The Paraplegic Farmer

I've always liked a good burger. McDonalds was ok but I did prefer Burger King, think maybe it was because they were bigger and the salad seemed fresh and crunchy. But since Tina has been making these burgers from scratch at home I haven't had one out since.  I don't know what she does but they taste amazing every time. This recipe makes two large burgers, if you need more adjust the ingredients to suit. 500g minced/ground beef 1 large onion salt & pepper to taste cream cheese or raclette 1 chilli  Tina grinds her own beef, you can also use shop bought ready minced beef. Cut up the onion and mix with the beef. Separate the beef/onion mix into four balls. Next you will need to use the burger press http://a-fwd.to/5Eo6oDJ  Press each ball into a flat burger.  Take one burger and put some of the cheese onto the middle then add the chillis (optional). Put another burger on top and then press the edges together making it one big burger. You will have to moul

Here's a different take on the good old chicken breast. Why not open it up, stuff it and then wrap it in Bacon. Sound like a good idea? Trust me, they are lovely.  As with any of these recipes that calls for you to stuff something. The world is your Oyster! Only your imagination limits what you can put in there.  Tina is a dab hand at making these and this last time she made them I asked her to put a Scotch Bonnet chilli in mine, that gave it some serious heat!  This recipe will feed two, if you need more you can just adjust the ingredients to suit. You will need: 2 Chicken breasts 6 Rashers of bacon/jambon sec Raclette cheese, you can use cream cheese or any other cheese. 1 Scotch Bonnet chilli (optional) Method/ How Tina does it. Open up the chicken breast, scoring the side of it with a knife to flatten it out. Put the cheese and optional chilli on top of the chicken breast. Then roll it so the filling is inside. Lay out two rashers of Bacon and place t

Until recently I hadn't even heard of Jalapeno Poppers. But when we had a glut of peppers from the plants we had growing I did a quick search online to find something to do with them. That's when I came across 'Poppers'. It seems they are quite popular in the USA and this is my own take on them. For this you will need: Jalapeno Peppers, Thin bacon or Jambon cru, Cream cheese and then what ever filling you want to put with the cheese. First you will need to take your Jalapenos and cut them along the length, some people leave the stalks on to prevent the pepper from folding outwards. I take the stalks off as I have never had that problem. What you do is up to you!  Now you will need to remove the seeds and the membranes. Next step is the Cream Cheese! Here you can try anything, it's just down to your own imagination. I have tried mixing the cheese with Sweet chilli sauce, dried chilli flakes and I have even cut up some hotter chillis and mixed those

Have you ever spent the day outside in the cold only to come indoors and really fancy something nice and hot to tuck into. If so then try this recipe, lovely served up with Garlic bread. This recipe serves two and you will need: 2 Chicken breasts 1 Tin of tomato soup 2 Medium onions sliced 3 Garlic cloves sliced 4 Thai dragon chillis Small tin of baby carrots (we used our homegrown carrots) 1-2 tsp Dried Italian seasoning 25g Butter 150g Cream cheese  Quarter cup of water Pepper to taste Method: Mix the melted butter, softened cream cheese, soup. water, Italian seasoning and pepper together and stir until blended. Cut the chicken into strips, put into sauce pan with the onion, garlic and chillis then cover chicken with mixture and carrots then cook slowly on the hob for about an hour or until cooked through. Alternatively you can add all the ingredients into a slow cooker and set it going for about six hours. Check that the chicken is cooked all the way throu

Its that time of year again when there is very little in the way of gardening jobs that I can do. Some things I can, like take care of the greenhouse and keep the plants in there watered and fed. But Tina is doing a pretty good job of keeping on top of the rest. This has given me more time to focus on photography again and at this time of year when we are feeding the birds its great to get outside and get some shots.  We have a few different visitors come into our garden, the main ones being Sparrows. Also we have a lot of returning Great Tits and Blue Tits a Robin and some Blackbirds and also some Finches. I always get confused with Finches and what sort they are so I'll just call them Finches. Photography I find is a great way to get you outdoors and connected with nature. What better way to spend an hour or two watching and listening to the wildlife in the garden. Even domestic wildlife in our case as when our dogs start they scare off the birds so I just photograph them

  I've come a long way since April 2016, not wanting to blow my own trumpet but I think I have achieved quite a bit considering. The latest in my long list of things I must try happened just this afternoon. We have had my sister staying with her kids and whilst here said made use of our bath. Now I've not used it since before April 2016 but it got me thinking about trying to get in. And then of course trying to get out.  First hurdle was getting in the bathroom, there is a huge step up into it. It was quite easy really, put the wheelchair up to the step and then went off the front of the chair and onto my knees and then across the bathroom floor. Then it was a case of pushing up onto a stool getting undressed and then into the water, easy when you say it quickly. Getting out was just as straight forward. A trick I have learnt is to not over think how you are going to do something and just crack on. That's how I get my best results!  The gardening sea

Fresh red chilli pickle Lal mirch ka achaar   I love Indian pickles, my first experience of said pickles was a jar of Pataks chilli pickle that we picked up to try. I ended up putting it on everything from my cheese sandwiches and salads right through to curries and cooked meals. I have been searching the internet for a good recipe so we could make good use of our massive chilli harvest.   For this recipe you will need: 1/2 cup of Fresh Red Chillis 3 tbsp Mustard seeds 2 tbsp Fennel seeds 1/4 cup Mustard oil 1/4 tsp Asafoetida (we used ground mace) 3 tsp Salt 2 tbsp Lemon juice First up you need to cut up the chillis, I cut them in half and then slit them along the length. I also left the seeds in as we quite like the extra heat.  Now put the chillis into a bowl and cover them with the salt, this will draw out any moisture in the chillis. Leave them sat in the salt for an hour minimum, longer would be better. Now you can turn to the musta

The time has come! That's right the time has come to sort out our compost. We have had a compost heap for as long as I can remember, but what have we done with it? In short.....Nothing! So its now time to do something about it. This is what our compost heap looks like at the moment.  It contains the usual suspects like grass cuttings and garden waste. The heap starts off fairly high and does indeed compost down quite a lot. But we never do anything with it. And with the price of compost getting more and more expensive we should really be using what we have got. So we built a temporary compost bin! I say temporary as we have some works planned for next year which shall include more permanent compost bins. But this will do for now, the plan is to compost all garden waste, kitchen waste and brown waste. Brown waste will be stuff like cardboard, egg cartons, egg shells. I'm not sure of the ratios that are needed, but I'm guessing to aim for ab

Autumn is all but here.     With the nights drawing in and the temperatures dropping to single figures over night it definitely feels like Autumn is on its way. But its not time to retire indoors just yet! There is still plenty to do in the garden. In fact there are about a thousand and one jobs to do, most of which depends on your own garden and what you do with it. Some items that will need your attention are going to be lawns, flowers, bulbs, greenhouses, vegetables the list goes on. I'm going to concentrate on what we have here in our own garden.  The Lawn. Almost every house has a lawn! Or at least a patch of grass somewhere. Now is a good time of year to pay some attention to your bit of grass, no matter how large or small it is. You may not be too bothered about your bit of green, but some people like to keep it nice and manicured. So a few things you can do to your lawn to improve it or keep it looking and performing tip top are 1: Using a

  Hopefully this should be good! I found a recipe online for a nice green chilli pickle, all our chillis are red! So this will be loosely based on the recipe I found and it will take a few days to knock up.  For this you will need: 1.5 - 2 cups of chopped green chillis 6 tablespoons of Mustard seeds  3 tablespoons of Rock salt 2 teaspoons of Turmeric powder 1 cup Mustard oil 5 -6 Lemons (1/2 cup of lemon juice) 1 cup = 250ml This should be enough to fill a medium sized jar So as I mentioned before there will be some tweaks. First being with the green chillis. All ours at the moment are red but I don't suppose that matters too much so I added....... Two Numex Big Jims Two Maule Hot Two Satans Kiss One Thai Dragon Also I changed the Rock salt for chunky table salt and when it came to the Mustard seeds I ground Two Tablespoons of seeds and used two Tablespoons of Mustard powder, we shall see how it turns out. So first off cut the chillis into chunks,

This is going to be a review, I was going to aim it at the elderly and disabled. But in fact it's going to apply to everyone. No one is left out here, it caters for all.  I had never given it much thought before, when I was young fit and able bodied. But now I am on wheels these things do crop up, and when it comes to gardening the tools you use do come into it. When I first got home after eight months in Hospital I decided that I would try to do what I could in the garden, within reason! I could get onto the John Deere tractor to cut the grass (we have since sold it) but when it came to the flower and vegetable beds the tools we had were either too long for me as I was now sat down or the Hand tools were too short for me to reach the beds.  So this brings us to Wolf Tools (Wolf Garten). This is a range of tools with interchangeable heads and lots of handle options. I went for the 120cm long handle and the 35cm short handle, they do more sizes and are made in ei

Here's an easy one for you. Creamy chicken and chilli pasta. I just cook for the two of us so if you need to feed more people you will have to adjust the ingredients accordingly.  What I used: 3 chicken breasts 3 Tolli sweet peppers 1 Onion 3 Satans Kiss chillis (you can use any chilli) 1 tsp Garlic powder Splash of oil for frying Pasta of your choice Single cream  First off I start the pasta, boiling the water add a dash of oil and then the pasta. While that's doing I cut up all the other ingredients and add them to a frying pan.  Chillis Chicken Peppers Onion Cook until the Chicken is golden...... With the pasta cooked, drain and put back into sauce pan. Add the cooked ingredients from the frying pan and also the single cream. I also added some of Tina's Hot chilli cooking sauce (this is optional). And give it a good stir over moderate heat. When it's all warmed through nicely its