Photo diary: weeks 46 and 47, project 365

 "All the leaves are brown, and the sky is grey" - it's just about right, when you look out at the garden. Most of the leaves are on the ground, dried and shrivelled. There is some greenery though, from the evergreens, like the huge cypress, or blasted climbing shrubs, taking over the stone walls. 

We have a big garden, which borders five different gardens, and only one set of neighbours is keeping their wall clear. 

I tried to chop up some of the overgrown shrubs on the stone wall next to the house, which are hanging from the neighbours' side. One big wheelie bin is packed full, and there is still a lot to chop off. I have collected some of the leaves in the bin bags, and they are waiting for their turn to be emptied.

And while I was working in the garden, I kept singing to myself, All the leaves are brown. Which reminds me, that a while ago, when I was singing California Dreamin' to myself, Eddie asked me, Who is Lisa Brown. So from then on, this song is Lisa Brown for me.

I haven't been taking photos for Project 365 every day, as I'm utterly lacking in motivation. Most of the week I am staying at home now that my big boy is going to college only twice a week. When my husband is around, he takes Sash out. Otherwise, we are doing activities at home, and have some fresh air in the garden.

Some of the days I would have several pictures on the go, some - nothing at all.

We had some beautiful sunsets in November, the colours always make me think that Nature is the biggest artist of them all.

And while we had a relatively mild weather, my brother sent me several photos of their wintery landscapes, including this lion who looks frozen amidst all that snow.

I did a few more pen and ink challenge prompts on Insta, including this little drawing of Sasha. The theme was Picnic. I used an old photo of Sasha from when he was around three years old. He loved boxes, and whenever there was a box big enough for him to climb in, he would do it. In the actual photo he's sitting in a toy chest, but I put him in the picnic basket from F&M.

On Tuesday we watched the semi-finals on GBBO, and were left aghast that Jurgen was voted off, as he did so well in the technical challenge, while Chigs made a total mess with his bake. I have a feeling Paul and Prue didn't like the German baker very much, especially Paul. He gave three contestants his shitty handshake, and left Jurgen out. I could never understand this handshake business, to me it feels super patronising, like a king dispensing a largesse, and the peasants tugging their forelocks in excessive deference. I would be mortified if Paul tried to give me a handshake (you can say, I'm not a fan).

More ink and pen/brush sketches from that week... for no particular reason, just trying a new paper pad, which is supposed to be good for inks.

Another cheeseboard picture... with British and Irish cheeses, like Cashel Blue, Cornish Yarg and Ash Goat's cheese. 

We popped into the lighting shop to get a bedside lamp for Eddie's bedroom. It happened that the choice was made for us, as they only had a sloth lamp left (which was my favourite all along). I took it out of the box to check if it works, and in it went back in the box until Christmas.

My husband looked at it, and commented that it was horrid. Well, Eddie and I like it. Are you camp Husband or Camp Eddie and I? I do know it is pretty kitsch, but also unusual and cute.

So far all the Christmas gifts I bought for Eddie, were bought in his presence. I need to get him some surprise gift too. 

A quick visit to Costa on Sunday: I tried a new After Eight muffin. Don't know why I thought it was a good idea, I don't even like the After Eight chocolates. The chocolate muffin would have been lovely, if not for the mint toothpaste inside.

On Monday my friend Jen took me to the Burford Garden Centre. It was packed full. Too crowded for my liking. I did buy a few sweet treats for Christmas, including some of our favourite Italian chocolate.

Talking of chocolate, don't miss my annual 12 days of Chocolate giveaway, starting on 1 December. Some lucky person will get over 1kg 200g of chocolate with other lovely festive treats. I always enjoy choosing different chocolate bars for each day of the giveaway.

I find Instagram an exciting source of discoveries. A post from BeeHype Honey has appeared on my Insta feed, and being a big honey lover, I checked out their site. 

I ordered a Salted honey (utterly delish!) and a lovely Ultimate Honey lover box, which includes Special Acacia single source raw honey, Dreamy Creamy spreadable raw wildflower honey, Lavish Lavender pure raw honey, It's Nuts mixed nuts in honey, Jammin' Strawberries in acacia honey, a cute mug, a candle, lip balm and beeswax food wraps. The box costs £49.95.

So, if you're looking for more unusual Christmas gifts for a foodie in your life, this artisan raw honey would be perfect. Don't forget to subscribe to their newsletter for their 10% off first order. The postage is free for orders over £30. 

It was the GBBO final the day before. The best baker won, I'm delighted that Giuseppe was crowned the winner, though I wish they kept Jurgen 'til the final, as that would have been an even more competitive event.

Were you pleased with the result (or disappointed)?

When they had to bake the Belgian buns without any instructions, I couldn't even remember what they were supposed to look like. I never buy them, and certainly never baked them in my life. The next day I bought two Belgian buns out of curiosity. They were OKish, but not something I would rush to buy again.

Our little Windrush river is very polluted, as Thames Water keeps dumping untreated sewage in the river. It is slowly dying, and you see less and less wildlife, as their habitat is being poisoned. The locals protest, write petitions, appeal to the local authorities, but nothing is being done. 

If anything, our local Conservative MP (I didn't vote for him) voted down an amendment to the Environment Bill which sought to stop Thames Water and other greedy companies who only care about profit from dumping sewage in the local rivers.

I love this old gate in Puck Lane. It feels like the path might take you to some fairytale destination.

Heritage was one of the prompts for the pen and ink challenge on Insta. As we live in a town with the origins in the Anglo-Saxon times, I decided to do a drawing of King Edgar the Peaceful, trying to imitate the illuminated letter, as in the medieval manuscripts. I used several Diamine inks, with a fountain pen and brush, as well as some markers.

On Saturday we finally had a chance to watch Shang Chi. I would watch anything from MCU, but it's not my favourite MCU film. Surprised to see how much praise it received on Twitter, with some people claiming it to be the best MCU film ever. What? Not the Avengers Assemble, or Endgame, or Thor Ragnarok, or any Spidey movie?! 

It's not that I don't enjoy martial arts films, if anything, I love The house of flying daggers which has an astonishing choreography and stunning scenery, and very beautiful actors. But Shang Chi left me unimpressed. Have you seen it? What did you think?

We woke up to see the first snow of the season, it was dancing in the air in big fluffy clusters, but melted on the ground. 

Eddie and I are still reading The Enemy by Charlie Higson, which was recommended to us at the local book shop. It's the first book in the zombie horror series for pre-teens and teens. Very gory, savage and brutal, but also well-written. I can see why it reached the cult status. I'm not even a fan of zombie books or films, but I am hooked.

At bedtime I am reading See Them Run by Marion Todd, the first book in Detective Clare Mackay series. I bought the kindle book quite a while ago. It's a clever police procedural, with an intriguing plot and a gutsy main protagonist.

Hope you are all keeping well.

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Crab Salad with Apple

 

Oh, all those plans I had, to spend Christmas with our friends aka the childcare bubble, and have some semblance of normality. I have bought plenty of food to please all tastes and diets (gluten free, vegetarian, meat eaters). But as they say, man proposes, God disposes. On the last day of school our son got poorly, and a few days later we discovered he tested positive and we all needed to self-isolate.

We informed our friends, and I felt rather guilty that they had to change their plans accordingly, and would need to buy and prepare their own Christmas meal. 

I had to re-think what to do with some of the foods. The turkey crown went in the freezer. I did cook a small ham for our boys at Christmas and also a nut roast, plus lots of veggies for grown-ups, but didn't bother with the cranberry sauce or any side dishes like pigs in blankets or stuffing. 

On the original menu I was planning to do a big platter with blini as a starter - with smoked salmon and crab meat, as well as vegetarian "scampi" and pickled carrots. The crab meat tin has been sitting in the fridge for several weeks, and finally I decided to make a crab salad with it. It is similar to the Soviet crab salad, though in the days of my childhood we rarely had access to the crab meat (you had to live somewhere nearby the sea to get access to this product, or be a member of the apparatchik's family), and used the seafood sticks, which of course, are anything but crab meat. 

For this quick and easy recipe you will need:

100g crab meat (or seafood sticks)

1 small apple, grated or finely chopped

2 hard-boiled eggs, grated or finely chopped

60g hard cheese (like Emmental), grated or cubed

1 small carrot, cooked and chopped finely

1 medium potato, cooked and chopped

3tbsp aioli with garlic (or garlic mayo)

juice of 1/2 small lime

lettuce, to serve in

First, cook a potato and carrot in slightly salted water. Peel and chot finely. Hard-boil a couple of eggs. Once cold, grate them.

In a big mixing bowl, mix together grated eggs, potato, carrot, crab meat, grated cheese. Add the aioli and lime juice, and mix well. 

If you don't have aioli, mayonnaise (with/out garlic) will do, and lime could be substituted with lemon juice. 

Season with salt and a bit of pepper.

Spoon the crab salad into salad leaves to serve.

There are several variations on the theme. Some cooks prefer to use rice rather than potato. Many add several tablespoons of tinned sweetcorn.

It's a lovely, quite light old-fashioned salad.

I have googled what could be a vegetarian/vegan substitute for crab meat, and apparently, it is a shredded jackfruit, palm or artichoke hearts. I haven't tried them as a crab meat substitute, so cannot vouch for how much the flavour is altered. I love artichokes in oil, and often use them in salads, but the taste is very distinct, and nothing like seafood. I guess, you just need to re-think the whole concept.

In this recipe I used Leon Aioli, which was one of the products from the latest Degustabox. This garlic mayo has been the heart of LEON restaurant menus since 2004. This mayo is made with aquafaba (chickpea stock) instead of eggs, and happens to be vegan. To be honest, if I didn't know it is made without eggs, I wouldn't have guessed. So, if you're doing a Veganuary (which I don't), and are looking for great subs for family favourites, this mayo is very creamy and tasty.

Easy cheese straws with crushed pretzels and Movie Night & Halloween Degustabox

 

While the weather is abysmal, with the incessant rain and dreary darkness in the afternoon, it's not all gloom and doom. Food-wise, November has a lot to offer, for many people this cold dark month means hearty soups and stews. 

Home-baked bread is a wonderful treat to go with a hot bowl of soup, but it takes time and effort, while cheese straws are so easy to make and take hardly any time at all. Zing them up with toppings of your choosing and serve with a lovely hearty soup.

For my easy cheese straws you will need:

1 pack of Jus-Rol shortcrust pastry

about 60g grated cheese (like Emmental)

1 egg yolk

half a pack of Olly's Pretzel Thins (optional), crushed

Remove the Jus-Rol pack out of the fridge at least an hour before using. 

Cut in half, spread grated cheese on one half, and put the second half over. 

Slice the dough into thin strips, around 3cm in width. Twist the strips and arrange on the baking sheet.

Place the baking sheet on the tray in the oven preheated to 180C.

Bake for about 5 minutes then take out the tray, glaze the straws with a beaten egg yolk and scatter crushed pretzels over them. Bake for another 8-10 minutes, until the straws are golden.

You can use puff pastry the same way, in fact, I would usually go for the puff pastry, making cheese straws, but I had a pack of shortcrust pastry instead. 

I like adding crushed Pringles over the egg yolk before baking. Sesame seeds are another great topping.

This time I wanted to try a different version, especially that I had a small packet of Olly's Pretzels Thins (Multi-Seed Sesame) from the October Degustabox food box. These are oven-baked, low fat, thin and crispy vegan pretzels. A small 35g packet offers 98kcal per serving. You can sprinkle them over salads or crumble into brownies, or just dip into hummus or taramasalata. 

There were two varieties of pretzel thins in the box - Multi-seed sesame and Salted original (£1 each), both lovely.

Available on Amazon and Olly's online shop.

You can easily make these straws with children. They disappeared very fast.

It's not much of a recipe, I know, more of a recipe idea, but try it, and play with flavours.

What else did we find in October Movie Night & Halloween Degustabox?

As you can see, it was jam-packed with all kinds of tasty foods and drink.

My personal favourite was Costa Instant Coffee (£5.50). I'm a big fan of Costa coffee in general, and miss their latte during the lockdown. I know you can have a takeaway, but by the time you arrive home with a takeaway cup, it's already tepid. Instant coffee from Costa is the next best thing - make a cup of tasty coffee in the comfort of your own home, and get a perfect balance of delicate Arabica and strong Robusta beans, slow-roasted for a smooth and nutty flavour and rich aroma.

I enjoyed this instant coffee a lot, and hope to get more, when I have a chance to visit our local Costa.

Maltesers Instant Hot Chocolate (£2.59 for 350g) hits the right spot, when you fancy a sweet hot drink. It will delight the fans of Maltesers - top up with whipped cream and mini marshmallows for an extra indulgent treat.

Available at Morrisons, Sainsbury's and ASDA.

More treats for chocoholics - KitKat Senses Chocolate Selection Gift Box 240g (£5) - a selection of three delicious flavours, all individually wrapped: Salted Caramel, Double Chocolate and Hazelnut.

My family loves KitKit, but we were saddened to read that KitKat will no longer contain Fairtrade cocoa and sugar. This is the step backwards, I hope that Nestle will reconsider this move, and start using Faitrade produce in making this much-loved brand.

Available in all major supermarket chains.

Reese's Peanut Butter Minis (£1.50) offer a delicious mix of chocolate and peanut butter. Now available in minis, bitesize cups in a convenient share bag. Lovely added to the brownie batter before baking too.

More chocolate - Whaoo! chocolate filled crepes (£1.75) are made without any preservatives. They are individually wrapped for convenience, and might work as a sweet snack for a school lunchbox (if having chocolate treats is not against the school policy).

Available at ASDA, Morrisons, Ocado, Spar and Go Local.

Did you hear there was more chocolate? yes, you heard it right.

Brynmor Chocolate Flapjack (£1.29) is a healthier treat for chocoholics - it is packed full of high quality, natural ingredients. Lovely with a cup of tea, for elevenses or when you're feeling peckish.

Available in Ocado, Waitrose, NISA, WHSmith Travel, Grapetree, www.brynmorfoods.com and independent health shops.

Kookie Cat Wild Berries was a little gift, and most welcome it was too. This is a cashew and oat cookie, with tasty cacao butter drops and sweet and sour lingonberries.

Available in organic food stores.

YES! Plant protein bars (£1.59) are the product of the month. They are gluten free, contain 10g protein, and are powered by pea and nut. The wrapping is recyclable paper.

There are two delicious new flavours - Almond, Peanut and Double Dark Chocolate (yum, I love the nuts and chocolate combination) and Cashew, Blueberry and Dark Chocolate.

Available at Holland and Barrett, BP, Moto and WHSmith's.

Just look at that bar - it's so good. 

We all have our favourites in each Degustabox, and St Pierre Brioche Burger Buns (£2) were a big hit with my guys. I didn't serve them with burgers, but with cheese and chutney instead, and they were delicious. Definitely will buy them, when I have a chance. They are pre-sliced, and make a versatile vessel for any kind of filling - from meat-based to vegan products.

Available at Tesco.

Attack A Snak Original Nachos (£1.50) is a lunchbox selection of tortilla chips, smoky chipotle dip, and cooling sour cream with chives. It's a good source of fibre.

Nutritional information: 313kcal and 12g of sugar per 90g serving. Available at Morrisons and ASDA. 

You might have spotted promotional packs of Attack A Snak - currently you might win w Cinewrold tickets every day, simply find a code inside of the film and enter online.

Naked Malaysian Rendang Veg Pot (£1.50) is 100% plant-based. There are three authentic flavours in the range, offering Korean BBQ Ramen, Malaysian Rendang and Chinese Green Vegetable Broth. Simply add water for a quick and easy lunch. Very handy to eat in the office.

Available in Tesco.

And finally, there was a fully redeemable voucher for a box of Strawberry Yollies (£2). These are yogurt snacks on a stick. They are a good source of Calcium and Vitamin D. 

Available at ASDA, Tesco, Morrisons & Sainsbury's (our local Co-Op has them too).

Degustabox is a monthly food and drink subscription box. It's an excellent way of discovering new products which have only just appeared in the shops, or those which have been around for a while, but you haven't had a chance to try them yet.

Thanks to Degustabox, I have found new favourites to add to our shopping list, including some products which I probably wouldn't have tried otherwise.

Each time the monthly box arrives, its contents are a total surprise. You get a good selection of foods and drinks.

If you haven't tried Degustabox subscription box yet, and would like to have a go, I have a £3 off discount from your first box (and you can unsubscribe any time), just use code DKRLN when you place an order.

New York-style cheesecake with blood orange

A few weeks ago my Twitter friend Antonia posted the photos of her latest dessert, which happened to be a luscious-looking cheesecake. I haven't baked a cheesecake in ages, and really fancied a slice. So last week I baked a New York-style cheesecake for my birthday.
Our Internet connection was almost non-existent for over a week (thank you, BT, for the so called upgrade!), and I wasn't able to do any blogging.

This is not an authentic New York cheesecake, but more of a variation. It's quite a rich cake, and probably not for people on a diet, but it's very-very tasty.

New York-style cheesecake
Ingredients:
For the crust:
140g digestive biscuits, crushed into fine crumbs
90g butter, melted
For the cheesecake layer:
2 x 340g tubs of Philadelphia cheese (I used a mix of Original and Light)
1 x 250g tub of mascarpone
180g caster sugar
140ml soured cream
3tbsp cornflour
zest of 1 blood orange
 juice of 1/2 blood orange
3 medium eggs
For the soured cream layer:
120ml soured cream
3tbsp caster sugar
1tsp lemon juice

First crush the digestive biscuits in a plastic bag with a rolling pin (or use a blender) to make fine crumbs. Melt the butter, and mix the crumbs with butter.
Line the base of a springform cake tin with a parchment circle, and oil the sides and the paper (I use an oil spray).
Spread the buttered crumbs in the tin, and press them evenly. I do not pre-bake the crust at this stage, but some cook books suggest doing that for 10 minutes.
Prepare the cheesecake layer by mixing the cream cheese with mascarpone, caster sugar and soured cream in a deep mixing bowl. Add the cornflour, and zest and juice of the blood orange, and beat in the eggs, one at a time.
You might want to use a blender for the cheesecake layer to be smooth and well mixed.
Pour the contents of the mixing bowl over the crumb layer.
Place the cake tin in the oven preheated to 200C.
Bake for 10 minutes, then lower the heat to 110C, and bake for another 50 minutes. In the last 10 minutes of baking pour the soured cream mixed with lemon juice and caster sugar on top of the cake.
Please keep in mind, that the cheesecake will be very wobbly at this stage.
Switch off the heat, and leave the cake in the oven to cool.
Later take the cake tin out of the oven and let the cake cool completely before covering the tin with a foil and putting in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight.
It's totally worth waiting, trust me.
The next day, run a thin knife around the sides of the cake and carefully remove it out of the tin.
Enjoy!

The blood orange gives a gentle blush to the overall colour. If you prefer a sharper taste, swap the blood orange for lemon.

You might still find blood oranges at the fruit markets (I bought a bag of 10 just yesterday). Ocado sells them too, not sure about Waitrose, our local one doesn't sell them this year.

Ricotta cake with marmalade

We woke up yesterday morning to a strangely nippy house. When I went down to the kitchen, I realised our boiler was flashing the F28 code, which means it's broken. 

Trying to get to the British Gas customer service is a feat in itself, everything is annoyingly automated, and you cannot get to talk to a real person. The earliest we could book for someone to come and look at the boiler was Tuesday. 

My husband kept calling, and finally managed to get hold of someone. They promised to come today.

Well, it's almost 5pm, and no sight of any engineer. And now that my husband called them again to ask what time the engineer might be coming, apparently they didn't book us in at all.
And the house in the meantime is getting colder and colder. I know that people live in igloos and all that, but it's a pain not to have the heating or hot water. The floor is church-cold on the ground floor, I can feel my feet turning into icicles, and that's me earing two pairs of socks and slippers.

I've been having endless cups of tea and coffee to keep myself warm, ironing (did a lot of ironing today), and baking too.

Yesterday's bake was a variation of the ricotta cake recipe given to me by my husband's aunt Giuseppina. It's a classic Italian cake, which is very tasty.

I had a jar of Duerr's Half Sugar Seville Orange marmalade from the latest Degustabox. My guys prefer jams to marmalade, and I don't eat it that often either. I decided to use some of the marmalade in the ricotta cake, and it worked really well.

Ricotta cake with marmalade
Ingredients:
zest of 1 lemon
3 medium eggs
180g caster sugar
3tbsp marmalade (+ 2tbsp for drizzle) (optional)
200g ricotta
300g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
50g Italian mixed peel (optional)
2tbsp lemon juice

Zest an orange in a medium sized mixing bowl. Beat in the eggs with caster sugar and marmalade. Add the ricotta, sift in the flour and baking powder. Leave about 1tbsp of flour, and dust it over the peel, then add the peel to the cake batter.
The cake batter is quite thick. Spoon it into a well-oiled bundt cake tin. Place the tin in the oven preheated to 180C. Bake for about 45 minutes. Check readiness with a wooden toothpick.
Once the cake is cooked, take it out of the tin. Mix 2tbsp marmalade with 2tbps lemon juice and spread over the cake.
Eat warm, or cold. It tastes good, with a cup of tea or coffee.

If you're not a fan of peel, swap it for raisins or pine nuts. A few years ago, I baked this cake with the addition of a savoury note from Grana Padano.

Photo diary: week 18, project 365

We said Good bye to April and welcomed May. As the spring progresses, our garden is changing its looks. There is lots of blues and purples at the moment, with a few bright pinks. Soon the white roses will begin blooming.

I didn't do it on purpose, but this week's photos can be grouped by colour blue.

I'm not sure what this flower is called. It's more of a garden weed variety, not exactly a cornflower, as it's pretty big. Does anyone know its name?

Lilac is still looking pretty good. I love its perfume, it makes me think of home.

Eddie was chatting to me and holding onto the wood beam over the fireplace. He made me think of Atlas holding the skies.

The weekend before I've been reading Rachel Roddy's column in the Guardian Feast magazine. She mentioned the book called The fruit, herbs and vegetables of Italy, which was written in the 17C by Castelvetro, who was in exile in England.
I found it on eBay, and bought it. It's a beautiful edition, with art illustrations.

A morning walk to school: this spot always makes me think of Venice.

More blue flowers from the garden. The bluebells and forget-me-nots are spreading like fire.

Today Eddie and I did some boring grocery shopping. We tried a couple of Costas in town, but they were unusually packed full, and we didn't fancy eating outside, as it was too blustery.
No cafe for us today, but Eddie was super excited to get a rare Pokemon card when we bought an Unbroken Bonds booster pack in the book shop today.
This was our late lunch - cheese, grapes, apples, Peter's Yard cripsbreads (my absolute favourites!) and some Higgidy tomato wheels ( we thought the pastries were so-so; a bit disappointing).

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Photo diary: week 3, project 365

After watching Hotel Transylvania 3 on DVD, Eddie's new catchphrase is "Holy moly, that's a lot of guacamole". He was repeating it again this morning, jumping on the bed, while I was ironing. In comes my husband and says: "That's what your mother used to say when we lived in the States". I said: "Actually, that's not true. I used to say Holy Cannoli then".

We're on week 3 of January already, holy moly guacamole! It feels like we were only just getting ready for Christmas, and now it's all about Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies in the shops.

Last Sunday I bought a new French cheese La Baguette. It's a lovely creamy cheese - an absolute treat with oatcakes and muscat grapes.

A quick coffee in the Blue Boar after the school run on Monday morning... This pretty posy was a welcome splash of colour on the otherwise very grey dull day.

Eddie loves Domino's pizza, but the prices are pretty much extortional for a takeaway pizza. I only rarely order it on Tuesdays, when they have a two for one deal.
Eddie fancied trying their new Cheeseburger pizza. It does sound somewhat revolting, but actually is not too bad, if you're a meat eater. Pickles were the best bit.
They have changed their menu a few months ago, removing some of the tastier vegetarian Italian style pizzas. Now the range of vegetarian pizza is a bit on the boring side.

Rather than taking photos of what we eat or Eddie's pics - though he is usually happy to oblige, I tried to do some abstract-ish photos. This is a part of the rain-washed road, with a little reflection in a mini puddle.

A lonely football got stuck in the empty branches of the tree in the school yard.

More of the wet weather shots...

Our favourite Costa is getting closed for refurbishment for a few days. Eddie and I popped in for a drink and a treat before doing the grocery shopping.
We also popped in to the library to check out if they had more books in the Raven's mysteries series by Marcus Sedgwick. I bought the 1st book in the charity shop recently for 99p, and Eddie loved it very much - especially that the main character, the old wise raven, is called Edgar. We were happy to see that they have books 2 and 3 in the series, so we borrowed the 2nd one.

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