Bunny fun in the snow

It is snowing here!  How exciting – it never snows here, it only ever rains…and rains some more.  So we are very excited to see big white flakes tumbling from the sky.

The bunnies have been out having fun in the snow – our littlest bunny and newest addition to our family seems to be getting along well with Lovage and so fingers-crossed will be staying…

She has a name too – Daisy.

Here is Lovage and Daisy having fun in the snow…

Borage, Lovage and Daisy had their first Christmas present (I didn’t know bunnies got presents at Christmas!) delivered today from the lovely Carole and Geoff at Fed & Watered.  Carole and Geoff, along with a lady called Clare are our bunnies ‘furry godmothers’ – they come and look after the bunnies when we go away on holiday.  They come highly recommended!

Wintery weekend soul food: French onion soup with bread and butter

Soul food for wintery weekends – a bowl of homemade French onion soup and chunky slices of bread smeared thickly with butter.  We ate Miracle Bread from Jane’s Handmade Bread bought at Abbey Ley’s farmers market spread with white goat’s butter.

Eating my way around England

The past two weeks I feel have hardly seen me eat a homecooked meal.  I have eaten all kinds of food all over the country – some good, some bad, some better than others – but what I can say is that I am ready to eat platefuls of my own, homecooked food.

Here’s my two weeks in food.

1. Bradford ~ unexciting council catered sandwiches but delicious, spicy, vegetable samosas.

2. North Yorkshire ~ sandwiches under cling film, pretty tasty chunky cut ham sandwiches, good looking fruit scones but needed a minute in the microwave to soften.

3. London ~ more platters of sandwiches, this time M&S and fridge-cold, very nice goat’s cheese and sweet pickled carrot on grain bread shame about the cold.

4. Lancaster ~ disappointing pub meal in hotel, lots of local produce but cooked terribly, worst ‘crab’ cakes ever eaten – thick, grey stodge – yuk!  Nice chocolate ice cream to save the day.

5. Kirkby Lonsdale ~ country pub lunch, good tasting ploughman’s with mustard yellow piccalilli, thick roast ham, and a Scotch Egg – dry bread but a won over by a chocolate milkshake.

6. Manchester ~ Polish lunch at training, a truly delicious beef and potato stew!

7. Chorlton ~ work Christmas party at Ostara, divine winter solstice vegetable and spice soup (a secret recipe!), scrummy cider pot roast ham with all the Christmas trimmings, but a sadly disappointing chocolate yule log. More on Ostara here…

8. Manchester ~ another wonderful Polish lunch, cheese filled pierogi’s topped with caramelised onions, and sausage and cabbage stew – am on the hunt for this Polish takeaway for more more more!

My conclusion – a dismal meal can always be saved by excellent chocolate ice cream.

A new arrival

We have a new arrival at our house – this sweet little bunny:

She has no name as of yet, and will hopefully Lovage’s friend for life.  However, we are still trying to bond them, and she will only be able to stay if they get along together.  So fingers-crossed as she’s such a sweetie and very friendly – I’ll keep you posted.

Food, Inc – the movie

I can’t wait to see this film, it looks like a real eye-opener:

Salami and Fennel Linguine

So last night we made a(nother) Jamie Oliver recipe – Salami and Fennel Linguine (Jamie calls it Spaghetti with Salami, Fennel and Tomatoes).  It was yummy, with the delicate flavours of the fennel coming through a hearty tomato sauce and fatty slithers of salami.  This is my tweaked version of Jamie’s.

Salami and Fennel Spaghetti

Feeds two

spaghetti or linguine for two
a couple of thick slices of salami (I used Milano salami and asked my deli to cut it into thick slices rather than thinly sliced)
2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
1/2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
small bulb of fennel, finely sliced
feathery fennel tops
1 tin of tomatoes (I used tinned cherry tomatoes)
pinch of dried chilli flakes
chunk of stale bread, whizzed into breadcrumbs
sprig of rosemary

Take your slices of salami and cut them into matchsticks. 

In a pan, heat a couple of glugs of olive oil and add the salami, sliced garlic and crushed fennel seeds.  Stir over a low heat until the fat starts to cook out of the salami and it starts to crisp ever so slightly.

Add the sliced fennel and stir – cook for a couple of minutes until soft.  Add the tinned tomatoes and a pinch of dried chilli.  Cook on a low heat for about 25 minutes until the sauce has thickened.  Season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, heat a pan of boiling salted water and cook your spaghetti or linguine.

In a small frying pan, heat a glug of olive oil and add the sprig of rosemary.  As the rosemary starts to sizzle and release its aromas into the oil, add the breadcrumbs and fry until golden and crispy.  Remove the rosemary sprig and discard.

Drain the pasta and toss it into your tomato sauce.  You can either stir through the crispy golden breadcrumbs and serve, or sprinkle them over the top of your pasta once plated up.  Top with a few green feathery fennel fronds.

*Taken from and slightly adapted from Jamie Oliver’s Happy Days with the Naked Chef.

Wet walks, log fires and Sunday lunch

I know I’ve been pretty terrible at posting recently – partly I have got the winter blues and partly I am exhausted by hectic workloads at both of my jobs.  I am so looking forward to Christmas – I am craving that cosy Christmas feeling and a good break – and a chance to eat great food.

We have been eating a mixed bunch of food recently - some good, some crap.  A couple of Friday’s ago we cooked a killer fish pie for friends…but we ate it before I had a chance to take a photo of its golden crusted gorgeousness. 

We are majoring on sausage casseroles full of root veg, tinned beans, and other leftovers. 

Last weekend we visited my family and cooked a pheasant casserole (my brother has become a beater and comes home with pheasants often at the moment).

I am just in the middle of cooking our dinner – Salami and Fennel Linguine – which I will endeavour to post tomorrow as I’m snapping pictures while I type – of course only if it tastes good – we’ve not made it before!  I also promise to try and get the second part of our Italy holiday food posted asap.  Watch this space.

My Christmas wish list

It’s been a miserable day here today – wet and wild.  While I was stood by the bird table crumbling up some stale bread, my two little mice friends appeared!  I thought they had gone, got by the fat cat who ate my robin babies, but no!  Maybe not the original mice I saw, but a pair nonetheless.  They were so sweet, scampering out of the shrubs to grab morsels of bread as I dropped it.

So we have spent the evening cosy inside, N watching rugby and me browsing the internet.  I came across this lovely ‘Waste Not Want Not’ table runner at one of my favourite shops, Re-found Objects.  How lovely is that!  Definitely one for the Christmas wish list.

Image: Re-found Objects

Excellent local food on our travels in Surrey

Last weekend N and I had a lovely weekend down South, visiting some friends in Surrey and doing a bit of wedding planning (how exciting!) – we went to view these stunning giant tipis as a possibility for our wedding reception…

But back to food.  We visited a National Trust property called Polesden Lacey (a beautiful house, gardens and stunning view – well worth a visit if you’re in the area) which also has a recently opened farmshop. 

Always on the hunt for delicious local food, we chose a couple of local cheeses, a sausage roll and a pork pie.  The sheep cheese we bought called Lord of the Hundreds is so tasty I could eat the whole thing in one sitting.

On Sunday night we cashed in a voucher for a free night’s stay at a hotel called the Bishop’s Table in Farnham.  It’s a pretty old building painted sky blue, which has recently been refurbished downstairs combining modern and old very nicely.  Upstairs hasn’t been updated, but we had a large room with a big bathroom with delightful old shutters – the only thing offense about the bedroom was the garish flowery wallpaper and matching curtains.

Breakfast, however, was going to cost £12.50 for each of us, which I think sounds quite a lot!  I wasn’t convinced the breakfast would live up to its price tag, so before we left for our weekend away I had a search on the internet for an alternative option for a tasty Monday morning breakfast.

I discovered Farnham Pottery farmshop and coffee shop, which is located just outside Farnham in a place called Wrecclesham.  Originally a Victorian pottery the buildings have been sympathetically converted into a small farmshop and coffee shop.  With only four tables in the tiny coffee shop, it felt cosy but light and airy with a lovely atmosphere.

From the breakfast menu, N chose a bacon breakfast bap accompanied by a pot of Earl Grey, and I went for the English muffin with scrambled eggs (it did come with smoked salmon but I was far too full after a weekend of good company and good food) and a Delightful Detox smoothie (yoghurt, raspberry and pineapple).

The food was delicious.  My English muffin was toasted to perfection and the scrambled egg full of flavour and moist, N’s bacon bap disappeared without a murmur, and the smoothie was scrumptious.  And the cost – £12.60 - just 10p more than it would have cost for one of to have breakfast at the hotel, and it was just what we were after.

Happy Hallow’een

N and I are away for the weekend visiting friends and relatives – have a lovely Hallow’een weekend!