Fish pie for the daddy and the husband

Fish pie for tea.

Mr Lardshow is writing today's blog as Mrs Lardshow is feeling very rough. So....all week she has  been telling me that she has never made a fish pie before...so im here to say for a first attempt it was amazing!

We managed to get a fish pie mix from our little supermarket from the reduced section (wasn't even close to it's sell by date so no idea why it was in there) and we chose to make enough mash potato on Sunday to top it off. Now I'd love to tell you all how she made it but it was done while I was at work. I know it involved poaching the fish in milk, turning this milk into a white sauce. Put the fish into a bowl while you make this sauce then pour the sauce over it all. Top this with the potato (grate some parmesan over to taste) and bake for 40 mins at 185 degrees.  This bit I know as it's the bit I did!

Then you sit back and tuck in. Defend the pie at all times from Finn but make sure you save him some at the end!

P. S. Daddy enjoyed his too.

Welsh Lamb Stew With a Soggy Bottom

Greetings readers,

Here in the little white house we like to pretend we're living in 1940 and that we're still on rationing. We scour the supermarket for reduced items and whatever goodies we get our meals are created from.

Today Mr Lardshow found some Welsh diced lamb so instead of soup for his lunches this week he's had stew. As a stroppy, non vegetable eating vegetarian I can't think of anything worse but apparently this is good grub for the husband.

So to the stew...I think I did it right but I was not really sure what I was doing. First of all you sit on your big high chair that your husband has cleaned the cat sick off and put a new cover on without letting it dry (hence the Soggy Bottom). Then you coat the lamb in flour, salt, pepper and a sprinkled up stock cube. Put it in a hot thick bottomed pan with some olive oil. Brown off the lamb until the pan has a nice covering of almost burnt bits. Take out the lamb and add the onion to the pan. As you cook the onion scrape the bits (you do not want to miss out on this flavour apparently). Gradually add whatever vegetables you have starting with the root veg,  these will take longer to cook. Next splosh in some red wine and Worcestershire sauce. Let the alcohol cook off for a bit and then add enough water to cover the veg. Ooh remember to put the lamb back in at this point (I nearly forgot!)

Then put the whole lot in the oven with the lid on and leave to stew away while you go and see your daddy in hospital (this bit isn't compulsory).

Come home, stir and get the husband to taste. Enjoy. Love. Love. xBx

Pick a Plum, Bake a Plum, Eat a Plum

Morning all!
Yesterday was a horribly grey and wet day. Some days you wonder what to do on those days, curl up in front of the fire, patchwork, read a much loved book or go into the garden with the parentals and a step ladder and pick plums off a very wet plum tree. Yup we did the latter. I was not allowed up the ladder... Humph!
We managed to get most of the plums off the tree and amazingly this year the plums are the most delicious little mouthfuls of purpleness. The past few years if the tree were to be honest with itself its crop has not been a tasty one at all.

So what to do with all the plums... well the Mothership took some home to freeze as our Granny Ivy freezer is too teeny tiny. I on the other hand decided to make a crumble. I don't know why I thought this was a good idea as we had decided to go on a pudding ban after the weekend and you have to have cream with crumble. Shame!

So to the crumble. I like doing crumble. It's something I can do sitting down. You just sit and crumb all the dry ingredients together while the plums soften down in the pan.

For the crumble topping you need:
75g of chilled butter, diced,
175g self-raising flour,
110g Demerara sugar.

Pop the softened plums in your pot. Pop the crumble over the top. Pop the lot in the oven until everything is golden brown and bubbling. Serve with lashings of cream and try to be patient so you don't burn your mouth. We failed... enjoy!

P. S. Any spare crumble can be popped in a bag and popped in the freezer for the next crumble day.

Ring a Ring a Roses

Just a quick post to show you all how the patchwork is coming along. I love turning the roses over and seeing the handwriting on the cards.

We keep on trying to work out if we could put a plain row around the centre rose but we don't think it's possible. The tessellation (I love that word) then doesn't seem to work.

I'm also trying to decide on whether to have set patterned roses like the ones in the picture for just the centre of the quilt and then have the rest as just mix and match ones.

I'm going to try and do one and see what it looks like and if I can cope with it...I do like my symmetry as many of you know.

Hope you like the pics.

xBx

P. S. If any one has any old cards they don't mind being chopped up please feel free to donate them to me. I'm running out!

Patchwork

Hello all, 
Not much baking in bed has gone on recently. We've been trying to get over and get stronger from the nasty bug that struck me after the wedding. We're getting there. Slowly but surely.

I'm very fed up of having to spend so much time in bed recently. I spent all of last week in bed passing a kidney stone that eventually popped out. I fear the is another one on the way though.
Anyway, I can't manage much baking at the moment so Mr S and I tried to think of something I could do while lying flat in bed. We saw a lovely film the other day where there was a gorgeous heirloom quilt and it inspired me to have a go.

So here are the startings of our heirloom quilt. I love it already. It's made up of old bits of clothing. This flower is from some old pyjamas and a pair of old boxers of the husband!

I do love making do and mending...

Bespoking a Waistcoat

Hello all,
I haven't posted on here for ages it seems. Life has taken a bit of a blip.

We got married and had a beautiful honeymoon. Then we came home, I passed a kidney stone and then got the most awful stomach infection that I'm still struggling to get over. I genuinely didn't know a tummy bug could make you so ill.

I've been pretty much housebound since June apart from a horrid  time spent in an isolation room in hospital. To add to all that my poor daddy has been in and out of hospital 3 times with his poorly kidneys too. Life just needs to go back to normal.

Anyway, enough moaning. I just wanted to show you something I'd done while stuck in bed. A while  ago the husband and I found a waistcoat for our friend Adam.

It needed a bit of tlc so I rebuttoned it and had a go at sewing some tiny writing on it.

It's not my best sewing as my hands are super shaky at the mo but hopefully he likes it and it looks a little bit different to a 'normal' waistcoat.

What do you think?

Love Love xBx

So reader, we got married...

Hello all,
Sorry I've been away for so long, been a wee bit busy getting wed! We had a beautiful day. The sun finally came out after a week of horrid nasty cold rain and wind and shone and shone on us all.
All the weeks of making things in bed in between naps and infections and lots of 'keep calm and carry ons' finally came to fruition. The cushions mum made were perfect to lounge on. The flowers that mum collected went perfectly in all the jam jars that I'd decorated in bed.
I think one of the things we loved the most was the way we decorated the cake. We had our extra spoons in there and bunting from Auntie Georgie around the base and teeny tiny bunting around the top and across the spoons that I still don't know how I made.
The husband made the perfect speech. Just perfect.
It's lovely to look back at all the photos and remember the day. It goes so quickly, you think you'll get to speak to everyone but you don't, you think you won't have a wobble but you do and you think that no one will come but everyone did!
It was a lovely, lovely day. Just lovely.
Lots of love from Mr and Mrs Shardlow xBBx