January...Where did you go to?

Looking back January was a bit of a blur of feeling ill, and 
mindless tv viewing of a million box sets. Wishing that instead of snoozing on the sofa and drinking juice and ginger tea, that I was in the garden digging and planting. Of knitting a randomly striped sweater inspired by the little urchin in the film about Hugo Cabret. In-between a spot of driving over more than one bridge to visit some of my favourite people. Of making the scrummiest basil and tomato soup, thanks to my very own baby's recipe.

Now it's February and we've had snow and rain and sun and showers. Sometimes all in one day.  The hellebores are blooming and the snow drops are out. We've had  Pancake and then Valentines day, and even Chinese New Year but didn't manage to celebrate any of them.  Soon another month will have flown by and we'll be spring cleaning for Persian New Year...

But I have decided to slow down a bit this month. The second half. To be kind to myself and keep telling that little voice in my head that things don't matter and I can take a few short-cuts. Sort out my seeds and send for those nice seed catalogues that I'm always too late to send for. To sometimes just stop working and make sure that I don't miss the next little buds as they peep out. To go and say hello to the sheep down the lane...

...or just sometimes sit down by the fire and read a book...and not feel even the teeniest bit guilty...

Reading: 

• The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry. A gothic novel set in the marshlands of Essex. Strong women, fossils, folklore, mud and overcoats.
• Leaf by Niggle, J. R.R. Tolkien. A sweet short story that I could relate to. A late birthday gift from my acorn and her larger oak. 

Making and baking: 

• Ahmad made bread and I made pastry
• A bit of a plum celebration, regular short crust pastry open tart and my new obsession, tarte tatin.  
• Bagel sandwiches with cold nut roast and homemade cranberry sauce - feeling glad for stock of nut roasts in the freezer
• Pancakes... somehow they always seem to bring a smile to my face

Recipes:

Hannah's awesome tomato soup

Ingredients:

• Five large ripe tomatoes
• Two red onions, chopped finely
• One carrot(not peeled, chopped finely
• Three tablespoons of olive oil
• Three minced garlic cloves
• One tsp of sugar (or alternative e.g. honey/maple syrup
• One tsp of tomato puree
• A quarter of a cup of chopped basil leaves
• Three cups of vegetable stock
• Sea salt and black pepper

Method:

1. Cook the onions in the olive oil until caramelised.
2. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute, stirring to ensure that they don't burn.
3. Add all the other ingredients including the hot stock. Stir well, bring to the boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for thirty or forty minutes until everything is tender. Blend and then reheat if necessary     

As February winds it's way home, I hope that you can make a little time for yourself too. Getting ready to say hello to March and  then spring and all the gorgeous things that it promises... dx

out and about :: Christmas cake, blue eggs and Amaryllis

We've been to London and West Sussex, and I had flu or something. It was my birthday and I had lots of lovely gifts; a magazine subscription, tons of bulbs and garden things,  a hand painted silk scarf and expensive makeup (yes for me) a Persian silver pendant, oh and some of my favourite Burt's Bees products...Lots of nice things and the theatre and meals with sparkly wine, and it was lovely (except the flu bit). And back home we've been decorating again and things are feeling even more like home. We did our first spot of Christmas shopping in Hereford and had supper at my favourite Wagamama's, and don't faint, I've even made the Christmas cake. I've asked Ahmad to secret it away once it's cooled down and parcelled up, or I will be bound to cut just a little slice from it to try, and then it will be down the slippery slope again...

Christmas cake

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces of butter or alternative
• 1lb of fruit. I use a mixture of green raisins and sultanas, chopped deseeded dates and undyed cherries. I also like nuts in fruit cake so have a handful of chopped walnuts.
• 5 ounces of brown sugar
• 1 level teaspoonful mixed spice. I also add ground cinnamon and a little ginger.
• 1 level teaspoonful bicarbonate of soda
• 10 ounces of SR flour
• 2 beaten eggs.
• 8 ounces of water
• I add Vanilla extract and a little almond extract too.
• It's nice if making for a special occassion to add some rum or liqueur or fortified wine to give a lovely deep grown-up flavoured cake.

Method:

• Melt the butter in a saucepan and add all the other ingredients except the flour, eggs and nuts if using.
• Simmer gently for about twenty minutes
• Allow to cool and then add the flour and eggs and nuts
• Mix well
• Transfer to an 8inch cake tin lined with 2 sheets of paper
• Cook at 300f/150c for one hour, plus for fifteen minutes without the paper until nicely browned.
• Place on a rack to cool.
• Once cooled decorate to your hearts content...

...Oh and I know Christmas things are in order when it's still November and I've already got a white Amaryllis on the kitchen window sill...Happy days...

How are your holiday preparations coming along?

Love and amaryllis,
debx

Sunshine and chocolate cake

The sun's  shining. I follow as it moves from room to room. Some days it positively dances on the walls. I haven't made the blinds for the parlour window yet so I've done that thing again and left the paper snowflakes up from Christmas. I love the shapes...Those silvery shadows that  it casts through them. 

I know 'parlour'...That's what Ahmad calls it...It sounds like something out of a Jane Austin novel, doesn't it?

We've been busy sanding and painting. I undercoated all of the downstairs, outside windows, that can be painted. Windows can be tedious with all those little places that you almost miss out.  The hardest thing is not to get paint on the glass. I found a long artist brush the best thing. I can't tell you how many times I was called Van gogh or Picasso by neighbours out walking their dogs. 

It was Ahmad's birthday on Thursday. A quiet one...We're having a proper celebration in a few weeks. I made his favourite moist chocolate cake. I experimented with Green & Black's cocoa powder and was a little bit disappointed that although the cake was dark and rich looking it didn't have the intense chocolate flavour I hoped for. I think I'll stick to Cadburys Bournville next time. I have to say though, that like with all good chocolate cakes it's improving with age and getting more and more truffely. Nice things arrived in the post for him and the phone didn't stop ringing. Neighbours popped by with a very generous gift...aged Penderyn, Welsh whisky. Matured in old oak bourbon barrels. 

Later we drove to Wye to this lovely shop. He loves pens and I wanted to treat him to a really good one. Then we sat in the late afternoon sun outside Beer Revolution sipping refreshing golden craft ales. Followed by a scrumptious supper here.   Hamburger for him with big chunky chips and Black bream for me with creamy mashed potatoes, roasted tomatoes, asparagus, rocket leaves and crunchy little fried onions, that I should have but couldn't resist. I also couldn't resist a raspberry mille feuille with dark chocolate sauce...also scrummy...I did share it though...promise...

Moist chocolate cake

Ingredients:

• Seven ounces of self raising flour
• One teaspoon of baking powder
• Two large eggs
• Five ounces of butter or alternative
• Five ounces of golden caster sugar (it's lovely with half muscovado sugar if you have any)
• One and a half ounces of cocoa powder
• Three tablespoons of milk
• Two tablespoons of made coffee
• A little cinnamon. Just a tad you don't want it to be a cinnamon cake but just to have gentle background note of spice
• A little vanilla extract

Filling and topping options:

• Fresh cream, chocolate spread or butter cream. we love to use a chocolate hazelnut spread.
• Chocolate icing or ganache
• Shaved chocolate, walnuts or truffles.

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade (350f/gas mark 4)Or a little cooler if using a fan oven.
2. Prepare a six inch cake tin with oil and a dusting of flour.
3. Cream together the butter and sugar.
4. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
5. Sift the flour, cinnamon,cocoa and baking powder and fold into the flour.
6. Add the coffee and milk.
7. Pour into the tin and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.
8. Test with a skewer to ensure the centre is cooked although still moist.
9. Leave in the tin for five minutes and then turn onto a cake rack to cool.
10. You may choose to use two narrow pans rather than one deep one. If so reduce the baking time accordingly. I would check after fifteen minutes or so. 

Decorating:

1. Once cooled cut the cake in half horizontally to make two separate cakes.
2. Place one half onto a serving plate. Decide which way up you prefer to produce either a flatter topped cake or more homely rounded one. 
3. Spread with your filling of choice. We like chocolate hazelnut spread. 
4. Place the second cake carefully on top and ice or glaze. 
5. You may like to spread butter cream or chocolate spread on the sides. Either make great cement for crushed nuts or flaked/shaved chocolate. They also make a great wall to poor chocolate gamache or icing onto the top.
6. Or you may just like a simple dark chocolate icing as I did this time.

...Hope the sun is shining for you today too...
debx