Mum's Pink Salad with Sarsons

Remember that family of vinegar-y delights that arrived from Sarson's last week? Well I've been looking at their recipes and have been surprised at just how you can use vinegar in cooking. My usual uses are for malt vinegar on my chips and using white vinegar when cooking red cabbage. So for this I thought I should be more adventurous.

Being a bread fan, I'm keen to give the "proper beer and malt vinegar rye bread" a try, but I need to set aside some time for that. This weekend was a busy one, so instead I'm sharing my mum's Pink Salad.

It's simple to do, and will be a great addition to our lunchboxes this week.

Ingredients

1/2 red onion, finely diced
3 sticks of celery, diced
1/2 large cooked beetroot, diced
3 tbsp Sarson's white vinegar

Serves 4 as a side dish

Method

1. Finely dice the red onion.

2. Dice the celery - I remove the stringiest bits with a potato peeler first.

3. Dice the beetroot.

4. Combine the diced ingredients in a storage container.

5. Add 3 tbsp of Sarson's white vinegar and stir.

5. Leave in the fridge overnight to allow the flavours to combine.

And it really is as easy as that. In the morning I'll add some of Mum's Pink Salad to the rest of my lunchbox, along with some tomatoes from the allotment.

A PINK SALAD SIZED HOLE IN MY LUNCHBOX

And in case you're wondering the rest of my lunch is (clockwise): carrot batons, a slice of ham, a cornichon, mixed leaves, pumpkin seeds, salad dressing, cucumber from the garden and Deliciously Ella's Miso rice.

Do you use vinegar in your salads? Or any good recipes with vinegar I should try?  Leave a comment and let me know.

* This is a collaborative post with Sarson's who provided the vinegar-y family of delights I've referred to in this post, but all views are my own.

What I've read lately

You'll have read in my last post that I've got my head around lots of things this past week and I'm getting myself back on track blogwise, which is good news. But one of the things I've realised is that while my head has been busy, reading has been a good outlet and in the past month or so I've read three books.

That's a lot for me lately. And each of them have had me hooked, although the second one on the list below really takes the prize for hook-ability. As well as being able to hook me, the endings are important too. I dislike it when a book ends and there's loose ends, and I'm left wondering what happened to so-and-so, and feel let down by the author.

None of these are like that, thankfully. The first had a clear ending with everything sorted out; the second, once the suspect was unveiled there was a "what they're doing now" kind of closure. And for the third one below, the author is working on the next book. So all different endings, but all entirely satisfactory too!

1. Truly Madly Guilty, Liane Moriarty

I was keen to read this book as I loved her earlier book, The Husband's Secret a book I couldn't put down.  I started this book early August and completed it just six days later, so it's safe to say this one too had me gripped. 

The story weaves its way around three couples and an event which happens at an impromptu barbeque. What had me gripped was discovering what that event was. It was clearly momentous - and don't worry, no spoilers here - when I found out what it was, then I wanted to read on to see how they all coped.

There's obviously more to the plot than just this and each of the characters have traits we will all recognise. The ending is particularly poignant and really underlines that you never really know what's going on behind the scenes with people. Ever.  Definitely another must-read from Liane.

2. The Loving Husband, Christobel Kent

This book was published at the start of September and it was one I didn't want this book to end! It had me hooked early on and was one of those books where I'd shoehorn 10 minutes or so into my day where ever I could to carry on reading.

It's not my usual genre of book and as it starts you're immediately involved in a situation with the lead character. For me I wasn't sure where that would lead, but my advice is stick with it if you're unsure because the first few pages are critical to the storyline, and it really is a page-turner.  There are, as you'd expect twists along the way but despite her vulnerabilities the main character is strong, and while I didn't work out the ending (which I was pleased about) I wasn't disappointed. 

If you read any of the books in this post, choose this one.

3. As Weekends Go, Jan Brigden

This was another book I couldn't put down and more in my usual genre of reading. The story is based around the central character, her life and how a weekend can change everything. Or more specifically how events can make you reevaluate your life, in the same way people around you can already see.

It does work out as I hoped it would and even better is that the author says she's working on a sequel and I for one will be looking out to see how the next chapter in these lives pan out.

What have you read lately that you'd recommend?

Extending our patio, again.

It seems a while ago now since our new patio was installed, but looking back over my blog posts it was only June 2013. Somehow that makes it seem more recent than the three and a bit years it is. Back then we extended the patio by an extra slab and true enough it felt roomy and more useful. 

We had some slabs left over and our original plan was to use them in other parts of the garden. But as time's gone on, that hasn't happened and our new enlarged patio began to feel smaller. So much so that we thought we should have gone further. 

Then earlier this year when we started to get serious about adding some edging - and circles - we worked out we actually had enough slabs for that extra row of patio we craved. And so, that became part of our plan. 

We'd hoped it would be complete at the start of the summer, but with one thing and another our gardener and patio layer couldn't fit us in, along with our tree cutting work until much later than we'd hoped. And while we wanted the patio extended, we knew the tree cutting took priority.

Finally on Saturday it was the turn of the patio. And typically rain was forecast. Thankfully though all that digging and trugging of earth to the skip at the start of August stood us in good stead and as we'd done most of the manual work ourselves it saved us some cash, which is never a bad thing. 

My plan was to build a dedicated barbecue area for MOH. Close enough to the patio so he didn't feel out on a limb, but not in the middle of the patio so the barbecue and the smoke were centre stage. The answer was to lay one of the large slabs at right angles to the house, set back from the main view down the garden. It kept us both happy even though it meant losing an old and very leggy, but much used rosemary bush. But as I took plenty of cuttings before it went it seemed worth it.

With the first slab in place the bricks were laid out and the position checked, then it was quickly done and the rest of the row soon followed.

DON'T YOU JUST LOVE IT WHEN THE WORKMEN ASK TO BORROW A BROOM AS THEIRS IS IN THE VAN AND THEY'VE GOT MUDDY BOOTS

And with impeccable timing, just as the row was laid along came the rain. Plastic sheets were quickly found and used to cover the new row of patio to protect the pointing and to stop it being washed away. It worked and on Sunday we uncovered the new row for it to bask in the sun just as much as we did. 

So that's another part of the garden plan ticked off the list. And it seems we've another week of good weather in which to enjoy it!  It's starting to come together, although there is still much more edging to install. But more on that another day.