Autumn clouds and comfort food

At last we have had a good amount of rain, and the landscape is slowly greening up again. There is a distinct autumnal feel to the shortening days, and I'm settling into the cooler weather with a sense of relief and the urge to cook hearty comfort food. This morning, it was bright, with a warm southwest wind herding great flocks of billowing clouds over the Shropshire countryside; it was the ideal weather for a cycle.

I visited the village and popped into the little shop which sells all manner of lovely things, buying a big handmade pasty as a treat, and turned my return into a longer circular ride of seven and a half miles. This is a favourite route of mine, winding lazily past open farmland, with wide views towards the Shropshire Hills of Caer Caradoc and the Lawley.

The lanes were strangely quiet throughout August, as the extreme heat took its toll on the agricultural year. With the rain of the last couple of weeks, farmers are out in their tractors, busy making up for lost time, ploughing and fertilising for winter crops.

Here we are looking across to the pointy pimple summit of Caer Caradoc, just on the horizon, behind the trees on the right.

You can see it more clearly below, on the left, taken as the sun made an escape from the clouds and lit up the hillside. And there, to the right, just on the edge of the fields, looking delightfully out of place, a white gazebo, poised elegantly in the rugged Shropshire landscape.

I haven't been out on No.6 much this summer, due to the heat, and despite the pedal assist, which helps my cranky old knees, I was glad to find myself on the home stretch, stopping to admire a last view of the cloud palaces.

The homely looking dish is my very simple version of corned beef hash; just a medium chopped onion, sauteed in a pan, add a can of baked beans and a tin of corned beef, diced. A good splurt of brown sauce (I think the nearest US equivalent is steak sauce, or you can use Worcestershire), and a pinch of dried mixed herbs. Into a large oven proof bowl.  Then a ton of mashed potato on top, with cheese if you're feeling extravagant, and I had some home grown tomatoes, so they went on top too. It's lovely to be able to enjoy hot food again.

(This also works for vegetarians, by subbing out the corned beef for red lentils and for vegans, the same, using Vegan butter/cheese alternatives with the mash).