I have been searching the IMBB site the last couple of weeks expecting to find something on the latest IMBB event - I usually start a little late on this!! But I always want to take part. And it is only this afternoon while I wait for my Western blotting to finish at work (yes I am 'weekend working' which is why there has been such a lack of blogging of late - the joys of having a job during the week and doing my own research in my spare time) that I found that I had completely overlooked that IMBB had joined with Wine Blogging Wednesday and that I have missed it!! Whoops!

Me and My Girl

As it has been just over a year since I started blogging on Hecticium it has also been a year since the last show by the Queensbridge Musical Theatre Company. So last night I found myself sat next to John in Solihull Library Theatre once more feeling immensly proud of young Paul as he took the lead in Me and My Girl. And what a performance he gave - he had us laughing our socks off once more!!! Fabulous!

Joanna's Pistachio and Date Meringues

Today is Helen's and Anna's 30th Birthdays! They both caused great panic on Tuesday when they announced that they weren't going to be coming into work today. So there was a flurry of late night activity in my kitchen as I knocked up a batch of these yummy meringues for them and I gave them to them yesterday. The recipe comes from Joanna, who I met at the blog party at Christmas, and is exceptionally simple. I used my new mixer to whip egg whites for the first time and mustn't have been quite patient enough as the mixture was a little sloppy and so ended up with meringue cookies, which were delicious nevertheless!

6egg whites
375g icing sugar
300g pistachios, roughly chopped
300g dates, chopped

Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and then gradually whisk in the sugar. Then stir in the nuts and fruit. Put dollops onto a baking tray and cook for 1 hour at 100°C and then leave in the oven overnight. Couldn't be easier!!!

Chihuly in Birmingham?

As I cycled along the canal in the rain I came across this 'water sculpture' and thought (fleetingly) that I was in for a treat - that Chihuly had come to Brum to excite our eyes with a display on the canals. Sadly there were on two clusters and the second was deflating rather fast in the rain.

Hecticium is one!

I can hardly believe that I have been blogging for a year!

Yesterday's Bread IMBB # 25

I thought this month's IMBB from Derrick of An obsession with food was a brilliant one as I always have the end of a loaf going solid in my bread bin. But what to cook? I pondered serveral ideas for a while but thought better of bread and butter pudding. So I called in reinforcements in the shape of my great grandmother's recipes. My Mum has an old red exercise book filled with the family's inherited recipes, with additions of her own. She provided Nana Davies's Queen of Puddings, which Mum cooks on occasion, and one I had never had before: Ginger Pudding. Luckily I had most of the ingredeints in the cupboard and fridge, although I didn't have any suet as required for the Ginger Pudding so I thought I'd use vegetable fat, which is supposed to be for pastry but did the job nevertheless.
But, with all this sweetness I required something savory to make a whole feast from yeserday's bread. A little bit more thinking and I came up with crunchy lemony scallops with a lemony caper butter sauce and watercress, rocket and spinach salad - what a dinner!




Crunchy lemony scallops with a lemony caper butter sauce

For 2 people
6 scallops
4cm lemongrass, finely chopped
zest and juice of one lemon
handfull of breadcrumbs
1 egg, beaten
100g butter
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tablespoons capers, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil

watercress, rocket and spinach salad - I bought a ready prepared bag, but you could easily mix up your own

Melt the butter very gently and add the crushed garlic. Leave to gently cook for 5min. Then add the lemon juice and the capers. Mix tohether the lemongrass, lemon zest and breadcrumbs. Dunk the scallops in the beaten egg and then into the breadcrumb mix. Fry in the olive oil until cooked through, though still moist. Then pile on top of the salad. Spoon over a little of the butter sauce and use the rest to dress the plate rather than the leaves.


Nana Davies's Queen of Puddings
1/2 pint milk
1 oz butter
2 oz sugar
4 oz breadcrumbs
2 eggs
2 tablespoons jam (I used rhubarb but raspberry seems to be more tradional)
grated rind of a lemon

Heat the milk and butter together. Then pour over breadcrumbs and half the sugar. Add egg yolks and grated lemon rind and mix well. Pour into buttered pie dish. Cook until set in a moderate oven. Spread the top with jam. Then top this with meringue, made from the egg white and half the sugar. Bake until meringue is set.

As Mum says "Nana presumed we knew what she was talking about and didn't spell things out!!" So this recipe serves about 4 people and a moderate oven is about 180°C, it took about 30min to set the bottom and then 15min to cook the meringue.

Nana Davies's Ginger Pudding
3 oz self-raising flour
3 oz suet
1 1/2 oz breadcrumbs
4 oz warmed golden syrup
1 teaspoon ground ginger

Add dry ingredients together in bowl,add warm syrup and pour into buttered basin. Steam for 2 hrs. This was incredibly easy to make and very moist and yummy, though I guess not for the calorie conscious.

I served it with a dollop of Greek yoghurt, which cut through the sweetness very nicely.

Out Now and Coming soon......

Since going on the felt making course with Mum I have been busy creating - felt and lampwork bead necklaces!!! The first went on sale on ebay earlier on this week and the others will follow soon! Just use felt and lampwork to search and it should come up!

STOP PRESS: Or visit my NEW shop on Etsy!!!!

Fat Bottomed Chuck

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Here's a bit of fun from the tent bound in Cornwall last week!

Mmmmmmm.....

....afternoon tea in the garden with fabulous cakes from Maison Blanc!

A Cornish Cycle

I’m suffering from culture shock today. I spent the last 8 days either in or getting to and from Cornwall. It was my first trip so far south in the British Isles and it was wonderful. As I sat on the train going south last Wednesday I felt slightly disappointed that the countryside still looked ever so British. I suppose I have been spoilt because I normally travel 5 hours to some exotic destination rather than within my own country. My travelling companion was John, who after a month of trying to buy a bicycle, then borrowing one from his brother and suffering a rather nasty mishap, only got his brand new and sparkly Marin (nick named Maid Marion) 18h before the train departed!

We met up at New Street station and descended into the bowels of the sub-platform level so that we could get our bikes on to the platform without lugging them the stairs. Then up onto the Virgin train and its intriguing bike hanging system. We nervously sat in the seats closest to the bikes and kept checking they were still there, by the time we came back on the train we were a little more blasé and J had his light nicked – by a fellow cyclist! At Exeter we changed for a local train and watched the landscape sway by. Near Exeter it seemed quite flat but soon the hills rolled into view. Paul, cyclist extraordinaire, had mentioned that Cornwall was rather hilly. J looked on with a slightly worried expression – he’d only clocked up about 6h in the saddle ever, never mind on his new steed! At St. Austell the sun was shining and we struggled out of the train with our heavily laden bikes. Changing into padded shorts seemed a safe option for the 4miles to Pentewan but getting out of St. Austell seemed like hard work (one car actually grazing the side of J’s leg) and we were eventually stopped by a policeman for cycling the wrong way down a one way pedestrianized area. I asked the way for ‘Pent-e-wan’ to which he laughed and said ‘Pen-tew-an’ and pointed us in the right direction. Thus eventually we found the blissful cycle route down to the seaside and our camping spot for the night. We bowled along beside a little stream and I was delighted to see Lysichitons growing in the mire! We set up camp in the campground under the shelter of some trees which we discovered later were the nesting grounds for some very noisy rooks! Then skiddaddled down to the beach for a spot of shell and seaglass collecting. Dinner was a magnificent chicken kiev affair with crème de menthe and chocolate steamed sponge for pud in the Ship Inn.

The morning dawned grey and we stuffed ourselves full of porridge, though stopped at the wee onsite shop for chocolate spread filled baguettes before heading off to the hills. These arrived very quickly in the shape of Heligan woods and as I came to the top I looked back and saw J pushing his bike up the hill, cursing the Cornish countryside! But we were rewarded with a great cycle path, which seemed the norm for much of the national cycleways we followed (nos. 3 and 32), that was downhill all the way into Mevagissy and we stopped for a quick picture and jelly sweetie before tackling the next of the many hills we covered that first day. I was rather proud of myself to get up the first chevroned hill but sadly pushed up the next double chevroned number. We stopped again in Caerhays, just up from the beach with the view of the rhododendrons in flower around the castle. It was the first day of opening for the wee café and we had fine sausage rolls before a wander on the beach, hunting in the rock pools for sea anemones and in the caves for smugglers. Back on the bikes we peddled on quiet roads towards Truro. I had hoped that we could catch a ferry across the Tresillian river but we found a notice saying it wasn’t working due to a re-fit. The sign was held up by rather rusty pins but looking underneath there was a note saying they wouldn’t take bikes anyway, so we didn’t even risk the down hill stretch and took a 4 mile diversion to get into Truro. We were very tired and fairly grumpy by the time we got there. But luckily we found a Co-op still open and bought lots of bananas, I had been worried that Cornwall was going to be a banana free county, which would have been a disaster as bananas are a bicyclists best friend! We also bought lots of other stuff, the lady at the checkout was worried about putting anything more on or bikes but I assured her that we would eat most of it there and then but still managed to strap and significant amount more to my already bulging pannier rack. The last 4 miles to our campsite in Shortlanesend seemed a hard slog and J collapsed on to the ground before we got the tent up and was happy not to be astride his rather uncomfortable saddle. I whipped up a three course dinner with packets of food that just needed water adding and some boiling – chicken noodle soup, cheese and ham pasta and finally bananas and custard. That certainly did the trick! Then hot showers and to bed!

The following morning we creaked out of the tent and after fuelling on porridge once more made our way towards Newquay. But the weather wasn’t smiling on us and the leaden grey skies eventually started to emit a fine mist that wasn’t drenching but was certainly wet. J seemed to enjoy it as he said it kept him cool. As we came up a hill past Trerice J shouted don’t stop – and felt very proud for getting up the hill, only to be faced by another as we rounded the corner, to which he said words to the effect that he was getting off to push! Not feeling particularly excited about seeing the sights of Newquay we stopped on the curb outside a school to catch our breath and eat a banana and some more sweeties before plowing onwards. Coming through St Columb Major we popped into a pub for a sarnie but they had stopped serving so just got 4 bags of crisps and several pints of orange squash to keep us going. The weather remained unpleasant and we could only just make out the sails of the nearest windmill on the wind farm near St Eval even though it was only 100m away. But as luck would have it as we came down an unused track, brilliant for cyclists, outside Padstow the sun came out. The tent went up and we walked into Padstow for a well earned fish and chip supper, which we ate to the strains of a singing guitarist. This was followed by delicious blackcurrant and clotted cream icecream – though the extra clotted cream was a bit much on the top! I was amazed by the numbers of people pottering about this town – I had expected folk but I had not estimated this many. The rowing club was heading out for a potter on the water too – and drew a big crowd as they launched.

After another well earned night’s rest we pottered back in to Padstow and had morning bacon, leek and cheese pasties for 2nd breakfast on the harbour front. The sun shone brightly as we walked down to the beach and along as far as we could go. Ten, flopped on the sand, we watched two guys in buggies flying kites zoom up and down the sand. As the sun went behind some clouds we wandered back, picked up the ingredients for a salad and headed once more for the tent. A wonderful day off from the cycling. In the morning we took the camel trail down to Wadebridge and then to Bodmin. It was Easter Sunday and to celebrate we had Easter porridge – porridge with a crème egg stirred in – what luxury!! The cycle path was brilliant – all paved and not a hill in sight, but everyone seemed to have decided to hire bikes and J was happy to (pretend to) joust them out of the way as we pottered along. Past Wadebridge we came across the Camel Valley Vineyard and decided to go in for a try of the wine. The Bacchus Dry was magnificent – full of passionfruity flavours, and ever so pale. Back on the bikes the going had become tough – even though it was still flat – must have been the wine addling the muscles, rather than the brain for once. Bodmin was only a stones throw away but it took us an age to find the campsite up a steep hill. Dinner that night was courtesy of Nivals, which seemed to be the only place open and serving food. We had a massive plate of onion rings, mushrooms, garlic bread and chicken satays to share before launching into pastas too! Almost too full to move we dragged ourselves back to the campsite past a little ruined chapel and its beautiful trailing purple flowers in the graveyard of a bigger church.

Once more a good night’s sleep left us ready to tackle the day ahead - the last of the major cycling back towards St Austell. This was a truly brilliant day and I really enjoyed coming past a Tor and then through a secluded forest – very ‘Hound of the Baskervilles’. Then past the Eden Project and to our campsite, which had a magnificent view over Par sands. Round our feet lots of chickens clucked and scratched in the grass, much to my amusement. We unloaded the bikes and cycled down to the beach where we both flopped on to the sand and actually caught the sun some what.

The following day we were up ready to take the bikes to Eden, where we got in for £4 less just for turning up on them!! J purchased a hat to prevent the sun from doing more damage and then we pottered through the gardens. By 11 we were starving and had jacket spuds and Danish pastries before heading into the humid biome. Wow it was hot and humid – it was just like being back in Brunei or walking into a sauna! I knew lots of the plants already and enjoyed our rather sweaty stroll. Then out and into the temperate biome – much more tolerable but the plants weren’t nearly as exciting. Ice creams were called for as I was flagging somewhat and then into the noisy Core before heading to the shop and out again. After taking the bikes back to the campsite we wandered down to Par and the Four Lords Inn for magnificent sausage and mash for tea!

So all that remained was for us to get back on the train yesterday and make out way home. I was pottering quietly up the Stratford Road thinking how easy the cycling was when a moron in a car came racing down the wrong side of the road towards me with his full beam on. Scared out of my tree I stopped with nowhere else to go and shouted what did he think he was doing?! Luckily he stopped too and wound his window down and then spat at me. Aghast I cycled round the now stationary vehicle and continued home rather shaken. And so I spent the evening questioning my choice to live in a big city. After a week of blissful cycling and low impact holidaying it has all come as rather a shock to the system to be back at home once more. Our total mileage must be around 120miles.

Mason Mayci

A few weeks ago I found a new boulongerie in Kings Heath: Mason Mayci. The exterior of the shop is simply painted in cream gloss and there are tempting jars of cookies in the window. But once inside there is a cabinet full of tiny patisseries! My first visit was while I was waiting for the finishing touches to be put to my new bicycle but on Saturday I went back to buy a few cakies to take home. So I ended up with the selection above. All of which were devine - a caramel mousse on a rich dark cakey base, a coffee cream enrobed in chocolate on a crisp pastry case, a beautifully smooth custard studded with tart raspberries and a wonderfully balanced lemon tart! Magnificent and all four for only £2!!!!!! What a bargin! The shop seems to be run by a real Frenchman, unless he can put on an extremely good accent over many days!! Judging by the busy interior this place has already become a success - long may it stay that way!

I have been waiting for this tree to burst into bloom for what seems like ages and when I saw it last week I couldn't resist taking a picture. This morning on Breakfast they said that Birmingham had the same quality of life as Los Angeles and I wondered if this was a good thing or a bad thing......

Spring risotto

Yesterday on my way to the university on my bike I came across this beautiful patch of crocus. What better sign to say that spring is here! In fact after weeks of cycling in as many clothes as I could reasonably wear yesterday I was happy to peddle along in my shirt sleeves! As I went thorough the main doors I came across a ladybird (may be on its way to an OU course) and smiled to myself. Down at the markets there were lots of fresh looking veg so I thought I'd whip up something full of the fresh flavours of leeks and purple sprouting broccoli. And so a spring risotto - I wanted the leeks to impart as much flavour as possible so I started with them in the pan - though if you fancied something a bit more vibrant in the green department you could add them half way through the cooking.



knob of butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
220g risotto (arborio) rice
3 leeks sliced
stock
1 small glass of wine (for the cooking not the cook)
salt and pepper
hand full grated parmesan

4 griddled chicken breast and purple sprouting broccoli to serve

Melt the butter in a heavy based pan with the oil and then add the leeks. Cook very gently for a couple of minutes and then add the rice. Have a pan of stock barely simmering and ladle a spoon full at a time into the rice allowing the liquid to absorb before adding more stock. I had about a litre on the go and blanched my broccoli in it too. Once the rice is just about cooked (20-30min) add the wine and allow it to absorb too. Then season to taste and stir in the parmesan. Pile up in a bowl and top with the chicken and broccoli! This will serve about 4 as a light meal.

What a weekend!

Indeed what a weekend (and what a week so far.....its been rather busy hence the late blogging about the weekend). As you may have gathered it was my birthday last week! And to celebrate in style I bought tickets for a few friends to go to a ceilidh on Saturday night. First, ten of us piled into Buonissimo in Harborne. This splendid little restaurant is at the end of a road where I lived as a student, not that it was there then, and so I was a little nostalgic as we dashed in (I was fashionably late!). Though quite a small menu, the food was delicious - lots of piatti and less pasta which was rather nice for a change. The puddings were great too though I think we managed to share my Baileys and Sambucca cheesecake between three as it was rather rich! Then on to St Mary's parish centre for a Bard ceilidh - traditional scottish dancing (or irish or english these days). Our band for the evening the Flos Headford band and our caller was Flos's wife Sheila Mainwaring. They had us whirling round the dance floor and generally throwing ourselves into it with gusto! The three hour dance went by in a flash and soon it was time to rest our weary feet.
On Sunday Dougal, Wampe and I meandered round the Olton resevoir to get the blood pumping again, spotting a gold crest zipping about in the undergrowth. Mum and Dad joined us and we had more cake (a very yummy bannoffee variety, in fact birthday cake number 5!). For dinner we pottered into town to Cielo - where we were welcomed warmly and looked after very well all evening. I had zingy fettuccine al limone, melt in the mouth halibut al vino blanco and finally macedonia di frutta with a little glass of Eylsium! How fabulous!! (The pictures are of Dougal's tea - prawns, sea bass and tartufato) I'll have to turn thirty more often!! Lastly a big thank you to all my friends and family for a fabulous time at the various celebrations over the last week and a special one to J for getting me home in one piece on Tuesday night!

Fairtrade Brownies

Monday saw the start of Fairtrade Fortnight. So I got myself a fairtrade pack from ZeroPointZero and invited some friends round for tea and coffee, Geobars, Fairbreaks and mini Divine chocolates. There were also lots of leaflets and recipe books in the parcel - so I have dutifully been handing them out! I hope that just a few more Fairtrade goodies will be purchased! I also made Fairtrade brownies with spices and berries. The nutmeg I used was bought from the lady who actually owned the tree in Sulawesi and the chocolate was the very tasty Fairtrade Divine! The recipe is adapted from one of Nigella Lawson's. And I am sure that there must be Fairtrade sugar and flour and probably vanilla essence out there!

125g butter
250g white chocolate
4 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
350g caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
300g plain flour
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
170g mixed berries

Melt the butter and chocolate together, being very careful as the white chocolate can easily catch on the heat. Whip together the eggs and sugar and then add the vanilla essence. In another bowl mix together the salt and flour. Cool the chocolate mixture and then whisk into the eggs. Fold the dry ingredients, spices and berries in to this mixture. Pour into a 20 by 30cm greased baking tray/ roasting tin. Cook at 170°C for 35min. Cool in the tin and cut out about 20 brownies. Enjoy with a cup of Fairtrade tea or coffee!

Oladi

After discussing the writing journals while on holiday recently, someone asked if I ever went back and read them. Well, yes I do and while I was rifling through one from my holiday to far eastern Russia I found this recipe for Oladi - a sort of yeasty drop scone. I remember well sitting round the fire one morning while we were camped near the beach and Vladimir making these. They were delicious - hot straight out of the pan and dripping with condensed milk. One of the other local breakfast specialities was prawns with the local beer!

15g yeast or two 7g packets of instant yeast
225g flour
150ml warm milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
25g butter
oil for frying

condensed milk to serve

Mix the yeast with the milk, flour and sugar and then leave in a warm place until doubled in size. Then mix in the egg, salt and butter. Squidging it with your hands seems to work best. Then leave to rise again. Once you have a big dome of yeasty mixture heat a frying pan over you camp fire, or on your hob if you're at home! Then fry tablespoons of the mixture in a scant amount of oil until golden brown on both sides. Drizzle with condensed milk and try not to eat all of the oladi by yourself!!

I knew I'd find it eventually - here is Vladimir cooking oladi over the camp fire!

World Book Day

Today is world book day and this gives me the incentive to get on and write about these two fabulous books. They were published sometime ago now but with one thing and another, not least the massive pile of books to be read by my bed, I read them over the Christmas break. Collette Rossant has writtwen a beautiful account of her early childhood in Eygpt (Apricots on the Nile) and then later in Paris and her early married life (Return to Paris). The descriptions are mouth watering and there are even recipes. It all just makes me want to get out there and browse the markets and unusual shops for new and exciting ingredients!

Shrove Tuesday

Look at them sizzling away

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I have just cracked the fine art of loading a video! And so as promised here are the olieballen sizzling away! Thanks Wampe for the voice over!!