Taking the biscuit.....


Yep, it's biccie time again. You know me....I love a good biccie to go with a cuppa. I am having to be quite good with the ol' calorie intake at this time of year, but a treat never scuppered a diet in my world. Your body needs a little 'extra' sometimes and with all this cold weather, I'm sure a homemade 'norty' cookie once in a while never killed anyone. I'm living proof that it probably doesn't do much harm.

That alone, my kids always need something to scoff when they arrive in from school starving after a hard days graft of painting, reading, writing, playing out in the fresh air and really concentrating on 'maffs', as I call it. A young brain needs to be fed! Serious kitchen cupboard raiding happens at about 3.30 with calls of 'I'm hungry, what is there to eat? Well, you can't go wrong with a mum's own lovely made biscuit. I know what's gone into it and that makes me happy. OK enough of my nattering, here's another New Leaf favourite, laden with calories,wholemeal flour, sugar and oats. GREAT!



Melting Moments (from my ancient tatty Cranks recipe book)


Butter or margarine 150g
Raw brown sugar 75g
Vanilla essence 1/2tsp or a sachet of vanilla sugar if you are luck enough to have one from France!
Beaten egg 1 tablespoon (I didn't use this)
100% Wholemeal flour 100g
Porridge oats 25g
Extra porridge oats to coat.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla essence. If you are using a sachet of vanilla sugar, just put it in with the butter and other sugar. Work in the flour and oats. Form into balls the size of a walnut, and coat with the rolled oats. (Place them on a plate and roll the cookie balls in it. Flatten slightly and place on a greased baking sheet. Bake in the oven for 15 -20 mins until golden at Gas Mark 4, 350F or 180C. Cool slightly before transferring to a cooling tray.




Voila, delicious biscuits all ready and waiting for the cookie monsters to arrive home!

Hopeless of Wiltshire Returns.....

Actually I am downing myself here...I have nothing to be ashamed about. REALLY. Do you wanna know what I've been doing, do ya, do ya?




I've been living it up downshifter stylie. It's kind of good that I haven't been here to report my greening upiness over the past few months. I think it's sort of encouraging that I haven't been tapping out my waffle, but out and about doing STUFF!

Life in the New Leaf household has been one of cooking, eating, sniffing out the latest bargains. (aren't we all) and enjoying everyday as it comes.




One of my latest 'find's' was an organic farm not five miles from me who do a veggie box delivery. I can't believe I have missed out on them for all this time since I 've been here.

'SO?' I hear you say. Well, this farm only delivers what it grows seasonally. How fab is that? Real food, local as you like and I'd say pretty darn good. At the moment they are providing cabbages, onions, swede, rocket, parsley, carrots, spuds, the most excellent shallots ever, parsnips and kale. It all tastes divine, is delivered as fresh as you like and to top it all they do CHICKENS! Organic, freerange chooks that cook up a treat and are to die for. (actually, they've died for our dinner - sorry chickens, but you taste great)


I can't praise these guys/gals at the farm more highly for a service that's fantastic.

I didn't get my cabbage this week, you want to know why? They didn't forget.....it was due to the incredble frosts we've had and they couldn't get the beggars out of the ground. It's only life...I'll live. I'll miss the beauts this week, that they send me on a regular basis, but lets see what the weather holds for us and I may get lucky with the next delivery!

I've also been scurrying around building a new work from home business, baking for England (and my family) and sorting out all the necessary stuff for our new allotments that we've wangled out of the Parish Council. More on that SOON!

Getting meself into a right pickle....



I know, I know....it's a sham, I've not written anything for ages. This is because I've been busy....yeah you know that word quite well, I'm sure. It's been a nice sort of busy though. Not the stress bunny kind of stuff. It's been looking after my lot, visiting my mum in France and making all the nice things that I do, when I am at home for my gannets to eat. Most recently, I've had the land of the giants to sort out at the lottie. It's that courgettey time of year when those little (or rather huge) monster veg grow tenfold by night. It's not that I even looked after them. I treated them really badly, but still they came up trumps and made us many a meal....yeah, there's some stashed in the freezer too. The other day, I had to do something about the three humungous courgettes sitting outside on my garden table. They'd been there a week or two with me having the best intentions of making them into chutney. Well their time had come and they got the chop. I've made some great Courgette Chutney from a recipe of Hugh Fernley Whittingstalls ('The Hairy One' as he's affectionately known in my little circle of HFW fans) Goodness, I'd love to get a brush through those locks and spruce him up a little on the barnet front. So thanks to him, I now have a mass of jam jars in my cupboard full of the most delicious pickle, sitting there maturing until the festive season and beyond. Watch out friends....it's your xmas pressie. I may even chuck in a chunk of cheese for goodwill!

OK Here's the recipe courtesy of our friend in Dorset.

Hugh Fernley Whittingstall's Courgette Glutney

1kg courgettes chopped up into small pieces, peel them if they are 'bigguns'.

1kg red or green tomatoes, scalded, skinned and roughly chopped.

(the first lot I made had fresh red toms, but in desperation and lack of any fresh ones I chucked in two tins of chopped peeled toms. Shhh...don't say a word.)

1kg cooking or eating apples, peeled and diced

500g onions, peeled and diced

500g sultanas or raisins

500g light brown sugar

750ml white-wine or cider vinegar, made up to 1 litre with water

1-3 tsp dried chilli flakes

1 tsp salt

For the spice bag

1 thumb-sized nugget of fresh or dried ginger, roughly chopped

12 cloves

12 black peppercorns

1 (generous) tsp coriander seeds

A few blades of mace (I didn't have any of these!)

Put the vegetables and fruit in a large, heavy-based pan with the sultanas or raisins, sugar, vinegar and water, chilli flakes and salt.

Make up the spice bag by tying all the spices in a square of muslin or cotton. Add the spice bag to the pan, pushing it into the middle.

Heat the mixture gently, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar, and bring slowly to the boil. Simmer for 2-3 hours, uncovered, stirring regularly to ensure it does not burn on the bottom of the pan. The chutney is ready when it is rich, thick and reduced, and parts to reveal the base of the pan when a wooden spoon is dragged through it. If it starts to dry out before this stage is reached, add a little boiling water.

Pot up the chutney while still warm (but not boiling hot) in sterilised jars with plastic-coated screw-top lids (essential to stop the vinegar interacting with the metal). Leave to mature for at least two weeks - ideally two months - before serving.' ·

I have to say the first lot of chutney I made has been broken into already and it tasted wonderful with a chunk of freshly made bread and a lump of tasty cheddar. I have made wholemeal biscuits for cheese, which are ace with this pickle, but I'll save that recipe for another time.

Wot A Waste....

Hello, I'm back shortly to report this.

A good friend sent me this link about food wastage in this country. Not to mention all the packaging! This is food recyling at it's best....well I think it is.

Here

It's quite amazing just how much the supermarkets throw out, why don't they at least give it to their staff? Just get them to sign a disclaimer if they are so paranoid about poisoning someone! This just shows what a wasteful society we are. I'd certainly take it home with me if I worked there - probably by the car load! Or at the very least give it to homeless shelters to make a quick delicious meal for someone who really needed it. Most of the food chucked out in the above film was out of date on that very day. Just how many of us use food out of date? I certainly do and no one died in my household!

This has to be the story of the year for me!

Right...you listening out there? The Book Of Rubbish Ideas will be published by the beginning of September written by my great friend Tracey Smith

I say great...she really is.

Even better (biggin' meself up here people)......I'm in it.

Self promotion? A very small yes and an even bigger NO. The book is a revelation. Read it and be totally inspired. You don't have to be so green it hurts, but it will give you some great advice on how to green up your life and all that surrounds you. You don't' have to be a purist.....you don't have to go all the way....just do your 'bit' and feel better for you, your life, your family and ultimately the PLANET!

Tracey has worked so hard over the last few months to share all her incredible knowledge on downshifting and sustainable living that she's experienced and learnt over a number of years. You'll be inspired by her feel good ideas and gentle process into Eco living. It's written in a witty, intelligent and easy to follow way...you'll be reading it all day, all the way through, without stopping for a cake and coffee in between. Yeah....it's that good.

You can pre-order the Book Of Rubbish Ideas HERE.

And if you'd like to WIN a dedicated signed copy watch this space.....I have one up for grabs very soon!

Thought I'd left the planet?.............dream on!

I know, I know....a whole month without a sniff of New Leaf posting her usual drivvel on being a green bird etc. Well, I've been busy!


And you've been muttering......just how busy have you been bird?

See.....I've been growing stuff on my lottie and keeping a loving eye on it too. I have the most amazing courgette plants churning out veg like no tomorrow. Just 8 plants giving it their all to provide us with lots of produce and many interesting meals.

With that in mind I am going to share a nice little soup recipe made from left overs and courgettes - of course.

This is totally delicious, light and perfect for using many 'zchetties'. Have a soup party and invite everyone in your neighbourhood!

Basic recipe:

Onions chopped
Courgettes chopped
Red peppers also ....chopped
Veg stock
Water
A couple of potatoes...yep chopped
Fresh herbs cut and ready to sprinkle on your creation.

By saying basic, I mean use yer loaf on the amounts of each ingredient. I am a 'handful' cook. A handful of this and a handful of that, but an onion or two chopped, 4 chopped courgettes, one red pepper, two tsps of veg stock powder, two med spuds peeled and chopped, a pint and a half of water, salt and pepper to taste.

Fry chopped onions in butter/olive oil. Add the rest of the ingredients, cook until tender and whizz up with a hand blender. Snip up a mixture of herbs - parsley, coriander, rocket, chives and add to your soup bowl. Serve with freshly baked bread and butter.

You can't go wrong!

It's time to get....... NAKED!!!


Isn't it good to stumble upon something? I stumble and trip around a lot......but this was for the better, with no grazed knees!

Whilst looking for a website of kids bathtime washing stuff, that I had not saved to favourites,(a bad habit of mine...why I don't remember to click just one button is beyond me) I came across this great company called NAKED . How come I never saw them before? Who knows?

I have been gradually changing my bathroom toiletries to SLS and Paraben free over the past couple of years. That and my cleaning products, which have been a little easier to get hold of. It's not always easy to find body cleaning stuff that are not loaded with all sorts of not so good chemicals for cleaning your bod with and are sensibly priced too. (you know me and a bargain ~ we live hand in hand)

Naked body washes, foam bath soaks, face masks, body creams and face scrubs are just the ticket They smell wonderful, do what they say on the bottle, SLS and paraben free and all within my budget. They are striving to source all their ingredients within the UK and whack it all in recycled packaging. I was so impressed by the stuff I ordered, I got some for my mum's birthday and sent them off to France. (yeah, yeah I know, carbon footprint and all that....but sometimes things are so fab you have to share the secret and send them anywhere!) Don't tell the old dear, but I nearly kept the Manuka Hand Cream as it smelt so good.

No.....this company haven't paid me, lured me with gifts, begged me to write about them........I went creeping to them to ask them for a photo to add to my blog and they took the time to reply to me and sent the photo above, probably the poshest image I have on here! I am just impressed with what they have to offer.

All I want them to do now is invent something wonderful to moisturise my face with. I hope it's in the pipeline. I'm still on the hunt for something nice to whack on my skin to keep it from looking like a piece of sundried leather. I am beginning to look like an old prune ~ all be a squeaky clean prune. If I have wrinkles at least they should be moisturised happy ones!

I say tomato, you say to- mate- o.....

More like too many-toes....I have a LOT of plants!

In the dash to get just a few things put in at our little patch of land up the road and around the corner, me and my mate had a bit of an over zealous planting spree.

Resulto....enough tommy plants to open a small garden centre.

Well, at least we can spread them around, some here some there and some to give away, or flog at one of the village sales coming up.

We also have 55+ sunflowers to deal with, I am sure we could set up an oil refinery with the amount of flowers we have too. They will look stunning towering above us as we toil away, keeping the pesky weeds at bay.

Things are looking good at our little patch. We have French beans, spring onions, beetroot, (which SJ hates, but I am going to try and convert her with my many delicious recipes, I have up my sleeve) courgettes and carrots. We also have a sizable chunk of rhubarb that my aunt dug out for us. It's thriving. I am sure by the look of the courgette plants that we are going to have a bumper crop. Lucky we both like them and all the delicious things you can make with the huge amounts we are likely to get. We were musing about how we were going to have to find freezer space elsewhere to store the overflow of ratatouille meals in.

It's really encouraging to see the overgrown area that we had, transform into something we can be proud of in such a short time. We usually take the boys (large and small ones) to help out. Digging did cause some concern, as a battle of witts with land and tool hogging went on for a while,from the shorter members of the contingency. So much space and they want the same 10cm patch to churn up! Peace has now thankfully reigned and watering has been quite a hit. The secret is to have MANY watering cans, so no one gets left out!

If you are still having trouble in finding an allotment (they are becoming as rare as hens teeth, with the greed of major house building going on these days) lobby your parish or local council. We are hoping for replacement allotments to make a come back in our village after the old ones were built on about 20 years ago. Have a look at the link below to see how you can try and get one in your area.

National Society of Allotments


Good luck!