An exciting week.

Big news, Naomi called me at 0615 on Monday, I'm a grandfather again!!!!! She has had a daughter who she is calling Maeve Isabella, 6lb 7oz. Yvonne and I are off to see her shortly.

More pictures to follow.

In other more boring news, I made a white sourdough loaf,

which was really tasty, I also used the discarded sourdough starter to make some Battered Onion Rings, soaking the onion first in Balsamic Vinegar overnight.

Georgina came down to see us for a couple of days before she goes back to Oz.

We took her to the Eden Project on a rainy day and she really enjoyed it. It was the second time we had been but her first, our last visit was in June 2009 when it also rained. 
They have a new walkway over the top of the Tropical Biome which was pretty spectacular, as you can see.

You can just see Yvonne in the picture below, 

 I tried the zoom on my camera,

 Wow! No tripod either.

We didn't get a chance to look around outside as it was raining really hard but we changed our tickets into annual passes so will be back in the summer. Maybe it will be third time lucky and we can have a look around the gardens when it won't be raining.

While George was here she made us something she called ANZAC biscuits, with Coconut, Syrup and Oats in. They were lovely, crisp outside and chewy inside. I have the recipe so will try them myself later.

Writing wise I'm working my way through the revision of "The Rocks of Aserol," my editor has suggested a few things and I'm seeing if they work; as well as her corrections to my grammar and all the inconsistencies she has spotted. A bigger job than actually writing the thing in the first place.

Incidentally, my Novel "Ribbonworld" is available at a special price for a short while. 

A signed paperback can be yours for £ 4, just about the same price as the e-book.
Go to this link for your copy. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/-/291664651929?

I also got another 5* review this week, from an Anonymous Amazon customer,

5.0 out of 5 starsA must read - Brilliant!!!

ByAmazon Customeron 21 January 2016

Format: Paperback

Ribbonworld was a fantastic read which kept me wanting more. Lots of action, suspense and a believable story, 

I didn't want it to end. If your a sci-fi reader this is definitely the book for you. 

Richard Dee - when is the next one coming out?

I'm pleased with that one.

Finally, on my dog walk last tuesday, I spotted some sort of bird of prey in the trees up at Sharkham. 
With my phones camera on full zoom I couldn't get a better picture but it was large.

Pork Sausagemeat, Apple and Onion Pie

Warning, if you are of a nervous disposition or don't like pictures of raw meat then perhaps this post is not for you.

My mother used to make this pie with her own pastry and Sausagemeat which she got locally when we lived in Kent.

Now I'm here in Devon I get mine from Evergreen Farm at Totnes Good Food Market,

  I bought this one before Christmas and put it in the freezer.

I'm typing this on Friday and while it defrosts for Saturday I fried Onions and stewed some Bramley Apples. These I mixed together and will add to the meat when everything is at the same temperature.

Once again no prizes for beauty in the picture, .

I'm cheating and using ready made puff pastry, (life's too short to make it)

So Friday evening I mixed the sausage meat and the onion/apple together, again its not a pretty picture but bear with me on this, it will all turn out alright.

Saturday morning is now just assembly and cooking.

I greased a pie dish and lined it with the pastry,

filled it with the mixture,

and made a rather pathetic lattice with the remainder. (Spot the mistake)

Just an egg wash now and it can be cooked.

I baked it at 180°C in a fan oven for 40 minutes,

and it was perfect, it tasted fantastic, we had half tonight and will finish it off cold with salad on Monday.

There was a little pastry left so I made a pasty with some of the Mince Pie fruit I had left over from Xmas. Again the crimp let me down but it couldn't hide the taste.

Steak tomorrow, it doesn't get better than this!!!

Bread Update

There's a new post on my bread blog, featuring these beauties,

Marmite bread and  mixed fruit and nut loaf.

catch up here.

Alternative Cookies

We are both very partial to a biscuit (or two) and I make several varieties, Sourdough Digestives, Chocolate and Orange Sourdough Cookies, Jammie Dodgers etc but they all have one thing in common, a lot of sugar.

So when I saw the recipe for these little beauties I thought it might be slightly less calorific but just as tasty. I have modified it slightly to fit in with what I had available, the beauty is that it could be very flexible.

You will need,

A 400g Tin of Chickpeas, drained and rinsed.
160g Nut Butter, (I used home-made Walnut)
20g Agave Syrup
Pinch Salt
10g Vanilla Bean Paste
1 Tsp Bicarb

And basically you just blend the whole lot together into a fine batter.

Add 75g Chocolate Chips and mix again, then separate into small balls and  put onto a lined baking sheet. There are 13 there but you could easily make 15 or 16.

 Flatten them out and bake at 160°C in a fan oven for 10-15 minutes until golden.

Leave them to cool, they don't go very crunchy but maintain a chewy centre.

Now for the good part; you can substitute the Walnut Butter for any nut butter you like, so Peanut, Almond or Cashew are all a possibility. And the chocolate chips could be swapped for raisins, dried cranberries or sour cherries. Or why not try adding a little instant coffee powder to the Walnut variation. As they say 'the possibilities are endless.' 
I will investigate a savoury version in the near future

Day out; and a Salmon Recipe

This was just after the sunrise on Jan 4th, I'm a big fan of crepuscular rays and these looked better in real life but you get the idea.

On Tuesday we used our new found freedom to take a picnic out. We intended to go to Thurlstone, a place I remember from my childhood, largely because of the rock formation that gives it its name but also for the beach and the views.

Well the journey was slowed by one of the scenes that you rarely see any more, animals moving down the road; sheep in this case.

and when we got to Thurlstone it was just as I remembered it, the light was changing so quickly that its hard to believe that these pictures were taken about a minute apart.

In all I drove about 70 miles through the lanes around Kingsbridge and Salcombe and visited a few places that I hadn't seen for years, it's funny how the reality and the memory work, some places looked as fresh as yesterday and yet I could hardly recognise others.  

For our meal today, I did Salmon in a sort of Chutney with Watercress. It's adapted from a Nigel Slater recipe I picked up ages ago.

The Chutney is a mix of Shallots, New Potatoes and mixed dried fruits.(No peel) Added to this is Vinegar and Brown Sugar, Cinnamon and flaked Almonds. No exact quantities; just put in however much you feel, if you like vinegar put less sugar etc.

Before Cooking

 This mixture is cooked covered for an hour at 160°C, then the salmon fillets are put into the oven and the whole lot has another 20 minutes.

Chutney after cooking

 I Oiled the salmon and rubbed in some seasoning that I got for Xmas,

This was delicious!

It was plated up with Watercress and tasted pretty good.

We're off to Totnes market tomorrow, can't wait.

Buried Treasure!

A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!!!

The buried treasure was in a tin; buried at the back of our food store cupboard. The label was half missing but there was enough of it left to see that it was a tin of cooked potatoes in water. Goodness knows what it was bought for or even when, it was dated use before the end of 12/15 so it's only 2 days out. 

I was feeling brave so I opened it up and drained the contents. The potatoes smelt OK so I chopped them into pieces and mixed them up with some garlic paste and olive oil. They were roasted with our meal this evening and I will use them in some Bread tomorrow.

They should mix in nicely.

I have revived my Spelt starter so will make Spelt Sourdough tomorrow and incorporate the potatoes in one of the other things I'm doing. Probably a Onion Bread or roll, I haven't decided which yet. I may make some teacakes as well. Anyway that's more for the bread blog really.

Yvonne asked me if there was anything I wanted for Xmas this year. I couldn't decide;(What's new) but since then my computer monitor has started playing up. Its ten years old now and has lasted longer than things normally seem to (about a week after the warranty runs out in my experience) so I guess it was to be expected. To me it's still a shame though as I hate it when stuff breaks down. I have researched online and there is little that can be done to fix it economically, its cheaper to get a new one. 

That's another thing I hate, I used to be able to fix things, now  (and this is really cynical) things seem to be made so you can't fix them, or its expensive to fix them and hence you HAVE to buy a new one. Hmmm rant over.

Anyway I've ordered a new one and thanks to Yvonne have a better one than I would have got otherwise. Its arriving next week sometime. It does get a lot of use to be fair.

And if I carry on writing it will get a lot more, I have three stories on the go at the moment and one that I have just sent off to my editor. She will go through it and correct my punctuation and grammar; also she will try and spot any plot holes. Then I have to decide which way to go with it. Meanwhile I'm adding bits to my half-finished works as the mood takes me, some days it's one story, then I might think of things that would work in one of the others so I add them in roughly (so I don't forget) and can tidy the stuff up later.

Now I've finished baking bread commercially I have much more time to do all the things I wanted and this is one of them. When the weather improves we can get out and about more too, there's a lot of Devon and Cornwall to explore.