June 2

June 22 – and everything has gone a little bit crazy.

This is probably the closest I’ve got to traditional Welsh food since living in Wales, in that it’s not very traditional but it did come from the Wales The True Taste website.

This also served as a bit of a leftovers dish to try and use up some of the things from the BBQ.

• 12 good quality sausages – I used six caramalised red onion (which are probably a little sweet for this recipe) and six leek.
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• Handful fresh thyme
• 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• 500ml Cwrw Gaeaf strong brown ale (requiring a check to the posher off-licence in Pontcanna)
• 400g tin of cannellini beans, drained
• Red pepper, roughly chopped
• Punnet of cherry tomatoes
• 1 dessert spoon muscovado sugar
• Salt and pepper

I had a bit of a good run at the local charity shops last week.

I’m always on the look out for certain things at charity shops – martini glasses, cake stands, good fabric and vintage sewing machines.

The last one I’ve never spotted until now.

I was walking back from Tesco with the last of the BBQ food (so much food!) when I spotted it in the window of the PDSA shop. As there was already a woman looking at it, I headed straight for the cash desk to check out whether it was in working order (it was) and to buy it.

Apparently it had been in the window just minutes before I spotted it.

Having brought it home (I had to go fetch my shopping trolley to get it there) and checked it out, I’ve found it’s an early 1980s reproduction of the 1930s machines and it looks like it was never really used – the case is grubby and dusty but the machine is pristine.

I’m yet to get it set up and sewing (BBQ, late nights, data journalism/social media conference, trip to my parents have all rather got in the way) but I’m hoping to get to it soon.

For this weekend’s BBQ, I made chocolate cake.

Unfortunately once I’d finished with the filling, it didn’t last long enough for me to get a picture of the finished product.

It’s been really windy here over the last few days, and unfortunately my mini greenhouse (which had been moved for the BBQ) was a bit of a casualty.

I didn’t hear it fall over, but I did glance out the window and had to go rushing out to try and right it.

A lot of the plants had fallen out of their pots and some of them were looking a little bent, but I managed to pop them back into their pots, top up the soil a bit and get everything a bit straightened out.

I also moved the greenhouse to somewhere a little bit more secure.

These are based on these ones from Annie’s Eats but adapted a bit to UK ingredients.

• 1 medium onion, chopped fine
• 2 chilies, seeded and chopped fine
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 2 tsp. cumin
• 1 tbsp. sugar (though I’m minded to leave this out next time)
• 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• Salt and pepper
• 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 200g grated chedder cheese,
• ½ cup fresh coriander
• 6 (8-inch) soft flour tortillas

Fry the onion and chilies in a large saucepan over medium heat, stirring often for about 8 to 10 mins – until the onions and peppers have softened. Stir in the garlic, chili powder, cumin and sugar, and fry gently.

Mix in the tinned tomatoes and top up with about a can full of water.  Bring the sauce to a simmer, lower the heat and cook
until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.

Place the chicken into the sauce.  Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook the chicken until completely cooked through – about 12-20 minutes.  Transfer the chicken to a plate and set aside to cool.

Strain the sauce through a large mesh strainer into a medium bowl.  Transfer the reserved solids to a large bowl and set aside.  Season the sauce.

Shred the chicken into bite size pieces and add to the bowl with the onion mixture.

Add a good handful of chedder and the coriander and mix.

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 5.  Grease a shallow-ish baking dish.

Spoon chicken mixture onto tortilla and roll up tightly. Place in the prepared baking dish, seam-side down.  Repeat with the
remaining filling and tortillas.

(This is the point at which I went to watch Doctor Who)

Place in the oven, uncovered, for 7 minutes or until the tortillas start to brown slightly.

Remove the enchiladas from the oven and pour the sauce oven the top.  Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.  Cover the dish with foil and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove the foil and bake for 5 more minutes, until the cheese is browned.

This was pretty good, though it did require quite a lot of work and a heck of a lot of utensils (seriously my flatmate came home and saw the state of the kitchen and asked what I had been doing).

Making them again, I would definitely cut the sugar to half-a-teaspoon to deal with the tinniness of the tomatoes as other than that the sauce is a bit sweet, I like my enchiladas to taste like cumin, chili and coriander.

Because I like starting new projects, while I still have some (like my suit) on the go.

But I really need new trousers, all my brown pairs are starting to wear thin/fall apart. So I’m braving the slightly incomprehensible instructions in the Burda Style magazines and all the time it takes to trace out the pattern (getting covered in turquoise ink at the same time).

I ran out of pattern paper halfway through and had to finish off with some baking paper.

I’m hoping to

Serves 2

• Large bunch of parsley
• 2 tbsp thyme (lemon thyme if you can get it)
• 2 tbsp marjoram (I used dried, fresh would be better)
• 2 lemons, zested and juiced
• 100g butter
• salt and pepper
• Clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 4 tbsp oil
• 2 chicken breasts

Finely chop herbs and mix with zest. Divide into two bowls, 2/3 for the chicken and 1/3 for the butter.

Add butter and 1 tbsp of juice to 1/3 herbs and mix together, roll butter mixture in clingfilm and put in the freezer.

Add garlic, remaining lemon juice and oil to rest of the herbs.

Cut chicken into pieces, or flattern between clingfilm. Mix with herbs and chill for a few hours.

Put some pasta on to cook

Griddle chicken until cooked through.

Toss herby butter with cooked pasta, and serve with griddled chicken. I also griddled/fried some courgettes as well as a vegetable accompaniment.

This is another quick and easy dinner and very herby but a great alternative to tomatoey pasta dishes (I’ve been stuck in a bit of a rut in relation to those recently).

As an aside, this section has been a bit savoury heavy lately, I think I need to make cake!

Plaid Teeny Notebook

And so onto teeny notebooks, which are both cute and handy.

I’m now about halfway through planting out, and so had a worrying few days with wilting tomatoes until I realised they were in the direct sun all day so just really needed a drink at night.

I might be one of the few people who was quite glad to see the return of rain after the prolonged period of sunshine.

Off to the Riverside Market at the weekend and plenty of stalls selling plants (because I really need more), my flatmate was very keen to create more work for me, so we now have parsley, mint, oregano and pak choi in the herb/salad/greens section of the garden (this sound quite well landscaped, it is more a collection of pots by the back door).

I’ve never grwon pak choi before so fingers crossed I’ve found it a good spot.

Also climbign runner beans that are in need of some garden canes to climb up.

I think I’ll be doing some more planting out this weekend, as everything left in the greenhouse is getting very big.