away as it was too heavy with the arthritis and fibro even when empty. I've regretted that ever since. They don't make them like that any more.

The french flat leaved parsley in the garden has pretty well become a perennial so I chop and freeze loads. i bought one of those little kenwood electric choppers years ago when the local coop were selling it half price and it's been really useful .

I don't know if you've decided what to plant in your new garden yet but herbs are easy and much cheaper than in the shops especially out of growing season.

I used to wonder what the herb was in the Pot Herbs my mum used to buy from the greengrocer. It looked like flat leaf parsley . I finally discovered it was Wild Celery Leaf . Anyone from Ireland or with Irish roots will recognise that. Easy to grow from seed . If like me you love the flavour of celery but not the faffing it's a good alternative in soups, stews , salads and combined with cream cheese in sandwiches.

You can start it off indoors Feb to April or outdoors March to May.

pollyx..

MingVase

I know it, I hate celery! The smell from my next door neighbour's years ago when she put it in soup...

I too got rid of my big pressure cooker, and my slow cooker. Too heavy and unwieldy. Shame.

I'm going to do a herb garden out the front Polly. It's west facing and should get hot sun until late at night in summer. I'll do it in pots, and also stick a couple of nice grasses directly into the gravel - the blue Fescue and the black grass will show up well against the light gravel.

greenbee

Mar - I replaced my big ceramic crockpot with a smaller (3.5l) Morphy Richards 'Sear and Stew'. I didn't actually mean to get the one with the metal pot, as I have an induction hob and the pot is aluminium, but it's very light, so might suit you. 

pollyanna_26

I suppose it's our different tastes that make each of us an individual Mar. I love the smell and taste of celery and cook with it. The wild leaf celery is just handy for the things I mentioned. I have many memories of my 50s childhood when both my dad and grandads had allotments . I used to pick things and try them. I found I wasn't too keen on Rhubarb, Broad Beans and a number of other things. Perhaps it's because there was still some rationing in force and they Parsnips and a number of other things were repeated quite a lot at home.

All three grew celery , they had the space and time for it. I found it too much faffing here. One of my favourite recipies is the much missed Gary Rhodes Vegetarian Scotch Broth. Packed with veg ,herbs and barley. I've no idea how often I made huge amounts of that. It involved lots of peeling and chopping but was a very filling soup and kept well in the fridge. The family celery hater only discovered there was a lot of celery in the meal she'd always loved when she asked for the recipe when she went to Uni. I sometimes used to serve the part baked rolls from the cupboard or freezer with butter and even the fussy one used to wolf it down.

I think herbs will do very well in the front garden Mar. Did you ever find out what those horrible yellow flowers were before yanking them out after accepting the property? I spent ages peering at them but couldn't get the image large enough. Those grasses should look good.

It seems I'm not the only one to have had to get rid of very useful small appliances . I couldn't trust myself with anything breakable. Don't do nonstick or aluminium so quite limited. I tried two different slow cookers and passed them on. A long time ago I had an electric multicooker which was really useful but when that gave up the reviews weren't good and most were nonstick. My pressure cooker and multicooker were Prestige which seems to have sold it's brand name some years ago. My mid 70s set of saucepans, frying pans , omlette pan and full size steamer which fits on the medium size saucepan and means I can steam veg above the potatoes are all SS and still going strong. I sometimes think constantly changing things is a bit like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I'm a great believer in if it aint broke don't fix it.

pollyx.

ETA That should read all Prestige.