Wigwamming

What a fantastic weekend I’ve had. I went wigwamming in Northumberland with 17 female photographers.

We slept in yurts that had a log fire and sat round a camp fire during the night chatting and getting drunk :0) met loads of lovely ladies and looking forward to meeting them again.

The place we stayed was called pot-a-doodle-do. Great facilities and close to a lovely beach.

We went to Holy Island and visited lindisfarne Castle. Sat on the beach for a while and then headed back to camp for a BBQ.

On the way home we stopped off at the Angel of the North which was quite an amazing thing to see. It’s huge!! So glad I’ve seen it.

Here’s a few photos of the yurt etc

Pikelets

I finally had success at making pikelets. For confused Australians, in Yorkshire pikelets are made from the same mixture as crumpets but without the metal ring to support them.

Here are some professionally made pikelets from the famous Betty’s tearooms in Harrogate.

and here is one that I made

Not quite as lacy in texture but they do taste good when toasted and spread with cold butter and served with a cuppa Yorkshire tea.

I used the River Cottage bread book which is my new favourite bread recipe book but changed it slightly. I was a little bit short of plain flour so I made up the difference with plain spelt flour. Also I misread the instructions when I made the batter last night and just whisked up all the ingredients together instead of adding the baking powder and salt just before cooking. Still, it doesn’t seem to have done any harm because like I said they taste good. I think the trick is to have the right consistency of the batter and the temperature of the pan just right.

ttfn Mx

Burger with sneaky veg

I’ve been trying to eat more healthy recently which includes eating way more vegetables and less meat. I’ve experimented by sneakily adding vegetables to meals as well as eating veg for their own sake.  One of my most successful recipes has been my burger with sneaky veg.

The first time I made this was when Katie came round for Australia Day barbecue and the second time was this weekend when my husband invited some friends from England who had recently moved here. I changed the recipe the second time by not blitzing the onion in the food processor because sometimes I like the crunch of onions but I think that I liked it better the other way.  The sneaky veg makes for a really moist flavoursome burger and even though it’s hard to deny the presence of beetroot my son who dislikes it on it’s own loves these burgers.

This was a test burger because testing the balance of seasoning is always crucial, otherwise there would be cheese melting and maybe a wrap or bread bun and pickles.  The seasoning quantities are vague because it’s a matter of individual taste really.

So the recipe is as follows

1kg minced meat (I’ve done it with all beef and 50/50 beef/pork, both were good)

1 onion finely chopped or blitzed in a food processor

1 beetroot, finely grated

1 carrot finely grated

1 egg whisked

1 generous tsp horseradish

a couple of sploshes of Worcestershire sauce

some finely chopped thyme and/or parsley

salt and pepper

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and squoosh up with your hands, there really isn’t a better way to amalgamate the ingredients.

Make evenly sized patties and then obviously you grill or fry them. serve with whatever you like to serve your burgers with.  I do love horseradish in burgers but I’m planning to experiment with chilli, spices and herbs etc

February Snow

Well the snow finally arrived after much talk about it being on its way and it didn’t disappoint! Once it started it snowed for hours.

This morning Neave decided she wanted to go to Pickering park to build a snowman. The park was very quiet with a handful of family’s playing in the snow. Ideal opportunity to take photos. Here’s a few of my favourites.

Elegance Bridal Boutique

Today my lovely friend opened her own bridal shop. I went along for the support , nosy and of course to take photos. The shop is lovely, decorated and furnished by Laura Ashley and its gorgeous. I saw at least 3 dresses I loved!

I took around 200 photos, ranging from detail shots and reportage. Here’s just a few of them.

London-The Nutcracker

As soon as I stepped of my plane from the Big Apple it was time to see the little apple we call London.

My treat this time was to see The Nutcracker. I’d always wanted to see it since I was little and I finally got my chance so myself the ex hubby and my daughter Neave went to London to see the show. It was beautiful and lovely to see, the dancers were amazing and so talented. You can see they only pick the best.

After the show we had time to do a spot of sight seeing. We went to Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly circus, walked over the millennium bridge on to the embankment and then headed back to kings cross as it was time for home. Here’s a few pic’s

NYC

Well I went to New York for a long weekend courtesy of my dear friends Hubby who paid for myself and 2 other friends to meet up in Manhatten for a spot of shopping and sightseeing! And wow what a treat it was.

The whole trip was jaw dropping and surreal! We saw the statue of Liberty, Time square, went to the market at Central park, walked across Brooklyn Bridge, went up to the top of the rock (Rockerfella centre) saw 2 live shows, night with Jimmy Fallon with guests such as Aretha Franklin and Charlize Theron. And a morning show called Live with Kelly who I must add is a funny woman and wish she was on our TV in a morning.

Here’s a few pic’s of my trip

Christmas in Australia

 

 

Means Carols by Candlelight.

 

A community carol show, a picnic, friends and/or family. Good fun had by all and the first time I’ve felt the Yuletide spirit in Australia. Thanks Katie for having your birthday celebrations here, I thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

Seedlings

I’ve been fascinated with growing food for some time now. I’m a huge fan of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his River Cottage programme and Alys Fowler’s The Edible Garden programme both of which talk enthusiastically of growing your own vegetables and the pleasures of a kitchen garden.  Trouble is…

1) I live on the other side of the world  from the lovely Hugh and Alys, in a country with upside-down seasons, that has battled with drought conditions for years until recently and in summer it gets flipping’ hot and everything in the garden wilts, particularly if you are prone to going out to work for 10 hours at a time, as I am.

2) My gardening knowledge extends to put-the-seeds-in-the-muck-and-water-regualrly-and-fingers-crossed-something-will-grow.

3) We live in a rented house so can’t dig up the garden to make a veggie patch.

4) I don’t do spiders and creepy crawlies, (and I moved to Australia! I know!).

So despite all of this I went to the garden centre just over a week ago and bought some seeds, kale,runner beans or flat beans as I think they are known here and cucumber seeds. My reasons for choosing these were…

1) I LOVE kale!

2) I miss runner beans, we ate them a lot in summer when I was growing up, usually from our neighbours’ gardens. Our neighbours on both side grew veggies and were quite competitive with each other.

3)I need a plentiful supply of cucumbers to garnish my Pimms cocktails and Hendricks gin and tonics.

I’ve also planted some peas today from a bag of dried peas that were lurking in a corner of the pantry à la Alys Fowler.

Thus far, my endeavours have amounted to this…

…one bean plant and some kale seedlings. I shall keep you posted though.

Breakfast

My favourite breakfast has always been porridge but recently porridge has got even better. I’m quite traditional with my porridge toppings sugar, cinnamon sugar, maple syrup and golden syrup being my toppings of choice. Now, however, I have discovered Rapadura sugar which is just heavenly.

Rapadura, I am reliably informed by t’internets comes from South America and is made from the pressed juice of sugar canes. The juice is very slowly evaporated at low heat and therefore retains all the molasses and with that all the vitamins and minerals. It tastes sensational, caramel and treacle flavours and much better for you than normal sugar.

omnomnom