New Post for a New Year

I am easing in slowly to this new year of 2011- hope its a good one for you all. Since my last post before Christmas my time has been spent totally immersed in family time. We had visitors for Christmas including our daughter as the BIG bonus, home, just in time for the 25th. All the way from London but via Manchester to make sure she got a flight out of the UK after terrible weather had closed Heathrow airport. After the initial flurry and excitement we have settled into mooching about quite happily. Lots of baking has been done and as I write this I am awaiting home baked bread from the oven. Since leaving home and coming back again our daughter has surprisingly turned into quite an impressive cook.
The above photo was taken a few days ago at the end of a very hot day - I think the temperature hit 33 celcius. A nearly finished bottle of home-made elderflower cordial, plums just bought from the local organic roadside stall, an empty punnet of strawberries, the last of the sweet peas, prawns defrosting for paella and plum muffins cooling.
A picture of our lazy summer day.

Popular posts from this blog

Lavender Life

Image
 With the best will in the world, I still haven't managed regular blog posts here. Lots going on re: my lavender filled sachets so if you can please come and see me on my Instagram account you will see very regular posts there. Please click HERE  ðŸ’œ
Read more

Lavender

Image
Each year we harvest our five large lavender plants which once dried will give me enough lavender rubbings for my vintage style lavender sachets. These plants grow in perfect conditions at a friend's lifestyle property. I planted them about four years ago and from memory they are Grosso but as I can't find the original tags I'm not absolutely sure. I also grow a few plants in my garden to top up this harvest, ending up with about 2 kilos of the dried rubbings. At present the only outlet for my lavender sachets are from a beautiful shop in Havelock North (NZ) called The Garden Marke t,  which is  packed full of an eclectic mix of vintage items for your home and garden. For more recent updates follow me HERE on Instagram.
Read more

Ginger Crunch

Image
Ginger Crunch - a New Zealand classic with a twist. Lois Daish ( much missed food writer for The Listener a couple of years back) says this version is from the Wholemeal Cafe in Takaka. It is absolutely delicious. Two good sized pieces have been eaten rather quickly already. Base: 150g butter 2 tbsp golden syrup 3/4 cup soft brown sugar 3/4 cup desiccated coconut 1 1/2 cups rolled oats 3/4 cup plain flour 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 2 tsp ground ginger Preheat oven to 175C Line a 20x30cm slice tin Put butter, golden syrup and sugar in pan and melt gently together. Remove pan from heat and mix in all the other ingredients. Press into tin and bake for 15 minutes - I find if I go over this time it goes too crunchy when cool. Mark into squares while still warm and spread with icing. Leave to cool completely (if you can!) before cutting through icing. Icing: 60g butter 120g icing sugar 2 level tbsp golden syrup 3 tsp ground ginger Melt together and beat till smooth.
Read more