Last of October Harvest

I started writing this post early October and then every Monday since, but I never actually got round to sharing it.    

 I've just been busy and tired a bit like this dead sunflower and artichokes. 

I think I am looking forward to November when things around me will be a bit quiet, so that I can also tend to the garden that is looking rather bleak.  I haven't had the opportunity to go out and tidy it up as its been raining, pretty much every weekend. 

 I picked this courgette and a strawberry early October.

And the tomatoes from early this month

I I know its looks like the same bowl of tomatoes, but I assure you its not - just take a closer, these were picked the second week of October 

I adapted a recipe for Briam - Easy Greek Vegetable Bake with some of the vegetables from the garden.

I had picked all the pears and made a Savoury and Sweet pear tart .  Excuse the ugly picture, but the tart was lovely, the pear almost tasted like marzipan.  

We still have Rainbow Swiss Chard in the garden, but not much else. 

Oh and some chillies - growing outdoors would you believe?!

I am sharing this blog post with Dave over at Happy Acres who hosts Harvest Monday every week.

Another Vegetable Tagine

Regular readers will note that I have been quiet in relation to blogging, well what can I say.  I have been really busy with work mostly that when I come home, I want the evenings to space out!  

So there has not been much in the way of creative or experimental cooking recently.  All the dishes that I have been made from scratch in recent weeks have been showcased on my blog before such as this Moroccan Vegetable Tagine based on one of my favourite recipes which you can find if you follow this link.  

This Vegetable Tagine though,  was made with the last of my courgettes from the garden. Of course its bulked up with other vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, sweet potato and chickpeas served with couscous. If you look closely there is some dried fruit in it as well, like apricots and prunes, I don't always use dried fruit in my tagine. 

I am sharing my Vegetable Tagine made with the last of the homegrown courgettes with Eat Your Greens which is hosted by The Veg Hog this month.  

Please do join in there is still time and it would be lovely to have your company at the #EatYourGreens veg table.

I am also sharing this Vegetable Tagine with My Legume Love Affair, a monthly event celebrating legumes and my tagine contains chickpeas.  MLLA is administered by Lisa's Kitchen and co-hosted every month by a different blogger, this month it is Sizzling Tastebuds. 

Other Tagine style recipes
Cinnamon Vegetable Tagine

Chickpea Tagine with Quince

Ms Marmite Lovers Carrot, Pepper and Red Lentil Tagine.  

Moroccan Tagine with Spiced Seed Confetti

North African Tagine

Pumpkin and Apricot Tagine

Winter Vegetable Tagine

October Comes To My Kitchen

Some of you may remember that we had friends coming over from America for holidays.

They came bearing gifts.

The spring green glass double spout water pitcher or vase is taking centre stage on the mantelpiece.  For those of you wondering what's surrounding it are Agates. The room is dark, in fact our whole house is dark, so its not shown in its best light. 

They asked me if I wanted any specialist American ingredients? And yes, I requested they bring some Quick Grits and Cornbread Mix, two ingredients that are not easy to get there.  I have never tried grits, so am looking forward to it.  Cornbread I have, having made some at home a long long time ago. 

I would like to point out that I bought lots of good stuff for them to eat: Welsh cheese and drink: Welsh beer/s while they were here; an I cooked loads of good food at home including Plum and Chickpea Curry, Green Bean Korma and Rhubarb and Lentil Curry.  D took loads of photographs for me to blog about, but unfortunately whilst in his happy intoxicated state he pressed the delete button by error and lost them all.  I was gutted, but not as much as him.  We went to a music gig and were so up close and personal to the singer that all those photographs got lost too, such a shame.

I rarely get to use these butter knives, so was pleased that I was able to when I made a platter of cheese, bread and fruit.  My friend did tell me to take a picture, but I didn't as you can see from the first picture taken during the day-time, the cheese platter in the evening would not have come out  well, but i wish i had it was a good cheese and bread platter.  

Anyway, back to other good stuff in my kitchen were these apples from the neighbour.  This is the third year we have been bestowed with eating apples from the neighbour.  

We went to the supermarket in the big city and found some fresh fenugreek also known as Methi, regular readers will know that I cook with this ingredient quite  bit and I have plans to make a Cauliflower Curry soon.

I picked up this jar of Korean Kimchi from the supermarket, I just couldn't resist.  

I have some cereal bars.  The one above is Sweet and Salty Nut left by my guests; and the one below is Pomegranate Blueberry Pistachio that I picked up at an work related event to try.  It's good, but its not a cereal bar as such, but sticky nuts glued together with blueberries and pomegranate molasses.

In my kitchen were these two bags of Lays crisp.  One was flavoured Yogurt and Herb, which i thought be more like Chive and Soured cream, but it was a bit dull, whereas the Masala one was much nicer and tangy. 

D was going through boxes in the garage.  We have feta cheese in the fridge all the time to make Double Potato Feta Bake, but we thought we'd try this large can of Kembeyaz cheese for a change, plus it was a reasonable price.  It was very mild, softer than feta, but okay.  

I picked up some more bamboo lunch boxes in different patterns.  My one issue with these are the lids, they crack and its hard to find replacements, so I am looking to invest in some silicon stretch lids.  

At work we had a celebratory event, and not many people drank the alcoholic free white wine.  There were a number of bottles left, I cheekily asked if I could take a bottle home with me as I quite liked it and was permitted to.  

I would like to point out that I bought lots of good stuff for them to eat and drink while they were here; an I cooked loads of good food at home.  D took loads of photographs for me to blog about, but unfortunately whilst in his intoxicated state he deleted them all by error.  I was gutted, but not as much as him, as we went to a music gig and were so up close and personal to the singer that all those photographs got lost too.  

I am sharing this blog post with Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen series.  If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by the 13th of the month

Eat Your Greens Round Up

Last month was quiet for the #EatYourGreens challenge. Regardless, I still have two wonderfully green vegetarian recipes to share.

The first Eat Your Greens  recipe comes from The VegHog with Pea and Lentil Frikadellen or fritters made with green lentils, dried pea crush and frozen spinach.  

How good do they look?! I'd happily chomp on a couple on this wet windy evening. 

Next is my green dish for Avocado Coriander Jelly made in a Turtle mould. 

Here is what it looks like before it was turned out - Savoury Coriander and Chilli Jelly cooling down. 

Then smothered in Avocado Cream Cheese before it was turned out.  The recipe comes from Sarah Beatties  Avocado Coriander Jelly.  I served this Courgette Avocado Coriander Jelly with a good crusty bread.

We hope you will join in with us in October when The Veg Hog will be hosting. Please follow this link on how to join in.