For anyone else who loves beautiful linen, Swedish decor/ceramics or Gustavian furniture - I have breaking news! ‘Swedish House at Home’ has now launched its website holding page which you can subscribe to, for up-to-the-minute news of their e-commerce site launch. Just login at www.swedishhouseathome.com and leave your email details and you can be one of the first browsing the fabulous selection of [...]
Our best crop of redcurrants from the allotment yet. The odd ripe blackcurrant found its way into the jam jar too!
Chicken in a white wine and tarragon sauce, with fresh new potatoes freshly dug from the allotment today (cooked with apple mint) and a salad with added chopped lovage leaves. Just enjoying those last few moments while dinner cooks and the smell wafts out of the stable door onto the patio. The new tarragon and lovage plants looked so lovely [...]
How lovely to pick a crop from the allotment this early in the growing season. We have forced our Rhubarb to produce these beautiful shell-pink stems which are tender and juicy. This is an old variety called ‘Victoria’ which has a lovely balance of sweetness and sharpness – fantastic sprinkled in sugar and eaten raw.
Beautiful walk in Engine Wood this morning in the rain and the sun. Faint smell of the new wild garlic emerging from the thick mulch of leaves. Hedgerows and wire fences littered with ‘old man’s beard’ and wool. The sound of pheasants flying up from the ground. Good training ground for the dog! Then a pub lunch at the [...]
Simple pleasures! My two lovely young nephews came to see me for the day and we spent hours outside in the fields playing football, wading in the brook, taking photographs of flora and fauna, walking the dog. Followed by much frivolity baking bread and cakes! Henry (8) modelled most of the cake on his ‘T’ shirt and [...]
Eating healthily in the cold months can be difficult at the best of times. I always want to eat something warm and hearty, not a cold green salad! This recipe is a welcoming sight on any chilly day. Goats cheese with walnuts, warm roasted squash and sage - lightly drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Great [...]
At Cracking Plates we are looking forward to a snappy New Year, and after all the hectic baking, basting and boiling of the Christmas season, we also wish all our clients and blog followers a very successful 2011.
‘Chip’ our 5 month old Working Cocker Spaniel puppy loves the snow! He chases it, rolls in it, eats it, digs it and buries his head in it! Despite the thickness of the snow in Somerset at the moment he can still catch the odd scent of a fox, rabbit or pheasant. He is a brave [...]
Last night I made my first batch of Christmas mince pies. Just before serving them I took a couple of quick pictures. Good job I did, as they didn’t hang around long! The smell of them cooking always helps the appetite – my neighbours were very complimentary about them. The mince pie in the shot has [...]
