Monday, August 23, 2010

Plenty

Tonight I made this soup from my new cook book Plenty



It was delicious. And uses a lot our garden stock. Fennel (from farmers market), tomatoes, beans, carrots, onion and herbs. Highly recommend. And didn't take that long to make!

Not much going on really. We are in the process of trying to meet with caterers and tasting their food before we choose one. Work is the same. The rain has started but it is still fairly warm. Looking forward to the bank holiday coming up and a day off work.

Martin's birthday was last week as was our engagement party. The party was a lot of fun except for the rain. We had a BBQ during the day so friends with babies could come, and then went to the pub for the evening. Probably the most rain we have had in about three months. But, that's England. For his birthday I am taking Martin to a spa over night and hopefully he will enjoy the pampering!

Oh, and I bought a dress! I am very happy with it and think it will be perfect for the day. Now I just need shoes and a veil! Although I think I will borrow Martin's sister's veil. A veil is veil after all.

Saturday, August 07, 2010

Victoria Sponge



If you are looking for a simple and quick cake to make that never fails to impress a Victoria Sponge is an excellent solution. Popular for tea time this English classic always gets me compliments and it is probably the worlds easiest cake to make.

One note about the recipe, the butter really does need to be soft, otherwise the ingredients don't mix properly. This is always a problem in winter as the house never gets warm enough for the butter to soften enough. I decorated this cake with mint but that was mostly because I was a little bored and we had a lot laying around. Also, the ingredients are in weight-I don't know what the cup conversions are.

Ingredients
6oz self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 large eggs
6oz caster sugar
6oz butter, room temp
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Sift floor and baking powder into a large mixing bowl holding the sieve high to give a good airing. Break eggs into flour and add remaining ingredients. Whisk together until you have a smooth well combined mixture. If it seems stiff add 1-2 tsp water. Divide between greased 8 inch cake tins and bake at 170c (325f) for 30-35 minutes. Leave to cool briefly in tins and then take cakes out of tins to cool on a wire rack.

The middle is layers of strawberry jam, whipped cream and fresh strawberries. I then put fresh strawberries on top. Yum!

Thursday, August 05, 2010

An Update

Things have been so busy lately I haven't had a moment to sit down with my old friend blog and catch up. My sister Pamela and nephew Declan were just here for a much too short visit. It was great to have them here and it was sad when they went. It was great to have Pamela here to go dress shopping with!

We went to three places, the first being very posh with made to measure dresses. The other two were not as nice but who cares once you have those dresses on. Martins Mum and sister also joined us for a day out to two of them and it was fun girly day. One of the shops did let us take pictures however I am hesitant to show them to anyone. Even though I felt great in most of the dresses they put me in, I sure don't like the way I look in them in the pictures. I seem to have a grumpy grin on my face in most of them which fails to capture the pure joy I felt putting on dress after dress. A whole day of wearing beautiful dresses and people telling you look pretty, what could really be better?

We have decided on Kew Gardens as the venue and the wedding will be on a Friday in May. Both Martin and I are very happy wth the venue choice as it is close to our home and some place we go often. Neither of us was attracted to getting married some place we had only been to once. It will be a civil ceremony with a country garden theme. I am really looking forward to it, I think it will be really lovely. Even if it rains.

We are having an engagement party in a couple weeks time and have started to meet with the caterers to get that all sorted. We are keen to pay for as much as we can before Jan 1 as VAT goes up another 2.5% and we would rather not pay it. Not sure about too many of the other details except that we are really looking forward to the day and spending lots of time with family and friends!

I'll try to keep better touch with blog. I am also on Skype and do try to log on as much as I can so you can always catch me there!

In other news I made my first black berry pie today. Delicious. We picked the berries off bushes that grow near the river and had enough for a pie. I am so going back and picking as many as I can and freezing the ones I don't manage to use. The pie was excellent. Brings back lots of memories. I forgot how painful picking black berries can be! We also have a freezer full of green beans. Tomatoes should be coming in soon and we have spied our first cucumber. We planted late strawberres and should get a crop come September. Carrots are probably ready for munching and we have more salad and basil than we know what to do with. Just waiting for the potatoes to tell us how good we are at growing those and then planting out the brocolli for next year. Were given some courgettes from Martin's dad and I see zucchini bread in our future. I'll be sad when winter comes and we will be starving for fruit and veg. Best not to think about it and freeze as much as I can!