Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from EatingBritish!

 I didn't bother with buying a tree this year, but instead decided to use one of the small fir trees I have been growing on the patio.  The great advantage being that when we're done with it, I'll just pop it back out onto the patio and next year it will be a little bit bigger.  No waste and no fuss, just how I like it.

  The blog has been a bit inactive this year, as you'll have noticed, but I am hoping to pick things up again in the new year.  But, in the mean time, I wish you a very merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year!

Spring is on the way!

  Keeping going with the EatingBritish thing has been a bit difficult for the last few weeks.  I think the unusually harsh winter led to very difficult growing conditions for British farmers.  Anyway, I noticed today that I am no longer limited to cabbage, carrots, potatoes and Brussels sprouts!  No, pak choi and tomatoes are back on the menu!  Woo!

 So, there they are, just in case you didn't believe me.  I was quite hungry after my shopping trip and needing something quick, so I opted to a stir fry, with bacon, pak choi and tomato.  I know it might sound odd putting tomato into a stir fry, but it works, trust me.  The trick is to slice the tomato (fairly thickly will do) and then add close to the end of cooking, but give it enough time to dissolve to give a thick, rich sauce.  Awesome!

 Serve on a bed of rice.  Nice.

'Underground' Farming?

 Hello!  And, sorry for not posting for so long.  What with Christmas and New Year and everything, it's all been a bit hectic just recently and I'm afraid to say the blog has taken something of a back seat.  This hasn't been helped by the loss of my digital camera owing to an unfortunate incident involving a plastic carrier bag and a half-drunk cup of coffee.  Suffice to say, the digital camera is no long with us.  I'm working on buying a new one so I can get back to blogging properly, but in the mean time we'll just have to stick to words.

 I came across this article in The Guardian today:

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jan/23/diy-food-producers

 The idea of 'underground' food producers is really interesting and not something I've come across before, but I think this kind of cottage industry endeavour is exactly what the country and in particular the countryside, really needs right now.  Although, by the sound of it many of the people mentioned in the article are from an urban environment, but still, this has to be a move in the right direction.  I would love to try out some of these things myself, such as making cheese or curing my own ham, but I just don't have the space at the moment.  I am working to find a solution to this though and if successful, it should certainly give me a bit more to blog about.

 I feel I can't post to my blog at this time of the year without mentioning Burns Night, which is coming up on the 25th January.  Whilst this is a big thing in Scotland where people are keen to celebrate the work of one of their national heroes, Robert Burns, it's very rarely heard of down here in England.  So I was rather surprised to see one of my local butchers having a large banner advertising Burns Night and encouraging people to order a home-made haggis for the occasion.  I don't know how successful this will be, judging by people I've spoken to down here, many are reluctant to try haggis because they've heard that it's disgusting.  It doesn't even seem to matter that they have no idea what goes into it!  It's a shame, haggis is really very nice and I would encourage anyone who hasn't tried it before to give it a go.  And, what better occasion than Burns Night?