Holidays!!! - Friday, 21st November 2014

Hi there,

Well, here I am at home again.  The jet-lag has gone, so has the holiday-damaged tooth gone - extracted before the jet-lag had gone, but all's well and I'm getting my notes organised, to tell you all about the wonderful eating I indulged in whilst in Australia.

One thing I've eaten and enjoyed, was the organic Sourdough bread Dan kept at home.  Its great and for me, there were no after-effects which was great!

Now, where might I buy a similar loaf of bread in Oxfordshire!  Does anyone know???

Happy eating

Daisy xxx

Gluten-free food on sale at the Farmers Market at Collingwood, Melbourne - it was such a glorious Market event!

Naturally Gluten-free Forever. plus some gluten-rich items - Monday, 3rd November 2014

On holiday in Melbourne,  Victoria, I'm eating masses of naturally gluten-free food and, of course, the occasionally necessary gluten-rich muffins and cookies etc. which are essential adjuncts to our morning Lattes and Chai Lattes!

I enjoyed a gluten-free apple and cinnamon cookie at Melbourne's Botanic Garden Terrace restaurant walk last week....to get my week off to a good start....

 but did not have one of any of these more-ish mouthfuls from their front coffee bar, where folk were queueing up for Lattes, Chai Lattes etc. before heading off into the Gardens.....

Doughnuts and pies and other yummy regular gluten-rich foods!

Instead, I plumped for lunch in their Jardin Tan restaurant, dining on Prawn Fritters with two spicy oils, and green salad of coriander, bean shoots and crisp lettuce and, of course, my Latte...

Prawn Fritters - with a milk/flour batter....

Green Salad + my Latte.  The spicy oils were excellent on the salad

A good view of the two spicy oils which came with my lettuce

I'll try the Cocktail menu another time!!!

The lunch was really good and I did very much like the fritters but unfortunately, they reacted on me just a little, on Tuesday, so I'm presuming a regular flour etc. was used for the batter with normal milk.  Somehow, I did not keep a full bottle of water with me for my garden walk and this, I suspect, was the cause of my reacting to the fritter mixture.

What I have been eating fairly regularly now on holiday, is the white Sourdough bread we have in the house and that's just fine, this probably being because its made from good flour and other high quality ingredients.  Plus consumption of fresh water drinks.  I tend to find my adverse reactions come with foods of a less  good quality, while cheap, white, sliced and factory-packaged bread brings on an instant reaction i.e. the thickened throat, the nausea and lethargy.

Yes I do believe that's it!   Cheap, factory-made and packaged, basic  food, eaten too often and too much is the cause of many folk's problems with wheat, gluten and regular lactose rich milk.  Too much pre-packaged food, too many TV dinners , little or insufficient fresh green vegetables and fruits, too much sugar-rich foods, puddings and sweetened drinks (tea, coffee, juice, squash and fizzy drinks) and too little home-cooked foods, are often the major cause of all of our problems with gluten-rich foods, digestive problems and general ill-health which bad eating inevitably brings about for so many folk and families today.

The Coeliac diet, with its need for total abstinence of gluten and lactose, is not a problem I am fully master of but from friends who must follow a coeliac regime, I understand how careful their choice of  food must be, to keep themselves free of all the debilitating side-effects such foods give them.

Last week, we visited the Yarra Valley for The Dairy, Yerings and Yarra Valley's Chocolaterie and Ice Creamery, eating ice cream in my iced coffee, a salted caramel tart and macaroons, cheeses and breads, and gluten-free chips, plus Lattes etc.  Plus copious drinks of cold water, for the hot weather, you understand.

Since then, we've been to Bendigo for fish and chips, Woodend for Eggs Benedict, asparagus pesto and delicious gourmet food from Maloahouse Gourmet Delights; Daylesford for luscious food from the Food Gallery and sampled Toni's wonderful fresh gourmet food, to the Digger Gardens at St. Erth, for its wonderful garden (we missed their coffee shop but - next time!!!) and to Trentham for the breads, ginger biscuits and brown sugar meringues from RedBeard Bakery plus, also, lovely goats cheeses in oils from Cloudhill Gardens at Olinda + their lovely restaurant food + wine+home-made chutneys, cookies and our quince and yoghurt Semifreddo variation of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipe for Strawberry and Yoghurt Semifreddo from his book of fruit recipes - River Cottage FRUIT everyday - a splendid book devoted to bringing the idea of more fruit eating into our regular daily diet.

Of course, a great deal of this wonderful eating is "holiday food" and not altogether, unfortunately, a regular occurrence but.....variety being the spice of life, what I'm saying is that there are very many wonderful foods out there, to sample and enjoy, cook and bake at home.  Good food does not only mean expensive items.  To me, good food is fresh, wholesome food, home-cooked as often as possible, masses of green and brightly coloured veggies and fruit, good breads, oils and a dash of butter, fresh eggs, good cheeses and careful avoidance of food items you know are not for you.  Plus grains, cereals - wheat is really the only one I must avoid, and there are many alternative grains and seeds (couscous, rice etc. the list is endless) some red meat and slightly more of chicken and pork, all organic whenever possible and, of course, game as and when in season - oh yum!!! I love a pheasant casserole also good sausages of good meat and very little poor quality bread based ingredients and well, so on!  

Of course, food costs and the family budget have to come into play when choosing and buying food, so just become the savvy buyer your grandmother was!  Read the labels, ask the questions you need to of your butcher, baker and supermarket manager - find out what it is you're eating and look for the best quality your purse can afford and feed yourself well and enjoy your living.

Happy eating...!

Daisy xxx







PS here's what I ate at Toni's wonderful Food Gallery at Daylesford yesterday - oh it was so good!!!

Toni's warm Chicken and Avocado Salad with Pine Nuts on a wonderful salad rich yet light with its glorious dressing and seasoning - oh yum indeed !!!

PPS ...I know I can eat and enjoy some gluten-rich foods because, over the last few years (wish I'd done it earlier) I have eliminated a vast amount of gluten and lactose items from my diet and now find I can eat regular gluten-rich foods, as long as they are of good quality ingredients and I eat from a wide variety of foods of all kinds - all balanced out nicely with copious amounts of fresh cold water,

It's quite simple really and, if I can do it, so too can you...have fun !!!

Naturally Gluten-Free For Ever - Saturday, 18th October 2014

I began blogging about gluten-free foods with a view to creating regular foods into gluten-free items but over the last few months I've been coming round to the idea of naturally gluten-free foods, of which there are so many!!!

Also, and this ius one very great pklus for me...because I've stopped eating so many favourite items - you know the ones I mean ! - bread, cakes, biscuits, flour rich sauces and gravies, pasta etc. I've discovered a grat bonus...I can now eat small quantities of these much loved foods simply because I've abstained and cultivated other likes so, now when I'm offered, or offer myself, the joy of eating those forbidden foods, generally I can eat them without any problem at all.

I believe total abstinence just makes you miserable and downcast.  Of course, for Coeliacs, that seems to have to be an absolute "must-do" and I apologise for going on about my ability to indulge my assumed forbidden foods.

If you can't eat certain foods because they make you ill, then you just cannot, and I truly feel for your difficulties and abstinence.

Actually, I could have discovered a "cure" for myself much earlier but for the fact that I simply didn't want to own-up to the fact of my food intolerance with wheat and gluten and, for my problems with lactose irritation, I simply did not know about the cause of teenage after-breakfast nausea for years and years.  As a family, we've always eaten lots of sugar and sugar based wheat products, have always had colds, catarrh and indigestion problems which I just took to be one of the nuisances my family and I suffered from.

When working as a chef, I would consume anything up to 12 biscuits a day plus some cake etc. thinking my being a workaholic demanded extra sugary foods, and that lots of regular grazing was my right and just what I needed to keep myself propelled forward during all my busy days!!!

Tension also came into my thought process, convincing me that I was definitely tense, miserable and that sugar and wheat would always solve all my problems.

Routine also played a part in all of my thought processes too.  Being a "sickly" child with colds, catarrh etc. with resultant tummy problems, I thought that was my lot.  I needed more of the same foods always consumed, didn't listen to my body, because I didn't understand what it was saying, didn't educate myself or ask enough questions!!!.

Now, having got to this stage of awareness a little while ago, I began to realise the wonderful enormity of naturally gluten-free foods available; that I could eat my favourite foods in small amounts provided I regularly topped up my intake of draughts of fresh cold water and, most importantly, ate as much fresh, unpolluted wholesome food as possible, particularly masses of fresh vegetables, and to be careful when eating fresh fruit as the fruit sugar tends to dry out my mouth if eaten in huge quantities.  Apples and pears, my favourite hard fruits (how anyone can read any book without an apple to munch along with, is a mystery?) are often very good at this "dry-out".

I also have problems with "bought" store sauces for their high acidity, so home-made is best of all for me, which is and has always been, to make my own every-food whenever possible.  It's not always possible, is it for me or any of us, so of course, there are times when we have to resort to the "store bought items" for our daily needs.

So, I guess what I'm trying to get across to you today is, allow yourself to give up or ease-up on forbidden foods, drink good daily amounts of fresh water, eat up all your lovely greens and brightly coloured veggies, exercise, dance, walk - just whatever rocks your boat - and eat as well as you possibly can.  Oh no, I'm not a vegetarian, I do love my meat so all meals have a meat input, as the dear SO thinks "no meat" is just not an option!  Fish, eggs, pulses, seeds and nuts all have a place in my daily diet and - oh dear I could go on forever detailing my foodie favourites - (did I mention grains?).  There's always another day, another blog so enough for today and, anyway, my son's garden awaits my attention, the sun is out and there are other things to do than sit here and chat to you dear fellow gluten-free-ers!!!

Did I tell you I'm out in Australia, Heathmont, Melbourne, to be precise, for a short family stay, garden help and, since arriving here, foodie exploration and discovery with the different and new items I've seen these last few days!!!

Goodness me, lots of material for my next blog, phew!

Daisy

My lovely "welcome back" bouquet from my Australian family

Apple Harvesting - Chutney & Pickling & Apple Day - Sunday, 5th October 2014

Garden Harvest for chutney and Pickles

Well, its that time of year again.  Apples, pears and other fruit everywhere; in friends gardens, in the Supermarkets, country markets and baskets and trays of garden fruit outside garden gates everywhere, from over-burdened householders, willing for passers-by to carry off their extra apples - PLEASE TAKE THEM AWAY!

Its been a glorious year for fruit, everywhere!  Our freezers and store -cupboards are becoming "full-to-bursting" with apple concoctions, bottled fruits, pickled fruits with onions, tomatoes and herbs and spices. Jams and chutneys, savoury and sweet fruit butters and cheeses and preserves of all kinds.   Purees of fruits to be used in puddings and pies, trays of uncooked fruit, frozen whole to be bagged up and stored for the winter months.  Wild fruit - blackberries, autumn raspberries and looking forward to sloes, hazel nuts, rose-hips etc.  There's just so much fruit - oh dear, are we going to have a dreadful winter?

We do what we can to get ready for the winter months to come and enjoy what we can of our home harvests from garden and allotments, country markets, village markets and Supermarkets.  We celebrate Harvest Festival with gifts from home.  We give our produce to our favourite groups and societies, like the Women's Institute or to our children's schools for Christmas Bazaars, gifts of home-filled jars to family and friends for Christmas presents or for a prettily gift-wrapped jar of something delicious to our dinner-party hostess.

Apple Day will soon be here; our annual celebration of our own individual surroundings  instigated by the Charity Common Ground in the 1990's.  Their first Apple Day held at London's Covent Garden Market on the first celebration on Sunday, 21st October 1990 to showcase the wonderful and diverse array of apples, pears and other fruit grown and cultivated in our home gardens, our glorious countryside and within our old and sometimes, neglected, fruit orchards.  The bees and other insects which pollinate our fruit, national awareness of customs involving fruit, the loss of hundreds of different fruit varieties due to specialisation and marketing, our wild life and insect life and the interest and enthusiasm engendered by Common Ground's campaigns to make us realise what we were in danger of losing forever - our countryside and our traditions.

Apple Day has been an annual celebration to look forward to and enjoy and has since become a day for all kinds of events and activities like, fruit and tree identification, sales of fruit produce from chutneys to ciders etc. and everywhere, people honouring their local area customs, all having a wonderful time in the October sunshine, trying out unknown apples and glorying in the local and national fruit diversity of the UK.

My kitchen has been very full of apples, a prize-winning onion, marrow and beetroot, sugar, sultanas and spices, small onions from my own garden, Kilner Jars, my store of jam jars and all the equipment for making chutney and pickled fruit.  At last, it's beginning to clear and here's what I've produced -

Chutney No. 2 with minced green tomatoes, apples and onions

1st Chutney with sliced green tomatoes, apples and onions - lots of lovely texture

3rd Chutney with garden grown marrow, apples and onions

Hot Pickled Veg in Vinegar in Kilner Jars

1st Pickled Vegetables - Hot Apple & Onions in Olive Oil (in Preserving Jar) then my 1st jar of Cold Pickled Veg. in Pickling Vinegar (and Sarson's jar)

Vegetables ready for picklng...!

Happy days!!!

Daisy

Banana Quinoa Flapjack - Tuesday, 23rd September 2014

Hi there,

I made flapjack first, with quinoa, and jolly nice they are too.  In fact, so good, they've already gone; all gobbled up at our book club meeting last night...

Here's the recipe:

8ozs. Anchor Butter - or your choice of spread
3 dstspnfuls Golden Syrup
4ozs. soft brown sugar - or Demerara or Golden Granulated
3ozs. dried mixed fruit
3-6 dstspnfuls dry-fry quinoa - I used 6 dstspnfuls for a good crunch but you may want to use even more, or less
12ozs. porridge oats
2ozs. self raising flour - I used Doves Farm Gluten-free white self-raising flour blend in my bake as I have a small intolerance to wheat
3 ripes bananas - mashed
A small Swiss-roll tray, buttered

Oven set to  medium heat for 25 minutes + an extra 10 minutes at a slightly lower temp; 150o C for 25 mins. followed by 10 mins. at 125o C

How to make:

1.  Melt together Anchor Butter, sugar and Golden Syrup then set pay aside to cool.
2.  Fold in mashed banana to buttery mixture.
3.  Mix together oats, flour, quinoa, dried fruit and tip into buttery mix.  Stir well to amalgamate and turn out contents into buttered pan and bake.
4.  When fully cooked and with slightly  browned edges, remove from oven and place on a cooking rack until cold, marking into small squares while still warm.  When quite cold, cut into shapes and serve for tea.

My recipe makes a soft-ish flapjack that's not too sweet.  To make a regular-style flapjack, use 4 serving spoons of  Golden Syrup and just two mashed bananas, which should give a sweeter, crisper bake.

Notes on quinoa - from Wikipedia, stating - "It is high in protein, lacks gluten, and is tolerant of dry soil."  "A grain crop, grown primarily for its edible seeds."

"www.grainfreeliving.com 19th May 2011 - states "Quinoa is a seed of the Chenopodium or Goosefoot plant.  It is frequently called a grain because it is used and cooked like one,....."

Notes found online for all to read - and there's more to be discovered if you need to do your own research.

I buy my quinoa from Tesco at 300g for £2.15; Sainsbury's sell Gourmet Merchant and I understand Waitrose sell their own range of quinoa too - I'm looking forward to my next Waitrose shop, and soon I hope!

The British Quinoa Company of Shropshire were featured on Country File a few weeks ago, giving John Craven a slice of their Quinoa Chocolate Cake made with quinoa flour, and they now provide the recipe for this on their Face Book Page.  They are on Twitter too.  They are just harvesting their first crop about now - keep in touch with them for more news of their farm and their quinoa crop.

Daisy

Quinoa days - gluten-free and good for calcium intake! - Wednesday, 17th Septemnber 2014

dry-fried Quinoa on pasta and saute veg + my garden sweet tomatoes

Dry-fried quinoa, cooked for five minutes in a small saute pan over a medium heat.  Cool down and store in a small jar or plastic box - then enjoy on your breakfast bowl, on lunch in a salad etc. and I'm going to try sprinkling it on biscuit mixture or similar!

I've done my homework, online, and I'd cooked quinoa years ago, when it became a very soggy mass of  stuff at the bottom of my saucepan.  Now, armed with the latest info on quinoa which, in the meantime, has become rather more prominent in the latest food news, and online, plus it's fairly more readily available in our supermarkets.  Online newspaper article, out of The Daily Telegraph, 13th November 2014, talks about quinoa in its "A-Z of unusual ingredients: quinoa" and it was from this article I came across the idea to roast quinoa for 20 minutes in the oven, to make it agreeable for adding to breakfast cereals!

Well, I decided oven cooking was too expensive for one item by itself and came up with the idea of my dry-fry cook.  It works brilliantly, takes just five minutes to "toasty" cook and smells rather good as it's cooking.

According to the article "Quinoa is the new superhero of the grain world".  "Handled  badly, paparticularly overcooked, it can be quite unappealing.  But keep the grain firm and slightly nutty, add your favourite spices and accompaniments, and you will start to understand what the fuss is about".
"Food writer Chrissy Freer, who has just released a book called Supergrains: Cook Your Way to Great Health, is a big fan.  "Out of all the grains quinoa really stands out," she says."

All of this info. from The Daily Telegraph online article as above.

Well, I've been eating quinoa for over a week now in my eight-layer breakfast bowl and on green salady things and meaty-veggie  mixes and it certainly does add a very good crunch to  my daily good eats.

My 8-layer breakfast bowl - banana, lactose free milk, oats, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, poppy seeds, golden linseeds and dry-fry quinoa

I can't wait to add quinoa to my next biscuit  mixture!

Daisy

Banbury Food Festival - Sunday, 17th August 2014

Carola Weymouth of Cookie Crumbles for her bags of Natural Baking Products -  I bought her Granola Energy Bars
carola@cookiecrumbles.co.uk

Chocolates of course!!! from Cherish Chocolates - www.cherishchocolates.co.uk

yippeeglutenfree.co.uk

His noodle chicken lunch - I had some too -  it was good!

Coriander Garden for their Chutney and Pakora - Onion Bhaji Mix
www.coriandergarden.co.uk

 Yippeeglutenfree.co.uk - for smashing Homebaked Gluten Free Foods - I had their Rocky Road bars - Mmm! delicious


I do love going to food festivals!  So much to look at, test and taste and good things to take home!

Here's a little view of what caught my eye today - the view from here!!!

this is what I brought home with me.....


Also there on Sunday at Banbury's Food Festival -
Abraxas Cookshop - my favourite cook shop - www.abraxascookshop.com
Pudding Pie Cooker School with a Brian Turner Demonstration - www.puddingpie.co.uk
Riverford Organic Farms Vegboxes - www.riverford.co.uk
Ceylonika Authentic Sri Lankan Curry Sauces - www.ceylonika.co.uk
Pink's Pestos Jellies & Chutneys - www.pinksfoods.com
Wil's Smokehouse for wonderful smoked seeds - www.wilssmokehouse.co.uk - I met them last year at Abergavenny's Food Festival - their products are great

These are a few of my favourite stalls - there were very many more - and a good mix of all kinds of foods and drinks - and some gluten-free.


I do love going to food festivals - good fun, good food and good eating!

Daisy

Here's a Quick Supper for Two - Thursday, 17th July 2014.

Summer's here and thankfully the weather is good and we're all basking in the longed-for warmth, and isn't that wonderful?

Food has to be quick and easy to prepare, tasty and more-ish and easy on the hips.  Most importantly, lighter meals which don 't completely swamp the system or weigh the body down for hours afterwards.

I'm finding my appetite is shrinking daily and mouth hunger easily satisfied by a rice cake, spread with a little butter or my kale pesto.    Then being out in the garden  for several hours is definitely making me less hungry than before.  I think its the satisfaction and joy from gardening, the satisfaction of doing something which lifts the spirits, despite the soil beneath the finger tips, an activity which keeps one close to the good earth and the summer smells of a garden in bloom.

Of course, I really do love to be out in the garden, messing about with compost, straw and plant prunings and dead-heading the roses and, well, anything else green and glorious, that needs cutting back.  It's all such good wholesome fun and great for the senses too; I love every minute spent outside which although tiring, also seems to depress ones appetite.  I'm still very hungry when I come indoors, when I can tear myself away from my work, I want to eat, especially when the dear SO has supper on the go, but I am finding I'm needing to eat less and less; my hunger seems satisfied by far less than when I'm doing less satisfying chores.  Perhaps its just the summer months and the nice weather.

For supper tonight,we had thin British Farmed steaks from Aldi and Sainsbury's Sweet and Crunchy stir fry and it wasn't bad.  The steak was probably a little overcooked but the stir fry was really very good and the amount cooked just enough; our hunger was satisfied, leaving our bodies light and easy - definitely not over-burdened by too much food!

Here's my ingredients and how-to details...

Ingredients:
4 thin Aldi Frying Steaks
2 tbsp. Rape Seed oil
Soy Sauce to taste
2 or 3 garlic cloves, crushed
Sea Salt and ground Black Peppercorns
Half bag measure of Sainsbury's Sweet & Crunchy Stir Fry

How to prepare:

1.  Gently fry steaks in a little hot oil until done - 1-2 minutes per side.
2.  Stir fry vegetables with soy sauce,  cloves and seasonings until just done.
3.  Serve onto warmed plates and enjoy.

On Wednesday, He cooked meatballs from Aldi with a rich mushroom sauce, plus fresh broad beans and new potatoes; all very enjoyable but too generous in quantity!


On Tuesday, He prepared ham salad with hot buttered potatoes of which I ate only a small portion, as I had to dash out for a WI meeting......

 On Monday, it was my book club's "Eats Evening" for this term's end, and we had a feast of pickled salmon with a dill and mustard sauce, a chickpea dish, hot jacket potatoes with butter and several delicious salads;  for pudding  a Marks and Spencer Lemon Tart plus fresh raspberries and strawberries and my Eton Mess with chocolate button halves.

And rice cakes by Kallo, which I now eat every time I want to have a slice of delicious bread.  Its not the same, of course, but gluten and wheat free, light and crispy and I just love the Spicy Chilli flavouring.  The "crunch" is great!

Just love to breakfast on - oats, banana and fresh redcurrants from the garden!

Breakfast with Lactofree milk = utter deliciousness!!!


Happy days!

Daisy

Gooseberry Fool - Friday, 20th June 2014

 What could be nicer on a hot summer's evening, than a bowl of gooseberry fool to round off a busy day?  Such an easy dish to make, it's made in a few minutes and probably eaten just as quickly, for its deliciousness is irresistible and very more-ish!

A punnet of gooseberries from our local community food market, carefully stewed in a little water and a tablespoon or two of sugar; strained well, because you do not want all the cooking liquour, then sieved or blended in a machine if you like, or if you are making a large quantity.

Beat two cold egg whites very thoroughly, folding in a little caster sugar by hand when well beaten, then gently mix in your gooseberry puree, followed by a small amount of double cream - I used Sainsbury's British extra thick double fresh cream, and two more dessertspoons of sugar - my gooseberries were extremely tart.

Pile mixture into small bowls and decorate with sprigs of lemon balm from the garden, which grows so well and very easily.  Take a cutting from a friends garden and plant it quickly and next summer you will have a healthy and vigorous plant of your own - Melissa officinallis - its official name.  The plant is of the mint family Lamiaceae and a hardy perennial, which dies back with the beginning of winter, to emerge fresh and green next spring.  A tea of lemon balm is both refreshing and enjoyable, with a little sugar or honey; or use the leaves to flavour a sponge cake by placing them in your lined cake tins before you pour in your cake mixture, or use for decoration or garnish to puddings and summer drinks.

Eton Mess in my lovely glass bowl

an individual serving with Sainsbury's lemon shortbread biscuits

I went searching for biscuits made without any nut ingredient or warnings about being cooked in a nut-based environment, and these were the only ones I could find.  The naming details may be wrong and I'll check this out when I'm next in store.

Daisy

Gardening Days - Summer Food - Friday, 21st June 2014

I hadn't realised how long it's been since last writing something here.  A month and not a word from me to you!  Just too busy in the garden to realise!

Gardening is like that of course.  You go out with the idea of spending an hour, pulling out the weeds, deadheading the roses, or redoing  a lawn edge with with your new edger and, before you know it, a whole day has gone.  You come indoors hot, a trifle hot and flustered,with dirt under your finger nails and, frankly, no hope of writing;  with supper to make, shower thoughts and early to bed uppermost in your mind, writing is not an obvious option!

Back to the kitchen, eventually, to make Eton Mess with garden-grown fresh strawberries; not from my own plants, unfortunately, but never mind that!

Sliced strawberries, extra thick cream and baby meringues from Sainsbury's for a delicious 10-minute pudding - totally scrumptious and more-ish -

clear glass for a good view....

ready for eating with Sainsbury's Lemon Shortbread Biscuits (no nut content!)

Now - where did I put my secateurs?

Daisy

Summery food for summer weather...Saturday, 17th May 2014.

A few fine days and we're eating in the garden, round a table beneath the trees, enjoying the pleasure of  sun and dappled shade, the easy friendship of family and friends and a simple repast of familiar foods.

Comfortable foods for a comfortable meal such as warm potato salad with sausage slices, a generous sprinkling of ground black peppercorns, sea salt and a scattering of a favourite herb, perhaps finely chopped chives, mint or parsley.

A pastry creation, be it warm cheese quiche or a quiche Lorraine, a savoury tomato, onion and cheese or a delicious Homity Pie with chopped potato, onions, cheese and garlic, served warm with a choice salad and delicious crusty bread; a glass or two of wine, or sparkling water, goes beautifully with such a fine repast.

Another good meal choice is a just cooked, slightly cooled chicken, or a hot cooked chicken from Sainsbury's, when warmer weather descends too quickly, catching you without a suitable supper to offer your hungry troops home from a busy day.  Hot days happen on weekdays too, not just on weekends when you have the chance to do a little home cooking...!

And we've enjoyed such food these last few days, so much.  Thickly sliced  chicken, cole slaw, potato salad, baby spinach leave and cherry tomatoes.  Also warm and home-made potato and frankfurter sausage salad with mayo, a savoury tart with bacon and cheese, home-made cole slaw this time and home-cooked pork sausages with crusty baguettes and butter.

It's also Barbecue season, of course, as long as the good weather lasts!  Beef burgers, chops, chicken portions, sausages and items cooked in foil parcels such as vegetables, meat and fish.  And fruity mixtures too!  Oh the delight of cooked peaches and almonds, pineapple and sponge with a dash of a liqueur or brandy or any mix you desire.  All such desserts go wonderfully well with cream or ice-cream too, providing a glorious finale to a heavenly evening of warm conviviality, out in the garden.

Well dear friends, roll on the summer weather, and let's enjoy the good times and scrummy food....

Daisy

a beautiful Azalea blossom pictured recntly

Scones and Flapjacks - Monday 12th May 2014

Grr. no time to bake gluten-free scones last weekend - no baking done at all and a mass of other things to do!!!

I used to bake and cook every day and now, well I don't!  Where have the baking hours gone to?

Simply don't know and it's a crying shame!!!

So, for a very quick Sunday breakfast, I found an online gluten-free recipe to trial and I'm very pleased to report on some good results, so far.  Will have another go at said recipe and then find some more to trial and then.....well, watch this space for more baking triumphs....or otherwise!!!

Here's a photo-shot of a first - for years and years - attempted gluten -free scone receipt...!

All eaten nicely warm from the oven, with butter, and more than acceptable for a gluten-free breakfast!!!

Happy baking days!

Daisy

On the trail of good gluten-free scones...Saturday, 3rd May

At catering college, one of our training chefs produced a recipe for brilliant scones, using strong bread flour and baking powder.

This recipe turned out really good scones,  light yet substantial and very easy to mix and bake.  His recipe included sultanas for fruit scones but as an alternative, I added 8ozs. of grated cheese and 1/2 a tsp. of mixed mustard, ground black peppercorns and sometimes scissor snipped chives, for a savoury flavour.

The trick is not to make the mix too wet or to handle it roughly, thereby, creating a tough dough.  So you "pat out" the dough on a floured board to about 2" thick, placing your scones onto a lightly oiled tray and very lightly brush them with a very little milk-wash,  then leave your scones to "recover" or rest for a few minutes, before baking in a very hot oven for approx..15 - 20 minutes.  Once cooked to a light golden brown mixture, place onto cooling rack before eating.  They are delicious warm, with butter!

The trick of baking scones as American "biscuits" i.e. with each item touching each other, to keep the sides soft as they bake, didn't seem to work for my scone recipe; it is a different bake method but it might work for your recipe?

Scones are so easy to make and bake and are good for all occasions, not just with jam and cream for cream teas.  Bake them for breakfast with chopped apricots and nuts or a muesli mix; for lunch with cheese and some crisply fried bacon and ground black peppercorns, or chopped ham and for supper, well, anything food you fancy - what about with lightly sautéed mushrooms and spring onions.....  Mmm! the choice is endless, only limited by your imagination!

So there's no reason this recipe couldn't work with gluten-free bread flour and I shall bake some today, adding Xantham Gum of course.  I believe lemonade is good for gluten-free scones too.  There are many online recipes too, of course, so no reason not to get baking.

And for holiday weekends and great festive occasions, there's no need, really, to buy in masses of shop-baked store bread, sliced or not; oh no, just make some fresh-baked scones and watch as everybody tucks into your warm scones with great relish.  For breakfast, or a handy snack, I love toasted, or oven-warm scones with home-made marmalade.  We even used to eat them with my home-made lemon curd and my own chocolate spread lifted the whole eating experience into even higher realms of delight!!!  Oh my, such happy foodie memories.

Another memory comes from watching my grandmother bake scones and it was she who taught the art of  scone self-reliance and thrift - bake scones-buy less bread".  Grandmother's recipe is safely tucked into my own family recipe book, along with those of other family members.

Oh gosh - no photo-shots for you.....but I'll whip-up a few for later on.  I'm out soon to a local gardening club plant and cake stall event at a favourite village and will be looking out for scones!!!  Somebody is bound to have baked some for sale !

I'll leave you with a posy of flowers instead, from an earlier family birthday meal, for it's a beautiful sunny morning, on a Bank Holiday weekend, and life's lookin' good!!!

Ah Ha! here's one I baked earlier this year - home-made scones with French fig jam, brought home by my daughter from a holiday in France last year.....jolly nice!!!

No scones for this morning, so I dived into my freezer and found frozen Panettone, and toasted some of that...!

just delicious!!!

Happy week-endings for you too!

Daisy

Easter Eating - Tuesday, 22nd April 2014

 From the garden ....we would have been eating Easter eggs and foil-wrapped chocolate chickens like these ones from last year......

....instead of having some with coffee and shortbread biscuits after visiting St. Mary's Church at Adderbury, for the Family Service.

To toasted and buttered Hot Cross buns from Foodies of Deddington....

we also enjoyed their lovely hot scones with strawberry jam and whipped cream.....on our first visit under new management -  from the new folks running Foodies of Deddington.

Roasted lamb with delicious roast potatoes and veggies and another meal of roast pork with all the usual trimmings but, of dear, I completely forgot to get it out of the freezer in time!!!

Sliced and buttered Panettone....from Anne Sheasby's recipe from her book "Bread" on Page 160 -161.- ISBN 978-1-84899-189-7  .....

Plus slices of my delicious Simnel Cake, made for Mothering Sunday and stored for Easter....

; 

We've also recently been eating my latest bake of Paul Hollywood's Panettone recipe, found online on the BBC food site.  It's a much enriched yeasted dough make and utterly delicious...when may I bake it again?
Here's a cut slice to show off the cherries, fruit and nuts; I had to use chopped walnuts, being out of almonds, and they made it so delicious....

still warm rich Panettone ...so more-ish!

Then, at the end of the Easter weekend, my quick supper meal was a simple veggie-bacon stir-fry and delicious, being quite plain, with not a scrap of dried fruit, enriched dough or marzipan anywhere in sight!

my simple veggie-bacon stir-fry...with enough left-over for a lunch snack for today ,,,,,,,a quick working lunch!!!

Daisy - happy eating xxx