Spring Breakfasts

... Easter holiday photo's made me realise that one of the best things about the holiday, was breakfast! Not just the food...but having a bit more time to spend on leisurely breakfasts and brunches.. .no mad rush to wash the dishes...time to linger over the coffee...and chat with family and friends...

...roll on Summer holidays...

Oh and if you want to make the delicious pikelets that we're eating all the time at the moment you can find the recipe and their interesting story that I think makes them even better here...they are so easy to make and really scrumptious...

Marmalade that D.H Lawrence would be proud of

'I got the blues thinking of the future, so I left off and made some marmalade. It's amazing how it cheers one up to shred oranges and scrub the floor.' D. H. Lawrence

I can’t think of a more quintessentially British breakfast than marmalade on wholemeal toast, preferably Frank Cooper’s Oxford Original Marmalade.
It’s not just because the packaging is original. Or that the factory where it was produced in 1906 is now a cool art-centre-cum-restaurant-cum-bar with a lovely laidback feel, called The Jam Factory that makes it my marmalade of choice,(although it does help). The marmalade is amazing. The original recipe (and they do vintage too) is made with Seville oranges, it’s deep in colour and a little bit bitter with coarsely cut peel and a lovely caramel-y flavour…mmm……

So it’s weird that marmalade originated in Portugal and not England. My history teacher at school told us that it had been invented by Chefs at the Scottish court for Mary Queen of Scots to cheer her up. According to Wikipedia – that’s a fallacy. Wouldn’t you just know, the one thing that I remember from my history lessons is inaccurate!!

But I’ve actually made some marmalade for the first time ever and it tastes delicious. I wouldn't have thought of making it if I didn't find these beautiful blood oranges in my vegetable box this week plus a recipe card for '15 Min Marmalade.' I've had a hectic week and thought I deserved a leisurely breakfast and so made a batch and it genuinely did only take 15 minutes to do so!
I've doubled the amount the recipe said would make enough for 4 to 6 pieces of toast. I suppose it just depends how greedy you are! But you're not going to make it every day so I think you will need the one orange and four tablespoons of clear honey.....and that's all to make enough for four pieces of toast.
Cut the orange in half and juice and place in a saucepan...Isn't the colour amazing?..... Cut the orange halves, into thirds and then remove the flesh and pith from them. I thought this was going to be a really difficult job and might have been easier to zest the oranges before they were juiced, but it wasn't. I used a desert spoon, and holding the pith with my left hand, scraped it off with the spoon in my right hand. It came away easily. In fact I found it suprisingly theraputic.
It doesn't matter if the skin breaks up because the next stage is to cut it into fine strips. I like mine coarsly cut so this is what it looked like. You will need about two tablespoons of zest.
Combine the juice and zest in a saucepan. Heat on the hob until it bubbles up over a moderate heat and then stir in the honey with a wooden spoon. Allow to boil again and reduce the heat and simmer for seven minutes. Stirring all the time.
The marmalade will be runny so will need to be left to set for thirty minutes to an hour. Just enough time to wash the dishes, make some toast and a pot of tea or brew a nice jug of coffee...maybe even time to check your emails...
I really enjoyed the whole process of making this marmalade. I was a little bit stressed up this morning thinking about everything I had to do today but gave myself the time to do it. It's not the kind of thing I'd usually make mid week but great for weekends and a batch will keep in the fridge for two to three months.....
...I don't think I'll be buying any more Frank Coopers.....oh...and I agree with Lawrence....but not about scrubbing the floor...


This post is linked to The Kitchen Maid's bloghop Sweet sweet Friday that you can see here.

Do you have an end of the week sweet treat? Add it here to spread the sweetness of Fridays...

A bit of this weeked

A lot of the weekend has involved lovely leaves...mountains of them, and they keep coming....

The weather's been weird and warm and we've had scotch mists that make a surreal kind of atmosphere in the garden. And the trees with the not good apples (those that are polka dotted with black spots) and no leaves look like they're covered in Christmas baubles....the whole weekend had a kind of Christmasy feel to it...not sure why....

'A' made his famous green rice with broad beans and dill and baked chicken...mmm...

...and I made pancakes...please excuse me showing off my pancakes, but I've always been rubbish at making them....until now that is.  I'm actually getting the hang of them and they are becoming a weekly event for weekend brunch.  They are actually pikelets to be precise and I think  my success is due more than a little to Lucy and her great aunt Makira...I really recommend you linking to  the recipe here and trying them out for yourself....they are so easy I've even made them mid-week.....

Miss Dahl Recipe Number 8 - Pear and Ginger Muffins

This was meant to be my Eighth Delicious Miss Dahl recipe. But surprisingly I wasn't as happy with the results as I imagined. The first day I flicked through the book this was one of the recipes that stood out....I loved the image of the little pear and ginger muffin in rustic looking paper with a thin slice of pear, stalk and-all, baked into it. It was on page 83 of Miss Dahl's Voluptuous delights.I was dying to make it, but it was in the 'winter breakfasts' section and so thought I'd better hang on a little bit.

I couldn't wait any longer and had a go this weekend...but I was a bit disappointed with the results. I think that's probably just down to my heightened expectations. It looked OK, all that quirky charm.....but it was a little heavy and didn't have that much flavour. Because of the addition of egg whites and not yolks I imagined it was going to be light and fluffy...almost a pear and ginger souffle... but no....more like a rock bun or a bowl of All-bran

In Miss Dahl's defence I have to admit that I did make a change to the recipe. I couldn't find any pear puree ( I suppose I should have made some) and so used mango instead. Also the requisite four egg whites had been frozen left over from ice cream making. Probably that may have altered the texture.

Opening the cake tin this morning I was greeted by a wonderful gingery smell and the muffins are very wholesome...but not the 'airy fairy' things Miss D promised (sorry SD.) I may try to make them again... but doubt it'll be any time soon. For the sake of Miss D's reputation. I will do so eventually and hope to prove myself wrong...I do have a bit of a soft spot for her....

...on a positive note...I found a post card I'd been looking for marking the recipe... so that was good.....

We raised our coffee cups to Makiri

We did....'A' and I ate our pikelets and drank our coffee and talked about someone who sounded like the best great aunt you could have.


I'd read such an amazing pikelet related story that I just had to have a go at making them. It was written by Lucy the author of the Kitchenmaid blog about her great aunt Makiri. I can't link over but please check out her blog where you can find the recipe. They are absolutely scrumptious and they'll be on my regular repertoire from now on. You can check out Memories of Makiri at www.kitchen-maid.blogspot.com






I tried to practise making a Casper pikelet ready for Halloween...I think I need a little bit more practise.....
They are absolutely yummy with a generous shaking of Icing Sugar with the sweet-sour mulberry syrup that 'A' made a few weeks ago......mmm......