Check out this blog by Richard Maggs, who is the AGA Cookery Doctor

Richard Maggs is the AGA Cookery Doctor and he has just posted this blog on the AGA website as AGA had a stand at the Royal Welsh Show in Builth Wells this week. Food was cooked on two live AGA cookers, one of which was the new AGA Total Control, hope you enjoy this blog - The Royal Welsh Show 2011 by Richard Maggs

Cindy xx

Cherry season ... but where have all the cherries gone?



Where have all the cherries gone?

Cherry shortage hits Cubbington
Well, am I the only one fed up with all of this rain? How gloomy was it today, it was like a late autumn day, and very hard to believe that we are slap bang in the middle of summer! At least the rain has been good for the fruit and veg on the plot, and the water butt is full to the brim, also, the new chickens have settled in well, and are eating everything that they are given - and the eggs are still coming thick and fast.

I went to pick some cherries on Sunday morning ... but I couldn't find any! The birds have eaten the ones at the top of the trees, and I'm sure that my dad hasn't eaten the rest so I'm at a loss to explain where they have gone. I was going to bake a couple of nice cherry pies on my day off tomorrow but I'll have to think of something else now!

I'll be spending a few hours on the plot, and I'm going to pick some more spuds, some peas (eating them as I go), and some carrots, then I'll have to see what I can rustle up for tea. I brought an apple home yesterday and asked David to try it, it looked nice but he took one bite and the look on his face told me it was a cooker ... very funny!

I'm off for an early night now but I will post an update tomorrow, along with the recipe for whatever I delight I manage to come up with.

Cindy xx

Fresh vegetables from my plot and Dexter beef!

Tonight's tea was pretty impressive (even if I say so myself), and David was delighted with it. I cooked some of the Dexter braising steak and everything I served with it was from the plot, that's potatoes, carrots, peas, courgettes, Yorkshire puddings and mint! You're probably thinking that I'm going a bit bonkers as Yorkshire puddings are not grown on an allotment .... but I've included them because they were home made with eggs laid by my chickens!

Dexter beef ... before

The above was quickly followed by a rather nice rhubarb crumble .... and guess where the rhubarb came from? That's right, the allotment, and I wonder if anyone reading this has ever taken a stick of fresh rhubarb and dipped it in a bag of sugar, I know I have! I used this rhubarb crumble recipe from the BBC Good Food website, and served it with some nice vanilla custard, although I didn't use the chopped walnuts (which were optional), you can also find the recipe on my favourite recipe page.

Cindy xx