Sourdough Muffins

In an effort to use all the Sourdough Starter that I am making, I tried some Muffins this morning, the recipe and results are on my bread blog, follow the link on the side of the page. Just to whet your appetite, here is a picture of the finished article.

Have a great day.

Dare we Hope?

Whisper it very quietly, but I think the weather is getting better.
I worked on Thursday, and Yvonne came up as well, staying with Naomi and Eamon for the day

Work was steady, four jobs but mostly in the dark,

just one picture, outward bound at Erith.

When we arrived home on Friday afternoon, it was warm and sunny, but as we stepped out of the car it rained, a short, sharp shower. Since then it has been clear and mild, warmer out of the breeze.
Anyway we got the dogs back from kennels this morning and took them to Broadsands for a walk and a swim.

As you can see it was ideal for a paddle, but Fliss the black lab doesn't like the noise of the waves and will only paddle. Tizer goes in for a proper swim though,

Now too food, last time we went to Totnes we stocked up on sausages, especially Pork and Marmite from Evergreen Farm.

As they contain hardly any liquid I cooked some on a bed of Onions,

firstly by frying the sliced Onions for about 10 minutes, until they started to soften. Then adding a sprinkle of Brown sugar and frying for 5 minutes more. Finally add the sausages and fry till cooked through, by which time the onions are sticky and well browned.

 This tastes good with mashed potatoes, to which a spoon of Mustard has been added.

Yvonne will be in Hospital next week for a major operation, so I'm learning how to peel grapes and work the hoover, to build up her strength I made a crumble, using the last jar of preserved apples,

and a tub of frozen berries from last years bumper crop. (Only 6lb left in the freezer now!)

It made a huge amount, I needed my big Pyrex to fit it all in.

I made the topping with the remains of my Einkorn flour, some Oats and a handful of mixed seeds,

I have to admit that I use Custard Powder, (life's too short to mess around with Eggs) and Brown sugar, cheating I know but very tasty!

Yvonne's operation means that I have taken leave from work and with my normal off duty periods I have 6 weeks off, so after next weds I go back on April 9th, plenty of time to look after her and do some other jobs, particularly in the garden if it has dried out.

Here comes the Rain (Again)

The approaching weather front, as seen from Sharkham as I race to get home with the dogs before it rains.

I had gone round the garden and secured things, the fence is leaning a bit, but the ground is too wet to do much about it. Fortunately the wind direction is not straight onto it.

Next morning I found this much rain on my picnic table cover, about 30mm, not bad for 12 hours!!

There is little that I can do in the garden, although there are plenty of things that should be done. My seed potatoes are sprouting, but the bags are more mud than soil, all the green manure I grew last autumn has been washed away, it's time to plant but I'm leaving it a bit.

It's funny that Somerset was under water for a month with little notice taken in London, but as soon as the Thames started flooding, lots was done to help. Call me a cynic, but I suppose there are a lot more voters living along the Thames than there are in Somerset. Sad really, because the people in London will notice the significance of Somerset in August when food prices rocket.

 

 

This beauty is a Creme Egg Brownie from West Country Deli, just waiting to be eaten, and it won't have long to wait!!! The work of a genius, just wish I had thought of it.

 

or this Snickers Cheesecake, from Fermoys Garden Centre Cafe. I do love the food in Devon.


Crossover

At last I'm catching up, well a bit at least.

Its been a nice day here, and a good dog walk around Sharkham, looking lovely in the sunshine,

also there are daffodils out, well just about out!

and I managed to get the Beetroot and Onion Bread to work, check out my bread blog for all the details, the link is on the right.

We went out for a look around a local garden centre this morning, had a very nice piece of Snickers Cheesecake with our coffee, well worth the calories!

That's the good stuff, now we are onto the tidying up and boring things for a couple of days, more rain and wind is forecast, SIGH.

Whatever happened to last week?

It seems to have shot by and I never noticed!

There has been so much going on here that the days merged into one, and now that I look back I can see a week has passed.
The weather doesn't help, every day is the same, wet and windy and dark. The only decent day so far in Feb was last Sunday, I was at work. It was nice on the river though.

Approaching the Dartford Bridge, Outward Bound.

Maybe I exaggerate slightly, we did get a rainbow on one of the days, when the rain briefly abated,

All this enforced stopping in has meant a bit of creativity, I made my usual Sourdough breads,

and found time to go to the dentist (Ouch - and that was before the bill - double Ouch!!)

In our capacity as founders of Well Bread! we went to the Taste of the West trade show in Exeter on Wednesday, plenty of samples to graze on, and a few new ideas for the future.

Thursday we had a spicy Lamb dish, in the North African style, starting with fried Onion, Pepper and Harissa, and some Apricots. These I fried till softened and left to cool.

Then I added shredded cooked Lamb,

raisins and chopped mixed nuts. I cooked the mixture through and put more Apricots on top. It was served with flatbreads and Cous-Cous. Now it's back to work again. How time flies.