Speckled Egg and more

I haven't seen a speckled egg like this one in ever so long - I was about to crack it to make the batter for dinner, but then I thought I'd take a photo!

Mrs Robin's tail is growing in nicely. She's still moulting, though - as she was sitting on the wall early I could see a little breast feather blow off and drift away in the wind.

This bud is the yellow flower that looks a bit like a daisy. I still haven't looked through my flower books to try to identify it - it's got quite a fleshy stem. There's beautiful colour in the nigella seed-heads, too.

I can't think how long it is since I last baked this - ten years or more. I'd totally forgotten about it till I came across it again recently looking through the cookery book (Ronald Johnson's  The American Table). Last week I thought I'd asked the butcher for one piece of striploin that would do a stir-fry, but I discovered that he must have mis-heard: when I got home there was a large piece of sirloin, enough for the stir-fry and then a good bit left over. Just the right amount for this:

Colonial Beef Steak Pudding  (serves 4)

2 tblsp vegetable oil
1 lb boneless beef, cut into small bite-sized pieces
1 chopped onion
1 tblsp flour
1 cup beef stock,
2 tblsp tomato purée, 1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
Salt and pepper - I add thyme

2/3 cup sliced mushroooms - we're not mushroom fans, I use carrots
2 tbslp oil or beef dripping
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
2 eggs

Heat 2 tbslp oil quite hot, and brown the steak in batches. Add the second batch back to the pan, add the onion and cook for a few minutes. Stir in the flour and cook for another few minutes. Add the stock, tomato purée and Worcestershire Sauce, carrots and seasoning to taste. Bring to the boil, reduce hit and simmer over a very low heat uncovered for about 1 1/2 hours, till the meat is tender. If it dries out too much add a little more water, but the aim is that at the end of the cooking time there should be very little liquid left.
Heat the oven to 450F, 230C, Gas Mark 8.
Heat the oil or dripping in a 1 1/2 quart casserole, with at least 2"  sides.
When the oil is really hot, pour in the batter and then drop spoonfuls of the steak mixture over the top. Bake for 15-20 minutes till the pudding is puffed and brown.
My recollection is that I used to do this in a soufflé type dish, so that's what I used tonight, but I think it would have been better in a wider, shallower dish. Certainly when we used to have toad--in-the-hole my mother used a roasting tin, partially cooking the sausages and then pouring the batter over. We used to have it with sugar - that seems strange to me know. But Yorkshire pudding is good to me almost any way it comes, and essentially that's what this is, except that I use milk and water mixed for Yorkshire puddings.

A Miscellany

Photos that didn't make it as the blog header this month!

My other favourite cards from July. Seems I made up for having felt in a creative slump all June to have ended up with several that were all favourites. Neither of these is my normal style at all.

Mrs Robin has been very elusive recently - even when she is around she's been much more timid than normal. I suppose it's because she feels vulnerable, but from my point of view it's as if she doesn't want her photo taken while she looks so shabby. She'll snatch a couple of worms and then retire behind the bin. I'm happy to say that after several days of not seeing her at all, today she flew straight down to the back step and stayed there to eat - with her new tail starting to show and looking all fresh. No camera handy, alas. These are from last weekend, the last time I'd seen her properly.

Busy busy

Busy week - I'll change my blog header for tomorrow.
But just to go on with, on the way to work one day this week I spotted a cormorant flying down the river and then landing on a high wall for a grooming session. No free papers this week, so I wasn't planning to go as far as Heuston Station, but since that's where the cormorant was, I went the extra distance.

I said I had several favourite cards for July to share. Several of them appear to have already been tidied into the relevant folders, and with a sore swollen gland I want to get an early bed tonight.
But Woodstock is still flying around where I can easily find him!

While the Sun Shines...

...make hay.

Most of this week was dull and grey - some of it was almost like winter apart from being warm. Thursday was one of those oppressive leaden grey skies, with enough drizzly rain to make you wet but not enough to warrant an umbrella.
But Wednesday, which was one of my days off, was a beautiful sunny summer's morning. I went to the park, where they were busy making hay while the sun shone. Apart from the dust making me sneeze a bit, I really enjoyed watching them, along with the feel of the grass beneath my feet and the lovely smell. And if we have another hard winter, it looks as if there's plenty of feed for the deer.

Poor C was bitterly disappointed because by the time he got home from work it was back to being grey and cloudy - at least he got a little sunshine this morning.

(Well, that's strange. There are two embedded videos, but only one is showing in Preview. I'll just have to post and see what happens. If Making Hay 2 is AWOL I'll put it in another post.)

Ducks galore

A few other ducks from the park on Monday...

Female Mandarin duck - smaller and daintier than the mallards

Female tufted duck

Adolescent mallard - you can see the green just starting in on the head, but there's still some soft, downy baby fluff on the back

Duckling duo

Blue flash

These are two more wildflowers that have appeared from my Californian section. This is the one that I thought was going to be some sort of escholtzia. I guess it bears as much relation to the ones I grew before as the little heartsease does to full-blown cultivated pansies. I tried to take a picture of the foliage but I need to go back and try again. This isn't much bigger than a buttercup!

Ducklings revisited.

 I had a lovely walk in Farmleigh and the park yesterday, although it was horribly heavy and muggy. I went to Farmleigh first, and started feeding the ducks the heel of a loaf of bread - and along came the little ducklings scooting at high speed. Then it was time to hop out onto the tree trunk, have a little groom and then a nap. It certainly made it easier to get some good photos when they weren't zooming around in the water. I love the little chittering noise they make, too.

Even though they were just napping, it was hard to move on and leave them, I wars really enjoying watching them. I've always liked the way the ducks use that curved branch to stand on and groom themselves - it makes for great reflection photos.

When I walked over to Quarry Lake I saw a lovely female mandarin duck, and several female tufted ducks who came up much closer than normal - more photos tomorrow, and the recipe for the Mississippi Mud Pie I made for the weekend.

Farmleigh Ducklings

These little chicks are so much later than the ones on the canal or even in the park, but apart from the solitary singleton I saw way back, they're the only ones I've seen there, so I don't even think they're a second brood. First I saw one, then two, and in the end I think we counted nine fearless little things. I'm glad we got to Farmleigh this morning - I had a lot of cooking to do today, but after I'd given 4lb of kidney beans their rapid boil for ten minutes, I reckoned there was time to go for a walk and call in to the butcher to get some mince while they simmered away.

Playful chick

Intrepid chick

Up close chick

I'll have to go back on Monday, weather permitting, and hope that they are still there! I've never been so near little ducklings before.



The funny flapping and splashing in the background is a moorhen.
Listen to all the funny little squeaks and cheeps - and see those stubby little wings!!

Poor Mrs Robin is moulting and has lost her tail .(I hope that's what it is, it's the most likely at this time of year). I hope it grows back soon. She looks funny in her truncated form.

I'd hoped to have a recipe to share but time isn't on my side today...next time.

Two flashes of gold

On the whole it's been a pretty grey and gloomy week.
Here are two flashes of colour which brightened it up.
We've had goldfinches (including a juvenile) at the feeder for a couple of days this week.
And this little heart's ease has popped up in my pot of Californian wildflowers.

I'm busy trying to winnow down my 1300+ photos from June to a manageable amount before I run a backup. It's all those baby birds!!

And a very brief display of robin rivalry: Fatso (my new name for him now his tail has grown) is trying to muscle in on Mrs Robin's territory. So as I heard the babies chirping to be fed I put some worms and grain on some bricks on the wall where she could easily get at them. But even there Fatso flew in.
Mind you, yesterday I saw one of the babies trying to chase Fatso away, so maybe his takeover bid will fail!!

For the birds

There are no flies on this little baby robin - he knows just where Momma flies to to pick up those tasty titbits she brings back. Actually, I'm interested to see that when there's a variety of stuff on the doorstep for her to choose from, she seems to like to bring a variety back to the little ones. Even though mealworms seem to be her favourite she'll bring grains and seeds and fruit back to the babies too.



Much of yesterday was rainy and not so warm - time to put the duvet back on the bed tonight, I think. But in between, C and the birds both enjoyed the sunny spells.

Mrs Robin on the trunk of a tree that came down in the snow two winters ago

I never picked a favourite card from June to share, because I was feeling flat and uncreative and didn't really have a favourite that stood out. This month I have several favourites, so I think Woodstock can settle in with the flock of birds in this post. Thanks for the twine, Lorraine!

We were sort of expecting a friend of C's to call yesterday, and we only had about three biscuits in the house. Since I knew Jorges likes peanut butter I went looking for a recipe for a bar cookie (for convenience) with peanut butter. This is what I found:

Oh Henry Bars: (approx 40)

2/3 cup butter

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 tblsp vanilla (I thought this was a lot, and would cut it back to not more than 2 tsp another time)

1/2 cup corn syrup (golden syrup over here)

4 cups porridge oats

6 ounces chocolate chips

2/3 cup chunky peanut butter.

Cream the butter and sugar together. Add vanilla, corn syrup and oats. Press into a lightly greased 9" x 13" pan. Bake at 350F, 180C for 15 - 16 minutes.

While it bakes, melt the chocolate chips (I just used chocolate) and peanut butter together over a low heat. When the cookies have cooled slightly, spread this over and allow to set.

We don't have Oh Henry bars here, so I did a bit of googling to find out more about them - and the cookies. This recipe is from The Wellesley Cookie Exchange Cookbook, with a note that it came from the Boston Globe. But pretty much any recipe I looked at was almost identical. They all stress not to overcook!! One suggested using a 10" x 15" jelly roll pan with a reduced cooking time, although she notes that the original recipe was the size I used. That would give a thinner coating of peanut butter and chocolate on a thinner oatmeal base - I think I like the sound of that.

In the garden

I've seen the new robin fledglings briefly - scurrying across the shed roof, and hopping around in the bushes.
This little one must be from the first brood. Mostly, though, I just hear them cheeping in the bushes, and making that funny kissing sound when they're being fed.

Mrs Robin enjoying a pause in the sunshine after some intensive food-foraging.

Just as well she had that sunshine earlier - not so much fun having to forage in the rain.

Young blue tit - you can see more blue coming in.

Young coal tit

Dunnock on the wall

I planted two packs of mixed  wildflower seeds a bit late, in May. I think this must be from the Californian selection, as I'm pretty sure I recognise some escholtzia foliage coming along nicely, but I'm not sure what this one is called.