Winter Roast Veg Salad

After a rather indulgent weekend last week I felt the need for a good dose of vegetables. After a bit of aimless internet browsing I decided on a wintery salad, making the most of some in season root vegetables. This is a fairly standard Julia recipe, nice and easy! And of course completely flexible as to what veg goes in.

Ingredients (serves 2):
2 carrots
1 pack pre-cooked beetroot (not in vinegar), or could use fresh
2 parsnips
2 small red onions
Couple of handfuls of spinach
Handful of rocket
4 spring onions
Olive oil
Mixed herbs
2-4 Eggs

1. Chop the root veg into even chunks

2. Put in a sandwich bag with a tablespoon of olive oil and some mixed herbs, tie closed and give a good mix by shaking around. this is a nice and easy way of coating the veg in oil without using too much!

3. Empty the oiled veg into an oven dish, stick in a preheated oven (approx. 180C) until well roasted, stirring occasionally. I left mine for about an hour as I was on Skype, and they came out great :)

4. Serve on a bed of spinach, rocket and chopped spring onions, top with one or two fried/poached eggs. You could add some feta or goats cheese too.

 One on my eggs was seriously orange, it tasted good!

Seafoam and Mermaids

We took a walk down to the sea at the weekend to see what was left after all the storms, Durdledoor is still standing at least! I do love this part of the coast, and possibly have enough versions of some of these views to make up an entire calendar of pictures. Hey ho, here are some more for you :) And as I am in a poetic mood, a haiku too...

Heart shines in the 'door
Fierce winds, white horses jump free
Treasure from mermaids

I didn't say it was good ;)

And because I am a biologist and can't help myself, here are some mermaid's purses, which I think may be from a Blonde Ray (Raja brachyura), thanks for an excellent ID guide Shark Trust!

Greyscale and Sepia Tones

Despite the fierce weather doing its level best to blow us off the hill, I am still here, although our bin seems to have disappeared; probably half way to Bristol now... Despite the howling gales I did manage to make it up north for a few days, to the lovely city of Durham. I was there for work and the weather was predictably nasty, but I managed to do a little exploring. It is a very atmospheric place, the massive cathedral and castle sitting in the centre overlooking everything probably have something to do with it. I've also added in a few recent snaps of the lovely Bath, just for comparison ;) That spot by the canal is fast becoming a favourite, and I love walking home over the meadows. I bet not too many people have such a well appointed commute.

Back to Bath...

 Has spring sprung?

Maybe not just yet...

Little Book of Calm

Wow this past couple of weeks have been crazy busy. I have just got to get through tomorrow then I have a whole delicious weekend to sleep. Here are a couple of soothing pictures that are getting me through it. Black Books helps too :) Hopefully I'll be back on form next week.

Tasty Broccoli and Egg Tart

Food! This broccoli and egg tart was a really easy and tasty dinner for this week, and as I used pre-rolled pasty, super-lazy! Loosely inspired by the recipe here, This is an infinitely adaptable recipe, and a nice alternative to pizza, although much the same concept.

I'll give you a basic recipe, but you can put on any topping really!

Ingredients for mine:
pack of pre-rolled puff pastry
1 head of broccoli
1 avocado
1 yellow pepper
1 medium red onion
roughly 100g goats cheese
3 eggs
Wholegrain mustard

Spread out the pastry on to a baking sheet, prick with a fork and blind bake for 10 mins.

Meanwhile, boil the broccoli until cooked to how you like it.

Fry the onions until softened and add the yellow pepper and cook for a couple of mins, then stir in a teaspoon of mustard.

Once everything is cooked, spread the onion mix onto the pastry, then pile of the broccoli, avocado and cheese. Try to leave wells for the eggs. Crack the eggs into the gaps, then bake the whole thing for another 10 mins or so, until the eggs are cooked to your liking.

I had it with salad and yoghurt on the first day, then baked beans the next!

What would you put on yours? :)

A Wintertime Dorset

I had a lovely Christmas in Dorset, doing the rounds visiting lots of my family. The rain did its level-best to interrupt the festivities, but at least the sun shone a little, and we even had a bit of frost. I would rather snow or sunshine than rain, but I think beauty can be found in anything, if you look hard enough. I am looking forward to the days getting longer though so I can get out and get some more pictures!

The Moronic Cushions

Hope everyone had a good new year! I just wanted to tell you about a Christmas present project that rescued my ego, after I had a moment of idiocy when making the wedding quilt! I managed to cut the strips for the star at the wrong angle, so the every single one was the wrong size and shape! Luckily I just had enough fabric to redo the quilt, but it left me with a big pile of misshapen strips. I didn't want to waste the lovely expensive quilting cotton, so I sewed the strips together and hey presto, made some cushion covers!

I added some extra fabric to the edges of the diamond strips, then quilted as normal. I then used the quilted square for the front of the cushions, with a simple overlapped back out of some striped stash fabric. I think they came out pretty well, out of disaster can come success :)