Messing with the natural order of the Universe

Well in my last blog post I was wishing for Spring, and for a few glorious days it looked like I got my wish, so much so that I was a bit worried that I had messed with the natural order of things!  The sun was shining, it was warm enough to brunch outside without a coat and one of my roses is flowering, whoops, hang on, I’m not that ready for Spring after all!  It’s OK though the big duvet was back on the bed last night and it is back to being rather chilly, still got some beautiful blue skies though.

The good weather at the weekend means that the greenhouse is cleared and torn plastic removed, got to wait for a slightly less gale force winds before we can put the new plastic back on the roof (any volunteers to help with roof-raising, I’ll provide beer/wine or tomatoes in summer!?).  The garden paths have been de-mossed and are less of a slippy hazard.  We’ve got rid of all our fallen trees now and the veggie patch just needs a good going over and then I will be ready for lots of seedlings and plantings in August which is fast approaching, hoorah!  The winter break is obviously doing me good, I have renewed enthusiasm for gardening and growing rather than wishing death on my tomatoes.  I'm replanning the whole garden for maximum veggie production and also thinking I might need a bigger freezer!

Remember those leeks and those pumpkins … still have rather a lot to use up so I went to my favourite go-to recipe finder for something that would use those up. I was feeling a bit cold so thought a casserole would do the trick … I found this one and substituted the shallots with the leeks and the sage with rosemary (just because that’s what I had in the garden) and added a generous slug of red wine. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/sausagepumpkinandsag_92737. My god it was good, highly recommend it and would also recommend serving it with a ciabatta from Gilberts if you live in Dunedin, so so good!!

Sausage, Leek & Pumpkin Casserole - yum!

Does anyone have any other pumpkin recipe recommendations?  I’ve still got 2 and a half pumpkins left to go :)