Slow Cooker Gammon With Sweet Potatoes

Finally it's Spring ! lighter days make my soul shine , it's been a mild winter . We are just chalking up to double digits in the temperature stakes which I'm loving. I've even got the outdoor furniture out but the next day it rained ! There has been more good days than bad ones and even then I've my beloved cup of tea . I think tea must be one of the words that I use most often and I get very cranky if I can;t have a cup of tea , I do take my favourite tea bags abroad with me.

You might think that a slow cooker is just for Winter but I don't think it is , a slow cooker is a brilliant helping hand in the kitchen , especially useful for the days when we are busy running around here there and everywhere.

Ingredients 

Gammon joint 

Pack of small sweet potatoes

Method 

In your slow cooker pour in about 3 cups of hot water.

2 Tablespoons of brown sugar 

A joint of Gammon 

Switch the slow cooker on low and least for at least 6 hours .

Make sure the water covers the sweet potatoes, I used a pack of small sweet potatoes.

You'll find that sweet potatoes have held together.

Prepare the additional vegetables that you want to accompany your meal .

Once everything is ready switch the slow cooker off 

Carve the gammon 

And then plate everything up .

Let's Go Back to 1985

Way back in the mists of time when things were so much better and there was only 3 channels on the television , and we watching everything in black and white ( well I was as my household didn't have colour T.V till 1986 ) I even had to change the television channels by hand bot remote control for me and the first time I ever did come across a remote I pressed the button and flicked the remote like Hermione using her wand. I thought Philip Scofield  in his Broom Cupboard had grey hair when I was growing up and was amazed when we finally got colour that in fact his hair wasn't grey though now it is and he is still on my television screen !

Sunday I did think I was back in time , it was a typical Sunday and Rugby was on the horizon with it being our last game , the teams playing expectations were high. The rugby game didn't start off too well it was scrappy which for a rugby game shows the gaps in play ( I am no Rugby commentator but I know a little ) . Eventually the team found their rthymn and they upped their age to win , they are 17 now and the game can get rather feisty in fact one player did have to go to hospital with a suspected fracture to the arm but in the end it just proved to be bruised pride and he was Ok .


After rugby we all piled back in our cars to head to their rugby club which wasn't as close as we thought it was going to be , I think some where along the 10 minute journey we must have hit 88 miles per hour in our imaginary Deloreans as we arrived at a working mens club. Think Phoenix nights and that is exactly what it was like just when I though it couldn't get any more surreal I looked up and saw laminate on the walls . 

This was so very much like the scene from Dumbo "Elephants on parade " . I had to wait will the men folk had a "5 minute rugby meeting " an hour and a half later and we were finished ! Then back to the year 2016 ... wohooooo but you know what I think I left a little back of my heart back in 1985 when life was so much easier . You had a limited choice in everything and you just had to get on with it ....

My last brush with a working mens club was when we had to go watch my sons cornet teacher at an event which included the world whistling champion whose talents included whistling the whole of the William Tell Overture ......


My life is surreal.







And I am sitting here on a cold ,dull grey Monday morning looking for my motivation in places that more than likely need a jolly good dusting. Yesterday at the end of the  I felt awful but today I am starting to feel a little more full of life and I am certainly in a better place than I was 2 years back and that is my marker. And certainly writing this helps as I having a good giggle as my husband was wearing a gilet in which look like the one Michael J Fox wore in Back to the Future except his was Burgundy ( not that makes wearing it any better but you know I don't have to embrace that fashion blip !)

Silent Sunday

The Country Explorer

Sometimes you've just got to push off the malaise and get out and walk and listen to the bird song.

No rascally Robin on my walk today but a good assortment of birds , I should take some binoculars out ....

I'm better then I think I am , though I have to say I didn't like the staff photo I saw of myself today . I feel ever so slightly like weeble wobble .

So embarking on what I only can call fitography which involves you guessed it getting fit while taking pictures by amy pictures possible. Note pictures drawn in crayon are not acceptable ...

Why I love The National Trust

Why I love the National Trust so much is many !!

I live with easy access to 2 properties Calke Abbey and Kedleston Hall , Calke Abbey is the nearer of the 2 properties and they've both been a source of many a family picnic , visit and adventure over the years.

I love the feeling of a National Trust being my own , it's a if I'm a protector of a time gone by and without it the protection of the Natiional Trust many a beautiful building and way of life would be lost forever . Many of the National Trust properties were handed over them in lieu death tax , many properties that didn't have the luxury of the help of the National Trust have been lost forever resulting in many being pulled down.

It is always a joy to wander round the garden at Calke  ; pure bliss as it's a mobile phone black spot Bermuda triangle and you know what it's heavenly , the need to be connected has been thrust upon us and like the Matrix we've got to pull the plug and break free . We need to see the world with our own eyes instead of through a laptop of computer screen all the time. That's not to say that technology and the past can't live in harmony as indeed they can . Wandering around various National Trust properties there are many ways in which technology is used to say perhaps show you how a restoration was undertaken.

Walking round the garden the previous Sunday I heard a grandparent retelling the beloved story of Peter Rabbit , a kitchen garden of a lovely grand stately home is an ideal story setting. Also this week is  #NationalGardeningWeek and being a member of the National Trust offers us the space and great expanse of garden we've not got at home.

I would love to live in a stately home ! but without having to clean it , the conservation of National Trust properties is an immense task through paid staff and the wonderful army of volunteers. 

My son is studying A level History in 6 th form and the properties provide such a valuable extra resource to his learning , I'm so pleased we are members. The National Trust provide such all round family fun.

Go join and explore the time gone by.