La Munch

The piece of work I did for La Munch cafe in LA fitness, Sale, is now finished and insitu. Nice to do a piece of work that is larger than the usual and to combine some screenprinting with the painting. The background is full of tiny cupcakes as Beau (proprietor of the cafe) is expanding into the cupcake business.

Beau makes the most fantastic banana bread and whenever I take Jacob for his swimming lessons he drags me into the cafe first for a piece of it along with a fruit smoothie. The chocolate brownies are divine and the cupcakes are very cute indeed.

Unfortunately for Jacob the venue for his swimming lessons has changed - I don't know what he's going to do without that banana bread (the smoothies I do at home most days now as he's a little addicted to them).

There is only one thing for it - I shall have to try baking some banana bread myself! (I did try once but you could have used it to sink a ship!)

Any good recipes?

Jammin, we're jammin, I hope you like jam too (sorry but it's in my head)

Recipe

4lbs fresh allotment picked plums
4lbs preserving sugar
1 pint water

Softened plums in the pint of water on a low simmer. Sugar was added and stirred until dissolved and then turned up to get a rolling boil (only know what that looks like from watching Hugh Fearnly whittywhatty chappy). Took about 15-20 minutes to get to setting point and tried out the plates in the freezer technique.

The mess made and the amount of tea towels I went through (wash day is getting longer) was well worth it, the plum jam is lovely. The allotment is a lot of hard work and we three are not the most committed of folk but our efforts have paid off for a second year running and we realise why we have one. The fruit and veg we grow is second to none.

And another close up of the lovely stuff

Just look at that hint of pink!

And all from this.... my lovely plum tree (photo not so great)

It's so heavily laden with fruit at the moment that i'm inviting friends to come and pick their own to take home. Angela, Vicky if you are reading this - this weekend for picking!  HOWEVER, not the strawberries, Jacob would never forgive me.

Chilli in the summer

The tapenade we made yesterday had our homegrown chillies in it.

This plant sits proudly on my kitchen window sill and is probably the only plant that I have managed not to kill in the house! Allotment fine, all doing well but plants in the house...............no, can't do it. Maybe my mind is on too many other things.

Jacob has decided he wants his very own area of the allotment to grow what he likes (think that could be strawberries, strawberries and some more strawberries)

Shall pop to the timber yard tomorrow to buy some planks and will take him down the allotment to make some small beds for him to grow things in.

That's 3 things out of 1001 things to do in the summer with an 8yr old!

Shortbread lovelies xx

Am sat with a cuppa and having a nibble on the biscuits Jacob and I made. Lovely!

Yahay, getting to use that plum jam made yesterday



So careful not to spill any 

After 20 mins in the oven we have supplies that will last a  very short time as they are so delicious

 And a quick close up of that homemade plum jam.....MMMmmmmmmmm

 



Shortbread biscuits with vanilla

Biscuit making

Many hands did make light work........ and made light of the biscuit mixture too. It's so tasty in its pre oven dough form that Jacob couldn't resist snaffling bits here and there when he thought he could and I was doing the same!

Good opportunity to use some maths - weights, converting measurements ... he's much better than me.

Very impressed with his egg seperating!

Even careful enough to get the measurements exact!

The dough is now sat in the fridge and we'll be back later to roll, cut into shapes and pop it in the oven.

Recipe

110z plain flour
8oz chilled salted butter
4 1/2 oz golden castor sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large egg yolks

We were a bit unorthadox and threw all the ingredients into the food processor (accidently cutting out the rubbing the butter into the flour before adding all other ingredients) OOOPs
I'm hoping this won't affect the outcome too much but that's what happens when multitasking -numerous phonecalls about a garden gate delivery!

Tapenade and Helping Hands

I love this tapenade that we thought up to go with our halloumi and ciabattas after the tapenade we had been buying from Marks and Spencer went out of production.


It's made from:-
1 roasted red pepper - quartered, coated in oil and skins blackened under the grill. Put in airtight container for an hour and then peel away the skin.
2-3oz  sun dried tomatoes with a big splash of the oil from their jar
2-4 cloves garlic (big 'uns)
1 small red chilli (bought a plant in local shop and it is pushing out chilli after chilli, am freezing them and using them as and when)
2-3 fl oz olive oil


everything simply goes into a blender and is whizzed up to the desired consistency. When done put through a sieve and save the oil that runs out for basting your red peppers under the grill. Both keep in the fridge for days.


Jacob loves this as a dip with salads and enjoys the fiery kick from the chilli.


My helping hands, Jacob, loved doing the prep. And yes I do make him wash his hands!

Jam Making

Plums at the ready

Adding the sugar after softening the plums on a simmer

Changed to a bigger and more solid pan and got onto that rolling boil after the sugar had dissolved

Next photos will be of the jars that are now cooling in a darkened cupboard. Jacob has planned plum jam on toast for breakfast - yum, will join him!

Hello summer hols

With the onslaught of summer holidays i'm thinking of 1001 things to do with my 8yr old son.  Today it's jam making, plums again from the allotment same as last year. Shall post our efforts later.



Some roasted red pepper and chilli tapenade to have with our dinner tonight

 and tomorrow it's shortbread biscuits with  plum jam centres.

I'm going to try icecream again later in the week as I made my own some time ago using the frozen fruit from the allotment and it was delicious. My son is into rasperry ripple but i've picked some blackberries so I'll give that a go.