Surprise veg!

In April this year we had to move house quite suddenly, it was a real shame because we had done a lot of gardening and all round preparation for the season ahead at our old place. The thing I was sad about leaving the most was a large square raised bed I'd made by hand from scrap wood, it had taken me about a week, I loved it and was so proud of how well it turned out. I had layered compost, sand, dead leaves etc to make a rich soil base for the mixture of onions and carrots I planted, they were looking so promising when we left but all too small to pick.

We've been back a couple of times and seen it totally overgrown, I figured there mustn't be much under the weeds. How wrong I was!! We are cat sitting for the owners (Al's parents) this week and thought we'd have a dig around, after 7 months of total neglect this is what nature (and my loving preparation and planting) provided...

I'd say about 2kg carrots and 1kg onions!

Aren't they perfect, with all their imperfections :)

So tonight we feast on 40p lamb, free carrots, cabbage (reduced down to 10p) and gravy that's home made - with flour the old fashioned way! I'm so happy!

This is saving for our dream in style and appreciating the small things - just what we're about!

Hope you all are enjoying your weekends :)

P.S are you noticing a pattern with my saturdays? Not that I'm complaining!

Bargain Buy!

Hi everyone, I just wanted to say thank you for stopping by, I'm really enjoying writing this blog and I so appreciate the support I've had so far. I cant believe there are people reading this from Australia, Canada, America, Russia, Germany and lots of other countries - it's just so cool! Thank you!

I love love LOVE a bargain and I got an amazing one yesterday :) The hubby and I were in town to buy a bow tie, his work has been nominated for a best new business award NI and the black tie event, which I'm also invited to is this Thursday - exciting stuff! Anyway we saw a new charity shop and naturally went in for a nosey. I love cook books and will have an impressive collection on display in my dream kitchen one day but I won't buy them new on principle so I just keep an eye out in the second hand shops. Problem is I really like the river cottage and jamie oliver books which are really popular and hard to find but patience paid off and there was a practically brand new 'Jamie's America' for £2! RRP £26!!!

Please excuse the mirror photo...

I'm over the moon and have already read half of it and made a sausage Jambalaya, I was missing more than half of the ingredients but I never stick to recipes anyway -  I just use them as a guide and for inspiration. It tasted brilliant even though it doesn't really look like much! We used one of Al's home grown Caribbean scotch bonnets, even though it was a massive pot (will do us for at least 3 meals) one was enough!

While I was in the kitchen I made bread for the week, mostly I make 1 plain and 1 chilli (recipe pictures and how-to at chillininja) but today I just made 2 plain and some experimental rocky road type things for lunch time treats.

Rising nicely in the kitchen

Marshmallow, raisin, coconut, chocolate, rice crispy squares

 The bread is in the oven now and I can just start to smell it mmmmmm. I hope you had a lovely weekend, mine has been very relaxing :)

xx