Down Shep!

Sorry, I've been channelling John Noakes ever since I read somewhere recently about Blue Peter becoming 'cool' as it's too old fashioned for today's 'yoof, innit'.  (Don't you just hate it when old people try to get 'down with the kids'?!).

Anyhoo, apparently, they're getting rid of the pets (not in a sinister way, I should add - some are being retired while others are sent off to new homes) while the programme itself follows others in the BBC stable and relocates to Manchester. 

It won't be the same - but then again, of course, kids aren't the same, are they?  I think back to me as a kid and think how unsophisticated I would be compared to kids today - although, of course, I fitted right in at the time (the time being the '70's/early '80's!!)  Somehow, I can't see my little angels being thrilled with  Blue Peter's efforts to produce the Advent Crown at Christmas time. 

And who can forget the Advent Crown?  The grandly titled home-made Christmas project that was essentially, two coat hangers linked together, covered in non-flammable tinsel before being adorned with four candles - one at each corner - that the presenters lit at the end of each week in December.  Ah, the Advent Crown/Mobile/Fire Hazard.  Fond memories.

And it just won't be Blue Peter without the animals - who can forget Shep, Petra and Goldie?  Petra even got her own bust in the Blue Peter garden!  And the Blue Peter garden - or perhaps it was some other location? - was also home to the time capsule.  Now, of course, buried so long ago that they've probably already unearthed it to show today's kids what their weird, wonderful and very out of touch contemporaries were up to in the late seventies.

The new look Blue Peter will feature less fluffy animals and more digital technologies.  What?!  Although the fact that doesn't really appeal to me all that much no doubt means that it'll be bang on the money in terms of attracting a younger audience.  I know things have to move with the times and nothing last forever and all that - but it does make me feel dreadfully old to think that Blue Peter is considered old fashioned and unappealing to the younger generation (particularly as I passed a certain birthday milestone this year).

One thing that hasn't changed about Blue Peter is their encouragement to get their viewers to think of others and they're launching the new series with a fundraising baking challenge for kids.  So, if you're looking for a way to get your kids interested in baking and to encourage their community-spirited side check out the Blue Peter Bake a Difference for Children in Need campaign.  With a Bake a Difference cook book, How to Run a Bakesale guidelines and posters (for your bake sale obviously) all free to print off. 

It's the October half term holidays here in a few short weeks so I'm intending to get organised myself and at least print off the cook book to encourage my kid's to get creative (messy in other words) in the kitchen!

Blue Peter presenter, Barney Harwood, launches the Bake a Difference Appeal

So, do you think the new Blue Peter format is a travesty or do you recognise, like me, that times they are a-changing and these things are all really just a way to point out to us that we've become old and untrendy just like we thought our parents were?

Free Family Fun Day!

I am all about thriftiness so what better than a free day out with the kids? 

If you live in or near Edinburgh, the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena at Ratho - which both my husband and son absolutely love - is having a free family fun day this Sunday, 2nd October 10am - 4pm. 

There sounds like there will be lots to do for big and little kids with face painting, soft play, abseiling and climbing sessions.  So if you fancy scaling the heights - or even just a leisurely ceramics session and a coffee, why not head along there for lots of free activities for the kids - with the added attraction that they'll burn off some energy in the process and you might get a quiet evening.

Runner Bean-tastic!

As the photo in my last blog post hopefully illustrated, I got rather a lot of runner beans off my plants this year.  The vast majority were picked and eaten in the summer but I still ended up with lots and lots last weekend of the, frankly, much tougher variety!  Far too tough to eat!  So, after scouring cookbooks, the internet - and my cupboards - I made some relish.  I have no idea how good it is as you're supposed to leave it for a month before tasting but here goes...

Spiced Pickled Runner Beans- makes around 6 half litre jars

Ingredients:
900g runner beans, trimmed and sliced
700g onions, chopped
40g cornflour
850ml malt vinegar
1 heaped tablespoon of mustard powder (English)
1 rounded tablespoon of turmeric
225g soft brown sugar
450g demerara sugar

1. Put chopped onions into a large saucepan with 275ml of the vinegar.  Bring to a simmer and then continue to simmer gently for 20 minutes.  Meanwhile, cook the sliced runner beans for 5 minutes in boiling salted water, strain, then add to onions.

2. In a small bowl, mix cornflour, mustard and turmeric with a little of the remaining vinegar - enough to make a smooth paste - then add the mixture to the onions and runner beans.  Pour in the rest of the vinegar and simmer the whole lot for 10 minutes.

3. Then, stir in the sugars until they're dissolved and continue to simmer for another 15 minutes.  Pot into warm, sterilised jars (I sterilised mine in the dishwasher but you can sterilise by washing in warm soapy water and then drying out in a low/medium over for 5 minutes).  Seal and label when cold and keep for at least 1 month before serving.

As I said, I've no idea what this will taste like but it did smell a little like picallili while I was making it so I'm hopeful (as I'm quite partial to a spot of picallili).

Get Picking!

Well, it's that time of year when I need to start to harvest the remainder of my summer veg so I spent the weekend picking runner beans (tonnes of them!); broad beans (only a few rogue ones that I'd missed were left) and courgettes (still have a few left on the plants.  And I pulled up my lettuce which had bolted.  I was rather impressed with my harvest - although it's a bit on the green side. 

I've made runner bean relish (recipe to follow) and am about to make a summer veg soup from the rest - will keep you posted.

So, for the first time ever (drum roll) I'm attempting to grow veg over the winter.  Having never done this before - and not really being entirely sure what will grow - I'm cautiously optimistic.  Optimistic because I've had huge amounts of success with my raised beds, cautious because I don't really know what I'm doing!

Anyway, I planted out some leeks and a few (well, 3) brussel sprout plants all of which were generously donated by my Mum from her garden.  I did have 6 sprouts but 3 of them died and I actually have loads and loads of leeks left over but nowhere to put them.  They (the leeks) were remarkably easy to plant.  You just make a biggish hole for them (about the size of a tent pole - which is what I used! - and deep enough to fit all the roots into and then leave them.  Don't pack the earth around them like you'd normally do, just plonk them in the hole!  I was a bit concerned that the wind around here (we're on the top of a hill) would blow them away but, after I'd watered them in they seemed fairly well anchored and still look like they might stay.  I also gave them a wee haircut - apparently, you're supposed to take about 3cms off the top after they're planted.  So I did.

They do look a wee bit like blades of grass, as you can see, but I'm trying to be hopeful (the rogue plant in the middle is one of my sprouts - I'm not really planting aesthetically, I know!!)Suspect I may have left them a bit late in the season but here's hoping.  After all, it's Scotland and they're leeks and, given that my home town has a leek named after it, I'm guessing that it's good leek growing conditions around here.  Time will tell.

So, next weekend, I suspect it will be the turn of the beetroot to come up as it's starting to get a bit cold and I don't think you can over winter them.  I love beetroot but if anyone has any really good beetroot recipes, let me know.

Thrifty Ways to Get Your Groove Back!

Since having kids - as I'm sure many will agree - resulted in life becoming one long roller coaster where my needs pretty much come last in the house - even behind the cats! 

So, after a lifetime spent on the couch (well, not quite but I've never been accused of being a gym bunny, that's for sure) I took up running a couple of years ago.  2nd April 2009 to be precise.

I've always said running wasn't for me, I don't have the build, I'm too busty, I'm more of a dancer blah, blah, blah.  However, when a good friend's mum - who used to smoke a few a day, was still partial to a wee whisky and, more importantly than either of those facts, was 65 at the time - decided she was running the Edinburgh Marathon in 2009, I realised that my excuses for not getting out there and putting one foot in front of the other were paper thin. 

So, I originally took up running - run a minute, walk a minute, repeat for 3 minutes, then 5 etc. - as a bit of a challenge to myself and to prove that I could actually run for a bus (after years of knowing quite the reverse was true!).  Even though I'm not a fan of the gym, I do walk everywhere and always have done and I wasn't particularly overweight - so I was completely shocked at a) how hard I found it to run for a minute and b) how much pain I was in the next day after a paltry 10 minute session. 

However, even though it was awful and I felt sure that I probably couldn't run as I'd always suspected, after only 1 week of frankly pathetic efforts, I signed up for the Cancer Research UK's Race for Life 5K around Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh (i.e. up a bloody great hill!) and emailed all my friends to ask them to sponsor me.  Talk about no way out!

The first 4 weeks of training were fairly awful.  I was still counting my running in minutes rather than miles and, as the date for the 5K drew nearer, I began to panic that I wouldn't make it past the 'running for 10 minutes without stopping' stage.  However, by week 6 I'd turned a corner and was happily putting on my running gear 3 or 4 times a week.  So, I was delighted to finish the Race for Life in a quite reasonable (although not anything to write home about) 34 minutes. 

Panicked that I would suddenly develop lazy-itis, I immediately signed up for the 10K Race for Life, trained for it and completed it in just over an hour (1 hour 6 minutes).  Again, I don't think Paula Radcliffe needs to be losing any sleep but given that it hadn't been that long since I'd struggled to run a minute, walk a minute, I was chuffed.

(That's me 2nd from the left coming over the finish line - phew!)

Although there have been the odd glitches here and there and weeks that have gone by without me so much as looking at a running shoe, I've always got myself back into my 'groove' and have more or less steadily kept running since April 2009.  There have been days when 2 miles seemed like 20 and days when I've done 6 miles feeling no pain at all.  I've even managed to run a half marathon (which admittedly was an accident because I got lost!) but that's not the point.  I ran, 13.5 miles.  Me.

Nothing quite beats lacing up my running shoes, plugging in my iPod and setting out around the beautiful countryside where we live.  And the added bonus - apart from feeling better than I've ever felt and having more energy to keep up with the kids - is that somehow, without reducing my food intake (or wine) at all, I've lost 10lbs!

Oh, and apart from investing in good running shoes, I don't have to pay a penny so it's a pretty thrifty way to get fit, enjoy the scenery and do something that's just about me.  Despite all my misgivings running definitely helped me get my groove back.  Big time.