It's Thanksgiving in the USA today, and although I don't get to celebrate with my brother and sister in law as they tuck into a big plate of turkey in Houston, I always think it's a lovely idea for a holiday. There is a lot to be said for setting aside a day that makes you spend time thinking about what you have to be thankful for in life whilst counting your blessings with your friends and family. When the days are short, cold, wet and dark this isn't always an easy task, so if I can't have pumpkin pie, I appreciate the reminder from across the water to refocus on what's really important in life.
This week has been a hard slog, with illness, work and bad weather so I've been trying hard to find some time for some small pleasures to keep the thanksgiving spirit alive. Yesterday I dragged my poorly son out of the house for lunch at Three Sister's Bake in the beautiful Quarrier's Village in Renfrewshire. I've never been before but heard about it after James from this year's British Bake Off launched their children's cake baking competition and decided I needed to make some time for a visit. The food was yummy and the shelves were stacked with lovely gifts and treats, but the best thing about it was the amazing location. The houses on the estate are all former orphanages which were built by the philanthropist William Quarrier in the best Victorian tradition of improving the consitution and mind by moving the disadvantaged into beautiful retreats in lovely surroundings. The Quarrier's charity, which provides support to disadvantaged families, is still based here, but the houses and church have all been turned into private residences sprinkled with galleries and cafes. The best way to describe it is to imagine if Barrett Homes based their estates on Hogwarts. I loved it.
That night I decided to balance the cakes with a healthy supper of lentil and butternut squash stew. It's a Nigel Slater recipe and like all the best winter food, it ain't pretty but it tastes amazing. Tonight's dinner was also based on this principle when I raided the remnants of the fridge before the Friday shop and roasted up some peppers, onions and potatoes tossed in garlic and paprika with some chilli Halloumi. We raised a thankful glass to distant family and ugly food that warms the body and soul and for a few minutes the worries and stresses of life disappeared.
Thursday, 22 November 2012
Sunday, 11 November 2012
Baking experiments and social media
This weekend started off with a treat when my husband and I took Friday afternoon off and went on a rare trip to the cinema to see the new Bond film before having a slap up seafood dinner at one of my favourite Glasgow restaurants, Gamba. The food was great and due to the magical world of Twitter, fishy chef extraordinaire, Derek knew we were coming and made sure we were well looked after. My favourite was the fish soup with crab and ginger which I could happily have eaten all day long.
Twitter has also got me my first baking commission with @whwlatest on the look out for some gluten free bread. I've had some flour in stock for a couple of weeks so decided to give it a bash today. It actually turned out quite tasty, more like a crumpety milk loaf then a crusty bloomer, but would make a decent bit of substitute toast to satisfy an emergency bread craving. Looking forward to re-baking it for public consumption and seeing how it goes down with those who need it.
Whilst I was waiting for that to bake, I also dug out the bag of spelt flour that had been waiting to be tried for a while and adapted a Richard Bertinet recipe for honey and lavender bread. All was going well until the final transfer to the oven when it deflated somewhat leaving me with a strange looking but heavenly smelling loaf. The lavender was subtle and the nuttiness of the spelt balanced with the sweetness of the honey to give a great tasting, unusual bread.
Twitter is a very strange and wonderful thing. It draws you in, introduces you to like minded people, and provides an amazing platform for marketing, motivation and distraction. I've shared today's experiments with the inspiring @thoughtfulbread who are busy baking on a much grander scale at the other end of the country for some foodie feedback and will let Nigel Slater know that his Brownie recipe is indeed a winner later. It's all very strange, but it keeps me working towards the dream. Just don't tell my mentor @PosiOut about my lack of business planning progress!
Twitter has also got me my first baking commission with @whwlatest on the look out for some gluten free bread. I've had some flour in stock for a couple of weeks so decided to give it a bash today. It actually turned out quite tasty, more like a crumpety milk loaf then a crusty bloomer, but would make a decent bit of substitute toast to satisfy an emergency bread craving. Looking forward to re-baking it for public consumption and seeing how it goes down with those who need it.
Whilst I was waiting for that to bake, I also dug out the bag of spelt flour that had been waiting to be tried for a while and adapted a Richard Bertinet recipe for honey and lavender bread. All was going well until the final transfer to the oven when it deflated somewhat leaving me with a strange looking but heavenly smelling loaf. The lavender was subtle and the nuttiness of the spelt balanced with the sweetness of the honey to give a great tasting, unusual bread.
Twitter is a very strange and wonderful thing. It draws you in, introduces you to like minded people, and provides an amazing platform for marketing, motivation and distraction. I've shared today's experiments with the inspiring @thoughtfulbread who are busy baking on a much grander scale at the other end of the country for some foodie feedback and will let Nigel Slater know that his Brownie recipe is indeed a winner later. It's all very strange, but it keeps me working towards the dream. Just don't tell my mentor @PosiOut about my lack of business planning progress!
Sunday, 4 November 2012
Time to get festive
This has to be one of my favourite times of year. We've dressed up as skeletons, super heroes, scooby doo characters and dug out our winter woollies. We've had the full range of autumn weather, autumn colours, Halloween treats, bonfires and fireworks and I've loved it all.
It's also been a week of full on cooking and baking, using up all the seasonal treats in our fruit and veg box from Pestle & Mortar and raiding the garden for the last of the home grown goodies and festive treats. We've had Halloween cookies, pumpkin and blue cheese risotto, Aubergine parmigiana, filled the store cupboard with apple jelly with chilli and rosemary & mint, feasted on banana cake, roast beef & yorkshire puddings and apple sponge. The cupboard is now full of mincemeat and the Christmas cake is in the tin. In short the house smells delicious and our tummies are full to bursting.
This weekend's baking experimentation was, however, the best bit of all. Bagels, bagels, bagels. I've loved them forever but I've never made them before and I really don't know why because they are amazing. Chewy, soft, squishy and fun. They are the best reason I've found so far to get out of bed early on a Sunday morning and get baking. Here's some pics of the bagelicious feast in action.
It's also been a week of full on cooking and baking, using up all the seasonal treats in our fruit and veg box from Pestle & Mortar and raiding the garden for the last of the home grown goodies and festive treats. We've had Halloween cookies, pumpkin and blue cheese risotto, Aubergine parmigiana, filled the store cupboard with apple jelly with chilli and rosemary & mint, feasted on banana cake, roast beef & yorkshire puddings and apple sponge. The cupboard is now full of mincemeat and the Christmas cake is in the tin. In short the house smells delicious and our tummies are full to bursting.
This weekend's baking experimentation was, however, the best bit of all. Bagels, bagels, bagels. I've loved them forever but I've never made them before and I really don't know why because they are amazing. Chewy, soft, squishy and fun. They are the best reason I've found so far to get out of bed early on a Sunday morning and get baking. Here's some pics of the bagelicious feast in action.
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
The yoga side of life
When I'm not baking, eating cake, blogging, parenting or working I like to pop on some stretchy clothes, burn some essential oils and try to switch my head off by doing some yoga.
It isn't a new thing for me, I've practised it on and off since university, but in the last twelve months yoga has become a way of life and an essential part of my day to day routine.
This new obsession started last year when I was very stressed and run down. I needed to start making some changes in my life and devote some time and energy to rescuing my sanity and yoga was one of the things I turned to. I dragged myself out of the house one dark, cold Wednesday night and into my local yoga class run by White Lotus Yoga. It was the first step (or stretch) to finding myself again and just taking that hour a week to do something mentally relaxing and physically stimulating made the world of difference to me. I'm not usually one for making new year's resolutions but this year I did; to make yoga a part of my life on a more permanent basis.
The first part of my plan was to go on a yoga retreat. I say retreat, I mean holiday. I spent a long time looking for yoga breaks where you don't have to do too much strenuous exercise and could still eat and drink in the sunshine and found exactly what I was looking for through Sunflower Retreats who run week long yoga holidays in the beautiful hilltown of Casperia in Italy.
Our teacher was Katharine West from Four Seasons Yoga in Somerset. Katharine was the perfect teacher for me. Patient, fun, wise and a little bit mad, she is a passionate advocate of scaravelli yoga (which works on the natural positioning of the spine) and a beautiful person inside and out. I learnt so much and for the first time in my life felt like I was actually 'doing' yoga properly rather than just manoeuvring my not too bendy body into uncomfortable positions. I practised meditation, learnt breathing techniques that now rescue me from stress on a daily basis and made some great friends in an inspirational setting. Best of all, the food we ate was amazing. The Sunflower team promote ethical tourism and encourage guests to visit local restaurants and sample the local produce which we were all too happy to do. Pizza, pasta, gelato, truffles, cheese, tomatoes, antipasti, it was all so delicious. I did feel slightly guilty when the in-team therapist detected an imbalance in my digestive system during my reflexology session but decided it was worth it!
The up shot of it all is that I came home and, much to my husband's bewilderment, started drinking more green tea, chanting with chakra beads and dragging a back packing yogi chocolatier from New Zealand with me.
Was it life changing? I hope so. I'm still me, but I'm a better version of me with an escape valve that I can tap into whenever I need to in order to keep me that way, and a commitment to taking proactive steps to becoming a more fulfilled person. I've decided it's a journey I want to take further both for me and, hopefully, for more people like me, who need to find a way to make that space in their life. So I've now signed up with Seasonal Yoga Teacher Training and will be starting their course next year. I may not be the most flexible or spiritual person out there, but I'm a true convert to the yogic way of life and can't wait to take it to the next level.
Namaste.
It isn't a new thing for me, I've practised it on and off since university, but in the last twelve months yoga has become a way of life and an essential part of my day to day routine.
This new obsession started last year when I was very stressed and run down. I needed to start making some changes in my life and devote some time and energy to rescuing my sanity and yoga was one of the things I turned to. I dragged myself out of the house one dark, cold Wednesday night and into my local yoga class run by White Lotus Yoga. It was the first step (or stretch) to finding myself again and just taking that hour a week to do something mentally relaxing and physically stimulating made the world of difference to me. I'm not usually one for making new year's resolutions but this year I did; to make yoga a part of my life on a more permanent basis.
The first part of my plan was to go on a yoga retreat. I say retreat, I mean holiday. I spent a long time looking for yoga breaks where you don't have to do too much strenuous exercise and could still eat and drink in the sunshine and found exactly what I was looking for through Sunflower Retreats who run week long yoga holidays in the beautiful hilltown of Casperia in Italy.
Our teacher was Katharine West from Four Seasons Yoga in Somerset. Katharine was the perfect teacher for me. Patient, fun, wise and a little bit mad, she is a passionate advocate of scaravelli yoga (which works on the natural positioning of the spine) and a beautiful person inside and out. I learnt so much and for the first time in my life felt like I was actually 'doing' yoga properly rather than just manoeuvring my not too bendy body into uncomfortable positions. I practised meditation, learnt breathing techniques that now rescue me from stress on a daily basis and made some great friends in an inspirational setting. Best of all, the food we ate was amazing. The Sunflower team promote ethical tourism and encourage guests to visit local restaurants and sample the local produce which we were all too happy to do. Pizza, pasta, gelato, truffles, cheese, tomatoes, antipasti, it was all so delicious. I did feel slightly guilty when the in-team therapist detected an imbalance in my digestive system during my reflexology session but decided it was worth it!
The up shot of it all is that I came home and, much to my husband's bewilderment, started drinking more green tea, chanting with chakra beads and dragging a back packing yogi chocolatier from New Zealand with me.
Was it life changing? I hope so. I'm still me, but I'm a better version of me with an escape valve that I can tap into whenever I need to in order to keep me that way, and a commitment to taking proactive steps to becoming a more fulfilled person. I've decided it's a journey I want to take further both for me and, hopefully, for more people like me, who need to find a way to make that space in their life. So I've now signed up with Seasonal Yoga Teacher Training and will be starting their course next year. I may not be the most flexible or spiritual person out there, but I'm a true convert to the yogic way of life and can't wait to take it to the next level.
Namaste.
Tuesday, 23 October 2012
Good food and good friends
This weekend the BBC Good Food Show came to town and my pre-Christmas healthy eating, less drinking, money saving regime went out the window.
My son and I set off on Friday morning for the shows opening. We were there in time to see the King and Queen of baking, Paul Holywood and Mary Berry, cut the ribbon and then we spent a fun couple of hours tasting treats, pressing apples with the commonwealth orchard team and decorating cupcakes with Truly Scrumptious Designer cakes. Jamie even exchanged a thumbs up with the silver fox himself, whilst Mummy just blushed. I wonder when the restraining order will come through the post?
On Saturday I had a day of scrubbing my kitchen in a bid to start preparations for a visit from the environmental health team so I can get my granola empire off the ground. Then it was time to head over to Edinburgh for a rare night on the town with two of my best pals from university. We spent the evening drinking dodgy cocktails, doing dodgy dancing and discussing plans to escape the stresses of dodgy jobs, DIY and dating. Are there any women out there in their 30s who are entirely happy with their lot? I'm not sure, but I know there is nothing like the support of your friends to keep your feet on the ground and your self belief and ambitions up in the clouds.
After a monster bacon sarnie the next morning, it was back to Glasgow for the child free version of the Good Food Show. It was mobbed but we managed to eat and drink our way round it and try some amazing produce. My bags were stuffed with sausages and beef from Macbeth's butchers, venison from the Seriously Good Venison Company, giant raspberry meringues from Whole Foods, Giffnock and a couple of other treats that have to remain under wraps until Christmas. Marie and Alex, my partners in foodieness for the day, helped me stuff my stomach with bubbly, turkey rolls, cheese and beer and Luvians ice cream, before I rolled home to cook my dinner!
What a dinner it was - tiny tender venison fillet steaks in a red wine, juniper and chocolate sauce with home grown roasted veggies. Delicious.
My diet and bank balance may have been ruined but my spirits had been restored and at the end of the day, I know which is more important.
My son and I set off on Friday morning for the shows opening. We were there in time to see the King and Queen of baking, Paul Holywood and Mary Berry, cut the ribbon and then we spent a fun couple of hours tasting treats, pressing apples with the commonwealth orchard team and decorating cupcakes with Truly Scrumptious Designer cakes. Jamie even exchanged a thumbs up with the silver fox himself, whilst Mummy just blushed. I wonder when the restraining order will come through the post?
On Saturday I had a day of scrubbing my kitchen in a bid to start preparations for a visit from the environmental health team so I can get my granola empire off the ground. Then it was time to head over to Edinburgh for a rare night on the town with two of my best pals from university. We spent the evening drinking dodgy cocktails, doing dodgy dancing and discussing plans to escape the stresses of dodgy jobs, DIY and dating. Are there any women out there in their 30s who are entirely happy with their lot? I'm not sure, but I know there is nothing like the support of your friends to keep your feet on the ground and your self belief and ambitions up in the clouds.
After a monster bacon sarnie the next morning, it was back to Glasgow for the child free version of the Good Food Show. It was mobbed but we managed to eat and drink our way round it and try some amazing produce. My bags were stuffed with sausages and beef from Macbeth's butchers, venison from the Seriously Good Venison Company, giant raspberry meringues from Whole Foods, Giffnock and a couple of other treats that have to remain under wraps until Christmas. Marie and Alex, my partners in foodieness for the day, helped me stuff my stomach with bubbly, turkey rolls, cheese and beer and Luvians ice cream, before I rolled home to cook my dinner!
What a dinner it was - tiny tender venison fillet steaks in a red wine, juniper and chocolate sauce with home grown roasted veggies. Delicious.
My diet and bank balance may have been ruined but my spirits had been restored and at the end of the day, I know which is more important.
Thursday, 11 October 2012
The Fife life
We've just spent a week in Fife having fun in the chilly autumn sun (and flash floods) whilst enjoying some of my favourite food haunts. It's more years then I care to remember since I lived in this part of the world but it's still one of my favourite places to visit. The fishing villages in the east neuk are so pretty and it's the perfect place for kids and dogs to play on windswept beaches whilst everyone stuffs their faces.
First stop of the week was Anstruther for mandatory fish & chips from the award winning fish bar. I could take or leave fish and chips before I ate them here, this week I had to fight the urge to visit daily. I know they always taste better by the sea, but there is no denying these people know how to make a good fish supper.
Next up was a visit to Fisher & Donaldson in St Andrews for their amazing fudge donuts. Smothered in sticky, smokey icing and stuffed with creme patisserie they are the kind of cakes that make life worth living, especially when you eat them on the west sands with the the sun shining on your face and the tang of sea salt on the air.
St Andrews has always been a lovely place to visit but it's filled up with even more cute cafes and tasty delhis over the years and you could very easily spend a whole week happily moving from one scone to another. We stocked up on some cheese from Mellis's, fresh fish and huge scallops from Kerrachers and enjoyed every last stomach stretching morsel.
Finally, special mention has to go to the Ardrossan farm shop which was stocked with an amazing range of local produce. We cooked up a roast of free range chicken, spicy chorizo, home grown tomatoes and tatties and raised a glass to a great holiday with beautiful friends and family in a very special part of the world. Apparently, it's quite good if you like golf too.
First stop of the week was Anstruther for mandatory fish & chips from the award winning fish bar. I could take or leave fish and chips before I ate them here, this week I had to fight the urge to visit daily. I know they always taste better by the sea, but there is no denying these people know how to make a good fish supper.
Next up was a visit to Fisher & Donaldson in St Andrews for their amazing fudge donuts. Smothered in sticky, smokey icing and stuffed with creme patisserie they are the kind of cakes that make life worth living, especially when you eat them on the west sands with the the sun shining on your face and the tang of sea salt on the air.
St Andrews has always been a lovely place to visit but it's filled up with even more cute cafes and tasty delhis over the years and you could very easily spend a whole week happily moving from one scone to another. We stocked up on some cheese from Mellis's, fresh fish and huge scallops from Kerrachers and enjoyed every last stomach stretching morsel.
Finally, special mention has to go to the Ardrossan farm shop which was stocked with an amazing range of local produce. We cooked up a roast of free range chicken, spicy chorizo, home grown tomatoes and tatties and raised a glass to a great holiday with beautiful friends and family in a very special part of the world. Apparently, it's quite good if you like golf too.
Sunday, 30 September 2012
Sourdough, cake and inspiration
This weekend it was time to try out my rye sourdough starter which has been slowly fermenting for the last month. It had gone from smelling of paint stripper to boozy, sharp apples so at last I could experiment with the sponge method and get baking.
This technique involves mixing together a ladleful of your starter with some flour and warm water the evening before you want to bake and leaving it in a warm place overnight. The next morning it had transformed into a frothy milkshake and was good to go. The next stage was making the dough by adding more flour and salt and kneading until smooth and shiny. This took me about 10 minutes using the satisfyingly aggressive and noisy French kneading technique to which I am now a firm devotee.
You then leave the dough for an hour or two, before deflating and re-forming into a ball, then repeat the resting, deflating and reforming stage 2-3 times until you have a lovely fluffy, smooth pillow to play with. The final stage is to divide the dough and form into loaves to pop in proving baskets for the final rising stage (again another 2-3 hours). Finally by tea time they were ready to go in the oven and by supper time we were tucking in to some delicious fresh sourdough.
This is definitely a technique for a long lazy weekend, rather than when you want bread in a hurry but the results were amazing. My best sourdough yet.
It also gave me a chance to try out my new signature slash to the crust. The H for Hels' Bakehouse looks great, although much to the delight of my husband, who works at the SECC, it also looks like the new Hydro arena in Glasgow and has now been christened 'Hydro bread'. I spy a marketing opportunity!
In between all of this bread making it was the usual weekend mixture of dog walking and child ferrying. My son goes to a drama class on a Saturday so whilst he was busy becoming a star, I took advantage and headed off for a coffee and a cupcake at The Butterfly Bakery & Cafe in Bearsden. I've been driving past for a while and looking for an excuse to pop in and I'm glad I did because the cake was delicious and it's the perfect sneaky treat for busy Mum's looking for a sanity saving 20 minutes peace and quiet.
To keep my motivation levels up (with less calorific side effects) I've also joined the ManicMums group on Linkedin and would definitely recommend this and the website mumandcareer.co.uk for anyone struggling to balance work, family, career, guilt and ambitions for a better way of doing all of this. It's full of inspiring advice from like minded people and there's nothing like feeling you're not alone to give you the confidence to keep going.
This technique involves mixing together a ladleful of your starter with some flour and warm water the evening before you want to bake and leaving it in a warm place overnight. The next morning it had transformed into a frothy milkshake and was good to go. The next stage was making the dough by adding more flour and salt and kneading until smooth and shiny. This took me about 10 minutes using the satisfyingly aggressive and noisy French kneading technique to which I am now a firm devotee.
You then leave the dough for an hour or two, before deflating and re-forming into a ball, then repeat the resting, deflating and reforming stage 2-3 times until you have a lovely fluffy, smooth pillow to play with. The final stage is to divide the dough and form into loaves to pop in proving baskets for the final rising stage (again another 2-3 hours). Finally by tea time they were ready to go in the oven and by supper time we were tucking in to some delicious fresh sourdough.
This is definitely a technique for a long lazy weekend, rather than when you want bread in a hurry but the results were amazing. My best sourdough yet.
It also gave me a chance to try out my new signature slash to the crust. The H for Hels' Bakehouse looks great, although much to the delight of my husband, who works at the SECC, it also looks like the new Hydro arena in Glasgow and has now been christened 'Hydro bread'. I spy a marketing opportunity!
In between all of this bread making it was the usual weekend mixture of dog walking and child ferrying. My son goes to a drama class on a Saturday so whilst he was busy becoming a star, I took advantage and headed off for a coffee and a cupcake at The Butterfly Bakery & Cafe in Bearsden. I've been driving past for a while and looking for an excuse to pop in and I'm glad I did because the cake was delicious and it's the perfect sneaky treat for busy Mum's looking for a sanity saving 20 minutes peace and quiet.
To keep my motivation levels up (with less calorific side effects) I've also joined the ManicMums group on Linkedin and would definitely recommend this and the website mumandcareer.co.uk for anyone struggling to balance work, family, career, guilt and ambitions for a better way of doing all of this. It's full of inspiring advice from like minded people and there's nothing like feeling you're not alone to give you the confidence to keep going.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)