One summer's day....

I was at the Oundle Food Festival bright and early, handing out copies of our free local magazine. The sun was out! It was warm and everyone was in a mighty good mood, after waiting days and days for a glimmer of summer. There was clog dancing, folk music and even some zumba taking place...

Wandering around with the magazines, tasting some delicious homemade raspberry and elderflower ice 
cream, local cheese and salted caramel and cashew nut rocky road...not a bad way to spend the morning.

I might try this strawberry vodka with my next soft fruit haul. 
My blog has become very foodie recently. I am hoping to restore some vintage content tomorrow
because for the first time in a long while, the local car boot sale is not cancelled. Hope to see you then.

Peach pie

I have a short breather between the last magazine going to press, and the next one beginning again. I was planning to do some furniture painting outside but surprise, surprise, it's pouring again, so I decided to cook something. Peach pie came into my mind. No recipe in my many baking books, but I found a Nigel Slater one online. Amazingly, in a nearby village we still have a thriving old fashioned greengrocer and I had bought some 'doughnut' peaches, i.e those pumpkin shaped ones, the other day, so I was all set.

I'm no good at making pastry, but this recipe was a little different: you just cream butter and sugar, and then fold in an egg and flour, and some lemon zest, and it's done. This is the pie before the lid went on (orange zest is added to the peaches). Forty minutes in the oven, and it's ready.

I'm pretty sure this won't hang around long tonight.

Sweet peas and vintage tins

Stopped by at my friend Tracey's shop Foxtail Lilly today and bought a tin with beautiful sweet peas on it, and a bunch of the real thing from her cutting garden. My tin looks at home with some others from my collection.

Tracey has an amazing table in the shop (not for sale, don't blame her!). Serious table envy.

I was on my way to look at some holiday cottages which have just been renovated. I am doing a short article for the local magazine that I edit. It was such a positive story, it's nice to hear those, and the owners were rightly very proud of what they had done with two tumbledown barns.

This weekend

I celebrated my son's 17th birthday, spent time in the garden, visited my father in law in Norfolk, made a cushion and went to a barbecue (admittedly, this did involve scarves, wellies and large coats, but it was still very nice)...

  

I hope you enjoyed yours, whatever you did....

Raspberry and redcurrant cordial

Parts of our garden have turned into a No Man's Land as I've lost the battle against the weeds. But interestingly, our fruit bushes seem to love being treated mean and always come up with a good crop, no matter what life throws at them. My redcurrant bush has lots of fruit on it, but the birds have noticed this too, and they've been tucking in. Time to rescue a few berries for ourselves. I saved a recipe for Raspberry and Redcurrant cordial from last month's Country Living, and thought it sounded amazing, so I thought I'd have a go. First, the harvest.

No, that isn't Photoshop, it really is a scrap of blue sky that you can see between the branches.

They are like little red jewels. Each stalk has been nibbled, so I was just in time to pick them.

In the pan with 450g of raspberries. Heat and break up the fruit slightly, then strain through a muslin lined sieve.

I did this for about half an hour or so over a bowl. You need to push the fruit quite a bit to get all the juice out. It's precious - the recipe is quite fiddly and doesn't make a lot.

Then add 300g sugar per 500ml of juice, and a teaspoon of citric acid. You can buy it from Boots, but you may have to convince the pharmacist that you're not a drug dealer (even if you are a middle aged lady in a very unthreatening pink smock and Birkenstocks!). Heat the liquid until the sugar is dissolved and then bottle. 

 Isn't the colour intense....ruby red.

The taste is absolutely incredible. I can imagine this in a cocktail, too.

Jamming on a Sunday

Just because there isn't any sunshine outside, doesn't mean that I can't try and bottle some inside. On Friday's market, there were boxes of fresh apricots for sale, so I bought some and decided to try and make jam with them today. I didn't have quite enough for my recipe (one kilo) so I added some peaches to make up the quantities. They looked so pretty once chopped and stewing the in pan with sugar and water.

I tried to take a shot of them at a rolling boil, but my camera lens steamed up.....which amused me...

 You have to add a muslin bag of the apricot stones (for the pectin, to help the jam set). I didn't have any muslin so I used a scrap of linen instead. 

The house fills with a sweet, syrupy scent. Once setting point is reached, it's time to use up some of the jam jar mountain in the garage. I sterilise them by washing with hot soapy water and then popping in the oven for half an hour.

 Then comes the nice bit, potting up and labelling the jars. I recently bought an amazing old printing set from ebay. I saw one on a lovely blog called The Cloth Shed, and rushed straight to ebay to see if there might be a similar one for sale. I found a 'buy it now' for a reasonable price, and snapped it up. It's called The Silent Salesman, originally produced for corner shops, I think, and it just makes printing labels a lot more fun.

This jam tastes of summer. I have a load of gooseberries in the garden, they seem to grow anywhere and against all odds. Strawberry and gooseberry jam is a family favourite, so that is next on the list.

Away day

I usually enjoy my work, but I have to say, this week has been a bit horrible so far. I am convinced that many people are super-grouchy at the moment because of the weather. That's all I'm saying! Anyway, I was really glad that I'd arranged to get away from it all and meet an old friend at Kelmarsh Hall, which is just about mid-way between our homes. I came to a wedding here last year, in April, and vowed to come back and see the gardens in the summer. It's a beautiful house - but the grounds are absolutely stunning.

We thought we might be marooned in the tea room all day, because rain was forecast, but in fact, the sun came through and we had a delightful wander through roses, sweet pea arches, lush lawns and walled gardens. Here's a little glimpse of what we saw, I just wish I could add the scent, it was the sweetest ever.

The roses were a little bit battered by the deluge, but no less beautiful for that.

My obsession with paths continues....

A stripy rose.

Some very happy chickens...

I wouldn't mind wiling away a few hours in this spot....

We walked and talked, and talked and talked and talked. I've known my friend since we were five. I used to call on her every morning and we'd walk to school together. We shared a passion for ponies, although we never owned one. She moved away from our village when I was 10, but we kept in touch, and I would go and stay with her, or we'd go on riding holidays together. We don't see each other often now, but when we manage to carve out a few hours to meet, it's lovely.

An amazing little pond. 


We loved the greenhouse, and the lush plants inside. Bougainvillea and passion flowers, climbing geraniums and succulents.

This one looks a little bit sinister....


Once we'd explored thoroughly, it was time for the tea room. 

Batteries now fully recharged :)

Cake talk

I felt like baking this afternoon. This is Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's sticky ginger cake, and once again, I take my hat off to Hugh, it is a great recipe. He never fails me. You are supposed to keep this cake for three days before eating, but there is no chance of that in my house. The occupants smell cake and they come thundering into the kitchen and wait at the oven door. I shall be lucky if this lasts for one single day. 
Baking is a theme today. There were slim pickings at the car boot, but I did find a few more tiny pastry moulds to add to my collection.

Not sure why I think they are so appealing, but I do. I found the egg shaped chocolate mould in a basket of bric a brac today, together with a really tiny one.

I bought Jo Wheatley's book a couple of weeks ago, mainly because I liked her so much as a contestant on The Great British Bake Off, and thought she handled the media intrusion into her family life with a lot of dignity afterwards. It's a nice book, and worth buying just for the simple recipe for fresh blueberry and orange sauce, but her recipe for American pancakes didn't work for me and I've yet to try another one. For now, Hugh remains  my baking god.