Brussels Sprouts Not Lost

For a while I thought I'd lost the Brussels Sprout plants I've been growing, they seemed to have suffered a lot while I was away on holiday for a week, but it looks like I may have actually had a few survive, which I re-planted up a few weeks ago.

I originally grow so many that I gave a pot full to my mum.

                                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: June 2012

In total I managed to save four of the plants, one I've planted on its own and the other three in a long pot, they are very small at the moment, but hopefully they'll grow and I'll have some sprouts ready to eat at Christmas.

                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: June 2012

First Strawberries of the Year

Last year I created some Runners from the 'Alice' Strawberry plants I got from Thompson & Morgan, see blog Strawberry Runners for Beginners. The new Runners were left in my mini-greenhouse to over winter and around April they were planted up into hanging baskets.

                                            Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: June 2012

Unfortunately I started with four plants and lost two while I was a way on holiday at the end of May. But within a few weeks the others started to show some Strawberries coming through and this week I managed to pick the first four which were ripe to eat... delicious.

                                                   Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: July 2012

Cheating Peppers (Sweet)

Not sure what's been going on this year, it might be the weird weather we've been having here, but I've tried to sow a couple of batches of Pepper (sweet) since February and I've had no luck, so much so, that I decided to give up a couple of weeks ago and buy a couple from my local garden center.

                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: June 2012

These have been doing great over the last week or so, and are happily sitting on the south-east windowsill growing away.

Onions Almost Ready to Harvest

Last October I planted the Onion sets I bought outside on the balcony, these have been over wintered and growing ever since. I noticed over the last few months that the Onions have been developing just above the soil and they've been getting bigger and bigger every time I've popped out to check.

                                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: June 2012

Today I couldn't wait any longer and I harvested the first of the Onions for drying out. I carefully used a trowel to take out the six biggest just to see how they do, leaving the rest to continue to grow. I've left the lifted Onions on top of the mini-greenhouse, to dry out for the next week or so and then I'll hopefully be able to store and eat them soon.

                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: June 2012

Cabbage Growing Stronger

I may have had a few down turns with the Cabbage to begin with, I lost around 6 of my batch when they were first planted out, but they seem to going from strength to strength now.

                                                                  Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: April 2012

I have six plants growing away at the moment in two different spots on the balcony, some in a pot near the back, which I need to constantly water and a couple in the large tub hanging over the balcony, which get a lot of water from rainy May/June months we've currently having.

                                                                                   Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: June 2012

All doing well I'll have some great Cabbage to share with the family soon.

Linguine & Chargrilled Veg in a Passata Sauce

1 Pepper (sweet)
1 Courgette - sliced with a potato peeler
1 tbsp of Chili Oil
1 Jar of Roasted Passata Sauce (see Recipe)
1 Large handful of Linguine Pasta
Salt & Pepper to season

Heat a griddle and add the Chili Oil, cut the pepper into large slices and grate the Courgette lengthways, to create large slices. Add these to the oil once smoking and cook till they are tender and brown. Remove and place to kitchen towel to drain excess oil and leave to cool.

I've used Linguine pasta, but any pasta will do. Place the pasta into a pot of salty water and cook as directed, for the Linguine I tend to snap this in half, as I don't like the pasta too long. Once cooked drain and run through cold water.

Add the Roasted Passata Sauce to a large pan and heat slowly over a medium heat, after a few minutes and when the sauce beings to bubble, add the Courgettes and Peppers (sweet) which can cut into smaller pieces, to the sauce, warm for a few minutes and then add the pasta, season with salt and pepper as required. Once everything is boiling away and heated through, pour into a large bowl and enjoy.

As a side dish, why not try my Homemade Chili and Garlic Bread:

Slices of French bread
Butter
Chopped Garlic
Chopped Chili
Dried or Fresh chopped Mixed Herbs
Salt & Pepper to season

This is very simple to make and you can make as much or as little as you like, mix the butter, garlic, chili and mixed herbs together to make a paste, then season as required and then spread onto the French bread, which has been cut into circular slices. Place on a baking tray and cook in the oven until brown.

Another great recipe for the Cook Book.

Blooming Hot Sauce

As mentioned on my TLB facebook page recently, I've started to put a plan together for selling a few jars of the preserves I've been making, such as Chili Jam, Tomato Chutney and even the Passata Sauce and to my surprise my boyfriend, Zac, suddenly decided he wanted to make and sell Hot Sauce.

For those of you who have read about the Chili plants I bought for him last year, we ended up growing quiet a large amount of chilies and we found it really hard to decide what to do with them. But making Hot Sauce now seems like a great idea, Zac found a really easy recipe online and from this he adapted the recipe to fit the types of chilies he bought (at the moment our plants are very small), for his tester batch. He used x3 medium green chilies and x4 small Caribbean scotch bonnet Chilies.

I left him alone with the ingredients in the kitchen one Saturday afternoon and a couple of hours later we had a large amount of Hot Sauce, all bottles up and ready to test. Which we did the following day and I must say it was surprisingly tasty and really not that over powering in hotness, we love it so much we've been using it with everything.

                                                                        Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: 29 April 2012

This can only mean that test no.1 was very successful and once we've finished off this batch, it'll be onto the making of the next one.