Veg Bag

Mum came over the other day, she always brings something for the kids to do whilst she's here. 

She knows that they love crafts, so it's normally something craft based she can bring with her.

She'd found these bags from a pound shop that came with a set of pens.

The one side you just colour in a picture of some fish but the other side is blank. I told my daugheter she could draw what ever she wanted, I said just draw whatever interests you.

She drew veggies!

On the bag now there's carrots, beetroots, tomatoes, lettuces, sweetcorn, the list goes on! It really made me smile when she did it.

This little girl sure does love her gardening! 

Raspberry Slice

So many raspberries at the moment it's almost becoming hard to know what to do with them!

But I'm loving my latest recipe I've been messing around with - Raspberry slice! 

Our raspberry patch is about 25ft long and 6ft deep so as you can imagine it produces a fair few raspberries each day at this time of year. I can normally pick a couple of large punnets full every couple of days. I've frozen loads, dehydrated them, made jam, cooked crumbles and I wanted to bake with them more, but not just chucking them in a sponge, that's gets old fast.

So I decided to have a look around the internet and then alter a recipe to suit what I have to hand! 

This turned out really good, everyone loved it and it's got so many raspberries in it it almost has to be healthy!

70g of almond flour,
250g self raising flour,
280g of brown sugar,
200g of butterTwo eggs 500g of raspberries (I used fresh but I think it would work with frozen ones as well)

Mix the flour, almond flour, sugar and melted butter together (I melt the butter just to make it easier to mix together). 
Get about 100g of this mixture and keep to one side.
Then mix in the eggs and pour onto a tray.
Lay half the raspberries all over it and sprinkle on the mixture you held back.
Bake for 45 minutes at 180.
Then get out and add the other half of the raspberries and cook for another 15 minutes.

This tastes amazing!

Great cold or with custard whilst it's still warm. I imagine it would work well with other fruit as well.

Let me know if you give it a try.

Anyone else got a good baking recipe using raspberries?

Four Today!

There's lots of moments where your life changes, and four years ago today was certainly one of them! 

I can hardly believe my middle child is now four! 

What can I say other than I love the girl she's turned into. 

She's brilliantly clever, with a wicked sense of humour and keeps me on my toes with interesting and thoughtful questions. She loves to help me when ever she can and is learning the whole time, her knowledge really does surprise me. 

Yes we argue and she is sometimes too head strong, she's always active and on the go but these are traits I've given her! I sometimes worry she's a little bit too much like me! 

Yes, it's another strawberry cake - this time with a stalk. She's been on about it since her sisters party in January! 

Just the other day I was being naughty and looking at Instagram as she ran in and jumped on top of me 

"What you looking at daddy?"

"Just this picture" 

I replied showing her a picture someone had put on of some raspberry leaves they were making tea from.

"Why are you looking at raspberry leaves?" 

And with that she ran off to do whatever she was doing. She knew they were raspberry leaves straight away without me saying anything!

She's great with the animals as well, I took her with me to catch a lamb the other day and said it had a poorly foot, she straight away knew what I was going to do to make it better! 

She can even remember places that we visited when she was only one, and as we drive past recount who we went there with! 

I'm so lucky to have spent so much time with my children as they grow up and I'll be forever thankful of that. I took over full time child care with her when she was 6 months old and although it not always been easy, it's always been fun! 

Happy 4 Birthday my mad little girl! 

Autumnal Veg Box

Put together a veg box for a friend this week. 

I really was pleased with the colours and the selection.

Clockwise from left to right:

Celeriac,

Lovage,

Patty Pan Summer Squash,

Swiss Chard,

Carrots,

Florence Fennel,

Globe Artichokes,

Tomatilos,

I love how much is available this time of year! 

What would be in your dream box for October?

Escape Artist

The boy has one goal at the moment - to get outside! 

I'm having to lock doors, otherwise he quietly slip his boots on and goes off to see all the chickens, tractors, diggers and sheep. 

Round here is a little boys dream, so he obviously just wants to be outside! Just wish he'd let me know when he goes!