Things that make me happy: 2

I love making bread!  When our last bread making machine broke (we've worn out a couple over years!), I started making the dough in my Kenwood Chef.  I just pile in the the ingredients: 

 150g strong white flour

 500g brown flour

2 tsp salt

2 tsp brown sugar

 1 sachet of dried yeast

 1 tbsp sunflower oil

 14 fl.oz of warm water

 and then turn it on!  There's something quite reassuring about the clunking and rocking of my trusty, old machine as it sets to work turning the ingredients into a dough.  I let the machine have its turn at kneading and then I always like to give it a go myself so I tip the warm dough onto a lightly oiled work surface for a few minutes kneading by hand...nothing beats it for removing the stresses of the day!  Using an oiled surface was a tip that I picked up recently from a repeat of Great British Bake Off...it works a treat, so much better than using flour!

Put the dough back in the bowl and leave to rise.

Then, when the bowl is filled with pillowy dough, comes the joy of knocking it back and kneading again before shaping into a loaf or rolls.

Leave to rise again.  Then bake - Gas 7, 30 minutes for a loaf and 20 minutes for rolls - and enjoy the lovely smell that fills the house!

Last night's loaf!

The happiness continues...

with a big bite from a door step of sandwich made with last night's loaf....delicious!

Rebecca

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Beetroot & Being Bold

I enjoyed watching Alys Fowler's TV series so thought I would borrow The Edible Garden from the library. It's great to dip in and out of with its lovely photos, tips and recipes.

This, along with eating delicious vegetables from other people's gardens and allotments, has made me think about changes that could make in our garden. To have a good, regular supply of veg, rather than the dribs and drabs we have at the moment, we need more growing space. We also need to be more organised, which means that 'I' need to be more organised as, once the rugby season starts, hubby's weekend gardening time will disappear! We need to be bolder: we need to sow and plant more so that we are not caught out by pests (as we have been this year!) and so that we are able keep our plates full of fresh, home grown produce!

We bought beetroot from the market this week as ours, what the pests left of it, is not ready yet. Since buying Sophie Grigson's Eat Your Greens, I always cook it slowly in the oven,

which doesn't look too good at first,


but its skins just slip off

to reveal these beauties:

I can never resist popping one of the slightly warm, earthy beets into my mouth as I peel them! I love beetroot!

So we are going to be bold: we are going to dig up some lawn to give us the veg growing space that we need!

I could do with being a little bolder in other areas of my life too: I need to stop letting little niggling doubts and fears hold me back. Perhaps digging up the lawn will prove to be a catalyst!

Back soon,

Rebecca

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Jammy

There was a distinct autumnal chill in the air yesterday morning, so I decided that the time had come to clear the rhubarb patch before the first frost takes us by surprise and ruins what is left.

Time to dig out one of my favourite books:

This year, instead of my usual rhubarb and vanilla or rhubarb and ginger jam, I thought I would try Mrs B's simple recipe:

I love the colour of rhubarb and the way it changes as it cooks!

While the rhubarb bubbles away...time to browse my much-loved, but very tatty, copy of Mrs B's Cookery Book that I picked up for a couple of pounds at The Needlemakers in Lewes a few years ago.

I love to read Mrs B's advice and I am often intrigued and amused by her recipes, such as this one: a Bengal recipe for making mango chetney [sic] .....with no mango!! It is made with sour apples and once blended and in its bottles, Mrs B recommends that you 'tie a piece of wet bladder over the mouths of the bottles' - lovely!

What I also love about my copy of Mrs B is that it has lots of newspaper cuttings and hand written notes and recipes glued into the back....

A recipe for nettle tea, notes on how to clean marble, and Mrs Edward's recipe for sandwich cake...

and how about a recipe for Semolina Snow or Flunnery!!

Based on a lick of the spoon, Mrs Beeton's rhubarb jam gets the thumbs up - deliciously jammy!!

Also very jammy - 7 balls of wool, 100% british wool, at 10p a ball at the charity shop on Tuesday! I'm sure I leave that shop with a huge smile on my face when I've been so lucky with my thrifty finds!

Before I go, I would just like to welcome my new followers and say a huge thank you to everyone who leaves comments for me here. I've not been very good at keeping up with everyone else's blogs over the last couple of weeks, but I've not forgotten you!!

Back soon,

Rebecca

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