Bottling Your Cordial

Wash your bottles in hot soapy water and rinse out.

Place in the oven at 160C and cook for 20 minutes to sterilise them.

Put the lids in for a few minutes to dry them out too.  Meanwhile, strain the cordial through a muslin or jelly bag laid over a sieve.  You can cover your muslin in boiling water to sterilise it too, but mind your fingers when getting it out!

I usually take the flowers out and squeeze them through a colander first otherwise they clog up the muslin.

Take the bottles out and leave them to cool slightly before pouring in the cordial.

Store in a cool dark cupboard for up to a year...if it lasts that long!

Elderflower Cordial

Once you have gathered all your flowers, here is what to do with them:

1kg/1lb3oz sugar

12 large elderflower heads (or 24 small ones)

40g/1.4oz citric acid

1 lemon

650 ml boiling water

(This makes about 1 3/4 wine bottles-worth)

Put the sugar in a large bowl, pour over the boiling water and stir until dissolved.  This takes quite a while.  Add the citric acid and stir until dissolved.

Peel the zest from the lemon and add it, along with the lemon juice.

Place the elderflower heads in the bowl, pushing the flowers under the liquid but leaving the stems out.

Cover with a tea towel and leave overnight.

It makes the whole house smell like summer.

ACTION STATIONS.....

The forecast for the next few days is for no rain, and possibly even some actual sunshine, so have your Elderflower gathering kit at the ready!

This is what you are looking for:

(Ideally not next to a busy road.)

You can tell by the smell too of course!

For picking, you will need:

Sunshine (not absolutely essential, but the flowers are best if picked in warm, dry and not too windy weather),

Wellies (in case of nettles),

A large bag,

Strong scissors/secateurs,

Dark glasses, trench coat and a large hat (if you want to conceal your identity whilst nabbing all the local Elderflower)

Have at the ready:

Lemons

Citric acid (available at your local pharmacy/Boots)

A lot of sugar

A piece of muslin or a jelly bag

Empty wine bottles (ask your neighbours too!)

Quantities-wise, for one batch (about 2 wine bottles-worth) you will need:

1kg/450g sugar

12 large Elderflower heads

40g/1.5oz citric acid

1 lemon

I usually make several batches as it is super easy and far too delicious to only have 2 bottles of.

GO GO GO!

First of the Harvest!

Look at our lovely radishes!  Soo exciting eating things from our very own garden.

We had one each.

They were very delicious.

Swan Lake

I may just have the best husband ever.

Edward told me several several weeks ago to keep a certain evening free in my diary as he had a surprise.  I was extremely excited and fairly sure I'd find out in not too long as Edward is very bad at keeping secrets...or so I thought.  Wednesday night arrived and I still had no idea what the surprise was, just that I should wear something nice and that we would grab something to eat before it.  We met up with some friends and had supper at a very nice hotel on the Strand before leaping into a taxi to our mystery destination.  We passed Buckingham Palace and then Hyde Park and arrived at...The Royal Albert Hall!

I couldn't speak for several minutes when I discovered we were going to see...Swan Lake!

We were the second row from the stage and it was fantastic to be so close to the dancers.

 We watched Daria Klimentova dancing the role of Odette/Odile, and Vadim Muntagirov as Siegfried, with the English National Ballet.

     It was completely beautiful, amazing, fab and totally the best surprise ever.  I love ballet.

And Edward, obviously.

Pea and Watercress Soup

This is a fab recipe for a very light and refreshing soup, perfect for the summer as a light main or a starter.  It is ridiculously quick and easy too - very little faffing about and hardly any washing up.

1 onion

1litre frozen peas

100g washed British watercress

1 1/2 vegetable stock cube

Slice the onion and fry in a little oil until soft and golden.  Throw in the peas and stir about for a few minutes.

 Cover the lot with water, add the stock cube and a little salt and pepper and boil until the peas are very well cooked.  Add the watercress and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Blend thoroughly.

Several options for serving: as is, with a swirl of cream, with pieces of crisp bacon or with a few chopped mint leaves.  Add potato for a more substantial soup.

A Blustry Weekend

Last weekend we leaped on the train and trundled down to Eastbourne to visit my parents.

We went for a very windy walk along the sea front on Saturday afternoon, just in time to enjoy some beautiful blue skies and bright sunshine before the clouds arrived.

I found a shouting-man stone.

We managed to come back with only a couple of pebbles and avoid the 'I-weigh-several-kilos-extra-with-my-coat-on(thepoacketsarefullofpebbles)', which is our beach trip standard.

It was actually warm enough for me to whip off my cardigan to show you my outfit - the skirt I made a few weeks ago, and the top I said I would make!

I love wearing a whole handmade outfit, it's so exciting.

The top is made from a delicious piece of silk left over from a ball gown I made last year, in a very simple pattern I drew up.  I did have to cut the front in two pieces as I was a bit short on fabric! 

Shortly after this photo was taken the clouds closed in, the temperature dropped and we practically flew home, arriving blustered and battered and with serious hedge hair.

Any notions of a romantic fish and chip supper on the beach were completely written off, so we wandered into town to see what was available.  A little American style diner caught our eye where we had supper with some rather high profile customers...

The weather managed to muster some sunshine for Sunday and so we went for a wander round some Open Gardens in Bexhill.  These were open through the National Garden Scheme which is well worth investigating (http://www.ngs.org.uk/), a perfect weekend activity - a gentle amble round some beautiful local gardens followed by afternoon tea, and all in aid of various charities.  I love looking at the flowers, though Edward 's interest waned rather fast until we reached the garden with the tea and cake.

I wish I could show you how beautiful these roses smelt; heady, summery, beautiful.

This is Sweet Cicely, which grows wild and looks a bit like Cow Parsley.  You can eat the little stalky seed heads (on the left) and they have a sweet aniseed-y taste.  Hedgerow sweet shop.

This enormous Clematis also smelt amazing - a very delicate scent, the sort of thing you could stuff your nose into for hours.

There's something to brighten your day!

New babies!

Please welcome the new additions to our family!

Such cuties, sooo fluffy and still young enough to be cheepy instead of clucky.

I love them!

Margot is very taken with them too and is soo happy to have some company once again.  They are of course best friends and inseparable.

Slight problem is that I have no names for them as yet and totally can't decide what to call them.

I have thought about naming them after famous ballerinas - Anna (Pavlova) and Sylvie (Guillem), British Queens - Victoria and Elizabeth or characters from Ballets - Odette and Giselle... but I'm not entirely grabbed by any of those names.

Any ideas?!

Cucumber Relish

Hold onto your socks, this is serious business.

I went to visit my aunt the other day and we went to her local market for some fruit and vegetables.  I found a number of exciting things, among them English cucumbers at 50p each.  Far too good an offer to pass up, I purchased four for good measure and turned them into glorious green relish on my return home.  This relish is really extremely good stuff.  It goes particularly well with strong cheese, or cold roast, or cheese scones, or sausage sandwiches.  Amongst other things.

Cucumber Relish

2lb cucumbers

2 large onions

2oz salt

400ml/14fl oz cider vinegar

250g/10oz brown sugar

1/2tsp ground turmeric

1/4tsp ground cloves

1tbsp mustard seed

1/2tsp celery seed

Slice your onions and cucumbers.  I have a mandolin which makes the process fabulously quick and easy, but you could grate them on a cheese grater, or finely slice them with a knife.

Mind your fingers!

Place in a large bowl and add the salt, mixing well with your hands.  Top with an upside down plate and a heavy weight and leave for a couple of hours.

Pour off the liquid, then rinse the shreds a handful at a time in fresh water, squeezing well before placing in a bowl.  Wash your jars and their lids in hot soapy water, rinse and place in the oven preheated to 180C/gas mark 4.  Make sure the jars don't touch each other, cook for 20 mins (the lids only need about 10 mins) then turn off the oven but leaves the jars in.  This sterilises the jars and preheats them so that the glass doesn't shatter when you fill them with boiling vinegar.

 Shut all doors connecting the kitchen to the rest of the house and open a window (everything gets a bit pickledy smelling otherwise).  Place the vinegar and spices in a large pan and bring to the boil.

Add the cucumber and onion carefully so that it doesn't splosh (I would hate to hear of you running to A and E covered in boiling vinegar), bring back to the boil and boil for one minute only.

Take the pan off the heat and use a colander/slatted spoon to separate the vinegar from the shreds.

Return the vinegar to the heat and boil for 9 minutes (doesn't need to be quite as exact as it sounds, 8-10 will do).  Meanwhile, take your hot jars out of the oven (using suitable hand protection) and fill to just over 3/4 full with the cucumber shreds, then pour over the re-boiled vinegar to just under the top of the jar.

Wipe the rim of the jars with a damp cloth and screw the lids on.  As the relish cools you should hear a series of satisfying pops as the vacuum sucks the lids down.  Leave to cool before labelling (you could put the date on the labels too but it probably isn't worth it as it'll get eaten in fairly short time).

Leave for at least 3 weeks in a dark cupboard before eating so that the vinegar can chill out a bit.

Then crack open a jar and spread thickly on a hefty slice of bread topped with mature Cheddar cheese, or cheese on toast.  Beer or cider to accompany is optional but will probably improve the combination even further.  Maybe set aside an hour or two to really savour the experience...