Thrifty garden goodness- pea pod soup

Pea Pod Soup

Ingredients
a colander's worth of empty pea pods (use fresh pods from your garden)
water
1 large onion
1 large or 2 small potatoes
a handful of fresh mint leaves (from your own garden if possible)
1 clove garlic
1 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
garnish with chopped green onions and/or cream or yoghurt

Eggless tea cake (literally- tea)

Another British recipe from WWII. I love that this one uses tea, although since it also uses wheat flour I'll never be eating it. I may try to find a way to substitute in for the wheat somehow. Kitchen experiment time.

Eggless Fruit Cake

• 1.5 cups self raising flour (or plain flour with 3 teaspoons of baking powder added)
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1 level teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• pinch salt
• 1/2 cup of black tea (cold)
• 5 Tbsp butter
• 5 Tbsp sugar
• 1/3 cup dried fruit

Cauliflower with cheese and bacon

Cauliflower with Cheese with Bacon

• 1 fresh cauliflower
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch or tapioca starch
• 1.5 cups milk
• 1 onion or leek
• 2-4 oz of bacon (approx. 4-6 strips)
• 2 oz cheese (a good way to approximate is look at your index and middle fingers together- that's about the right size)
• salt and pepper
• horseradish or mustard
• blob of butter

Cheese and potato dumplings

Cheese and Potato Dumplings

• 2 lbs of potatoes peeled (set aside the peel to bake in the oven for another delicious snack)
• 2 eggs
• 3 to 4 oz strong grated cheese
• salt and pepper
• dried herbs to taste 

Lord Woolton pie

This was considered to be a sad substitute for Shepherd's Pie during WWII in the UK, but it's a great way to get veggies into reluctant veggie eaters. Serve with a roast of some variety for a very decadent meal. It's also a great way to use leftover vegetables. All these BBC Wartime productions have gotten me thinking.

Planning for the spring

All the seed catalogs have started coming in already, but there's still a month and a half before I can start planting anything. This is the long, dark teatime of the gardener's soul.

But, on the up-side, my horehound and marshmallow are surviving in their pots, and my Meyer lemon tree is getting leaves again. It looked quite strange for a while with three green lemons and no leaves. It needs a better location, but that's the best window in the house. It also needs to be re-potted. Maybe in the spring when I can do that all outside. Our living room is much too small to deal with all that dirt. I'll have to wait until we get our new house to plant out the horehound. Or, maybe I could start a new plant and give this one away. It's a perennial, so it would make a pretty, low shrub in someone's garden. I don't want to leave it here, as the people who buy the place are 99.99999% unlikely to appreciate it.

I've found a whole new genre of YouTube channels- British people who vlog about their allotments. It's adorable, and makes me yearn for a milder climate. Putting in potatoes on the first of April? That would be insanity in Southern Ontario. I also learned a better method for growing leeks- use a dibber to make a 6" hole and place the small plant inside with the first leaves poking out the top. Don't fill it in, just water it. The hole will gradually fill in on its own and leave room for the stem to get nice and big. I'll have to try that this year.