Anniversary Issue

It’s been a year, twelve months, fifty-two weeks, whatever you want to call it, I have been blogging for that long, I didn’t realise it was sneaking up on me like that.

So how to mark this occasion? Well I could bake myself a cake, or take myself out for a meal, but I guess I’ll just keep on plugging away with the usual drivel.

Those of you who are keeping up will remember I spoke about Nature’s Kitchen, whose spice blends I discovered recently. Well I tried rubbing some of their Lemon Pepper mixture

on a couple of chicken fillets,

wrapping in breadcrumbs and baking,

 I didn’t have chance to take a picture of the cooked article as they went quickly, but did snap a record of one half piece.

I must recommend the mixture, take a look at http://www.naturekitchen.co.uk, for lots of ideas, next up I will be trying their Herb Salt on New Potatoes.

I’m off to the Devon Show this week, so must take plenty of money for the food tent!  

Took the dogs round Sharkham on Weds, loads of Bluebells and other wild flowers about.

Lots of White food on Wednesday, Yvonne’s a big fan of Cauliflower Cheese, whilst I prefer Mac’n’cheese myself. I didn’t realise that July 14^th was Mac and cheese day in the U.S.A. (Thanks Wiki)

So I made a single portion of each!

Is This Cauliflower Cheese?

Or is this Macaroni?

I had to do them in different shaped dishes to tell the difference.

Also I wanted to try a Focaccia recipe I had found that used mashed potato in it, and a hydration of just under 80%.

It was a little hard to knead, but a bit of stretch and fold got it into shape, I never cease to be amazed by the effectiveness of that manoeuvre. Also a lot of Olive Oil helped in handling.

After a rise of about 90 minutes, I dotted them with green pesto and garlic and baked for about an hour.

They didn’t really come out like I expected, but were delicious anyhow. The Olive Oil gave them a crisp, almost biscuit-like crust, and the mashed potato made them soft inside.

My sourdough is also improving,

Stay tuned for the foodie report from the show.