Soup du Jour

My liquidiser broke a couple of weeks ago so it was imperative that I got another one.  I chose the Russell Hobbs one because of the glass jug.  My previous one was plastic and I think the hot soup I used it for caused the split in the collar near the blade.  Some days I plan to make soup and pre-soak any beans I might be using.  Some days I decide on the spur of the moment to make soup, that is when tins of beans come in handy.  I recently used black beans and I ended up with soup that was an interesting shade of purple!  Today I'm using borlotti beans...

This soup is very quick to make, onion; garlic, both roughly cut up; tin of beans; a squirt of tomato puree; a good glug of wine; pepper; and in this one, fish stock dissolved in about three quarters of a pint of hot water.  You can add any other veg you have on hand but for quickness these ingredients here are all you need.  Bring to the boil and simmer for about half an hour, let come off the boil then liquidise.  A very tasty, quick soup for two.  I can smell it now, ummmm, it amazes me how tasty bean soup is!

Piccalilli and Cake

I've tried shop bought Piccalilli and didn't like it but after talking to someone recently I had to have a go at making it.  It was so easy to make and tastes incredible, nothing like the shop bought stuff.  There was a little bit left over after I'd bottled it so I had bread, cheese and piccalilli for my lunch, the taste was definitely piccalilli but totally different to the shop bought, not milder exactly, but more flavourful.  All I put into mine was pickling onions, cauliflower and courgette.  The pickling onions were a bit big so next time I think I'll buy a jar of silverskin onions to add to it.  I didn't want to make a huge amount so only did about 270g of veg, this made one jar.  I had wanted to make two jars so that I could give my son one but, as I'd never made it before, I misjudged the veg quantity.

Here's my recipe for one jar.

270g of prepared veg, diced (veg of your choice plus cauliflower)

Layer the veg in a bowl with salt overnight, then rinse and drain.

A bit more than 1g turmeric

2g dry mustard

Good pinch of ground ginger

175ml white vinegar

25g sugar

Approx 6g plain flour

Mix the plain flour with a drop of the vinegar and set aside.  Put the spices and sugar in a saucepan and add the vinegar a little at a time, stirring well.  Add the prepared veg to the pan and heat slowly until boiling, stirring occasionally, make sure the sugar dissolves.  Simmer until the veg are cooked but still crisp but not hard (up to 5 minutes).  Add the blended flour, stirring all the time, until boiling.  Keep stirring and boil for 2 or 3 minutes.  Pour the piccalilli into your prepared jars and immediately put the lid on.

Nutella Cake

Here's a close up of the Nutella cake, you can see the Nutella has sunk to the bottom, which it shouldn't.  This is the second go at this cake and both times the Nutella sank to the bottom.  I don't know why!  This is the recipe I use

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1688/cinnamon-nutella-cake

It is also in the recipe book I have and the picture shows that the Nutella is evenly distributed throughout the cake.  Where am I going wrong?  But who cares, it's a delicious cake anyway!!!

Chutney And Cake

The cherry tomatoes that I grew in a window box did extremely well, much better than the ones in the greenhouse.  Yesterday I harvested all the cherry tomatoes and there where loads.  Some were red and some were still green but I had noticed that they were being eaten and it turned out to be caterpillars.  It looked as if the caterpillars were taking a small meal out of each tomato then moving on to another one so it was time to pick them all before they were all ruined.  Once again I decided to make chutney.  This chutney is beetroot and tomato, I also added a big courgette/small marrow, four cooking apples and two onions as well as mixed spice, salt, ground ginger, brown sugar and wine vinegar.  I vaguely followed the chutney recipe out of my book, the weight of the total veg added up to the weight in the recipe so the spices, sugar and vinegar was the same as in the recipe.

Because I was using cherry tomatoes I couldn't prepare them as I usually do, that is remove all the skins, so, after I'd cut out the wood stem bit I simmered them until soft then liquidized them.  This is a very fruity tasting chutney probably due to the addition of the beetroot.

I mentioned in my last posting that I'd been to the Lowdham Show.  In the tent where the competition entries were on show there was a baking section.  Some of the recipes were included in the show guide booklet.  One cake looked so delicious I had to make it

Pineapple Cake

225g tin crushed pineapple

175g marg

250g soft brown sugar

225g mixed fruit

175g glace cherries, halved

350g SR flour

3 eggs

Melt marg and sugar in a large saucepan, add fruit, cherries and pineapple.  Mix thoroughly then ALLOW TO COOL.  Beat eggs and add to mixture with the flour.  Bake in a deep cake tin approx 21cm at 150C/gas 2 for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Chutney

It's a long time since I made chutney.  I do tend to go a bit over the top with quantities and Graham gets put off by having so much of one thing.  This year, when I've made jam, I've just made a small quantity so decided that I'd try the same with some chutney.  If you've got a big family and a glut of produce big quantities are fine.  When it's just the two of you it's a bit pointless as things eventually get thrown away.  Today I made four jars of Spiced Rhubarb & Red Wine Chutney.  One jar for our son, one jar for a friend and two jars for us.

Because my rhubarb had done well this year I had about 1 Kilo that I could use in this chutney.  As well as the rhubarb there are three onions; 500 g light brown sugar; 7 g salt; 7 g ground ginger; 25 g ground mixed spice, 7 g mild chili powder and approx half a pint of wine vinegar and quarter of a pint of red wine.  I may have put a bit too much chili powder in it but Graham and Colin like chili so it should be to their taste.  This was all simmered for about two hours until it was thick.  Now it's got to mature for several weeks, in fact my Women's Institute recipe book says it should mature for two to three months.

I used to have really good desk top publishing software but it stopped working on any operating system after 1999 and I had to buy another one but it's not as comprehensive so I had to make up some labels for the jars myself.  I wanted labels that I could tie on because stick-on labels are a nuisance to get off when I want to re-use the jars.  I did search the internet for some printables but I didn't like any of them.  Then of course I had to tart the jars up further with a nice bit of gingham fabric to cover the lids.

All in all, a satisfying day!

Sour Dough

My first experience of making sour dough bread was ...hhmmm... interesting.  Each day I fed and watered it and wondered if I was doing it properly.  It seemed to be bubbling up well after two or three days, then it seemed to do nothing on the fourth day.  I decided that it prefered to be in the plastic mixing bowl rather than the glass bowl.  Also, I don't think there was any need to change to a clean bowl each day.  Then last night I got the 'sponge' ready but I think I made it too wet.  This morning I looked at the sponge and was amazed at how it had risen, just how it was supposed to.  However, I was right, it was a bit too wet and I had trouble getting it to stay in a loaf shape.

It spread out rather more than I'd hoped as it was baking.  Never mind, it was my first go and I'm looking forward to having some at lunch time with some soup.  The starter is now in my fridge waiting for me to have another go.  Next time I think I'll bake it in a loaf tin, then if it is a bit loose it will stay a better shape.  It is a fun way to make bread, just hope it tastes as nice as it smells.

Cards & Cake

I haven't spent much time making cards recently.  I think this is because I made a lot in the past and ended up with too many to know what to do with.  Now that I haven't got so many hanging about I thought I'd get going with card making again.

I made four like the above then ran out of ideas, I couldn't show the other two because the picture I took turned out blurred.  So, when I need ideas I do a bit of surfing and came up with this blog and it really sparked off some inspiration in me.

I don't usually do so many layers on cards, my cards tend to be a bit minimal but maybe I need a bit of a change.  Rubber stamping isn't really something I enjoy, even though I've got a box full of stamps.  I prefer decoupage and I think this is the look I'll go for.  I have a small craft group that meets at my house and I think they'll enjoy making this style of card too.  We used to meet every Thursday but last April I closed the group down.  This was due to knowing Graham wouldn't be well enough for me to carry on with it for a while and also because I think we all needed a break.  We met for the first time again last Thursday and the old enthusiasm was back (plus one lady wasn't invited, which made a difference to the mood).  We'll meet alternate weeks this time, that will give me time to come up with new ideas for them to try and still leave me plenty of sewing time.

The cake I mentioned yesterday turned out really nice.  I don't usually fancy cakes with banana in them, I imagine them to be soggy but this cake tastes lovely and has just the right moistness.  The next one I want try from my new recipe book uses an orange in the ingredients, the peel as well as the pulp, so that will be an interesting one to try.

That's Better

After spending all that time reorganising and cleaning in my craft room yesterday, I think that it looks much better.  I sorted out a couple of shelves and managed to free one up for all my storage jars.

Then I tackled all my wadding, plastic bags and cardboard boxes that were spilling out all over the place.  I tied up the plastic bags and have them stored in a bin under my table.  Some of the cardboard was recycled into our recycling bin ready for collection by the council.  I was glad that I'd kept the tall box that I'd had some flowers delivered in (from my DS &DIL for my birthday) because I was able to use it for all the small bags/pieces of wadding that were always sliding out of that corner.

Now doesn't that look neat and tidy!!!

There are still areas that need sorting out but at least some of it's done.  The trouble is I can't motivate myself to do any crafting today, I just want to admire the tidyness!  Something I have done today though, is start off some sour dough.  I've never tried this before but when I read Melissa's really easy instructions, I just had to try it.  When I finish this blog post I'm going to make a Walnut, Date & Honey cake from my new recipe book.

Wednesday

Here is what I received from Lori in the heart swap I was talking about the other day.  I think Lori is just about the most prolific stitcher and swapper I know.  She just rattles out the cross-stitch and crazy-quilting.  Her crazy quilting is absolutely gorgeous.  Look at all the fab extras she sent me too.  The cross-stitched dove at the top left and the piece of fabric she sent me are so that I can make myself something up with them.

A tin of butterfly cakes, these won't be hanging around for long!

I won a give-away from Fiona, that's something to look forward to.  I'm still making my project bags, each time I make one something comes up and I have to send it to a new home.  I had been hoping to get a few stocked up so that I can send them out to my blog readers but it'll be a couple of weeks before that happens I think.  It's very motivating for me to have people to send my sewing to.

Baking Puzzle

I use the same recipe each time for my cupcakes.  It puzzles me as to why they always turn out differently.  Sometimes they are quite flat  and, like this time, they really rise up.  This batch have come up more than usual.  These will be 'butterfly cakes' this time, instead of piping the butter cream icing into a swirl on top I will cut out a disc from the tops of the cakes and spoon in the icing, then cut the disc in two and perch the two pieces at an angle on top.
Thanks to you all that gave me encouraging words about the jury duty.  If I had been younger I would have looked forward to it and probably have enjoyed it.  These days I just can't be bothered!  I feel that I've had quite a full life and, in the 1960s I served my country in the WRAF, so my patriotism isn't in question, it is just my desire for a quiet, uneventful life!!!

A Cake

This is just about the easiest fruit cake I've ever made.  When I saw it on Peggy's blog I thought I would give it a go.  It is a cross between fruit cake and a tea loaf.  Peggy said it is like a brack, which I looked up, and is a yeasted bread with fruit in it, though there is no yeast in this.  I messed with the recipe a bit and added some sherry to the water the fruit was boiled in and used dark brown molasses sugar.  I was amazed at how much it rose and the texture was very good.

I've got to go Christmas shopping today, there are just a few more things to get.  I want to go to Dunelm Mill, I'm sure I'll be able to finish off my shopping here.  I still haven't done my Christmas cards or put my decorations up.  The decorations are all downstairs in their boxes cluttering up my dining room.  I've got the Christmas CDs out and have been playing them in the kitchen, that really gets me in the Christmas mood.

Baking and Stitching

My photography gets worse - think I must have a bit of a shake on just lately, maybe I should get a tripod for my camera.  I baked shortcake again yesterday, a very useful item to have in my cake tin.  If I make six at a time that means we have puddings for three days and none get wasted.  If I make more than this we get fed up with them.  This time I used the silicone muffin pan (can't call it 'tin' anymore!).  It feels really weird to put this soft, floppy pan in a hot oven.  These shortcakes turned out a lovely colour and rose really well, mainly because I used double the amount of baking powder by mistake and because the mixture was a bit dry I added a drop of milk at the end and didn't mix it in thoroughly.  They were very light and fluffy.

I'm still doing freestyle embroidery.  The light this morning was terrible until a few minutes ago and I struggled to see.  I've got my lamp with the daylight bulb on and the ceiling spotlights but it was still a struggle.  Now the sun has come out and it's much better.  This time I'm stitching what vaguely looks like cow parsley/Queen Anne's Lace, or even giant hog weed.  It'll be made up into another little pouch.  I love making these pouches, the bigger ones are useful for storage, the small ones are mainly made because I just like them.  I have several of them, big and small, scattered around my craft room and bed room.  There are several scattered around the world too!!!  I love the thought that my work is in so many countries.

Swap News And Other Stuff

I had to borrow the pictures of this extremely tasty Damson Chutney from Nipitinthebud because I forgot to take a picture of it immediately and we ate is so quickly it was all gone in no time.

I'm not a chutney lover but this was just perfect for me, not too sharp and vinegary like some chutneys can be, or completely tasteless like an expensive bought one we had.  We ate it with soda bread and cheese but it was gorgeous just on it's own with the bread.  I recommend this chutney if Nipitinthebud ever sells it!!!

I'm still in my Christmas decoration making mood.  The recent humbug swap I'm in started me off making humbug shaped chickens, bags and now bowl fillers.  First I used the printed panel I bought then I decided to try this shape with other designs of Christmas fabric.  I'm pleased with how many home made decorations I've made so far this year.  The cats in the picture were made a couple of years ago, I think they look good with the other stuff in this basket.

First Swap Received

Mangocheeks at Allotment 2 Kitchen sent me this delicious mulled wine plum jam in exchange for a chicken in a bag - that was quick wasn't it!!!  As soon as I'd unwrapped it Graham had to try it, he mostly said "mmmmmm"  so you can imagine, he loved it.  I was going to have some with bread but decided that it would do very nicely as part of our desert this evening and served it with a frangipane tart and ice cream, gorgeous!

I've got the packaged chicken and bag ready to be posted tomorrow, I wonder if it will be welcome in it's new home?

Soda Bread

We're having salad for tea today so I've made some soda bread to go with it.  This size loaf is just right for us, the full size one always gets wasted.

150g wholemeal flour ( I used rye flour as I didn't have wholemeal)

150g plain flour

1teaspoon baking powder

half teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 tablespoon caster sugar

half teaspoon salt

1 egg

200 ml yoghurt

Mix dry ingredients together.  Mix egg with the yoghurt then combine well with the dry ingredients.  Knead on a lightly floured surface for a few minutes then shape into a round.  Place dough onto a baking tray and mark a cross on the top of the dough.

Bake for 35 minutes at 190C/375F/gas mark 5

Chocolate Cake

This cake is from a new recipe I wanted to try.  It's rather dry in my opinion but still nice, I do like a very moist cake.

Ingredients

200g (7oz) Self Raising Flour

225g (8oz) Caster Sugar

half a teaspoon Salt

25g (1oz) Sieved Cocoa Powder

100g (4oz) Butter or Margarine, softened

5 tablespoons Evaporated Milk

3 Eggs. beaten

5 tablespoon Water

few drops Vanilla Essence

Heat oven to 180C, 350F, gas 4 and prepare two 8 inch sandwich cake tins.

Mix all dry ingredients together, add butter/margarine, eggs, evaporated milk, water, vanilla essence and beat for about two minutes using an electric hand mixer.

Divide between the two sandwich tins and bake for 35 minutes.

Filling/Topping

60g (2.5 oz) Butter, softened

1 tablespoons sieved Cocoa Powder

250g (9oz) Sieved Icing Sugar

3 tablespoons Hot Milk (I used evaporated milk)

Half teaspoon Vanilla Essence

Put all ingredients into a bowl and mix well together until combined.  Use to sandwich cake together and spread over the top.

50 Days to Christmas

Once the clocks go back I start looking forward to Christmas.  I've got everything ready for the Christmas swap I'm in, plus an extra set for myself.  I've got one more of the gift bags to finish then I can decide what my next Christmas project will be.

Join me for a cup of tea and a cake!!!  I'm still practising my cup-cake skills.  The piping is looking better and the chocolate truffle centres worked better than the Rolo centres.  I think the piping still needs refining, I can't seem to get the icing right to the edge.  I bought some blue glitter to sprinkle on them too but I don't know if I like the look of it, I just sprinkled a few with it and when I opened the cake tin I panicked, for a minute it looked like mould!!!


I enjoy reading other people's blogs and love the ones with pictures and writing.  That got me wondering why I do my blog.  Several years ago I had an online picture album but the provider did away with them, probably switched it to another option, I can't remember.  So, I think my main reason for doing a blog is to have a picture record of what I do.  We've got tons of photos hanging around our house that never get looked at.  I have a photo album of Colin from when he came home from hospital to the age of about two.  I have a little album of the dogs I've had and Graham has one of his walking adventures.  Also, I make such a lot of things that I forget what I've made so a blog is a good way for me to keep a record.  I've never been one to keep a diary either, I tried a few times but quickly gave up, somehow typing out my blog is much easier.

Tea Time

I wanted to make some black bread after seeing it on Master Chef the other evening.  After surfing the web I came across a recipe that I thought I could manage.  It contained fennel seeds, caraway seeds, cocoa, coffee granules, rye flour, bread flour, syrup, dark brown sugar as well as the usual water, butter and yeast.  I expected it to taste sweet and of chocolate but it didn't.  It was very light and fluffy though not as black as I wanted it to be, more dark brown.  The toppings I used were dressed crab and tomato for one lot and cream cheese, chopped cornichons and prawns for the other.  The bread didn't overpower the toppings at all.

I only make bread in my bread machine, I'm not fit enough to do it by hand - it's hard work isn't it!!!  My kitchen has quite a few gadgets, the one that I found the most disappointing was the juicer.  The one I couldn't do without is my food processor, I bought my first one about thirty years ago.  Just recently I got rid of my Moulinex electric hand mixer, I'd had it forty years so it had seen good service.  Another gadget I've had for a long time is my electric carving knife, it's great for cutting bread as well as meat.

Another thing I find very useful in the kitchen are the Teflon baking sheets, they last for years and nothing ever sticks to them.  For my baking I buy the ready cut greaseproof paper circles for the bottom of my sandwich cake tins and the cake and loaf baking tin liners, it saves energy not having to cut them out like I used to.  I've also got a multi-size foldable cake pan, the sides slot together and you can make from a huge cake to a very small one.  Recently I've been using measuring cups instead of weighing, this is because of the recipes from the USA that are on the internet.  I have bought myself some decent digital weighing scales though, they weigh starting at one gramme.  I'd love to hear what anyone else has in their kitchen and what their favourites are and what was a total waste of money like my juicer.

Pastries

The pastry on these frangipane tarts is delicious, I mentioned yesterday I wanted to make the Sable pastry and I used a quarter of the ingredients in the link.  For the frangipane I used 

3 teaspoons of butter

9 teaspoons of caster sugar

1 egg

1/4 of a cup of ground almonds

5 teaspoons of plain flour

Cream the butter and sugar, add the egg and mix well, I used an electric hand mixer.  Add the almonds and flour, again I used the mixer and gave it a good mixing.  Half the pastry and all the filling are just right to make six tarts.  Bake at 190C for twenty minutes.  I sifted icing sugar over them before serving.  The pastry that was left over is now in the freezer as this pastry is supposed to freeze well.

The pastry turned out so crisp and melting.  I'm not a good pastry cook so for me this was a success.

This picture was taken on the beach at Titchwell .  The sea must have been very rough for all these shells to have ended up on the beach, there were masses of them.

There is supposed to be a bird having a bath in this picture but I can't see it.  This is part of the marsh at Titchwell.

It was a fine day when we visited Titchwell Marsh Reserve and we were able to have a pleasant walk around.  We saw long tailed tits quite close up in one area and bramblings on the bird feeders.  Graham saw a stonechat.  We saw a lot of the usual inhabitants but my brain won't let me recall them at the moment.  We were very surprised at the number of people who were there too, mainly old codgers like us but also quite a few younger people.

Lemon Bakewell Tart

Because I've still got some marrow cream left I decided to make a lemon Bakewell tart.  This is the recipe I used

1 ready made pastry case (I used a bought one)

3 generous tablespoons of marrow cream

3oz/75g butter, softened

3oz/75g caster sugar (I used golden caster sugar)

1 egg, beaten

4oz/110g self-raising flour
1oz/25g ground almonds

juice of 1 lemon (and the grated rind if you want to)

halved almonds for decoration

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Gradually add the beaten egg.  Fold in the flour and ground almonds, then stir in the lemon juice.  In the pastry case, spread the marrow cream evenly over the base and cover with the cake mixture.  Arrange the halved almonds on the surface.  Bake for 15 minutes at gas 6, 400F, 200C then turn down heat to gas mark 2, 300F, 150C and bake for a further 30 minutes.

It turned out really fluffy and the marrow cream was lovely and lemony.

Soup

This is a very quick soup to prepare because I've mostly used veg from my freezer.  I use Farm Foods freezer shop a lot, their prices are very good and apart from freezer items they also have bargains in most other grocery type items.  Their bags of frozen veg are quite big and I only have a small freezer so I thought I'd use up a couple of things that seemed to take me a long time to use up.

1 onion, roughly cut up

1 potato, cut into chunks

1 good sized sprig of parsly

and from the freezer - 

1 cup sweet corn

1 cup of swede

1 cup of carrots

good splash of white wine

1 cup of water

1 stock cube

seasoning to taste

Put everything into a big saucepan, bring to the boil then simmer for 35 minutes.  Liquidize/blend soup then pour back into the pan with about 1 cup of milk (I used half milk and half single cream because the cream was left over from something else),  Heat through and serve.

This is a more attractive looking soup than some I make!  It has a good flavour, not at all bland like I was worried it would be.