Flowers, Birthdays & Making Merry! Seville Orange “Merry” Marmalade Just a few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be invited to one of Vivien Lloyd’s Marmalade Day workshops at her home in Somerset; as well as attending marmalade day, I was also invited to Viv’s 60th birthday dinner the night before, where all the guests…
Condiment
“Not Your Usual Potted Cheese” (with Chilli Mayonnaise) for Grown-Ups ONLY!
“Not Your Usual Potted Cheese” (with Chilli Mayonnaise) for Grown-Ups ONLY Christmas and New Year is but a fond and distant memory now, but somehow some of our “festive fare” lingers on, lurking in surprising and sometimes inappropriate places (such as half a Christmas pudding that I found still “cooling down” in the oven) and…
Edible Gifts for Giving: Spiced Brandy Soused Clementines
Edible Gifts for Giving: Spiced Brandy Soused Clementines Now is the time to start thinking about making special gifts for giving…….for Christmas hampers, the tea time table as well as hostess gifts for the impending party season; it’s a time for preserving, baking and making special recipes that will be served throughout the festive…
The Walnut Tree and Spiced Runner Bean Pickle
The Walnut Tree and Spiced Runner Bean Pickle At the bottom of the garden at our holiday home in France, nearly touching the old stone wall, is a walnut tree; I’d like to say it was the “old walnut tree”, in the manner of the Old Quince Tree that we also have in the same…
Wild Meadow Flowers, Buttery Brioche & Traditional Greengage Jam Recipe
Wild Meadow Flowers, Buttery Brioche & Traditional Greengage Jam A gentle walk in the country, picking flowers and enjoying the cooler weather but also the sunshine……meadows filled with wild flowers and an old wall covered in fragrant honeysuckle……poppies, cornflowers, millet, lady’s mantle, clover and daisies…….and then a tree laden with greengages. Now, there’s a plum that evokes memories…
Floral and Flavoured Butter: Rosemary Flower Butter with Grana Padano Cheese
Floral and Flavoured Butter: Rosemary Flower Butter with Grana Padano Cheese Sometimes an idea comes to me in the middle of the night, when I am tossing and turning, reflecting on events that have happened, or worrying about things that may not happen……..the night is still and my thoughts seem to hang in the darkness…
Chocolate Orange Curd with Godiva Chocolates and Clementines
Chocolate Orange Curd with Godiva Chocolates and Clementines I love making preserves of all kinds and regular Lavender and Lovage readers will know that I share recipes for jam, marmalade, pickles, chutney, relish and curds regularly. One of my most popular recipes, both with my readers and with my family (and me!) is my mum’s recipe for Lemon…
A Countdown to Christmas Recipe: Christmas Sausage, Sage and Bacon Stuffing Loaf
A Countdown to Christmas Recipe: Christmas Sausage, Sage and Bacon Stuffing Loaf It is officially the week before Christmas week now, and I am on a countdown to the big day, so I have decided to share a few seasonal recipes with you over the next nine days, most of them “essentials” such as stuffing…
Duvet Apples & Frosty Mornings! Festive Baked Apples with Mincemeat and Honey
Duvet Apples & Frosty Mornings! Festive Baked Apples with Mincemeat and Honey Walks to the hen-house crackle with frosted leaves and frozen grass now and a cheeky little wind plays havoc with my dressing gown, as I am never dressed when I make the mad dash to the end of the garden at “silly o’clock”…
Bottling Tomatoes using the Water Bath Method: Step-by-Step Tutorial with Images & Recipe
It doesn’t matter now often you use your tomatoes in cooking and for salads etc, there always seems to be an excess of them, and this simple water bath method of bottling tomatoes is a great way to save them for the winter months ahead. Not so many years ago, and as recently as when…
Elderberries, Hedgerow Harvests and A Cornucopia of Preserves for the Autumn Pantry
Elderberries, Hedgerow Harvests and A Cornucopia of Preserves for the Autumn Pantry October, one of my favourite months, and as John Keats so emphatically writes in his “Ode to Autumn”..….” Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”……..and indeed, for most gardeners it is a month of mellow fruitfulness – a veritable cornucopia of fruit, herbs and…
Easy Summer Dining: Bourbon Beef and Pepper Skewers and Accompaniments (Sous Vide)
Easy Summer Dining: Bourbon Beef and Pepper Skewers and Accompaniments (Sous Vide) With the summer still giving is hot and sunny days, with just the odd shower of rain here and there to cool things down, my next Sous Vide Supreme post is all about BEEF, and barbecue cooking, although these skewers can (and were)…
Meals on Heels: Staying In is the New Going Out – My Rocky Horror Show Night In!
Meals on Heels: Staying In is the New Going Out – My Rocky Horror Show Night In! I have been set a challenge, and I DO love a challenge! MoneySupermarket have a “bloggers competition” running at the moment where they have asked us all to share our “night in” experiences with them and our readers…
Thrifty & Organic Meal Planner for July: Lamb & Rosemary Skewers,Raspberry Custard Bake and Summer Salad Recipes
Thrifty & Organic Meal Planner for July: Lamb & Rosemary Skewers,Raspberry Custard Bake and Summer Salad Recipes Core ingredients for July: Lamb, Lettuce, Cucumber, Tomatoes, Beetroot and Raspberries July Menu: Summer Salad in a Jar Roasted Beetroot with Shallots Cucumber and Yoghurt Minted Dip Lamb and Rosemary Skewers Raspberry and Vanilla Custard Bake Welcome to…
Studio Pottery, Baguette and Fresh Strawberry Curd (Recipe)
Studio Pottery, Baguette and Fresh Strawberry Curd (Recipe) Way before Studio Pottery became fashionable, and every Vegan café or restaurant decanted their carrot juice out of terracotta pitchers or served their bean salads on slipware plates, my mum was making fabulous studio pottery at Art School…….in the heart of the English potteries in Staffordshire; her pottery is…
