Bumper Crop

The only thing my garden grows, aside from weeds, is wild raspberries. The first year I lived here, the bush was small and I got two whole raspberries from it. The second year, I was sick and passed the handful of berries that came off it to a friend. Last summer, I was still on a low-fibre diet and berries were on the 'no go' list.

This summer, I threw caution to the wind, and ate the berries. And have had no bad effects, whoo hoo! I had about three weeks in July when I got small handfuls of berries most days, which I rather enjoyed. This was despite my neighbour's petunia plant growing under the fence and wrapping itself around the bush. They didn't seem to do one another harm, so I left them alone and the raspberry bush is bigger than ever.

I got home from holiday yesterday to find that the bush has sprouted even more berries!

I got half a bowlful today, and there are about that many more that need more time to ripen.

I had them with plain yogurt, and they were very tasty!

So I can drop one more thing off the 'no go' list.

Oh Deer . . . .

I cooked up the last of the venison I had in the freezer this weekend. Sniff.

I tried a new recipe for venison pie, using this one as inspiration - http://britishfood.about.com/od/recipeindex/r/venisonpie.htm

I didn't take photos, but I adapted it a bit.

I used 1lb of diced venison, and browned it in a bit of sunflower oil.

I peeled and chopped two carrots, and put them in the slow cooker. Once the venison was browned, I transferred it to the slow cooker.

I peeled and chopped two shallots and fried them in the pan until translucent. Then I put half a tablespoon of flour on the pan and half a teaspoon of mustard powder,mixed that up, then deglazed the pan with about 150ml of beef stock. That made a big gloopy mess that I transferred to the slow cooker.

I added 1/2 tsp of thyme, 1 1/2tbsp of malt vinegar, 1/2 tbsp of brown sugar,1/2 tsp of nutmeg and a dash of ground cloves and gave that a good stir. Then I poured half a pint of Hook Norton Old Hooky ale in the pot, popped the lid on and cooked it on high for about 6 hours.

When that was done, I popped it in a pie dish and covered it in pre-made puff pastry (as pastry is one thing I won't make from scratch) and brushed it with beaten egg.

I pre-heated the oven to 220C/420F and popped the pie in with the intention of turning it down to 190C/375F after 20 minutes. The alarm went and this had happened -

Whoops! This is what happens when you are using someone else's oven!

It was pretty much done after 20 minutes, so I tucked in.

Tasty stuff!