Fresh Basil from Cuttings - an experiment.

 With the approach of the Easter holidays comes the warmer weather.  Last year I invested in a polytunnel and had limited success growing Basil - despite numerous gardening articles that it is the easiest herb to grow, to be fair it is probably how I water it but there we go... I love basil and tomatoes and when I look at most of the recipes I have posted they involve this combo so to have my own basil would be a saving.  I have tried basil from the supermarket in "growing pots" before and they usually last a week if I am lucky.

So this time inspired by a YouTube video (of which there are many)  I am going to take cuttings from my supermarket basil.  If the worse comes to the worse I will have wasted £1.50, which is afterall the same as a pack of seed anyway.

Materials:

1 pot supermarket basil

scissors or snips to cut the stems to length

cups/jars/galsses to stand the cuttings in

water

a sunny windowsill

Snip the stems of the basil just above a leave node (ideally they should be about 4 inches long and have a couple of leaf joints along the stem.  Remove the lower leaves to leave a cluster of about 4 leaves at the top.  The remaining stem will sprout from the leaf node that you just cut above, the cutting will sprout from the leaf node that is in the water.  Leave for a couple of weeks, changing the water every day.

Sounds simple enough doesn't it!

Now I don't have a sunny windosill - but since I got paid £25 in Amazon vouchers I managed to snag a Growlight that I wanted for my pepper seedlings anyway so I will be snuggling the basil cuttings alongside and will update this post later with as it works for me - or not...

Day 1 - just started - still alive!

Day 7 - mother plant is still alive which in itself is amazing!- the cuttings however show absolutely no sign of any roots at all. :(

Day 20  - still no roots or any sign at all of anything happening.  By now we should at least have some baby tendrils forming.   Hmm......

Finally - May bank holiday weekend we have enough roots to try and plant them up!  All we have to do now is fight off the slugs.

Post Furlough/student food: Sausage and Lentil Soup/Stew - slow cooker and freezer friendly Dump and Go recipe

 This is one of those recipes that can be bagged and frozen ready for throwing into the slow cooker straight from the freezer on your way out for the day - remember when we were able to do that!  Once it is cooked the leftovers also freeze beautifully and since it uses sausages and pulses - both of which are cheap it will not break the bank either - win win win.

Speaking of slowcookers they are one worthwhile investment if you are serious about saving money on fuel.  The often quoted statistic is that they use the same as a lightbulb - but this is misleading because since LED lightbulbs became the go to this is no longer true. They use about 1% of the electricity that it uses to keep the oven on low (comparing one hour of slow cooker use with one hour of oven use) and unlike Instant Pots and other trending kit they are under £30 and widely available so they recoup the outlay quickly.

Onto the recipe - if you intend to freeze it uncooked then freeze without the added liquid - saves on freezer space.  The only difference between a soup and a stew is the amount of liquid.  I use a pack of sausages from the chiller, but you can substitute frozen sausages if you prefer - just make sure they go straight back into the freezer before they start to defrost.

Sausage and Lentil Soup/Stew (serves 6 ish)

1 pack of you favourite sausages

340 g brown lentils (when I am feeling lazy this is about 2/3 rds of a 500g bag)

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 onion diced

2 sticks celery, chopped

3 crushed cloves garlic

1 carton passata

1 tsp mixed herbs

4 pints water or stock for soup or enough water to barely cover for stew

To make fresh:

Brown the sausages in a little vegetable oil, remove from the pan and add the onions, fry until softened.  Add the garlic and stir for 1 minute until fragrant.

Add all the ingredients except that water to the slow cooker, use the water to rinse out the pan used for frying to get the last of the juices from the onions and garlic.

Bung on the lid and cook on HIGH for 4-5 hours or  LOW for 7-8 hours - it will not hurt significantly if you go a little over!  

I like to slice the sausages before serving to make them portion better between us all.

Serve with fresh bread. pasta or rice

To freeze cooked:

Allow the stew to cool then portion into freezer bags, label and freeze.  To use thaw in the fridge overnight (or microwave if pushed) and heat either in a saucepan or in the microwave until piping hot   all the way through.

To Freeze "raw":

Once the sausages and onions have been browned add to a freezer bag along with all the ingredients except the stock or water.  Label with instructions that remind you to add this and how long it needs in the slow cooker - it is easier to write it on the bag rather than a inventory sheet which gets lost!  No need to thaw - the bag can be emptied in as is to cook.  Once it has been thoroughly cooked freeze the leftovers as above.

Variations:

The pulses that you use can be any kind lentils not just brown, if you do not have lentils then beans can be used as a substitute.  If you use dried beans remember to soak them overnight and then change the water and bring to a "hard boil" for 10 minutes before draining and adding to the slowcooker.  A slightly more expensive but less faff version is to add a drained tin of pulses.  This can even be generic baked beans in tomato sauce if pushed - still very cheap.

The sausages you use can be supermarket "bangers", hot dog sausages (from a tin only about 50p a go), frozen sausages (I always have a pack in the freezer for emergencies), "fancy" sausage like smoked sausage (kiebasa), Chorizo also makes a nice addition but can be a bit much if used as the sole meat.  I use leftover bangers for this recipe as well - when I cook sausage and mash just for the kids I have 2 sausages leftover -pop those in the freezer and when you have 8 you have enough for this stew.

Substitute other meat for some of the sausage in this recipe - add a couple of rashers chopped bacon, leftover roast meat, mince.

If you want to stretch the recipe slightly then add some more chopped veggies.

Making cards and scrapbook backgrounds - resources for free

 One of the things that I like to do and do not do as much now my "kids" are teens is making things together.  However I have found two resources that I am using to up my craft quotient and keep me away from the screen more often.  Usually this would be sewing - but my machine is sick and thanks to COVID cannot be mended yet... so I resorted with scissors and paper to get my fix.

The first resource is a monthly pdf  from "Call me {crafty} Al".   Her YouTube channel contains the link in the description and a new video is released on the first of the month and has been for over a year. This uses card stock and patterned paper from pads (usually 12x12) to produce a set of co-ordinating cards.  Of course they are US cards which needs mentioning as this is not a standard size for the UK and you need to buy specific sized envelopes but I digress. The layout and cutting guide are free and anyone who uses them uses the hashtag if they post online so that you can look at all the examples from around the world for inspiration.

Here is this months video for your starter for ten

The second resource that I have been using is for background papers and elements.  This came about because my youngest son is still at home rather than school and will be until I get my jab.  The school I have to say have been brilliant - no fines here and when we return it will be phased as he has not been in the building for a whole year come this week.  As a result I have been acting as his teacher/teaching assistant and one of the things we had to do was a mood board for a textiles project that the pupils in school will be completing - we have indicated that since we have a home sewing machine there is no reason for us not to do it either.  For the task to count towards assessment (B is not at the GCSE stage yet) it needs some information to back it up so we needed to do a digital mood board - and therefore headed to the digital scrapbook sites available on the net.  This one stood out for us - free, easy to navigate and thousands of papers (mostly suitable for backgrounds which was perfect).  When I say thousands I mean over six and a half thousand sets in 36 colourways - someone sure had a ball in Photoshop. Anyway the site is called chantahliadesign click here to head to the Home page.

Right off to review, adapt and supplement the mainstream worksheet for today for my SEN son for the day.  Keep safe.