Friday 14 October 2022

Autumn Cooking & a Drastic Trim

Now that the weather has turned colder and darker in the late afternoon and evening, I want to start 'cooking once and eating twice' so last night I made a shepherd's pie using 300g quorn mince, a handful of split red lentils and an onion, along with a packet of shepherd's pie spice mix I found in the cupboard, 300ml cold water, tomato puree to taste and a bit of black pepper.  It actually made 5 decent portions so 2 eaten last night with homegrown french beans from the freezer,  2 will be eaten tonight with peas (heated in the microwave) and the odd portion has been boxed and frozen for one of G 's quick meals after work sometime.



While the oven was on, I made crumble with homegrown stewed apple from the freezer and some homegrown fresh raspberries, served hot with a scoop of ice cream. There's more left for tonight to eat with hot custard 👍


G has gone to the allotment this morning and I'm just finishing off here then will join him.  We have been informed that the council visited the allotment last week and decided that we need to reduce the height of the Bramley apple tree to below 3 mtrs.  It's at least 4 so has to be trimmed and it's a job I simply can't help with.  G's neck problem makes it hard for him too so we're hoping that the family will help during half term week.  The poor tree's fruit production is bound to suffer next year with such drastic trimming but we have no choice.  As the tree was inherited with the plot and already well established, it's particularly galling. 

Anyway, must be off, weeding is calling me 😁

Stay safe everyone x

10 comments:

  1. The cut back on the apple might shock it into producing more fruit next year instead of less, so you might be OK

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    1. I didn't know that Sue, thank you! I do hope so, but you've cheered me up nonetheless 👍😊

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  2. I do hope you get help trimming the apple tree. I love cooking once and eating twice (in some cases here 3 times). Saves time and money.

    God bless.

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    1. It does indeed, Jackie, it's great to have a cook-free day!

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  3. We trim our Magnolia tree most years, we only have a small garden, so we keep it to a nice size for our space.

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    1. I would love a Magnolia, Marlene, especially one with huge blossom but not sure we have the right spot for one in our garden.

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  4. I like the idea of cooking once and eating twice (or more)! Shepherd's pie is one of my favorite meals! Your crumble and ice cream dessert sounds good, too! Oh, I do hope that pruning your apple tree so much won't damage it!

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  5. I'm sure the tree won't suffer too much from the drastic pruning and hopefully in the long run the fruit production will improve.
    'Cook once, eat twice or more' brilliant plan.

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    1. I hope you're right about the tree, Beverley, as we spent most of yesterday trimming it back and it nearly killed us. We ached all over afterwards, still do in fact! We're much too ancient for that kind of malarkey 😂😴😴😴

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It's OK.....

  Angie 💓 xx