Moanday Moanday, How Wet You Are.

Well we are still here although in all fairness I should tell you that the wind died down completely and then the rain fell like stair rods, and it fell and it fell, rinse and repeat and it falls still. Of course the local farm started lifting potatoes on Saturday, last year they ploughed more in than were lifted, thanks to the rain. I spoke to the Farmer when I took Ben out for a swim this morning and he said if I could brave the mud I was welcome to see what i could glean round the edges. Lovely man, they are top grade Maris Piper and good for roasties as well as chips, they will make a reasonable jacket spud as well as long as you half cook them in the Ding Oven. We are having some tonight with Baked Beans and Cheese, I have some grated extra mature farmhouse cheese in the freezer, RTC from the Co op for Francesca and some Shropshire Blue, also RTC, for myself. The rest of the broccoli and cauli, blanched and tossed in a mere smidgeon of hot flavoured oil will go well with them. I have some with garlic cloves and a chipotle pepper that will really crank up the taste.

Even though my tea party was a roaring success yesterday we were ready for a fast dinner, Francesca has a full on cold but also a full on appetite. I had been up since before first thing, I forgot to change the clocks, I had a reminder on one of the blogs that I follow but alas it slid off into a corner of my mind and went to sleep. 

I also stripped down and cleaned my oven, rearranged the brick shed to accommodate some trays of apples, yes more apples, I will be cooking with them for the winter, think Pulled Pork and spiced apple sauce, Sausages with fried onions and apples, Apple and cinnamon cake also as a pudding with the spiced apple sauce. 
You get the picture, it is a good job that we like apples and appley things.

Any way back to dinner, no photos, we were too hungry to wait. It was a very naughty dinner, griddled homemade Mac 'n Cheese with some of the RTC beef burgers from the Co op and some homemade oven chips!!! No Buns with the burgers though, there is only so much starch that we can eat. We did not have a pudding though, no room.
I picked up the idea to put mac 'n cheese on the griddle from an American cooking program ages ago and have made it several times, you need to use the smallest macaroni that you can find and make the sauce very stiff, I spread it out in a shallow pyrex dish to set and then cut out the shape and size that I want. It does sputter a bit on the flat top but I can live with that. You get this amazing crunchy outside with a velvety smooth inside. It has just dawned on me that although Francesca does not like a crunchy cheese topping she loves this, hmm.

Reasons to be grateful.

1. The wind missed us completely.

2. A large stock of fresh from the ground potatoes.

3. More apples stored up.

4. A lovely tea party yesterday, all the leftovers either in my fridge or my neighbours.

5. No trains running before lunch so i have Francesca at home today.

I am going to brave the elements again and take Ben out for 10 minutes. Little and often is my exercise regime.

                              TTFN       Pam

A little reminder of where the glut of apples all started.