Happy Easter!

I love Easter!

I love the excitement of a day that celebrates the resurrection of Christ, new life and in my mind at least, the official end of the winter.

We had such a fabulous day with my brother-in-law and my sister-in-law and her boyfriend, and ticked absolutely all the must-do-at-Easter boxes.

The morning involved hot cross buns covered with butter and homemade jam and gallons of tea (and a couple of sneaky choccy eggs) for breakfast, a trip to Church in glorious sunshine (arriving late as ever..oops), some rousing Easter hymns, then home for coffee and a completely brilliant Easter egg hunt/quiz (with proper questions and riddles and everything) devised by my sister-in-law, and a couple more chocolate eggs to keep us going until lunch.

Lunch began with drinks and tapenade and duck liver pate toasts, then a starter of salad and 'oeufs mimosa' (a very simple and delicious starter - Margot's very own eggs, hard boiled and cut in half, with the yolks removed, mashed with mayonnaise and replaced), slow roast lamb with roast parsnips, new potatoes and sauteed spring greens (and a lot of gravy and mint sauce), cheese and biscuits, apple and mango crumble and ice cream and the whole lot finished off with coffee and a serious attack on the Easter tree.  I managed to forget to take pictures, but at least you are saved the horror of pages and pages of food pornography...

We then sank into the comfy seats and quietly digested for the rest of the afternoon, buttons were loosened, eyes rested and herbal tea drunk.  We rambled through various topics, from childhood reminiscences to political debates, while my sister-in-law and I did some patchwork, and the boys kept careful tabs on the progress of the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race.  It was, all in all, quite the perfect Easter Sunday!

Simnel Cake

Spring is obviously on hold, which currently means a couple of things: firstly, my shoes have been given a serious polish, and secondly, I can legitimately continue to eat vast quantities of cake without feeling guilty.

Last weekend I swapped gardening for baking, which proved to be much funner, much warmer, and a lot more rewarding.  Since recently foxes have had one of my chickens, slug or pigeons have made short work of every single one of my purple sprouting plants, and the relentless cold is making my rhubarb all sad and bendy, I am feeling a little anti-nature.  I abandoned the garden and made a Simnel cake instead, which is deliciously rich and moist, fruity and almondy, and just the thing to accompany several cups of tea and a good novel by the radiator.

Simnel cake is traditionally eaten around Easter.  In Medieval times it was eaten on the middle Sunday of Lent as a relaxation of the forty days fast and more recently young girls in service would take one home on their day off for Mothering Sunday.  You could decorate this in the Medieval way with crystallised flowers, or the more common way with 11 marzipan balls to represent the 12 Apostles minus Judas.  This version has a rather cheeky twist...

Simnel Cake

1lb/400g mixed dried fruit (raisins, sultanas, currants, chopped peel)

6oz/150g sultanas

Grated zest 1 orange

5tbsp Cointreau/ orange liqueur

7oz/175g butter

7oz/175g caster sugar

4 pieces stem ginger in syrup

3 eggs

9oz/225g plain flour

1tsp ground nutmeg

2tsp mixed spice

1lb/500g marzipan

Place the fruit in a bowl with the orange zest and Cointreau and leave for an hour.  Grease and line an 18cm round cake tin.  Beat butter until pale, then beat in sugar and grated ginger until fluffy.

 Beat in the eggs with a large tablespoon of flour, then carefully stir in the flour, fruit and spices.

Cut a quarter off the marzipan and set aside, wrapped or covered.  Divide the remaining lump into two and roll one half out to a circle slightly smaller then the tin.  Place half the mixture in the cake tin, cover with the marzipan circle and top with the rest of the cake mixture.

Bake for 2.25 - 2.5 hours, until a skewer stuck through the centre comes out clean.  Leave to cool in the tin until lukewarm, then remove from the tin and place on a cooling rack.

Roll out the large lump of marzipan into a circle the same size or slightly larger then the cake, brush with a splash of hot water mixed with either a little apricot jam, marmalade or some of the syrup from the ginger, and stick on top of the cake.  Form 11 balls with the last bit of marzipan and stick to the top with a little more of the jam mix. Place under a very hot grill for a few minutes until the top turns golden brown.

  Keep in an airtight tin and try not too eat too quickly!

Bringing Spring In

It is so miserable and depressing outside so I decided today to bring my Springy Eastery project forward a few days to cheer me up.

I'm glad I did because it is so jolly and cheery and also involved nibbling a few chocolate eggs to check they were ok.  Luckily they were.

Very simple to make, just a load of branches from the garden stuck in a jam jar with a ribbon tied round the top.  I stuck loops of string to the top of chocolate eggs with a glue gun, wrapped 2 or 3 mini eggs in circles of coloured tissue and tied with a bow and painted a couple of blown duck eggs. (Get a duck egg, make a small hole in each end with a pin.  Use the pin to poke the yolk inside to break it up and then blow through one end, the egg should come out of the other end...eventually.  Beware of busting blood vessels and make sure no one you want to impress is watching, it isn't all that attractive an activity.)

The light is awful because the day was so mis, so I will put a better one up if we ever get some sunshine.  At least it isn't raining I suppose, Monday was vile, torrential rain, buckets, stair-rods, cats and dogs, you name it, it was raining it.  The bottom of the garden has just today dried up a little which is just as well;  Margot was practically afloat the other day.

I also have a ridiculously large bouquet of Daffodils and scented Narcissi in the dining room which jolly the place up a bit.

And these beautifully scented Hyacinths keep me company in the kitchen.

Come on Spring!

Distractions

Feeling very glum following the loss of my lovely little Darcey, I ticked off all the boring jobby sort of jobs from my list, fixed the hen house and added some extra fox-proofing and settled down to an afternoon of nice distracty projects.

Here is a little taster of something I started this afternoon, keep your eyes peeled for the finished project!

Then I did some cooking.

Delicious Crunchy Granola

This is soo quick and easy, a lot cheaper than the shops, and low in sugar.

3 1/2 cups oats (porridge oats/rolled oats/barley flakes/rye flakes or a mix)

3/4 cup seeds (pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, linseed, sesame seeds - any or a mix)

2/3 cup chopped nuts (optional)

3 tbsp honey (British or Fairtrade is best)

1 tbsp oil (sunflower or nut)

1 1/2 tbsp water

pinch salt

Put the honey, oil, water and salt in a large pan over a gentle heat until warm.

Stir in the other ingredients, spread on a baking tray and bake in a preheated oven at 150C/gas mark 2 for 20 mins, then stir and bake for another 15/20 mins until golden.  Leave to cool before adding dry fruit and store in an airtight tin.

A particularly good addition is 1 1/2 tps cinnamon stirred in before going in the oven, and then add raisins, sultanas and chopped dried apple, or you could go tropical and add flaked coconut and dried tropical fruits.  Adjust the recipe to suit your taste - more or less seeds, no nuts, more honey for a sweeter taste, it is totally up to you!

For supper we had a bit of an experiment, which luckily worked and was actually rather delish.  Quinoa (said 'keen-wah') is a fab little seed and a bit of a closet super-food.  It contains lots of protein, has a low glycaemic load, is high in fibre, is rammed with all sorts of vitamins, minerals and amino acids.  It is also very tasty.

As well as these tasty little patties, you can use it as a lighter alternative to pasta, rice, and couscous.  If you keep cooking it, let the water boil out and add a splash of milk, it makes a fab porridge.

Quinoa Patties

(Serves 4)

4 handfuls quinoa

1 egg

4 tsps self raising flour

salt and pepper

Place the quinoa in a pan of boiling water and boil for 15 -20 mins until cooked (think pasta texture).

Leave until lukewarm then whisk in egg and flour and salt and pepper.  At this point if you wish, you can add herbs, spices, chilli flakes, grated cheese or parmesan to taste. 

Heat a large splosh of oil in a frying pan and spoon in flattened, tablespoon-sized blobs.

Fry until golden, then turn and fry until golden the other side.

We had ours with sauteed spring greens (fry finely chopped onion or shallot in a little oil until soft and golden, add shredded spring greens, fry for a few minutes, add a clove of garlic finely chopped or crushed and fry a couple more minutes until the greens are soft and the bite of the garlic is gone.), grilled goats cheese and sweet chilli jelly.

They would also go well with grilled halloumi cheese and sweet chilli, roasted peppers, onions and tomatoes, soup or stews, poached egg and bacon, grilled/fried mushrooms...

Food solves all - now I feel much better, still sad, but able to bear it!

Stop all the clocks...

Today is a very sad day.

I have managed so far not to cry, but only because I have several phone calls to make and can't be snuffly.

Last night the foxes took Darcey.

She was an extremely lovely chicken, with a beautifully fluffy bottom, the most talkative of chums, just getting the hang of egg laying and generally in the prime of life.

Margot is extremely upset and has been wandering about looking sad and lost.  I think she is being a bit stiff-upper-lip-ish and hiding her grief though because she did seem quite un-bothered when I took her some consoling porridge this morning.

Death to foxes, curses on all their houses.

In order to cheer myself up I have already planned for some tiny fluffy arrivals at some point in the next few weeks...

I can't put photos of the horrible sad little piles of feathers about the garden, but here she is peering out at the snow in January.  Neither of them were impressed by the snow and spent the whole week indoors, essentially having their meals brought to them in bed.  Very naughty.

And Margot, despite being a bit bonkers, is still very cute indeed.

Ok, I had better stop as I am at risk of sounding like a mad chicken lady...

Sproppa baltic

I abandoned Edward last weekend and went to Sheffield to visit one of my closest chums.  I have only ventured to the North a very few times, so I found it very exciting and like going to another country.  Or being in Billy Elliot.  The weather was very kind as to give me a true taster of particularly Northern type weather - starting with cold and rain, then really going for it with arctic cold, sleet, then snow, with a tiny splash of sunshine thrown in just to prove it could.  We started our weekend with an evening in, to give us a proper amount of time for uninterrupted, non-distractable catching up.  This we fuelled with cake, hot cross buns, dark chocolate, several gallons of tea and home made falafel.  This recipe you must have, it is high on the list of fab recipes, being easy, delicious and low on washing up.

Falafel

(Serves 2)

1 tin chickpeas

1 small onion

2 large cloves garlic

small bunch fresh coriander or parsley

3/4 tsp cumin seed

3/4 tsp coriander seed

1 rounded tbsp plain flour

splash oil

salt and pepper

(This is particularly good with sweet potato chips - peel and cut sweet potato into finger sized chunks, place on a large baking tray, toss with oil and shove in the oven at 190C/gas mark 5 while you make the falafel) (I also had a celariac kicking about in the fridge; very nice chips)

Method 1 (food processor, or stick blender):

Place chickpeas in a food processor and blend until smooth.

Peel onion and garlic and cut into chunks, grind spices in a pestle and mortar, then add to chickpeas and blend again.  Stir in salt, pepper, oil and flour.

Method 2 (if you don't have a food processor):

Mash chickpeas with a potato masher or fork.  Finely chop onion, garlic and herbs and stir in with other ingredients.

Form patties with the mixture (should make about 10) and place on the tray with the sweet potato.

Turn the oven up to 200C/gas mark 6 and bake for 15 mins, then turn the falafel over, stir the chips and bake for a further 10 mins.

While they are cooking, prepare the accompaniments.  It is entirely up to you how you eat your falafel and what with, here are a few ideas:

Wrap or pitta (warm in the oven just before the falafel are done) or plain

Chopped lettuce, tomatoes, peppers

Yogurt mixed with chopped cucumber and finely chopped mint or dill

Garlic mayonnaise - mix 1 tbsp mayonnaise with 1 clove garlic, crushed, and leave to stand for 10 mins

Hummous, hot sauce, chilli jam, mango chutney

To serve, place the falafel and chips in a warmed dish with a lid or a plate on top, and the accompaniments in bowls and tuck in!

Anyway, we then spent the rest of the weekend doing much the same, ambling round Sheffield, and visiting Bakewell.  Here are a few snaps!

Evening essentials...

(Getting on with my patchwork, which is now getting excitingly big and nearly finished!

Instructions on how to start your own patchwork quilt coming soon!)

The Peak District in the snow!

A brief moment of sunshine - glorious!

Bakewell

Traditional Bakewell Pudding 

I returned home to a very happy husband, who had enjoyed a weekend of complete and utter nothing-ness, but was much happier to have me home!