Moog's meanderings

Well – depending on your point of view!

I did a significant amount of surfing the net last night (when I really should have been sleeping – that’s what I most need – but hey ho!) and discovered a couple of things relating to the gluten-free thing.

Buckwheat flour is also known as Sarrasin Flour
Sorghum flour is also known as Juwar flour
Millet flour is also known as Bajri flour
Teff flour is available in the UK (but really expensive).

This will mean that a range of recipes I thought I’d never be able to put together are now feasible (Apparently Juwar flour is available in the Asian aisle of bigger Tesco stores). The Sarrasin thing is quite annoying because I have had buckwheat flour for ages and hardly ever use it but apparently most of my recipes refer to Sarrasin so no wonder!!!!!

Has it really been two weeks since I posted? Well, our visit to see Munchkin’s godmother went very well. We had a lovely afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed meeting her little girl. I know it’s something that everyone says but you forget how tiny there are once yours grow bigger! Munchkin is quite a heavy bundle these days (I don’t carry him in the sling very often anymore!!). We spend the Sunday of that weekend at Hanbury Hall. We had a fab day just the three of us. They had a good little playground and munchkin had lots of fun climbing and on the swings. We also did a tour of the walled garden which was really fascinating. It’s a kitchen garden and the variety of veg they were growing was fantastic. We’re planning to go back there on Saturday because they’re having an ‘apple day’.

This last weekend we went to another National Trust place – Attingham Park – to meet up with the in-laws for the day. Again we had a wonderful day. The weather was lovely and Munchkin was very pleased at the presence of lots of cows (one of his current favourite things) and a very friendly labrador (his new favourite thing!!). There was a food fayre going on and we re-discovered something we came across once a few years ago. Blackcurrant Gin. This particular one is made by Tipsy Fruit Gins, Ltd and I had not been able to get hold of it since that one time. I made a 250ml bottle last well over a year but never was able to replace it. Now I have!!! If anyone is into that kind of thing I can very much recommend this.

The allotment is doing well and getting out of hand at the same time. The runner beans are finally slowing down considerably and will soon need cutting down. The courgettes are practically over. The peppers are still trying to produce – there are loads of tiny ones coming – but I really think that it’s too cold now for much more to happen. Next year’s purple sprouting is going crazy, the leeks seem to be doing ok too. The kale is nearly ready for picking. Not sure about the spring cabbage we planted for autumn (or for spring) because I didn’t really look when I was down there earlier. There’s loads of weeding and digging to be done otherwise the veg will get strangled and we won’t be able to plant the over-winter broad beans. So much to do and so little spare time during fine weather spells!!

Ok, so here’s the subject of this post. Last night I made Banana Muffins. The recipe is courtesy of Ginger Lemon Girl. I made a couple of substitutions (golden granulated sugar for agave nectar, sultanas for nuts – to remove choking hazard for Munchkin – and sunflower oil for healthy heart oil) but they worked out really well. Munchkin ate a whole one for breakfast (as well as half a banana, half a pear and a bowl of cereal!). Sorry I didn’t take any pictures but take my word for it that they are lovely!

Regarding the post below – any self-respecting coeliac knows that soy sauce is not gluten free. I made a couple of modifications to the recipe in the link. They are: I replaced soy sauce with tamari; I used peanut butter rather than black bean paste; I used honey rather than molasses and added about an extra teaspoon of it (the mixture was too salty and didn’t have the proper sweetness of hoisin – I think that’s because of the tamari being stronger than soy sauce and tasting more salty); I lobbed in some sweet chilli sauce because I didn’t have any chinese hot sauce. It worked well but it needed some serious blending!

We’re having crispy duck tonight – hurrah! I haven’t had it for absolutely ages because usually the marinades and sauces are not gluten free so I have to avoid them. We got a pack from the supermarket and I can have the duck (even marinated!) but not pancakes or sauces. So we have made hoisin sauce ourselves using this recipe and I have some ‘blue dragon’ rice flour pancakes. Hubby gets to have the ones from the pack that have wheatflour in them.

This week I feel really tired and my back’s been aching a lot. I suspect it is to do with Munchkin not being well on Tuesday and my having to hold him and cuddle him in and out of sleep all day. Thankfully it was just a one day bug of some sort and he was back to his normal smiling bouncy self (soon after 4.30am) on Wednesday morning. Argh! Tomorrow is our weekly family trip to the swimming pool. Hubby takes Munchkin in to pool while I sit on the side with a flask of coffee and read the Saturday Paper. That will be very welcome! With a bit of luck we’ll have a restful night preceding it and having hubby around for a couple of days will give my back a bit of a rest. I did get some time to myself today but this that was because I had to go to the dentist for a filling. Not really the most relaxing way to spend one’s time!

Tomorrow we’re off to see some family we don’t often see because they’re a bit of a trek up north. They’re down visiting family so we’re going to meet them for a bit in the afternoon. It’ll be really wonderful because it is Munchkin’s Godmother and we’ll be able to meet her new daughter. Well, not so new now – she’s nearly 3 months old! I am very excited )

The allotment is looking ok in spite of getting completely flooded on Saturday (as did half of Birmingham – we had trouble getting to a friend’s son’s 1st birthday party only a couple of miles away – had to find another route three times because of flooding). We’re still picking quite a few runner beans and some courgettes as well as beetroot. The tomatoes have all got blight so that’s that (apparently we didn’t get the spray on soon enough).

Anyway – grub’s up so Bon Appetit!

Well, just a couple!

This one is of one of the cucumbers we grew in our back garden (we needed a greenhouse). It was very tasty. Slightly different flavour to the supermarket variety. You don’t have any point of reference for size in the picture but it was a decent size – around that which you’d get in the supermarket.

Here’s little Munchkin helping hubby plant the leeks out at the allotment a couple of weeks ago. In fairness, I think that he was somewhat less helpful than the picture implies (and the waterproof dungarees were very necessary!). )

Thanks to my neighbour calling over the fence to warn me of the large black cloud looming I have just managed to get all the washing in from the line minutes before the rain came. )

Well, that’s how it feels by us! It is nice in the sunshine but the days definitely have an autumnal feel to them. I am starting to notice the trees beginning to turn and some leaves on the edge of the road. The grass is drenched in dew in the morning and there’s a coldness in the air first thing that hasn’t been there through the summer. I love Autumn. Hubby and I got married in mid-September (8 years ago in a couple of weeks!!!).

We finally have a bumper crop of runner beans (they really did take their time getting going) and now I don’t know what to do with them all!! I made a big pot of soup last night almost solely out of runner beans, but still have the same quantity again of beans in the fridge! We have been able to give some away to friends and neighbours which is nice to be able to do. We are also harvesting courgettes (both the green and yellow variety), beetroot, broccoli and a tiny number of french beans. Oh yes and I musn’t forget the green peppers. They are small but have been quite successful this year. I think we’ve had about 7 so far and they are still coming! We’re trying to do some preserving so as to be able to enjoy our produce throughout the winter. We have experimented by freezing a bag of sliced runner beans uncooked and another bag blanched. Not sure which way is best – different people seem to have rather different views and my parents refuse to freeze them as they don’t believe they are very good afterwards. We have also filled up the freezer with a bumper load of ratatouille in bags and boxes as well as some cooked spinach. Hopefully it should all keep us going for a while in the winter!!!

Munchkin is doing well and seems fairly happy. This is a good thing as he’s cutting so many teeth at the moment I can’t keep on top of which ones he’s got! He seemed to have 3 molars all trying to cut through at the same time over the last fortnight and I don’t think they’re quite done yet, but today he seems in a much better mood than he has done for a while. He’s currently napping (Ok for some, eh?!).

This weekend we travelled down to Tonbridge for my cousin’s wedding. It was a really nice weekend and everything was perfect. The church service was lovely, the reception location/food/etc. was fantastic and Munchkin was reasonably well behaved (when you take into account the scorching weather, wierd food times, odd naps and masses of strange people to grin at). We did have slightly worse than usual sleep on account of sharing a hotel room with him, but all in all it was a good weekend.

Loads more has happened since my last post but I am leaving it there for today. It’s funny that often I have the will to blog about something but don’t seem to find a chance to sit and blog it. Other times I have the chance but just not the inclination to post anything. I am sure that other bloggers have similar experiences and I apologise for the lack of anything much over the last few months. I have pictures of the allotment for posting so I’ll do that when I have got them sorted on the computer.