Tuesday 27 July 2010 at 3:19 pm
Okay, normally i'm not quite for treating oneself cos one tends to overlook one's real problem. However, in acute situations (like a cold or straining a muscle) i believe it completely justified to treat yourself. So last Saturday i strained some of the muscles in my back. No problem walking, just the bending was giving me grief. So went for a walk on Sunday, and then decided to go windsurfing on Monday. Wrong decision. After ten times of trying to get on the board my back decided that was it. So i managed to get back to the beach and sat myself done. Getting up was the problem after that, just like getting out of the wetsuit, putting on my trousers, lacing my shoes, well, i guess you get the gist. So at home i decided to get back into my herbs and made myself a mix, which i guess i would have never dared to give to a patient. It contains: Eschscholzia, Gelsemium, Piscidia, Lobelia, Symphytum fol, and Vib op. Lots of anodynes and sedatives and muscle relaxants. And i did sleep very well for a change...
Saturday 26 June 2010 at 8:50 pm
Okay, at the moment i'm only at home during the weekends (and this w/e i'm only here on Sat and Sun-am), and i'm really having a hard time check of the food i buy (i always bring too much home). So last week's rhubarb was looking at me when i got home and the elder is still flowering sooooo beautifully around the house. Putting one and one together and inspired by rhubarb and verbena recipe, i decided to bake a rhubarb-elderflower pie that turned out great!
Ingredients:
Dough:
100g flour (i used half wholewheat/half plain)
30g demerara sugar
15g ground almonds
60g butter (frozen in cubes)
1/2 egg
Combine the flour, sugar, ground almonds, and a pinch of salt, add the cold butter and knead the dough very quickly. Add the egg till the dough just comes togehter. Wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least 30mins (preferably 1hr). Take 2/3 of the dough and either roll it out or just press it in the spring form tin (btw i used a 15cm (or there about) spring form tin). The other 1/3 you can either use to decorate the pie, bake sugar cookies, or eat (just be consider the raw egg that's in there). Put it in the freezer for about 15mins (or fridge for 30mins). In the mean time preheat the oven to 170C, and bake the shell blind for about 10mins.
Filling:
3 elderflower heads
500g rhubarb
2-3tbsp demerara sugar
1tbsp tapioca
1tbsp whipping cream
1/2 egg
Clean the rhubarb and cut in 2-3cm pieces. Put into a bowl together with the elderflower and sprinkle 2-3tbsp of sugar on top of it and mix well. Let it stand for 2-3hrs. Take out the elderflower heads, and put them in a pan together with the rhubarb syrup (add 1tbsp water if needed). Cover the pan and heat till it simmers. Turn of the heat and let it stand for approx 10mins. Put the syrup through a sieve, let it cool a bit and add the 1/2 egg and the cream.
Putting the two together:
Put the tapioca on the bottom of the shell, add the rubarb pieces and bake for approx 30mins. Then add the syrup/custard mixture and bake for another 10mins. Turn the oven off and leave the pie in the oven for another 20mins (or until the custard has set).
Bon appetite!
Saturday 19 June 2010 at 5:08 pm
So he dropped in last week to enjoy a piece of lemon pie (and dinner as well). We really enjoyed some of the recipes though not all. The 4 course menu consisted of: avocado-coconut soup, Welsh rabbit, quinoa-pilaf and the pie. If anybody is interested in the recipes, let me know (i'm too busy to write them down at the mo).
Saturday 05 June 2010 at 7:08 pm
So today i managed to make okra for the first time ever (and had a taste of it for the first time ever), and it turned out to be very nice!
At the same time i managed to find exactly the amount of elderflower heads to try out something that i have wanted to try for over a year now: Elderflower champagne. I'll let you know how this project is going in a few weeks...
Tuesday 11 May 2010 at 09:20 am
Well, for starters, being in London with a stinking cold in a house full of herb-books, tinctures and dried herbs. It's great! (too bad i needed a terrible cold for this)
Friday 09 April 2010 at 3:12 pm
Verbascum thapsus, Pulmonaria officinalis, Bellis perennis, Crataegus monogyna, Equisetum arvense, and Hedera helix (of course all in addition to the things i saw earlier)
Wednesday 07 April 2010 at 2:36 pm
On my way from university to Queck's i managed to see the following things: Tussilago farfara (which i was sooooo happy about!), Trifolium spp (you can't see which one since it's not flowering yet), Symphytum spp (same story, plus couldn't use the leaves either since the plants were still very small), Rubus fructicosus, Allium spp, Capsella bursa-pastoris, something resembling a hedge mustard, the first leaves of Heracleum sphondylium, some thistles, Malva spp, Geranium spp (most often it's the G. maculatum). A very happy herb-spotting day!
Monday 05 April 2010 at 5:05 pm
Today i found some more herbs in addition to the 'weeds' i saw earlier this week... These include Stellaria media, Achilliea millefolium, Ranunculus spp (most propably the repens), Petasites vulgaris (i think), Urtica dioica, Plantago lanceolata, Chelidonium majus, and lots and lots more...
Sunday 28 March 2010 at 7:29 pm
It's amazing what the first real warm days of the year can do. Leaves appearing on the trees, and lots of 'weeds' sudden showing their greens above the earth's surface. Where i'm living now the variety in weeds found alongside the road is slightly less from what i'm used to, but it makes me very happy nonetheless. Here's a list of just a few abundant weeds i've seen today: Galium (lots and lots), Rumex, Glechoma, Lamium, some weeds from the umbelliferae family, and of course Taraxacum.
Hooray spring is in the air!
