Easter with Whistler

I squeezed Whistler, my bike, on to the train at New Street, ousted a chap from my reserved seat, and was then on my merry way to Edinburgh. The cabin I was in was alternately freezing and roasting as a mini battle played out between the passengers who liked it hot or cold! My excitement started to rise as we got to the coast and I glimpsed Alnmouth and then Berwick from the train. In two days time I would be peddling down this stretch of the coast. In Edinburgh I hoiked my bike up the steps and out on to Princes Street and wandered down to the youth hostel in Haddington Place. This has got to be the most swanky YHA I have ever stayed in! With a beautiful evening going on I didn't linker, though. I wandered up to the castle and then found fabulous little thai restaurant for a spicy thai green curry.

Getting up the next morning I bumped into a fellow cyclist and we chatted for ten minutes before going our separate ways - he was off to Gretna, which sounded suitably distant, and I was off into the Borders to Galashiels. The sun was shining again which was great until I realised I was turning a pretty shade of pink! And it took 3 days before I found a shop selling suncream!! I peddled merrily out of Edinburgh on mostly traffic-free routes seeing loads of birds and even a stoat (I think). As I came into Dalkeith I was pointed down a cycle route that was being retarred and when I shouted to the road crew if there was an alternative they said they'd carry the bike over the tarmac being poured and I could sneak across!! Just outside Dalkeith the the road began to climb through the Moorfoot hills and I looked out across a long plain to Edinburgh and the coast. I was soon into the Borders and it was so beautiful. In the autumn it must be even more breath taking with all the heather in bloom. I lunched, propped up on a fence next to the sheep and watched the speed demon cyclists in their lycra whizzing by. Down near Innerleithen I saw a sign advertising afternoon tea at Traquair House and decided it was that time of day. Traquair House is, apparently the oldest inhabited house in Scotland, and has not only its own maze and brewery but also makes jolly nice scones! My final route of the day took me alongside the beautiful Tweed river as it wound its way towards the sea, I was to follow it on the next day too. The B&B in Galashiels was a welcome sight and I headed into the highly recommend Salmon pub for Good Friday Salmon in a chilli and lime crust.

The bells started at 7 and I was out onto the road filled with scrambled egg by 9, pottering alongside the Tweed again towards Berwick-upon-Tweed. The cycling was undulating and it made for fine views and a hungry cyclist. I found another field for lunch and bathed in the sunlight. The route wound in and out of the border, just as well I didn't have to have my passport checked ;) and at Horncliffe exiting Scotland for the last time I sneaked across the closed Union Suspension bridge, only closed to cars really and pedestrians were using it so I didn't have to don my invisibility cloak. At the top of the last hill into Berwick I was greeted by a sign welcoming cyclists and also a chilly wind blowing off the sea. The town centre was thronged with people and I took refuge on the beach just round the corner from the B&B before dinner of as many carbs as I could lay my hands on.

I had checked the tide times and knew that I could get out to Lindesfarne from about 9 so I didn't dally in the morning and was off on Whistler down the coastal path. But even then as I got to the causeway I could see a steady stream of cars heading onto the island. It was easy getting out there, I thought because it was so flat but on the return with the wind in my face I realised the real reason. With a long ride to complete I chose to visit the priory over the castle and really enjoyed wandering through the ruins and round the exhibition. The boat hull sheds at the harbour tickled my fancy too. By the time I left the place was hopping, not quite the calm atmosphere I had envisaged. Back on the mainland I was confronted by a series of nasty little hills that were particularly precipitous and after battling away for a couple of hours I decided to take the coastal road from Bamburgh, busier but much less vindictive! My next stop was just under Dunstanburgh Castle on a wonderful sandy beach complete with paddlers and cricket teams. Then the final leg on the coastal path, possibly the best cycling ever, from Craster, past Howick to Boulmer and then on the road into the beautiful Alnmouth.

Filled with scrambled eggs again I pottered off down the coastal path through dunes and past daffodils. Over looking the sea at Ashlington I shared my spot with a couple of bumble bees and a goodly quantity of fig rolls were consumed to keep the energy up. Coming through Blythe I played cat and mouse with a couple also touring but eventually lost them, when I actually found a shop selling suncream, and never did find out where they were off to. In Whitley Bay I started on the 'shared use path', which was basically the footpath and seeing as I didn't fancy weaving in and out of the tourists I pottered down the road, managing to miss some of the signs and picking them up again as I got to the very edge of the mouth of the river Tyne. There I found a fantastic visita served by the largest number of benches I think I'd ever seen. Following the river inland I cycled past Segedunum at the end of Hadrian's wall and some of the old ship yards. My temporary destination was the centre of Newcastle as I wanted to see the new Millennium bridge and the Baltic Arts Centre. I wasn't disappointed even though I was on my last legs by the time I stopped. A few photos and a celebratory fig roll and then I peddled over the bridge itself and off to the B&B at South Shields.

It was a scrambled egg day again and then in overcast conditions I cycled past the coast park where we had finished the Great North Run 3 years ago. In Sunderland I wound around the marina, which was very beautiful, and toyed with the idea of visiting the National Glass Museum, but with only 10miles under my belt I wanted to push on. The route was pretty much traffic free but punctuated by A frame barriers that I could hardly squeeze the laden Whistler through. But it was worth it as I went along the East Durham railway route straight across the countryside. I stopped in Thorpe Thewels for an ice-cream and promptly lost the route, having to remove all the bags from the bike and get it through a kissing gate. But I found it again shortly after and weaved my way through the broken glass in Stockton-on-Tees and into Middlesbrough. Waiting for the B&B to open I ate lasagna and chips in Albert park and watched the first ducklings I had seen this year. There appeared to be 24 of them all belonging to one mother duck.

The B&B had a strange atmosphere and I was very glad to see fellow human beings at breakfast the next morning. But I still had no desire to linger and was out on the cycle path at 8.30. I had decided to go a bit more cross country through the North York Moors and so I took the road down to Stokesley and then a tiny little road into the National Park itself. The views were beautiful and I was just about enjoying the giant hills. One particularly memorable one was labelled 1 in 6 and I hurtled down it only to grind to a halt about 5m up the other side of the valley. The lorry in front of me was struggling too and I admitted defeat and walked to the top. But it gave me the chance to see the lapwings displaying as they wheeled about in the sky, dive bombing the ground only to soar back up again with a few centimeters to spare. I'd just joined the off road route to Castleton when disaster struck - my saddle was suddenly on the ground. The bolt had sheared off an I didn't have a spare with which to fix it. Luckily I was near the train station and I walked the remaining two miles and waited to take the train home, there not being a bike shop near by. Having cover 300miles in 6 days I wasn't disappointed and Whistler got a well earned rest. Whitby, Scarborough and Hull can wait til later in the year.

Two little videos

...from our trip to New Orleans. Iain you're famous at last!

This week I have been at the IADR conference in New Orleans. Apart from spending most of our time in a chilly conference centre we have also had a little time to explore the city. On Wednesday Iru and I took a stroll around the French Quarter for the first time - there was lots of live music being played and we sat and enjoyed a quartet complete with their own dance couple!! For lunch we have also been trying out various little spots - one of the best was the unprepossessing Louisiana Products on Julia Street. We got there a bit lat for their usual lunchtime crowd but we managed to have the end of their fried chicken with salad, sitting at the little rickety tables and enjoying the company of the locals.
For dinner we headed into the Crescent City Brewhouse on Tuesday night and I started the trend of having lots prawns for tea - very tasty! And on Thursday we made our way down to Snug Harbour, a fantastic jazz club, to hear Badal Roy playing the Tabala - magic!
Yesterday, in a search for an electronics store, we took a cab out to Walmart and caught the local bus home. We got a little trip through the Garden District, glimpsing the old houses, much like the balconied French Quarter houses but more spread out. Getting off in town I walked up to the Superdome and was really very surprised to see the mall just next door still looking fairly destroyed. Much of the 'touristy' areas seem to be doing fairly well, certainly full of punters. But there is a strange ghostly feel to the whole city and there are many for sale signs on the shops. Even to other Americans, who I talked to at the conference, the city seems strange - a bit like an over looked corner - I can only imagine that the areas that were devastated are still in a fairly bad way and that the people living here are still struggling enormously, which seems monstrous as it has been quite some time since Katrina came to town. I had expected that things would be looking up. We never did find an electronics store selling what we wanted - but we did find several selling what looked like the older models of cameras etc. May be there's a booming internet delivery business here or may be nobody is buying anything.

The Northern Lights

Mum, Dad, Dougal and I were all in Kiruna, Sweden for the most fabulous trip - to visit the Ice Hotel! What a fabulous place to visit - spectacular and so many things to do! We arrived from Stockholm in the afternoon and went straight off to see the Saami reindeer herders, who cooked us up some exceedingly delicious smoked reindeer meat with lingonberry sauce. And that night we stayed in the Ice Hotel itself. Every year a new one is made so its a really unique experience - snuggled up in our enormous blue sleeping bags! And there's also the Ice Bar where the drinks are served out of ice glasses!!! And the ice suites that are sculpted out of ice and snice (thats snow and ice mixed together) by anyone who submits a proposal that gets accepted (a bit like Chelsea I suppose). The next day we did ice sculpting, which is fantastic fun, to the tunes of Moon Dog. And the crowning experience - we went off on skidoos to look for the northern lights!!!! I could hardly believe my eyes as they rippled across the sky, green curtains of light, more spectacular than I could ever have imagined! Having dined on moose stew we had a night in a warm cabin before heading off on a moose expedition. And we saw about 15 without really trying - as they were all basking in the sunshine near the road!!

At the Ice Hotel

Germinating ice plant!!

Stockholm

Divine dining at the Strand Restaurant in Stockholm

I can't believe its the beginning of March already! What happened to February? As we're nearly into spring I thought I'd post a few of the early flowers out in the garden - captured in the gorgeous early morning light.

Nuno felting

This may look like an old hanky but in fact it my first effort at nuno felting. Emma, my tutor down at the Mac, showed me this evening how to felt onto silk - fantastic - just like normal felting but now I have even more felting fun to look forward to!! Those little bobbly bits are called neps and are also made of wool - even more new and exciting things!!

An evening in Manchesterford

I've just got in from the most hilarious evening. Sally, Naomi and I had a trip to the theatre - first dining at the Green Room - and then settling into our seats at the Hippodrome for Acorn Antiques The Musical!!! It was just divine!!! We might not have had the big big stars that first put it on with Victoria Wood but our cast was spot on! Mrs O and her girls were hilarious from start to finish - when we were invited to donate to a charity of Biiirrrmingham and the Black Coun-tray in a faultless brummy accent that went down a storm in the Hip!! Bravo!!!! Who would have known that macaroons were a midlands thing!!! Go and see it if there are any tickets to be had!

Waiter there's something in my pie!

I was cycling home today in the sunshine thinking what shall I have for tea? when I thought of something we used to cook as students. Mel and I used to cook together and made delights such as bolognese risotto and sausage plait, though I seem to remember lots of lentils too and one fateful outing of fruity mince, never again. It was the plait that inspired me today - I thought instead of sausage I would put in lots of delicious vegies and some tangy cheese. So here we have it an experimental vegie plait that I shall name Mels' plait!

Mels' Plait

fresh spinach
a tin of chickpeas, chickpeas rinsed
two cloves of garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1 onion finely chopped
125g mushrooms, finely chopped
1 leek, finely sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
herbs
half a ball of fresh mozzarella
2 peppers (red and yellow)
100g shropshire blue cheese (or other tangy cheese)
500g puff pastry
a little milk for brushing

First put on the oven at 220°C and once hot roast the peppers for 30min. Once they're done take them out and put them in a bowl and cover with clingfilm or foil for 5min. Then peel and remove all the seeds etc and cut into four pieces each. Then make a simple houmus with 3/4 the chickpeas, garlic, peanut butter and enough water to make the liquidiser go round. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a pan and fry off the onions until transparent and then add the mushrooms and leek and fry until soft and dry. Stir in herbs of your choice - about 1 teaspoon of fresh thyme is good. Roll out the pastry until about 3mm thick, place on a greased baking sheet and then on one half cover with the spinach leaves leaving a border of about 2cm all around (so at this point it looks like a book with just one page covered in green and the other page is blank). On top of the spinach layer the houmus and scatter over the remaining chickpeas. On top of this layer the mushroom mixture and then tear up the mozzarella and spread over as evenly as possible. Then layer over the peppers and finely crumble or finely slice the cheese and layer over the peppers. Brush the 2cm pastry border with milk. Finally take your blank 'page' of pastry over the top and stick down using the back of a fork. Brush the top with milk and cut 8 slits in the top layer of pastry. Cook in your 220°C oven for 20min, until golden brown. And if you'd like to have roasted tomatoes with it put them into the oven too. This will serve 4-6.

I know there's no plaiting here but if you felt inspired you could centre the layers instead of having them all on one side and then plait the pastry from each side - v complicated to explain but easy enough to do.

BPW2 continued

What timing! This gorgeous postcard arrived in the post yesterday in time for Valentine's Day all the way from Rachel in Florida. Rachel has a great blog and hand made this card just for me - thanks! And thanks to Meeta for organising the event - bring a little bit of joy into all our lives.

Camden and Roko

Wampe and I have been planning on taking a trip down to Camden for what seems like forever and on Saturday we actually made it there! (I was particularly excited that I managed to get to London for £5 on Chiltern Railways phone ticket!!) I was quite surprised to see such a vibrant place as we came out of the tube - so much life going on. We wandered down to Camden Locks and pottered about, trying exceptionally hard not to spend all our money in the first ten minutes. Whilst contemplating our purchasing opportunities we supped a little mulled wine and nibbled absolutely heavenly spring rolls down by the canal. Then winding our way under the arches Wampe succumbed to the first purchase of the day and after a good browse I too purchased (and now have a new project looking into the history of toothpaste!). We finished off our trip with crepes from a very chatty Frenchman down by the canal again.

We were fairly pooped by this point and then made our way home. After a cup of tea we felt restored and readied ourselves for an evening out with Mum and Dad at the newish Japanese restaurant in Cobham - Roko. The atmosphere was buzzing as we arrived to see the chef flame the tepanyaki surface! We perused the menu and settled on a selection of starters - gyoza, chicken yakatori and heavenly scallops with mangetout, sushi and tempura - prawns, soft shelled crab, monkfish and vegies, along with some garlic fried rice and spinach. Everything was perfection itself - crunchy tempura, the freshest sushi. And at the end we had to have desert even if we didn't have the moose and coulees!! I'd really recommend this place for the great food, atmosphere and brilliant staff.

Do you remember this tree from last April ? Well its flowering in February this year - I don't think it knows whether its coming or going with the hot weather we had and now the snow - and here is a little friend from my garden! Those white blobs that look like they are flying towards the wee snowman are in fact snow flakes!

Blog Party #19: Comfort food

Stephanie over at Dispensing Happiness is hosting the next blog party for comfort food. For me I like hot-out of the oven-wholesome foods that act like a big duvet, so for my comfort food on a stick (so to say) I have made roasted carrots and jacket wedges. And they're really easy to make just cut up carrots into 3/4inch rings and potatoes into wedges (about 8 per potato though it depends on how big your spuds are - mine usually fit comfortably in my hand). Put them into a roast pan with a little olive oil and some herbs (rosemary, thyme....whatever you like) and then roast for 45min at 180°C until the vegies are soft and caramelizing round the edges (yes, thats the posh way of saying burning a bit). If you want a dip mayonaise is really great but I also drop 4 or 5 cloves of garlic still in their skins into the roasting pan and then squeeze out the garlic flesh and mash it with the mayo. And to drink? A nice glass of port, also warming and goes really well with the mellow garlic flavours. I actually made a whole batchfull of these little delights for dinner and felt great curled up on my sofa, as the snow drifted down, dunking and sipping!!

World Nutella Day

Ah Nutella glorious Nutella - better than anything - good on a spoon, on toast, in a pancake or my personal favorite in yoghurt! Over at Ms Adventures in Italy and At home in Rome the 6th February has been designated World Nutella day - fabulous! I wanted to write a poem, an ode to the best thing since sliced bread but only managed three lines

Tambourine taught
Gold gilded
pierced and peeled

but sadly never got past the opening of the jar - specially bought to revel in the occasion. Alas once open I found myself eating the Nutella, that magic taste that cannot be recreated by non-Nutella chocolate-hazelnut spreads. So lets raise a glass of chilled milk to the most scrumptious, one in the world - Nutella!

PS If you have any ideas for the poem please jot them down in the comments!

BPW 2

Who's is this postcard? Where is it going? Who's mine from? Find out soon on Whats for lunch, Honey?

Winter walk at Wisley

A beautiful day amongst the scented plants and flowers at RHS Wisley on the fragrance and frost trail.

Burns night

Tonight I had round, what can only be described as, a haggis appreciation society - my friends that already love haggis came to share this years take on Burns night with a few more for their first outing to a haggis event! I actually made my own haggis this year mixing together a recipe from the vegetarian society with a suggestion I found for a gluten free haggis. To start we had my favourite soup - jerusalem artichoke and carrot - and then haggis, neeps with carrots, and mashed tatties before finally raspberries and ice cream. We had so much haggis (I over catered) that I even sent folk home with boxes of it!

Gluten free haggis for 10 people
400g onions
60ml olive oil
200g carrots finely chopped
140g mushrooms, finely chopped
200g red lentils
2.5L vegetable gluten free stock
100g roughly mashed black eyed beans - from a tin of beans
140g hazelnuts roughly chopped
100g pine nuts roughly chopped
120ml gluten free soy sauce
60ml lemon juice
1 tbsp thyme
1 tbsp rosemary
1/2 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp mixed spice
800g quinoa

Saute the onion in the oil until translucent in a very large oven proof pan and then add the carrots and mushrooms. Cook for 5min and then stir in the lentils and 3/4 of the stock. Add the mashed beans, nuts, soy sauce, lemon juice and herbs and spices. Mix everything together, and simmer for 10 to 15min. Then add the quinoa and the rest of the stock and simmer for 20min. Then put the entire covered pan into a preheated 190°C oven and cook for 30min or until the quinoa is cooked through. If you want to cook it in advance you can put the haggis in the freezer before it goes in the oven, making sure that it is completely defrosted before cooking in the oven. Check that if it needs extra liquid adding before going in the oven.

Banana over Texas?

Whilst recently reading the latest installment from the lovely people over at innocent I found this rather intriguing website - in August 2008 there is a plan to install a 300m giant banana blimp over texas as a piece of art ....... do we think this is real or just a rather jolly jape?

This morning I walked to work in that golden winter light that belies that its absolutely freezing, the cold gently snapping at my face thinking of Siberia. This may sound a little odd but last night I finished the second book about traveling in Siberia in as many months. The first was by the ever brilliant Dervla Murphy - in Siberia by Accident, which returned to the captivating writing I remember from the first of her books. It may be that it was my frame of mind that had returned but it made me feel inspired to get out into the wilds! The second, last night's finisher, was Paul Grogan's Barbed Wire and Babushkas. He tells the tale of traveling down the Amur river from source to sea with friend Richard in a most amusing manner. So this morning it only seems fitting that I started on my last of the Siberian stock - Dervla Murphy's Silverland. I can hardly wait to get stuck into it (I only managed the first two pages on the train). The stories from Siberia remind me of the kindness of strangers and I encourage everyone to read them!!

Blog Party#18: Black & White

Over at Dispensing Happiness the Happy Sorceress is having a party in black and white! Its the first time I have joined in but any excuse for a cocktail on a Sunday afternoon with something to nibble on too. I took the theme on a tangent and decided that using my white currant gin to make a white currant martini and some Blacksticks cheese to make some cheesy bites would be great. I actually rang my Dad for inspiration from his Savoy Cocktail book and was very tempted with a white cargo cocktail (1 part gin to 1 part ice cream) but decided I needed something a bit less after dinner. The matrini was 1 part white currant gin (500g white currants with 250g sugar and 700ml gin in a jar for at least a month) and 1 part vermouth shaken with a little ice and then garnished with a strip of lemon peel. The Blacksticks cheese and Cranberry bites recipe was taken from the Blacksticks website - and very tasty they were too. The blue cheese foiled the slightly sweet martini perfectly! Happy partying!!

Tonight saw my return to the Rush Hour Blues at the Symphony Hall. The Destroyers were brilliant, though I'm not so sure of their name - they played fantastic eastern sounding music - lots of flute/recorder and intruiging crank driven instruments along with bass and violin. I couldn't stay long as my stomach was grumbling louder and louder, so I gave up my chair half way through. The chap who took it said - I can't resist asking if you're too tired? - which made me giggle all the way home as I had my two new bicycle tyres slung over my shoulder!

My kitchen

It may be small but at least its mine!! (And so it dosen't matter if I don't do the washing up....immediately). At just about 2m wide and 3m long with doors at both ends my kitchen is some what lacking in space, not that this has stopped me from trying to be creative in it. The only things lacking are a fridge and my crockery which are both found in the space under the stairs. Though the cooker took about 6months to install too as the space available was rather an odd shape and I had to find an oven that I could actually open! But all was sorted and I have had the joys of a gas hob and an electirc fan oven for the last 2 years. Other space saving comes from cups hung on walls and a shelf above the hob for my pans. And though I might dream of knocking down walls and reclaiming part of the garden for more space - 'it ain't gonna happen' but a girl can always dream. So thats it so to speak in a nutshell - small but just what I need!

To see other bloggers kitchens check out Ilva's site - Lucullian delights

I found this lovely website the other day and was very impressed by all the photos of the snowflakes. Not that I shall be expecting to see any in South Africa!!! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! Happy 50th Zabeena!!! Happy 30th Sally!!! AND happy 60th Dad!!!!!!

Gevulde speculaas

I found the recipe for this at the Hollandse Pot website and after a quick translation here is the recipe that I followed:

250g self raising flour

pinch of salt

2 teaspoons speculaas spices - available at the German Christmas market at the mo!

150g golden caster sugar

150g butter

2 teaspoons milk plus a little for brushing

250g marzipan

50g sliced almonds

In a mixer place flour, salt, sugar, spices and butter. Blitz to breadcrumbs and then slowly add the milk as if you were making pastry (I needed a little more than 2 teaspoons in the end). Then I would suggest leaving it to rest in the fridge for 30min or so as I tried to roll it out straight away but it was a bit soft. Roll out the marizpan to about 1 cm in depth and then roll out the dough to twice this size. Place the marizipan inside dough and fold over so that it is totally encased in dough. Stick down the edges with a little milk and brush the top with milk also. Scatter over the sliced almonds and bake in a preheated oven at 150°C for 30 to 40 min. Allow to cool and then enjoy with a cup of tea or mulled wine!

The hats are out there!!!

On the way to see James Bond last night (which is excellent!!) I popped into the Sainsbury's on Broad Street and was very excited to see these little woolly hats atop the innocent bottles!!!!!!

Following on in birthday style we all met up in Stavanger for the weekend. Dougal had planned out lots of visits and the picture above is from our first stop at the rock carvings at Fluberget. We also visited several glass makers which is always gorgoeus and ate like kings at Craigs kjokken and bar and at the oil museum restaurant Bolgen & Moi. Both did set menus and at Craigs we had the most delicious pumpkin soup with a smoked ham 'sausage roll', halibut on a cauliflower puree, pork loin on spinach with pasta and mushrooms, apple and bacon and sausages with pine nuts. To finish there was a light tiramisu with mandarin granita and lime marshmallows!! In the oil museum the starter was scallops with a tangy lemon hollandaise and then halibut on saffron rissotto with jerusalem artichoke foam (very yummy), duck with red cabbage and smoked aubergine puree (the fire alarm kept going off so may be they were smoking the aubergines in the kitchen!!) and finally creme brullee with strawberry sorbet! Wow!!!! Just as well we took a walk in the woods too!!

le pain quotidien

On Thursday I took the day off work and went down to London to spend the day with Mum as it was her birthday. We had a superb day pottering about, visiting the Cockpit arts open studios in the evening and then eating at Le Pain Quotidien down by the Festival Hall for dinner. It was simple fare but exceedingly good - tasty 'pot' and hearty chocolate tart and crumble!!

A trip to Liverpool for work and I got to pop out and glimpse the Liver birds at lunchtime.

Witlof met ham en kass

This is something I remember from when we lived in Holland, chicory (witlof) is used much more in cooking there. I simply wrapped the chicory in two pieces of ham and then covered with cheese sauce. Then cooked in the oven at 200°C for 10min covered in foil and then another 15min without foil.

Funghi sott'olio

Back in August when I was leaving Italy I picked up a magazine on preserving in the airport. I have been trying ever since to get some exciting mushrooms to try out a little preservation, but it wasn't until last weekend that I found some girolles in Waitrose. So last night I set to with a mixture of chesnut mushrooms and girolles, the recipe called for porcini but these were the next best thing.

1 kg mixed mushrooms
Half a liter of white wine vinegar
2 cloves of garlic
4 bay leaves
Half a teaspoon black pepper corns
Half a liter of extra virgin olive oil
Teaspoon of salt

Clean the mushrooms with a damp cloth, leave small ones whole and cut larger ones in half. Heat a casserole containing the vinegar, a liter of water, the salt and pepper, the garlic segments sliced and the washed bay leaves. When a few bubbles break the surface add the fungi and simmer them for 5 minutes. Drain in a colander and cover them with a cloth and leave them to dry for a day. Arrange them in a jar, putting them with the cut side towards the wall, in order to optimize the space, and making sure not to break them. Tap on the work surface to remove any spaces and fill with the oil. Seal hermetically, wrap in cloth and arrange them in a pot, cover them with water, so that there is 4-5cm above the jar and sterilize them by boiling for 20 min. Cool them, then store them in a cool dark place. Leave them to rest for a month before opening them. They should keep for 8-9 months.

Autumn colour at Westonbirt

Petits Fours

Jeanne over at Cook Sister is hosting Sugar High Friday this month: petits fours. Now this is a challenege to my cookery skills because as you may have noticed that I don't really do little and pretty things, though I do try. But the picture of four little gorgeous cakes on her website made me think I could at least have a try. So last Friday I did a little research in Waterstone's to make sure I was thinking of the right things (the Larousse was one of the only books to have any petits fours in it) and on Saturday morning I rifled through a selection of my cook books to find suitable recipes to make tiny edible delights. I came up with lemon creams, chocolate tarts (from Gary Rhodes' Sweet Dreams) and meringues (just a standard recipe). I duely bought all the ingredients I didn't have and set to in the kitchen on Sunday morning. By the time I sat down at 1 o'clock I was exhausted but seemed to have created what I thought of as petits fours - the lemon creams may be slightly larger than anticipated because they spread in the oven but nevertheless a good effort. However, the slightly more slap dash approach I normally employ will be back in service soon, much less stressful if you don't care how big your biccies are going to be.

Lemon creams
I can't remember where the recipe for these came from but I have it scawled down in a note book along with vienese whirls and vegie burgers

110g unsalted butter
60g caster sugar
grated rind of 1 lemon
140g self raising flour
30g ground almonds

for the filling
40g unsalted butter
85g icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Cream together the butter and sugar and then fold in the lemon rind and almonds. Mix in the flour to make a stiff dough. Roll out to 3mm and then cut out 5cm diameter circles. Chill for 5-10 min and then bake for 7-10min. Cool. For the filling blend together the sugar and butter and then use to sandwich together the biscuits.

Chocolate tarts

For the pastry
225g plain flour
pinch of salt
150g butter
75g cater sugar
1 whole egg plus 1 egg yolk

In a food processor put all the ingredients except the eggs and whizz until you have fine breadcrumbs. Then add the eggs and whizz briefly to combine. Work everything together and put into the fridge for about an hour. Then roll out to 3mm and cut rounds out to fit a small bun tin to make mini tart cases. Then bake at 200°C for 15min. Cool.

For the filling
200g plain chocolate
100ml milk
150ml double cream
2 whole medium eggs

Melt the gently chocolate in a bowl over simmering water. Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl. Heat the milk and cream until boiling. Then pour the milk/cream mixture into the eggs whilst beating. Then add all this into the melted chocolate. It'll go very thick. Then spoon a little of this mixture into each tart case and bake them at 100°C for 20min. Cool.

This recipe size makes lots and lots and lots, I ended up making many little ones and one big one when I felt I'd had enough of making little ones. The big one needed 45min to set the chocolate mixture and about 25min for the pastry.

My EBBP parcel has arrived

The weather has turned cold and gloomy over the past week but I have something very special - a parcel from Meeta at whats for lunch honey filled with tempting autumny smells wrapped up in beautiful little packets. Inside I found all the wonderful tasty treats I associate with the German Christmas market that comes here in December - chocolate and hazelnut spiced honey breads, little marzipany chocolatey domino dice, chocolate butter cookies, ferraro chocolate kisses and stollen, which is a favourite of mine! Fabulous and now I shall have to slink off for a cup of tea and a wonderful mouthful!

World Bread Day

Bacon and prune bread

In enthausiasm for World bread day I have created this rather tasty bread - with salty smoked bacon and squishy prunes. To make it simply take a wholemeal bread recipe and add the extras and if you're lazy like me and have a bread machine you could use this recipe below:

200g strong wholemeal flour
200ml water
150g strong white flour
1tsp salt
1tsp sugar
14g fact acting dried yeast

5rashers smoked back bacon
100g ready to eat prunes

To make the dough put all the ingredients except the bacon and prunes in your pan and set to the dough setting. Meanwhile cook the bacon in a hot oven (190°C) until crispy, cool and then cut into small pieces. Chop the prunes. Once the dough is ready kneed in the bacon bits and prunes and then shape and leave to rise in a warm place. Once doubled in size bake in the oven (190°C) for 35min or until it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom!

1066 Re-enacted

On Saturday we all went down to Battle, near Hastings to see the re-enactment of the Battle of Hastings (I wonder did the word Battle come first or the place?......) 2000 or more people dressed in clothing of the era, carrying weapons to match, fought for 2 hours on the battle field outside Battle Abbey. It looked like incredibly hard work, carrying all the chainmail and wielding pikes and broadswords and being rained on by arrows.

Hot footing it around Athens

With the summer school over John came all the way to Athens for the weekend! I met him at the airport on Friday night and after finding a decent hotel we went in search of dinner - fabulous chicken in a 'secret' creamy sauce. On Saturday we wandered around the whole of Athens it seemed, taking in the Temple of Zeus, the Roman forum and the Agora, squeezing in a lengthy lunch out of the baking sun! We found a little restaurant in a side street for tea and were very lucky it wasn't busy because the heavens opened and all the clientelle could sqeeze inside from the al fresco seating. Then saving the most popular for last we trekked up the Acropolis to see the Pantheon with hordes of folk. But it was worth it at the top to see the ancient ruins and particularly to sit in the Theatre of Dionysus.

Greek cyclamen

The organisers let us have the afternoon off on Tuesday and they took us around the island on a boat and deposited us on Anagiri beach for a few hours. I wandered round the headland to the cave there and came across many beautiful cyclamen poking up through the scorched earth. (There must have been a vicious fire last year.) They really were very beautiful. And then yesterday Helen and I skived off the afternoon tutorials and took bikes around the island - wonderful, if a little sweaty!!! The summer school is nearly over with just the final dinner to go.

Summer School

This is the sunrise that greeted me this morning from our hotel on the Greek island Spetses. I'm here for a summer school for work and what a spectacular setting. We arrived on Friday in Athens and then caught the boat out here yesterday. With registration not until later in the afternoon I had planned to cycle round the island with Khujesta and Rajit but in the heat we got down to the lighthouse before getting too hot and just had to have a paddle in the sea to cool off. This morning our work starts in earnest and won't let up til 8 tonight - phew!

Coeliac friendly cheescake

I had a bit of a disaster on Sunday night whilst trying to make Nigella's Butterscotch Cake. She asks for large quantities of cream cheese and butterscotch to be mixed together to make the icing for the cake but when I did this I ended up with large quantities of cream cheese soup. I didn't want to throw out all this delicious stuff but couldn't use it to ice the cake either so I whisked into it 3 eggs and 3 egg yolks and a little vanilla essence to transform it into cheesecake. Helen, who works with me in the office, is a coeliac and I thought it would be great to make a coeliac friendly cheesecake so that she could have some. So my brainwave was to use a chocolate ricecrispy base made in the same way as for chocolate cripsy cakes and then pour the cream cheese custard on top. With fingers crossed I then baked it all in a bain marie (Nigella London Cheesecake style) for 60min. Luckily it all turned out well and tastes wonderful!!! (The sponges for the butterscotch cake have gone in the freezer for further cream cheese topping later)

Market goodies

It was Moseley farmer's market on Saturday and I popped down to see what seasonal delights I could find. And plenty there were - I wandered about before deciding on just a few items for tea. So I bought two of the lovely squashes above - the brilliant red one and a yellow one, some horse mushrooms and some cobnuts and damsons. The mushroom seller said that the mushrooms should taste vanilla-y but when I had them in a omlette last night they tasted just rather meaty - pleasant and a change from supermarket blandity. The cobnuts are wonderful - still fresh and crunchy once out of their husks and rather like hazelnuts but more fun! The damsons were used to make damson jelly with a little sugar and some Vegel to set it, extremely tasty and a good way to clean the palate after squash ristotto. So to the squashes, the yellow one, which I think is a pattypan, had very thick waxy skin that was a bugger to get off, was used to make a delicious risotto, and the red one, a red kuri I think, was roasted in wedges with the skin on for 30min. These wedges tasted just like potato wedges - yummy - and made a very scrumptious 'potato salad' with mayonaise for last nights tea.

Innocent hats

Over on the innocent website the knitting frenzy has started! They are requesting that we knit hats for their smoothies and drinks bottles and for every bottle sold with a hat between the end of November and Christmas in EAT and Sainsbury's, they will give 50p to Age Concern. So I have learnt to knit and here are my first two offerings. I wonder how many I can knock up?

Pomp and Circumstance

After our trip to the Proms at the end of August I hatched a plan and invited Sarah and Juul over for dinner with J and me to celebrate the last night of the Proms. Sarah brought her Union flag along and there was much merriement and flag waving - but whatever happened to the well known tunes - I didn't find out. It seems that the BBC's scheduling cut off the end of the broadcast from the Albert Hall. A shame but it didn't detract from our evening. I had been perusing my cook books for something quintessentially english for dinner and what better than a really good bit of roast beef and yorkshire puds!! Waitrose did us proud with a beautiful piece of sirloin that just melted in the mouth. For starters I played around with Delia's recipe for feta and courgette cakes to make them a little less fatty and for pud a fabulous golden plum rataffia crumble (no photo of this one as we ate it all!!)




Courgette and feta cakes

3 courgettes
2 potatoes
200g feta cheese
200g cottage cheese
6 spring onions
2 red chillies
1 egg
handful of fresh mint leaves

plain yoghurt to serve

Preheat the oven to 220°C.

Grate the courgettes and potatoes together and then finely chop the spring onions and chillies (removing the membranes and seeds if you don't like it reall hot, like me) and roughly chop the mint. Put everything in a bowl and add the egg and cheeses. Mix everything together with your hands until well mixed but the feta is still a little chunky. Then dollop tablespoons of the mixture on to baking trays and cook in the oven for 15min. Remove from the oven and turn over the little cakes. I actually let mine cool down at this point and then flipped them over and cooked them on the other side just before I was ready to serve them as a starter but you could cook them straight away too. Serve them with a little plain yoghurt for dipping.

Golden plum rattafia crumble

700g plums
75g dark brown sugar
55g plain flour
55g rattafia biscuits
55g butter
30g soft brown sugar

Preheat your oven to 180°C. Cut the plums into bite sized chuncks removing the stones too. Then layer them in the bottom of a large baking dish. Sprinkle with the dark brown sugar. In a blender whizz the butter and flour together and then add the rattafia biscuits and whizz again until they are crumbs. Stir in the sugar. Use this mix to cover the plums. Then bake for 35min. Allow to cool and serve warm with vanilla ice cream, yoghurt, custard...... the choice is yours.

Have you found out about Perplex City yet? What fun - I am totally addicted and particularly liked card numvber 118 - Chemistry experiment, embracing both science and cooking!!! What more could a girl ask for......

Milano

Last Wednesday I was lucky enough to get sent to Stresa on Lago Maggiore for a little buisness presentation and taking full advantage of the oppurtunity I have stayed on for the weekend in Milan. Imagine a hot autumn day surrounded by well dressed Italians and a sprinkling of tourists and you have pictured today. I got up early at the suggestion of my guide book (evil thing) and headed off to Navigli on the metro. A man got on a stop after me and sat directly opposite me and proceded to clear out his nose with his little finger! He got off after two stops and the lady next to me exploded into an italian rant - much gesticulating - so I just nodded and smiled. I had a superb walk through the relative cool of the morning along the canal (why can't ours be as clear as this one was?) but never found the saturday morning market that was supposed to be there. However I did find a clutch of gorgeous shops just opening and drifted along. I pottered into San Lorenzo and San Ambrogio to look at the 4th centurary mosaics, and inadvertantly saw a little of a wedding too. Happily I found a tiny bakery and bought extremely tasty tomato foccaccio for a light lunch. My business days had involved eating an awful lot so this was very welcome. I ate lunch in the shade of Castello Sforzesco before oggling the fishies in the Acqauiro. This was particulary impressive - the fish and the architecture. Then for another long wonder down the shopping streets to the Duomo, which is still/once more in scaffolding - I came several years ago and it was in such a state then. However the bits not enshrouded did look sparklingly clean so I think it must be worth it. Feeling rather hot by now I am headed back for a siesta, keeping a beady eye out for potential dinner spots. Last night I ended up in a fabuloud little trattorria run by Nico, a poet and a brilliant restaurant owner! His tiramisu, recommended by him, came with meringue on the top!

So after my siesta I went in search of dinner. I wandered down towards the centre again but found nothing - evrything had eluded me and when I pottered back to the area I was staying many of the restaurants were closed. Which is kind of funny for a Saturday night. So I went back to Nico's, who welcomed me and then seemed impressed that I was going to partake in a relatively Italian meal even if I had no-one to share it with, which seemed to be the major concern of the female staff. The antipasti were delicious and my hot sizzling lamg cuttlets were succulent, and the lemon sorbet was the best I have had! I wended my way back to my shoe box of a room very replete.

Norwegian style strawberry jam

Last year when I visited Dougal he had just made a batch of strawberry jam. But this was no ordinary strawberry jam but one that required very little cooking and was kept in the freezer. As my strawberry jam always takes an age to make I was very interested and brought home with me one of the packets he had used. The packet from 'Jam' promised less sugar for more berry flavour and contained vitamin C, calcium phosphate and pectin. All I had to do was take 2kg strawberries and the contents of the packet and bring to the boil for 2min. Then add the sugar and stir until it had dissolved. I actually had a phone call at this stage so the fruit and sugar mixture boiled for five minutes too. Then the jam went straight into hot sterilised jars, from the oven. And it had set in a couple of hours as it cooled. As easy a that - fantastic, no messing about trying to get the jam to set, just strawberries from my garden, some sugar and a packet of Jam! And as it is actually in a cupboard and doesn't need to go in the freezer - may be this is down to my extra boiling.

Pesto spaghetti squash

While I was pottering through the vegetable isles of the supermarket yesterday I chanced upon a spaghetti squash and thought I would buy one and see what it was like. I hunted throught my recipe books but found nothing about it, so as it was the size of a butternut squash I thought I would cook it in the same way. So I cut it in half and scooped out the seeds to leave a somewhat hard flesh in the beautiful speckled yellow shell. I put both seasoned halves into a roasting pan and filled the pan half full with water. I then carefully lifted it into a 200°C oven and placed a flat baking sheet on top - I had forgotten to buy any foil! - and cooked the squash for 40min. Then I removed the pan and retrieved the squash halves. I scooped out the succulent soft flesh - all stringy like spaghetti, the name did not lie - into a bowl and added 2 teaspoons of pesto sauce and mixed it in well. Then I put the flesh back in to the shells and topped them with a handful of breadcrumbs and dotted with butter and placed the halves on the baking sheet. A further 15min in the oven and my dinner was golden brown and smelling gorgeous - and tasting too!!! This has got to be good for the waistline - hardly any fat!!

tiny fishies

Ok so this is not the best photo in the world but that fish is tiny - about 1mm high and about 10 long!!! I found this little chap along with about 10 brothers and sisters in my old fish tank. I had just come back from an early morning run (this allows me to go out and nobody to see me plod along the canal) and was sat on the step in the garden and thinking that I really should take the old tank down to the tip - snails and all - when I saw something dart about. My immediate thought was - thats a bloody big mosquito larvae and so got down on my hands and knees to peer in through the slightly grubby glass at the 5cm of water in the bottom. It then occurred to me that they would have to have been very cunning mozzies to get into the tank with the lid on. But, low, this was fish life not insect life. The white cloud mountain minnows must have laid eggs in the old tank and now that they are with the other fish in the new tank there was nothing to eat their progeny in the old one! So I am now the proud surrogate-parent of a whole new set of fishies!!! I just have to figure out how to get them into the new tank and ensure they don't get eaten, and all before it gets too cold for them to live outside!!!

Happy Foodies: Gladmat in Stavanger

Last week I spent a wonderful few days in Norway with Dougal, Wampe and Rolf. We headed off to the hills straight from the plane in the blazing sunshine. Having completed the Kjerag bolt and been on a couple of shorter wanders over a couple of days, we headed back into Stavanger for the food festival - Gladmat (which literally means happy food in Norwegian).



It took us three trips to get round most of the stalls but even so we couldn't sample anything - though we had a jolly good go. The first evening we tried scallops, giant prawns, norwegian pranws in great piles, hardanger lamb with nutmeg infused mashed root veg, italian antipasti, calzoni and crepes filled with deliciously sticky strawberry jam and chocolate sauce...... in fact we could hardly move by the end of several hours of feasting and gently pottered home through the dispersing crowds.



To increase our apetites on Saturday morning we spent a couple of hours kayaking round Stokkavatnet in the glorious sunshine. And so it was with empty tummies that we headed once more to the harbour for lunch - more scallops, vietnamese prawns and spring rolls, tandori and curry with naan bread stuffed with cinnamon and drizzled in garlic butter, sausages, barbequed corn, Craig's BBQ sandwich (which was in fact a wrap containing BBQed pork), waffles and custardy pastries (which I think might have been called sunbreads).




After lunch we strolled back through Gamle Stavanger and had a sit down on Dougal's balcony - a much appreciated rest. Then later on we went and caught the final couple of hours at Gladmat, this time only having room for scallops and barbequed pork with some creme brulee to finish. And just because we were in Norway we had a tradtional pancake with lashings of strawberry jam. The food festival was fantastic, though I shall have a slightly enlarged waistline for a while, I would highly recommend a trip to Gladmat 2007!

Ting ting

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The happy sound of sheep bells in Fidjeland.

Orkney and Shetland by thigh power

These are just a selection of photos from our trip to the very north - in fact the picture in the bottom left is Muckle Flugga and you can't go much further north in the Bristish Isles than that!! The participants were John and his bike Marion (she's a Marin) and me and Whistler (he whistles in the wind!!! and there was plenty of that) and we peddled 400 miles around the two archipeligos. While everyone was sweating throught the summer weather back in the south we enjoyed gorgeous 20°C weather, though there was a certain amout of sweating - particularly uphill and on occasion downhill into the wind!!!

Pistachio heaven

While searching for last month's IMBB I found this fabulous idea by Sam of Sweet Pleasures - an ice cream event. My ice cream maker has been lanuishing in the cupboard all winter and what better time to get it out than now as I am gently melting in the summer heat! After making Joanna's pistachio and date meringues I was in pistachio mode so knocked up a little pistachio ice cream and a very delicious prune frozen yoghurt, and why not go the whole hog and stuff some dates with a pistachio paste!

Pistachio Ice cream
150g pistachio nuts - without shells (!) and unsalted
500ml semi-skimmed milk
2 eggs and 1 eggs yolk
140g caster sugar

I tried to remove the skins of the pistachios by blanching them in boiling water for a minute and then rubbing with a coarse tea towel - but this was not the most successful thing to do! May be gently roasting them would be better. I ended up picking off the skins from most of the nuts by hand - only to be done if you really love a green ice cream as its fairly time consuming. So once you've prepared your nuts put them with the rest of the ingredients into a liquidizer and blend until smooth. Then pour through a fine seive, to catch any lumps of nut, into a pan and heat gently until the custard thickens slightly. Cool it off - I actually put mine into the freezer to get fairly cold - and then churn in a pre-frozen ice cream maker.

Prune frozen yoghurt
250g ready to eat de-stoned prunes
juice and rind of one lemon
500ml greek yoghurt

Put the prunes into a pan with enough water to cover them and bring to the boil. Simmer for a couple of minutes and then cool. Liquidize with the yoghurt and lemon juice and zest. Chill and churn! Couldn't be simpler!!

Pistachio stuffed dates
230g pistachios (unsalted and shelled)
230g icing sugar
1 egg white
Dates (de-pitted) - lots!

Place the pistachios and sugar in a blender and whizz until finely ground. Then add the egg white and mix until a dough is formed - I had to add a little water too. Then cover and chill overnight. Use a broad bean sized amount of the paste to stuff the dates. (The recipe for the pistachio paste was actually from the Food TV website and was recommended as a base for making ice cream but I found it was too coarse and very sweet for that purpose but makes excellent stuffing mixture!!)

Gardener's World

Yesterday I had the day off and went to oggle at the plants and gardens at the NEC - and how fabulous they all were, I managed to come away with only 6 new plants which were bedded in last night while everyoneelse was watching the footie - I could here the roars when the goals were scored!! The shows on til Sunday - resist if you can!!!

Bacon burgers

An inspired idea by what I had left in the freezer! Blitz together 3 rashers smoked back bacon and 500g lean minced beef with 1/2 an onion, a handful of breadcrumbs and one egg. Make into 4 patties and fry until golden on both sides. Then pop in the oven (150°C) for 10 min. Serve with coucous made with summer vegetables lightly fried with fajita spices and chicken stock.