Nettles and Dandelions... for Lunch!

Ed and I have been really busy at the allotment today, planting seeds, digging over beds and fertilising them to get it all ready to grow lots of tasty vegetables. We didn't really have a lot in for lunch today so I decided to have a quick look at what the allotment already had on offer!

I snipped off a little punnet full of dandelion flowers and then donned my gardening gloves to gather some nettle tips. You want the lovely young leaves at the top of the nettles, the older leaves can be a bit fibrous. I also picked some random onion-things we have growing on one of the raised beds, at first I thought they were spring onions but they had a garlicky hit so I wonder if it was green garlic. If you are brave enough to try this and don't have green garlic then you can replace it with a clove of garlic or a few spring onions. 

So to make my weedy lunch I washed the nettles and picked the dandelion petals from the stems. I washed them really well then sautéed the nettles and chopped green garlic in a knob of butter (this will take all the sting away), on a medium heat. I added a little salt then waited until the nettles had wilted, you will know they are ready because they will reduce in size by about half, then I put the dandelion petals in. I cooked this for another 5 minutes then added a portion of rice noodles to the pan and mixed it all together. 

This was so delicious! Ed couldn't believe that I made this from weeds, that are free and easy to find. If you want to try this yourself a couple of things to remember are, nettles are best picked in the spring and autumn, when they are far away from flowering. Only pick these two plants if you are sure what they are, don't pick them if they have had pesticides or weed killer on them and don't pick them if they are at dog peeing height (for obvious reasons). 

Enjoy <3

xkx  

Photo an Hour - Our Wedding Day.

So yesterday Ed and I tied the knot and what a perfect day it was. I thought I would like to remember the day by taking a photo an hour, so here they are.

7am - Ed surprised me with a whole bag of Lush products and a new Swarovski charm for my bracelet. What a way to start a day!

8AM - I do my make up and my hair.

9AM - I finish off preparing the post wedding lunch.

10AM - It was raining, but we didn't let that stop the fun.

11AM - This is my lovely friend Ali and I loitering outside the venue before for the ceremony starts.

12AM - The ceremony is done... We are man and wife!

1PM - We all get back to our place ready for a spot of lunch.

2PM - Having fed everyone, it is time to quickly pack and get on the road.

3PM - We have a long way to go and it is all motorway so far.

4PM - Still on the boring motorway.

5PM - Still on the motorway...

6PM - I was so excited to see the Angel of the North.

7PM - The coast roads are far more exciting than the motorway.

7:30PM - We are so close now!

8PM - We made it and wow Edinburgh is absolutely stunning!


We can't wait to get out and explore today! Hope everyone is having a fun day too. 

Sunny Hunny & Crabs at Wells!

As we were nearish to the coast after the wedding we (Ed and I) went to we decided a little seaside trip was in order. We were lucky because it didn't rain all day! (for those of you not in the UK we have had a rather wet summer so far). We started our adventure in Hunstanton, which has some lovely sandy beaches to frolic on.

This is the state of our British summer this year (and this was on a good day). But we have to make the best of what we get. When the sun does shine here though it is rather special because of the West facing beach it means you can actually see the sun set over the sea! That is something I would love to see one day.

This is the Wiley the Wash Monster. This amazing beast is an ex military vehicle that was created in 1967 to be used as a landing craft by American forces in Vietnam. But now he is used as a 60 seater tour vehicle that chugs around the coast. Ed and I went on this a few years ago and it was so much fun.


We decided, after a look round Hunstanton to go to Wells by the Sea. This is one of my favourite places in the whole world. Its so lovely to so and have a look around and they have amazing sea food there as well. This was a very cheeky duck who wouldn't leave us alone whilst we had our lunch.

There are always people crabbing here and we have watched people many times filling their little buckets with the crafty crustaceans. So we decided to pop our crabbing cherry and have a go at it ourselves. We hurried along to get a crab line (the one we bought had no hooks just bait bags because we didn't want to hurt anything). We filled our meshy bags with bait and plopped them in the water... And waited... 

We didn't have to wait long. My favourite crab has to be the one covered in barnacles, we nicknamed this one Barnacle Bill.