Hi all.  Here is my recipe for my mixed herbs that I use in cooking.  You may be surprised. But then, you may not.

My mixed herbs.
I make a lot at a time and store the mix in a very large Kilner/mason jar.
For my needs one handful = a part, but you can use what ever basic measure you like for a part. 

1 part each

dried dandelion leaves, crumbled up.

dried sage

dried parsley

dried savoury
dried rosemary

1/2 handful each

dried nettles - 

these are quite strong so you don't want to over power.

dried thyme

Mix well in a preserving pan or large bowl, store in air tight container.  Use freely.

I'm going to use a good handful tonight when I cook.  We could all do with some nourishing food in this weather.

Here in Warwickshire it is grey, cold, windy and very wet.   We need the rain, for sure but goodness me it's just like winter out there!  Hey ho.  Never mind.  

Today, in my little community we celebrate the first spring /summer festival.  We welcome in the sunshine, which though hidden behind the clouds is still warming the earth and causing all the plants to sing out their glory and burst forth with renewed vigour and energy.  

However as mentioned, it surely doesn't feel like it.  So, for our festival food tonight, we are cooking up warming meals and naughty old fashioned treats.  Michael is cooking some sort of cheesy pasta thingy, I've made a very large bakewell tart, oozing with almondy goodness....Oh yumm.  T' is making bread and a lentil loaf with one of her delicious sauces, Mimz made one of her wonderful cakes with Jack who is her fiancée.  We are going to wash it all down with home made mead, which I think of as sunshine in a bottle. 

It's too wet to go out to dance around the may pole, but we will make up for it. After feasting we will sit down together and share poetry, song, stories etc and even talk.  All things we seem to neglect so often in our daily lives.

If you would like the very simple recipe for one of our warming vegetable soups, here it is.  

Mix dried vegetable soup.
Take one large cup of a pea, beans, barley and lentils mix and soak over night in cold water.  

• The next day rinse and set aide with fresh water to cover it and allow to come to boil and then simmer.  Watch it, it can stick and burn as Jack found out today.  Bless...
• Skim off the top 'scum' until it has mostly gone.
• While that is cooking, take and chop up an onion or two, red peppers for colour, half a bunch of celery a good thumb sized piece of ginger and garlic.  
• Toss it all into a wok and let it get hot and soft.
• When the peas mix has cooked to a soft texture, turn the heat down, add a tablespoon of vegetable stock powder and the vegetables you have done in the wok.
• Add a little more water, bring to the heat then when ready blend.
• My lot like a little texture so I don't blend too much.  
• You may want to add a little water to loosen it up.  It can go thick.  
• Do this to taste and fancy.
• Add salt, pepper and/or herbs at this stage. I like herbs and mix my own. But standard mixed herbs will do.  

Be generous with the herbs, they are not just for taste you know, they are good for you and medicine in your food. :)

Warm up just before serving and serve hot with a dollop of sour cream or cream fraiche and hot bread straight from the oven.  Filling, nutritious and good for you too. You wont want any thing else after that, unless, like my lot you're crazy for home made bakewell.

If you want to find out more about traditional old English practise for this time of year here is a link to a fairly good site.

http://www.chalicecentre.net/beltaine.htm

Green verdant blessings to you all.  Lynne.

"Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food."  Hippocrates, 400 B.C.

Helping ourselves to keep well is not just about the remedies we take to make ourselves feel better.  We must also try to eat foods which nourish our bodies at the cellular level.  The temptation to eat the 'wrong foods' is often too much to ignore; especially if you have a family of fussy eaters as mine were. There is plenty we can do to make things better, and perhaps bit by bit the see saw of good food- bad food can re-balance itself.

One way which we can help ourselves is through nutritious salads.  Now if you are thinking a bit of iceberg lettuce with a tomato and perhaps a pickled onion, well, lets not go there.  A really tasty and healthy option is pea shoots mixed with young dandelion leaves and the delicate green fronds of fennel.  Mix these in your salad bowl and with a little dressing you have an amazing burst of flavour.  If you are not into growing your own peas all is not lost,as you can now get pea shoots in your local store quite easily.  They are crisp and so fresh you can feel goodness oozing out of them.  Delicious.  

Dandelion leaves are delightfully nutritious and are still commonly eaten on the continent, and of course they are free.  Collect them young, but not from the verge or roadside.  You don't want all those nasty exhaust chemicals.  If you are like me there are most likely plenty in the garden anyway! lol.

The nutritional value of pea shoots are Vitamins A, C and the mineral folate which helps us make good DNA and strong cells, including blood cells.

The nutritional value of dandelion leaves is vitamins A and C again,  vitamin K and B6, minerals such as magnesium, potassium,  iron and calcium. For more information on dandelion, just in case it hadn't been on the top of your salad list look at the link below.  

Fennel leaves contains folate, potassium and vitamin C.

http://www.home-remedies-for-you.com/articles/Health-benefits-of-Dandelion-juice.html

Happy eating :)

Sainsburies have started selling, for cold beers and drinks a galvanised basin/tub.  These are much like the old ones that my Gran had for the wash on Mondays and bathing small people in.  They are only a £10.00 and certainly a sensible alternative to constantly buying plastic!  the only down side is that it says cold drinks on the side... but hey, weigh up the alternative, plastic/steel.  I went steel. 

Pretty good eh?

Golly there are so many things on the Internet.  These are a few videos I saved on you tube.  I have to tell you,I could live in a place like this.   Take a look,  heartrendingly beautiful.   Who said green had to be sub standard?  These certainly are not!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgduN7uNGOY&list=PL27213B7159EE7779&index=22&feature=plpp_video  Ben's house.... lovely!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8b80dXMgME&feature=related divine and the music is so haunting..... by the way did you know how much I love music?   

Great excitement in the Oaks here...

I can't help grinning in a slight manic manner!  

I was asked by my colleagues why and when I told them it was because I had a new washing machine... well they were not impressed.  Then I explained that it was a vintage non-electric machine with a hand cranked agitator, you could see in their eyes that I had finally made it to 'out there', crazy.  Lets face it who in their right minds would think that it was a great thing to have to wash laundry in this manner in this day and age?  Well.... me!  You see I have this nagging refrain going on in the back of my mind that says "What if we had no electricity?"  This goes along with all the other what if's like, "What if we run out of fuel?"  "What if the economy takes a further nose dive?"  

It's not that I am a constant worrier, I think I am actually quite a positive person.  But I have years now, of experience that tells me things can and often do, change overnight.  You can't rely on things to be constantly the same and you have to make provision for tough times.  Well I may be just following my fancy, but what if I am not?  

Any way here is my wonderful machine.  It will need sprucing up a bit, but I love it.  I have an old acme mangle that we used to take camping when the babies were little and in terry's zorba gold nappies.... I am sure it will get good use especially if the "what if?" happens.  

Green blessings to you all. / I \ 

My beautiful, clean green machine!

It will be better when it has been cleaned up. :)

Welcome!

I am so glad you have come to see my blog. 

Do feel free to comment.  

Come with me, join in the journey as I find a way to share and express all the wonderful things that I get excited about.  

Let me hear about the things you get excited about too.

Green blessings. /I\