Easter gardening

I love our new life in the country the wildlife is totally fab check out this handsome chap who has taken to our garden and has been trying to persuade a lady to move in too, he is so brave he even comes up to the patio to look at us.

I really want a herb garden next to the kitchen and have the perfect spot outside the kitchen window on the drive.  There is a raised boarder with sleepers and i have already started planting my chives and thyme that we brought from the last house there, also there is some existing rosemary and sage in potion too.

 I spend a fortune on fresh herbs at the supermarket as i use loads of them in my everyday cooking salads and drinks.  the soil is really great here well drained in good sunlight and you can pretty much plonk what every you like into it and it will grow, so my aim is to save some money and grow a tun of flat parsley, coriander, dill, soft salads like rocket and spicy leaves to see us through the season and hopefully not have to buy anymore from the shops.

I have also been moving loads of lupins and foxgloves from the front garden to the back new flower bed to pad it out a bit as they grow like made in a 1 foot square patch i managed to get 24 of each as seedlings that had self seeding in the herb section so i have potted these up and am planning to sell them outside the front of the house as a little plant sale.

 Ella and Sophie were given there own garden tools for Christmas and Ell helps me with the hoeing and raking and her she is checking out the soil.

 We have a massive patch for veg but it is fast filling up and daddy spent the Easter hols creating a potato bed which is massive and has early and mid season spuds growing in it, Yum cant wait for that first new potato smoothed in butter.  He is already growing peas beans and soya beans as well as onions, garlic and pumpkins.

 Sophie has been given a patch to grow strawberries in and we made her a little house with pea netting so the birds don't eat them all.

 At the start of the year we bought one of those plastic greenhouses and got busy planting up loads of seeds for both veg and flowers to support the garden, a few weeks back we had that gale and the whole thing blew away ripped to shreds and the seeds scattered everywhere.  So we have had to start all over again we have had to turn the hallway of our house into a seeding nursery and all the windowsills are now heaving under the weight of plants grabbing sunshine, that reminds me i must turn my parsley.

Swiss Meringue

These are great big puffy meringue with a slightly chewy center.   Hubby loves meringue so i am working my way through different types of meringue recipes going right back to basics learning the technical difference between them all, and there are a few different types, meringue can be tricky trying to get chewy centers but still retain a crisp outside, failing to get a peak while whisking.

TOP TIP just a small amount a fat either in the bowl your using or a bit from a broken egg yolk can deflate your whites so they don't peak i either wipe my bowl out with a bit of white vinegar or vodka on a bit of kitchen towel as both of these liquids are great at removing grease.  I also break each egg away from the bowl and add them individually so i know i have no broken yolks.


Ingredients

4 egg whites
225g caster sugar  if you use golden sugar this will give your meringue more of a caramel and chewy texture

Pre heat the oven to 200c and place your sugar in oven proof dish and heat for 5 mins then remove and cool the oven down to 120c leaving the door open help cool,  heating the sugar helps it dissolve quicker into the egg whites (you dont have to do this but it does help)

While the sugar is heating up whisk the egg whites till you have soft peaks

When the sugar is ready add this a spoonful at a time to the egg white until all gone and the mixture is stiff

bake in the oven for 2 hours then turn the oven off keep the door shut and leave over night to cool and dry out.

To flavour

for swirls your meringue should you wish to scoop a few spoons out from the main mix mine were flavoured with strawberry i chopped up a few strawberries added a little water and 1 tsp sugar heated and then passed this through a sieve and added a bit of red colouring to punch the colour up and gently stirred this into the mixture to create swirls

Or you can add flavour directly to the meringue the above recipe i added 2 tsps of orange blossom water to the meringue and 100g of pistachios saving a third back to spinkle on top, be careful adding nuts to meringue as the oils in the nuts deflates the meringue so add at the end and fold in

Check out this pavlova recipe which has a more chewy meringue