Following on........

........from my post yesterday, I thought I would try making some Oatcakes from the " Mother to Daughter" book.  I often get hungry between meals and as I am trying to battle the bulge I thought these very low calorie oatcakes might just be the job to stave off the hunger pangs.  They are literally porridge oats,bicarbonate of soda, salt, olive oil and warm water.

 I have just had one out of the oven and they are very nice.  And I am sure they will be lovely with a chunk of mature cheddar and  some pickle, but that is not allowed on the diet. Oh well, just a tiny bit, I won't tell the lady at the slimming club!!!!  

Rose Hip Syrup..........

Following on from the post yesterday, the Rose Hip Syrup is ready.  It was a bit faffy to make but tastes delicious.

Two bottles from the above batch, its takes me back to when I was a little girl and we used to have it on rice pudding at school dinners. I'm showing my age now.  I'll have to make some rice pudding soon.

Mothering Sunday.......

Wishing you a Happy Mother's Day, I hope you all had lovely day.

We took off early to a nearby garden centre for morning coffee and delicious home made cakes. We bought a few purchases for the gardening season, which I will post at a later time. Before I go some lovely eye candy for you. Since our trip to Paris I have been wanting to make some Macaroons, they are taking the shops by storm. To my delight I got my eyes on this magazine at the supermarket recently,so last night I had a go at making them.

Ta dah......the results,

They are made with ground almonds,egg whites and lots of icing and caster sugar, which when cooked are sandwiched together with a butter cream filling. I find them very sweet and half a one is enough. Not for the calorie conscious!

A week Early........

I said a couple of weeks ago that I wanted to bake some Cupcakes from my new cookery book, http://www.primrosebakery.org.uk/ . Today I decided to try the Rose Cupcakes, it is a bit early for Valentines but these heart shaped silicone cupcake bases have been in my store cupboard for ages just waiting to be used.

I made too much mixture for the six bases, so I used a few spotty paper cases .

Finished off with a Rose flavoured frosting and dried rose petals.

Whilst I have been tinkering with my cupcakes ,DH was dabbling in a spot of bread making. He is trying to master the art of "Artisan Bread Making", and is under the guidance of http://danlepard.com/ his book is titled - The Handmade Loaf.

He had to create a leaven from flour and water over a period of 5 days, it then starts to ferment and is used as the natural raising agent instead of yeast.

Wholemeal Sourdough

New Year.......New Ways

I gave up on New Year Resolutions years ago, and I found trying to start them on January 1st quite impossible. It takes me a couple of weeks into the new year just to get back to normality. This year has been even more difficult because of the cold weather here in the UK.
A must this year for me is adopting a more Healthier Lifestyle, so with this in mind I made a very large bowl of Tabbouleh and some home made Smoked Salmon Pate. For the Pate I blended the smoked salmon with cottage cheese, it is surprisingly very nice.

I Just want it to Go Now.......

.........and so do the chickens. They have hardly been out for weeks, opting to stay in their house all day. Jill popped out today but was soon heading back into the warmth. We have had another big dump of snow during the night and it took us 2 hours this morning to clear the drive and road in front of the house. The skies are blue now and it looks so picturesque but I just want it to go. I have had enough of the bad road conditions and anxiety of getting to and from work.

I

I spotted these icicles hanging from the conservatory roof, I hope the gutters don't break with all the weight of snow.

I cleared a path to my studio,the snow is so fine and powdery.....

There is talk that provisions are running out in village shops, I have been creative using up lots of the excess food bought for the holidays. DH bought a box of plum tomatoes before Christmas
so before they go off I have been making Tomato Sauce, I just made the recipe up and hoped for the best. This is how it goes.........

Chopped onions
Chopped Red Pepper
Tomatoes
Olive Oil
Thick Balsamic Vinegar
Teaspoon Brown Sugar
Salt, Pepper, Garlic Cloves, Dried Basil

(You need to adjust the amounts, depending on how many tomatoes you have.)

I baked it all in the oven for about 40minutes, at 140*c.
Blitz it in the food processor and voila. Ready for Homemade Pizzas or Pasta sauce. The kids just love it as sauce.

Any finally, Little Ted is still waiting to be repaired, but he is going to have to wait until I can get to the shops to purchase the correct stuffing for his paws.

Keep warm and safe wherever you are...... Posting this fromy my cosy Studio, it is now

-3 degrees outside.

Sunday Baking........

I had a request from the boys to make some Sweet Mince Pies. I had fully intended to make some on Christmas Eve but I ran out of time due to all the other things that needed attending to. I had no plans today, and when DH and the boys went out for a bike ride I decided to have some treats for their return........ Cherry Trifle, Florentines and Sweet Mince Pies


They went down a treat........

Summer is here.....

The rhubarb is ready for picking in our allotment, it is a favorite of mine. I like it stewed with Greek Yogurt for breakfast.
Today the weather has been fantastic, bright blue skies and hot. With very little breeze, which is unusual for us. I have been really lazy enjoying the rays. I finished another crocheted cupcake and made a Rhubarb Fool.........summer is here at last.

Hope you all enjoyed the lovely hot weekend too.

What has been happening in the Patch lately ...........

Can't believe another week has gone by. Well, I have a couple of days off work and I am determined to catch up. These photos were taken last week so here goes.


I am seeing Red,Red,Red...........our new sofa was delivered last week and it just fits, we did measure the space it had to go into but we had not appreciated how much it would jut out into the room. We are so pleased to have comfortable seating at last. I am hoping to make some new cushions, but in the meantime I got my eye on these in Morrison's of all places, inexpensive and colour co-ordinated.

This got me thinking, I have a lot of RED in my home at the moment. Looking around me I find..........more red things.


On these bright and sunny days my diet changes and I long for fresh fruit, salad and vegetables.

I am enjoying healthy breakfasts when I am not rushing out at the crack of dawn.

And in the evenings, home made Cesar Salad, the dressing made with the hens eggs, look how yellow the yokes are .

Since my crocheting workshop with Vanessa I have been busy making a few flowers, with different wools. I want to incorporate them into jewellery at some point.

I saw this pattern book in John Lewis and couldn't resist making these little beauties from it.

The garden is "springing" into action, or should I say "summering", the Clematis has been out for a week now, the peonies are bulging and the oriental poppies just waiting for warmer days. Our seedlings are growing well, we will be ready to plant them out soon.

A freebie in this months "Easy Living" a Kath Kidtson plastic bag and a fantastic offer, 15% off everything in the catalogue. I have ordered myself a bag, resistance is not one of my strong points.




I have started taking treats to work on Fridays, and last week we had Rocky Road from the 4 Ingredients Cook Book,Turkish Delight, Marshmallows Macadamia Nuts and Chocolate. This week's treat is sorted already we are having "Malteser Cake".



I am constantly drinking tea while blogging, I am ready for another cuppa now and a sit down to read................

This magazine I bought yesterday.

And finally a big Hello to all my new blog-sphere friends out there, it is lovely to have your company.
Catch up with you all again soon. x

Happy Good Friday........

Wishing you all a Happy Good Friday

We started off the day with making these::

Chocolate Brioche

Out of the oven, a little burnt but tasted delicious....... Off now for a little retail therapy.

Have a great day.

More Cooking with Cherries......

Last night we had our neighbours around for a meal, we had starters of Olives, Hummus and Taramasalata, followed by Moussaka and Greek Salad. And for dessert a cooked cherry cheesecake shown below. It was rather like a New York Cheesecake, very yummy and delicious.

Sushi....

Did I tell you recently that I love sushi, as does DS2. We usually have a conflab about what to have for supper and tonight we came up with making our own sushi rolls. A perfect opportunity as DH is away again and he is not a fan of said above. I bought a packet of sushi rice a couple of weeks ago in readiness, this was our attempt this evening. We followed the instructions on the packet, the rice certainly was sticky and much easier to roll on the nori sheets. On the menu:-


Smoked Salmon, King Prawn, Tuna, Cucumber, Red Pepper Maki,

Served with wasabi paste, picked ginger and light soy sauce. It was delicious. A much better attempt than the last time we tried it.