A good Good Friday

What a lovely day Friday was, not only because we had such lovely weather, but also for D and I as we had a lovely day out in Derbyshire with two of our very best friends C and A. We had arranged to go for a walk and D and C decided on Dovedale which is nearish to Ashbourne. Neither D or I had ever been before but having looked at the map and some images we knew we would be in for a lovely walk and sure enough it was. We made the very good decision to meet early, 9-30pm in the car park at the start of our walk. There were very few cars there when we arrived in stark contrast to when we leave where the place was heaving. We walked up by the side of the river, which was in the bottom of a steep sided valley and crossed over the stepping stones

We carried on up the valley

passing the coin trunk, that reminded me of the one at Bolton Abbey.

Up and down we walked, it was so lovely, peaceful with just the noise of the river and birds

We passed Ilam rock, an amazing limestone pillar

The wild flowers were just beginning to carpet the wood

Continuing on we passed the Dove Holes caves

The path then took us into the lovely little village of  Milldale.

We walked a little further till we came to a suitable picnic spot and settled down to enjoy the food, the views and the peacefulness. As we retraced our steps it certainly became busy, Milldale looked like this

and that picture wasn't taken at the busiest spot. On reaching the stepping stones there were long queues to get across so we chose to carry on down the same side eventually returning back to the car park which was now jammed solid with not a space to be found. We decided to call it a day and said goodbye to C and A. It took a little time to get onto the main road again, goodness how long it would have taken us if we had stayed another hour. Having got back by 5pm we were able to enjoy a rather nice G&T in the sun before having our tea cooked for us by J.

I hope you have had a lovely weekend too, Happy Easter! L. Anne x

Easter Treats

I can't believe it's almost Friday again and I have so much to show and tell you. As the Easter weekend starts tomorrow I must share with you our Easter tree and treats. A couple of Sundays ago I went down to the country park to look for a/some branches to use for our Easter tree. I knew the rangers had been cutting down a lot branches near the road so guessed I'd find what I was looking for - not so. Having seen all the branches piled up since before Christmas they had finally been taken away. However I also knew that D and the members of the sailing club had been able to trim a couple of trees back a little and so by walking alongside the lake I found what I was looking for. Once home I set about putting the branches in a pot filled with sand, you can see them here

Just perfect. I found some battery lights and wound them round then the next job was to unpack all the decorations that we had collected over the years and decide which were going on the tree. I had bought some little yellow eggs in Bruges specially so they were the first to go on, followed my homemade birds.

With the addition of more things a yellow and green theme started to emerge. My rabbits were stood carefully round the bottom

  and the tree was finally finished and I was 'well' pleased with it

Having still got some very favourite bits to put out, I decorated our fireplace without a fire. 

Here is the result and I rather like it.

Now in the Easter mood I turned my attentions to some real Easter treats in the form of cream egg brownies as asked for by J and his girlfriend F. As usual I went onto the internet to find a recipe as I had not even heard of these, but then I don't like cream eggs so wouldn't go searching for something to do with them. Anyway sure enough I found a recipe  for cream egg brownies (I used mini eggs) and added my own twist soft dark brown sugar, here they are before baking, some I split some eggs in half and some I left whole

and here they are after baking

They were gorgeous, and were nearly as good the next day - yes we were very restrained and only had one each. Don't worry I'm not going to leave you without the recipe, here it is - you will need a set of cup measures

4oz bittersweet chocolate - I used 80% coco chocolate

6oz butter

1/2 cup of sugar - I used soft dark brown sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup SR flour

Mini eggs - a £1 packet had 8 in and I found that I could stretch the mixture to make 8 brownies

Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl over water, then cool

Whisk sugar and egg, then slowly add cooled chocolate mixture

Add flour and gently combine

Divide into bun/muffin cases

Put an egg in each

Bake for 13-15mins in 170oC oven

My first lot sank as they cooled, the second batch I made using caramel mini eggs and they didn't sink as much but my uncooked mixture seemed much firmer - they both tasted just as good. Do give them a go and let me know how you get on. 

Till next time Happy Easter. Love Anne x

My Friday

Busy, busy, busy. I made a list of all the things I needed to do. I like making lists as there is something satisfying about crossing stuff off when you've done it isn't there? This is what is had on it

Pavlova
Quiche
Clean our room
Caravan food
Clean downstairs
Salads for raclette

So I did start at the top, I had had 3 egg whites in the fridge from the weekend and had been meaning to make meringue all week. I had some concerns as to whether they would still be ok and whip up but put them in the kitchenaid and set it going - brilliant, and when I started adding the castor sugar they immediately started to thicken, so it was onto some baking paper and in the oven. Here is the result about an hour later

All I need to do now is fill with a mixture of cream and greek yoghurt, add the rasberries and it's ready for my guests. One crossed off, now for the quiche - Minted pea and goats cheese, you can find the recipe here. I started with the pastry and thought that 6oz flour, 3oz fat would be enough all was going well till for some reason I added too much water, result very wet mixture. As far as I was concerned there was only one thing to do, add more flour and fat and make 2 quiches instead of one. This involved a quick trip to Lidl to get more goats cheese and cream whilst D kept an eye on the bases which were being baked blind. Here's how they went once I got back, first the minted pea mixture

then the cream, eggs and spring onions

finally the goats cheese

into the oven and 30 minutes later

and as we have had one for lunch today I can say it was as good as it looks. Well what about the other? that is in the freezer with a large label on which says Cornwall, Spring Bank - the first of my cooking for our 'French Sunday lunch on a Saturday' more about that another time.

I'm just going to have to leave you all briefly whilst I quickly prepare the chicken for tonight and get it in the oven - won't be long

Sorry about that, chicken in - I'll share that recipe with you at a later date, but back to my list. Cleaning our room, well I'm afraid that didn't get done and still hasn't but there's always tomorrow. Caravan food, now that did get sorted. We are very briefly going to take the van to West Stockwith, which is between Bawtry and Gainsborough. D has to take an outboard motor for servicing and pick one up at West Stockwith so combining it with a couple of nights in our van seemed a good idea. All I needed to do was to sit with a coffee and collect my thoughts together and make a list of meals and what we were going to eat, and as I have some bits in the freezer for our main meals it was easy to sort. Clean downstairs, well again that didn't get done (do you think I have an aversion to cleaning?) but I've sort of done it this afternoon. Finally salads for the raclette. I needed to make a coleslaw and waldorf salad, not very difficult till I found we didn't have any - in the words of John Clease in Fawlty Towers 'waldorfs', peacan nuts were quickly subsituted and I don't think anyone was any the wiser. Maybe I better explain what raclette is to anyone who has not come across it before. Raclette is a French cheese which is used alot for cooking in the Alps. We came across it when we were skiing and really enjoyed it. What happens is that you have a selection of cold meats, salads, pickles and hot new potatoes. The cheese is cut up into pieces about 2" square and about a £1 coin thick, these are then put on a paddle and melted under the hot element of a raclette grill, then once melted tipped on to meats and potatoes before eating. Hope that explains it, here is our raclette grill, it is plugged in. The little paddle you can just see at the left of it is what you put your cheese in. You can put stuff on the top to keep warm or you can even cook on it.

Here are D, J and F enjoying their meal

It's the kind of meal to linger over, although the cheese is quite rich so you don't need a huge amount of it. The other way to have it is in the picture below. The big slab of cheese is melted by the element and then scrapped off.

If you like cheese do try it if you get chance.

So back to the list and tomorrow before we go away I shall make an effort to cross off the cleaning bits as I know I'll feel better about it when I do. 

Still lots to tell and show you so bye till the next time. A x

Nothing like a bit of baking!

One of my friends from up the road popped down on Sunday for a coffee and brought me 5 brown bananas saying 'I was going to throw these away but thought you'd do something with them' - 'Yes J. you're right I can and will do some thing with them' and with a food duty at the sailing club over Easter I knew exactly what - these

Chocolate and banana buns along with chocolate and banana muffins

I have been making chocolate and banana buns for a long time. They should really be a cake, but I find these days buns are so much better as you can freeze them and just take out the number you need. The recipe was a Good Food one but it appears not to be on their site anymore so here it is

100gr plain chocolate melted

150gr unsalted butter (I use Stork as I like the lightness you get)

175gr golden castor sugar

3 eggs, beaten (mine were large)

175gr sr flour

1 level tsp baking powder

25gr coco powder

2 large bananas mashed

Cream sugar and butter till fluffy and pale

Gradually add the eggs, beating well between each addition

Sift flour, baking powder and coco and fold in

Add mashed banana and melted chocolate, mix well

Put into bun cases or 2 x 450gr loaf tins

Bake 180oC fan 160oC/gas 4 for ~ 15mins for the buns or 35-45mins for the loaves

I usually put melted chocolate on the top to finish them off, they will have mini eggs on this time.

The second batch were muffins which had white chocolate chips in. I had been following Jill at Emerald cottage and she had made them with her children here. Most had to be frozen but I did sneak some into the cake tin and took one to work which was delicious. So thank you very much Jill for those, they will definitely be made again.

I do love baking, usually having music blaring out - generally the ipod on shuffle or Radio 2 depending on the time and day. I get a great deal of satisfaction seeing it all on the side before it's all put away.But now I have to put yourselves away, it's WI tonight, so that means early tea which I need to go and start. Macaroni cheese with cauliflower and bacon in it, yum, yum. Till the next time xx

The wonders of modern technology

Going back to 'getting back to normal' I need to carry on with our 'normal'week and tell you about Friday evening. We had decided that we needed to celebrate J's job offer from Lend Lease, the construction company so asked B and boyfriend T to join us at the pub and then tea back at ours. That was duly accepted and whilst at the pub B asked if they could stay overnight. No problem really except that both spare bedrooms seemed to have been taken over by 'stuff' so deciding that if I went home I could have 10mins to deal with them - plan made. It's amazing what you can shove under a bed when you need to isn't it? They arrived back and D opened a bottle of bubbly and B proposed a toast to J, very touching it was.

then she decided that she would take a picture of us all and send it to C down in Cornwall. She in turn immediately rang to find out what was going off and expressed a wish that she would like to be with us. The genie from the lamp ie J granted her wish and she was duly linked up via facetime, propped up at the end of the table to join us while we ate 

You should just be able to see her at the end of the table! It really made the evening to have her with us, with her joining in as if she was there - the wonders of modern technology

Magnificent magnolia

Aren't magnolias beautiful? Ours had started to flower before we left for Ireland and I was very pleased to see it in full bloom when we came back. However it very much depends on the weather as to how long they remain in flower and today ours has lost at least half of them in the winds. Knowing these facts I did have the foresight to take some pictures earlier in the week and here they are

Gorgeous, if only they lasted!

Now yesterday I wrote that you would have to wait to find out what I did with this 

well I can now reveal that some of that fabric went from that to this

and then to these

decorations for Easter. I might add some eyes, what do you think? I couldn't decide. The rabbit pattern was from the Little Fabric Shop blog and the birds were from a Cath Kidston pattern that was in her Sew book. I really enjoyed making them and so went into my fabric stash and found some gingham which I used to make these.

Well I'm going to have to say goodbye as I have bread in the oven which smells as if it needs to be taken out. Till the next time x

Getting back to normal?

I sometimes wonder what is normal at number 6! 

We ( and I say we,as D is very good at sorting out the laundry) started the week with the usual washing after being away, although we did do some whilst in Ireland so it wasn't too bad. All the while I was aware that J was down in London having an interview with Lend Lease for a job when he graduates from Loughborough, so keeping my fingers crossed that it all went well for him. We had a call to say he was on his way back and he thought it went ok - sigh of relief, but we would have to wait to later in the day or even Tuesday till he heard. He finally arrived at number 6 at nearly 10pm with the words 'Are we going out for a drink then?' Yes you guessed, he got an offer of a job to start 1st September. I was so pleased for him and proud of him, as I have been of C and B when they were in similar positions. Needless to say D needed no second asking about going out and they disappeared off for half an hour.
Tuesday, it turned out when I looked at the calender, was when I was having my hair done. It's funny as when we had been away my fringe suddenly started to annoy me. It was fine one day but too long the next and I had wondered when I was having a cut, nearly having a go at it myself but refrained at the last moment, much to the relief of my wonderful hairdresser J. I just had enough time to go up the clinic where I work for a massage (and my goodness did I need that after dragging branches around) before lunch and then I was back up there to work.
Wednesday turned into a real baking day

Matilda cake, jam tarts, ginger biscuits and a curd tart.

I'll give you the recipe for Matilda cake as it is so easy , you can have it in the oven within 5 mins max

Melt 6oz margarine and 2 dsp golden syrup, then mix into 10oz sr flour, 4oz granulated sugar, 4oz chopped cherries and 4oz sultanas. Put into a lined  11" x 7" x 1" tin and bake 180oC for about 15-20mins (should be golden on the top) Voila, done!! - cut when cold.

The curd tart is one my Mum used to make and again is very easy having only 4 ingredients apart from the pastry base. So make some short crust pastry 6oz flour and 3oz fat will be enough to line a 7" diameter cake tin,  I know you all have your own ideas of type of fat, I use 2oz lard and 1 oz marg, but do your own thing. There's no need to bake the case blind. Just cream 2oz marg and 2oz granulated sugar together till soft, beat in 2 eggs (it will curdle but ignore that) and then add 6oz currants.  Pour into the pastry base and bake at about 180oC till brown on top - usually about 15-20mins. It might be a little runny in the middle but I like it that way, if you don't then bake for longer but watch you don't burn it.

Hope you enjoy them, leave me a comment and let me know how you get on.

The afternoon involved this

It arrived the day before we left for Ireland and I had been itching to get going with what I had planned for it. What was that? you may ask - well you'll have to visit me tomorrow to find out.

Till then, L Anne x