Easter Catching Up

Well this Easter Weekend we did a lot of relaxing and nowhere near as much gardening as I had hoped.  The weather was mostly grey and changeable and just didn’t inspire us to be outside very much.

We took some green waste to the recycling centre, visited a garden centre and did a little planting out but I did not manage to take the compost heap apart and finish building the raised bed.

We went to the garden centre to get some more herbs for J to put in the front garden.  We replaced the thyme, tarragon and fennel and I got some more garden mint which I planted in a huge pot by the front door.

I also got some flowers to plant out which is rare for me (I tend to prefer vegetables)  – a Night Scented Phlox and something called "The Love Plant"  both of which are very pretty and should be flowering well into Summer.

Unfortunately J discovered he had missed the boat on planting potatoes which should have been done much earlier in the season but instead he has decided to plant them in August so that we can be eating potatoes come Christmas Day.  This will also give me more space for vegetables which will have been dug up by August getting two crops out of the same bed.  Next year we really must get ourselves more organised earlier in the year for potatoes!

I got several more recipes made from Nigella Lawson over the course of the weekend since we were doing a bit of entertaining:

The Mexican Flan – very nice, like a crème caramel but much faster and less hassle to make.  Even J liked it and normally he doesn’t like creamy things.
Sweetcorn Chowder – very quick to make and everyone who had it during the gaming session said it was good.
Deep fried squid rings – I splashed out and bought some fresh squid from Abel & Cole to make Nigella’s deep friend squid rings with garlic mayo.  The recipe was very good and I was surprised at how well the squid came out with its semolina coating.  The meal was really rich though and despite having it with some steamed purple sprouting broccoli neither of us could finished it. In fact I packed up probably another portion of the squid rings with some tzatziki and a salad for my lunch on Tuesday.

J also made quail boiled in a lemon sauce with mashed potato one night and that was also fabulous.  The quail had a lovely flavour but it was so fiddly to eat I am not entirely convinced it was worth it.