Apple, Pear & Passionfruit Crumble

I made a yummy crumble today and thought I would post the recipe here.

It’s also a frugal crumble, because I picked up the apples, pears and passion fruit at my local supermarket reduced:

A bag of 5 Granny Smith Apples for 60p, 4 x passionfruit for 30p, and a bag of 6 pears for 23p

So not including my storecupboard essentials the crumble cost  50p!

Recipe:

• 2 x Passion Fruit
• 5 x Pears
• 1 x Granny Smith Apple

For the Crumble Topping :

• 60g / 2oz Rolled Oats
• 175g / 6oz Plain Flour
• 110g / 4oz Unsalted Butter
• 110g / 4oz Demerara Sugar

Method :

1. Peel & Chop pears and apple into an ovenproof dish
2. Cut the passion fruit in half and scoop the insides over the chopped apple and pears
3. Put all the crumble ingredients into a food processor and blitz
4. Cover the fruit with the crumble mix
5. Cook in the oven at 180 degrees C for about an hour or until the juices bubble up around the edges of the crumble
6. Serve with Custard, Cream or Ice Cream

Have to say it was rather yummy and everyone enjoyed it 🙂 so 10/10 and would make it again

Frugal Foodie ~ Pesto & Blackberries

I picked up a few bargins when I stopped off  at the co-operative on my way home from work yesterday 🙂  I really should try and pop in there more often, after all I have to drive past it nearly every night 🙂

3 Pots of Basil  £1.10 each normally I got them reduced to 30p a pot saving me £2.40

2 Pots of Parsley £1.10 each normally I got them reduced to 30p a pot saving me £1.60

2 packets of Blackberries £2.00 each normally I paid 60p each saving me £2.80

= a total saving of £6.80!!

So tonight I made 2 batches of Pesto…. one for tomorrow night’s tea and one for the freezer,  the blackberries were frozen, they will be a welcome addition to an apple crumble this winter 🙂

Pesto Recipe is a case of throw it in the food mixture until I get the consistency I like

• Basil
• Parsley
• 5 cloves of Garlic
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Put everything in a blender and whizz together adding the olive oil through the funnel

Nutty Plum Crumble

This recipe is courtesy of  “The Best of Mrs Beeton’s Christmas” ISBN 978-1-898-80176-4

Serves 4-6

Ingredients :

• 675g Plums, halved and stoned
• 50g Sugar

Topping :

• 175g Plain Flour
• 75g Butter or margarine
• 25g Demorara Sugar
• 1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
• 75g Chopped Hazelnuts, toasted

Set the oven at 180 degrees C / 350 Degrees F / Gas Mark 4   Place the plums in an ovenproof dish and sprinkle with sugar

Make the topping.   Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and rub in the butter or margarine until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.  Stir in the sugar, cinnamon and hazelnuts.

Sprinkle the topping evenly over the plums, pressing it down very lightly.   Bake the crumble for about 45 mins, until the topping is golden brown and the plums are cooked.   Serve with custard, cream or vanilla ice cream.

Purple Toadflax (Linaria Purpurea)

Purple Toadflax (Linaria Purpurea) growing happily away in my garden providing the bumble bees with plenty of food at the moment

• Perennial, flowering June to August. Height 2 – 3 ft (60 – 90 cm).
• Slender spikes of purple flowers – looks like Lavender from a distance!
• Sun. Drought-tolerant and self-seeds well.

A Visit from the Blue Tit Family

The Blue Tit family came to the garden today to show us their new family… 3 little baby blue tits, and they are absolutely gorgeous..

Mrs Blue Tit is looking slightly frazzled, she has been a regular visitor to the garden for the last few weeks eating all the bugs from under the blackcurrant bushes…  I did put out fat balls for them last week but my springer spaniel jumped up, stole and ate the lot, giving him the most god awful skoots !!

Enough waffling and on with the pics of the babies 🙂

Red Campion (Silene dioica)

This gorgeous little purpley pink flower is in abundance at the moment all along the hedgerows, I snapped these pics when we were out walking the dogs the other night, and today when we were driving up to visit the in-laws my hubby noticed that there is loads of it growing this year and had asked if I knew what it was…

Common Name: Red campion
Genus: Silene
Species: dioica
Skill Level: Beginner
Exposure: Partial shade, Shade
Hardiness: Hardy
Soil type: Well-drained/light, Clay/heavy,Chalky/alkaline, Dry, Moist
Height: 30cm
Spread: 30cm

This little pinky-red meadow flower is often found in the wild growing in woodlands and in the verges of country roads. It’s easy to grow and makes a good addition to a rockery or semi-shaded patch in need of some colour. The clump-forming plant is hardy and will tolerate most soils, although it can struggle to cope with very acid ground. It has rich green leaves that appear in spring, and has a long flowering period right through until the start of autumn. It’s a low-maintenance plant that only needs dividing later in the year if it has become too large. It’s also fairly pest-free, and doesn’t seem to attract much attention from slugs and snails.

This info is courtesy of the bbc website (here)

Out Walking the Dog

Just thought I would share some pictures I snapped yesterday whilst out walking the dog over the fields 🙂

This for some reason is my fav tree, I have no idea why, I just love it and it makes me want to hug it 🙂

I snapped this rusty old hinge on a wooden fence post

Chunky managed to throw himself into the burn for a swim

And these gorgeous little flowers were growing everywhere, I later found out that they are called Cuckoo Flowers

I called this next picture Dandelion Hill, seeing as this was the only dandelion growing on the hill

Chunky again, this time with his chops tucked in 🙂 .. he had been swimming again!

More Cuckoo Flowers.. they are beautiful

More swimming…

and a few of last years skeletons

Hope you enjoyed the walk 🙂

Happy Easter,…

A couple of snaps for Easter from our home…

Wee Jerry quite happy sleeping in his old orange box with a cosy knitted blankie inside it, I knitted it the same colours as he is, black silver and white 🙂

You cant have easter without chickens… can you?? 😉  here is Daisy and Chicken Little enjoying a sawdust bath in their freshly cleaned out run.

Frugal Flowers

I love it when I find flowers reduced at the supermarket, this gorgeous find were only 70p for a whole big bunch of multi coloured roses and beautiful addition to my lounge window ledge 🙂

Tomatoes and the HUGE Potato

Well… I decided to clear out the greenhouse at the weekend and give it a good old scrub out.

We picked the last of the tomatoes, including the green ones…. they look fab in the dish together, the colours are so vibrant.. I would really like to make some tomato and chilli relish, so if anyone out their has a tried and tested recipe that they would like to share, i’d love toi hear from you

Next I dug some potatoes from the 3rd bed for our dinner… and look what I dug up…. the organic Lady Balfour variety that I got reduced to 50p at the local garden centre turned up trumps…. with this whopper

I took it into my workshop to measure it … it was a whopping 6inches long and weighed in at 1lb 12.1 oz!!!