A view of plot 45

It’s stopped raining for a little while, even the sunshine came out for most of the afternoon, but what good was that to me. I was in work all afternoon. I bet you it won’t be like this at the weekend when I have the day off and some work can be done.

Anyway, I thought you might be interested in seeing some pictures of my Plot 45 from Autumn 2007 when I first got it and then with its make over.

BEFORE

Nice hut, greenhouse and border - Lucky me!

AFTER with a paint brush AND LOTS OF WEEDING

Planting some herbs in the herb box


View from the hut

View from the front

Spaghetti with spiced chickpeas

Todays evening meal is about being quick, especially after a long day at work. And as we are low on fresh allotment vegetables, I have to rely on my well stocked pantry, or in my case a cupboard that doubles up as a pantry which is stocked with lots of good diverse ingredients: flours, tins, dried pulses and lentils, jars of homemade pickles and sauces.

So what inspires me today, it has to be warm and not too time consuming. I pick up a tin tomato, tin of chickpeas and spaghetti pasta. I’ve seen recipes where lentils are used as a pasta sauce, so why not chickpeas with some South Asian spices, such as cumin, chilli flakes and turmeric. The result was - a plateful of Spaghetti with spiced chickpeas.

D declared it delicious. I thought it was too, just a bit on the heavy side, like a chip butty – bread roll filled with chips, but it sure was good.

Not the prettiest looking cabbage

It is really windy here and it's been raining non-stop all weekend. We paid the allotment a quick short, weekend visit and picked a cabbage for tonights meal.

It's not the prettiest looking cabbage you'll see, it's a bit wind burned too. But looks aren't everything, this cabbage will be transformed into little bubble and squeak cakes to warm the insides of our bellies. Just what we need on a cold, windy and rainy day.
From sulking cabbage to individual bubble and squeak cakes. They look pretty good.