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My new camera makes the pretty things in my kitchen look much lovelier. Our kitchen is a bit shabby around the edges (it’s a work in progress) and before now any pictures of the eclectic collection that fill my shelves have looked a bit blah.
Now my pretty collection of vintage finds can shine bit. Here’s a short walk around my kitchen…
A small selection of jugs – I just love jugs…
Pretty metal jelly moulds, glass cake stands, and vintage crockery. Plus an adorable stoneware pot adorned with a picture of a cute cow…
And possibly my favourite find of all…a set of incredibly beautiful French Parfait jars and bottles, illustrated with geese in the snow and pale blue lids…
I don’t know if anyone else finds this interesting…but am happy to continue snapping my carboot and junk shop treasures…I have quite a few littered around the house. Does anyone else love collecting lovely old things? Let me know what you think.
This past weekend we went to Bath for a weekend away with friends. On Saturday morning whilst I was waiting for Mr Rigg to arrive by train, I ventured in to the Bath Farmer’s Market – and what treats awaited me!
Incredible veggies – like these pink stripey beetroot and mixed carrots. I bought a bunch of each.
Wonderful cured meats and sausages – bottom right is pancetta and Coppa, both of which found their way into my shopping bag, along with some Italian pinwheel sausages (back top left).
Mushrooms of all kinds – I bought a box of those teeny tiny ‘Paris Browns’.
Cheeses of all kinds, including the award winning Bath Soft Cheese – somewhere between a Brie and a Camembert.
This is the lovely oil man, selling rapeseed oil made from his farm’s crops, and also making a selection of delicious dressings. I usually make all my own salad dressings, but I couldn’t resist a bottle of his creamy Quince and Cider dressing.
The quince lady…well that’s not her real name (a bit more on her soon) selling a selection of beautiful homemade quince products. Syrups, jellies, sweets and quince paste.
The choice of vegetables available at the farmer’s markets is outstanding. All farmers markets around the country should have this kind of choice. Everyone around the country should have access to vegetables like these. Dark bunches of cavolo nero and pumpkins of all sizes and colours.
The aforementioned flowerpot bread – cheese and herb I think, baked in a terracotta flowerpot to give it that unusual shape. Also deliciously tasty!
If you ever thought winter vegetables could be boring, here’s a picture to change your mind – amber pumpkins, pinky-purple onions, muddy carrots, fat beetroot, stalks of sprouts, bundles of spinach, dark curly kale, crisp stalks of celery, fresh broccoli, and the wrinkly savoy cabbage or those tinged violet.
And this stall selling their own cheeses, and various cheese products and accompaniments – chutney, cheesecake, soft cheese, and curd tarts. I bought some of their ewes cheese which was incredibly delicious.
We had an unusual but lovely tea on Sunday – hot buttered crumpets with homemade quince jelly and a plate of exotic fruits. Mr Rigg and I had eaten quite well the rest of the weekend (including a lovely meal out on Saturday night with Mr Rigg’s uncle) so we weren’t that hungry.
So we toasted some crumpets under the grill (our toaster is broken…has been for months…the new toaster I want costs about £50…too much for a toaster I’m told…) until they’re really golden and crisp.
My friend Jane makes the best crumpets and she always puts them in the toaster a couple of times until they’re really crispy and only a little bit soft right in the middle. Any less and you just get a soggy doughy mouthful – yuk!
Once toasted, I liberally buttered them – lots of butter is a must with crumpets – popped them on a pretty blue and white plate (this makes them taste better, I promise) and top with homemade quince jelly.
So you see, despite my lack of regular posting we have been busy making lovely food – like making quince jelly for the first time. Just without a camera I’m rather embarrassed and ashamed of my phone camera pictures.
We also had a plate of fruit – pomegranate seeds (we drank the tiny cupful of juice that came out in little shared sips) and feijoa fruit. Ever heard of a feijoa? Me neither. Unicorn had a basket of them, these small green fruits and they were described as tasting of mint, pineapple, strawberry, guava…they sounded too intriguing not to buy a bag full to try.
The instructions I had on how to eat the feijoa were to leave until they were tender when squeezed – then they were ripe. Simply cut in half and eat like a kiwi. Firstly, the fragrance of this fruit is incredible. Utterly bewitching. The taste is equally wonderful, and beyond description – quite unusual even. If you see them whilst out and about, my advice is to buy yourself a bagful and try them.
On quick investigation they are native to South America, also known as the pineapple guava, and the pulp used in some natural cosmetics as an exfoliant. Fascinating stuff.
Truly I am. What has it been…a week since I last posted? And it’s not for lack of eating nice things or doing nice things. This week we have eaten … ugh, I forget without photos to document it!
We have eaten far too much Dunham Massey ice cream with homemade chocolate sauce that I do remember – but along with pizza making we leave chocolate sauce making to Mr Rigg. My attempt resulted in a near disaster!
Tonight we are making Jamie’s lasagne – the sauce part is busy bubbling away in the oven with the fragrant scent of cinnamon filling the house. This lasagne has a mixture of beef and pork mince, roasted butternut squash and flecks of crispy pancetta.
Image: Jamie Oliver
We’ve also made slow cooked chilli con carne with leftovers for lunches – delicious with wraps, sour cream and grated cheese. This one is worth a post sometime soon when I’ve reinstated a camera into our lives.
I’ve bought locally grown quinces to make quince jelly after trying some on crumpets at work – yum! Tomorrow night we have friends over for dinner and are planning a Moroccan chicken tagine with couscous – another Jamie recipe.
Image: Radish NYC
My week has also included a two-day headache (ugh!), an exciting time in the life of my website, lots of log fires, happiness that Mr Robin is back and singing in my garden, and a visit to the dentist (I’ve had a numb cheek and face all afternoon). Hoping for a less painful week next week.
I also came across this lovely blog, a post from the same blog on an incredible looking gourmet shop in New York (wish there was somewhere like this near me!), and amazing lunchboxes.
Image: made by OOTS
Yesterday at work we celebrated our 11th Birthday – why 11th, you ask? Well, we forgot last year that the business had turned 10, so we’re celebrating now. Also, my dear colleague Paul is leaving us and heading back to his native Australia.
So we celebrated with a very English afternoon tea in a meadow, believe it or not in the city. We had a tented camp, bunting hanging from the trees, live music, and lots of good friends. There were scones and jam, make-it-yourself knicker-bocker-glories, and baskets of tiny sandwiches.
My colleague and I were responsible for the baskets of sandwiches, and had spent all morning making them. We made three varieties: egg mayonnaise with lots of chives on a white Polish rye bread; smoked salmon with a tangy lemon cream cheese on a deep campagrain bread; and (my absolute favourite, and my own invention) my take on cheese and pickle, a Welsh blue brie with sweet onion chutney on a fragrant seeded bread.
So here’s a quick round-up of our lovely afternoon:
…How to make your knicker-bocker-glory…
…A table groaning under the weight of jam, cream and Jane’s utterly perfect scones (recipe coming soon!)…
…The wheelbarrow of drinks on ice…
…Soft white egg and chive sandwiches with pretty cocktail flags…
…and the band creating a lovely atmosphere…
Eat the Earth 
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