Meringues with Blackberries

You can only freeze so many blackberries and make pies and crumbles before you begin to get a bit fed up with seeing blackberries - BUT I decided to make some meringues and serve them with roasted blackberries. I was really good and served them without cream - BUT next time I will use cream, how can you serve meringues without cream.

Meringues
Ingredients
3 large egg whites
175g caster sugar
drop of vanilla extract

Blackberry Sauce
500g blackberries
100g sugar

Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to Gas 1/140C
2. Line a baking tray with baking paper
3. Place the egg whites into a large mixing bowl (make sure it it is dry and grease- free with no egg yolk)
4. Whisk the egg whites until you have soft peaks
5. Add the sugar a tablespoon at a time - do not rush this stage
6. You will end up with a stiff glossy mixture
7. Spoon the mixture onto the tray - perhaps 6 or 8 - you can pipe if you wish
8. Bake the meringues for 1hour and 30 mins. If you prefer a real dry crisp
meringue then turn the oven off at this stage and leave to dry out for approx 3
hours
9. To make the roasted blackberry sauce, place all ingredients into a dish and
place in the oven alongside the meringues. They will soften, but keep thier
shape
10. When the meringues are ready ust peel carefully from the paper and serve with the
blackberry sauce either hot or cold -yummy!

This Moment

This Moment was inspired by Soulemama
http://www.soulemama.com/soulemama/

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

No BLUE sky and no BLUE moon - what is BLUE?

No BLUE sky and no BLUE moon _ what could I use for alphbae thursday rainbow school?
http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com

There is was the colour of the logo I have been looking at all week.

I have just started a ConKerr Cancer Chapter here in the UK and have been busy making pillowcases to donate to hospices.

I have donated 8 pillowcases to Demelza House
http://www.demelza.org.uk

I have another 8 to go to Bluebell Hospice
http://www.bluebellwood.org

and another 20 to go to
http://www.martinhouse.org.uk


Making cheerful pillowcases to help make hospital stays as pleasant as possible for chronically ill children certainly brings a smile to my face.
If you want to wash away those BLUE moods then join me in making pillowcases.
You can contact me via this blog from the UK or check out
http://www.conkerrcancer.org

Happy BLUE day.

Ashbourne Show 2010

This afternoon we visited the Ashbourne Show for the first time. The show was held at Osmaston Polo ground in Osmaston, a small village near Ashbourne. What a delight. The country show had something for everyone and you can see from the slideshow that we just about saw everything there was to see. The food, the tents and stalls were just brilliant and Ashbourne Show will be on our calendar for next year.


http://www.kizoa.com/slideshow/d1053112k1186143o1/ashbourne-show-2010

This Moment

This Moment was inspired by Soulemama
http://www.soulemama.com/soulemama/

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

ConKerr Cancer - Donation of Pillowcases

Thought I would share with you all my first donation of 8 pillowcases. I have set up a Chapter in the UK - Derbyshire. I am currently busy getting together flyers, brochures etc to spread the word about what I am doing and asking for volunteers and donations of fabrics.
I made 20 pillowcases so far and donated 8 to Demelza House ttp://www.demelza.org.uk
This is a small childrens hospice.
Once you have your fabric cut and washed it takes about 15 mins to make each case. Such a little time to bring a smile to the face of a child. So what are you waiting for? Get sewing and make a pillow case today. Check out
www.conkerrcancer.org!

My inspisration came from http://crafthope.com/2010/07/project-9-conkerr-cancer

Will they ever ripen?

I decided this year to try and grow tomatoes outdoors - not the best plan living in the UK - when there is no guarantee of sun every day. However it has not been a bad summer so far, but hey my tomatoes are still GREEN. I have five pots outdoors - lots of GREEN tomatoes as you can see. If nothing happens in the next few weeks they will be made into GREEN tomato chutney - beware tomatoes it is you last chance to ripen before you are put into the pot.
My GREEN beans are doing very well and already have loads in the freezer. I love GREEN beans in white sauce.
My GREEN courgettes are also doing very well. I met a friend for coffee yesterday and she said let the courgettes grow a bit more and then you can make Marrow and Ginger Preserve - sounds good to me.
Have a Happy GREEN day.

Mushroom and Rice One-Pot

This is such an easy recipe using ingredients mostly from the store cupboard. Ok so I went to the market this afternoon and bought some mushrooms. I had fresh rosemary in the garden and I added a few shelled peas that I also picked from the garden.

Mushroom and Rice One-Pot
Ingredients
8oz basmati rice
1 tabsp. olive oil
2 tsp chopped rosemary
90z chestnut mushrooms - quartered
2 red peppers sliced
can chopped tomatoes
3/4pint vegetable stock
black pepper - to season

Method
1. Pre-heat oven to Gas 5/190C
2. Tip the rice into a sieve, rinse under cold running water, leave to drain.
3. Heat the oil in a flameproof casserole, add the onion and fry until soft
4. Add the rosemary and mushrooms - fry - couple of minutes
5. Add the rice and coat in the oil
6. Add the peppers, tomatoes and stock - season with black pepper
7. Bring to the boil, give it a good stir, cover with the lid
8. Bake 20-5 mins until the rice is tender.
9. Add the peas or chopped parsley if you prefer.



Such an easy supper dish. I even had time whilst it was baking to put in a tray of blackberries, sprinkle on some sugar and bake for 20 mins - leave to cool and serve with cream

Try it and check out the completed dish and some other recipes on http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9795/mushroom-and-rice-onepot

Enjoy

This moment

This Moment was inspired by Soulemama
http://www.soulemama.com/soulemama/

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Dorset Apple Cake

I was given a huge bucket of apples yesterday - whatever could I make? I made some of my Apple Butter, which I just love to eat on toast and then I found this recipe amongst my recipe collection.

Dorset Apple Cake.
Ingredients
450g cooking apples
juice of 1 lemon
225g butter - softened
280g caster sugar
4 eggs
2tsp. vanilla extract
350g SR flour
2tsp. baking powder
demerara sugar - to sprinkle on top

Method
1. Pre-heat oven to Gas 4/180C
2. Grease and line a rectangular tray - approx 27cm x 20cm
3. Peel and slice the apples thinly into a small bowl and cover with the lemon
juice - leave on one side
4. Place butter, caster sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour and baking powder into a large
mixing bowl.
5. Arrange half the mixture into the tray. Cover with the apples (drain off any
lemon juice).
6. At this stage I added some fresh blackberries - just picked - but this is
optional
7. Cover the fruit with the rest of the cake mixture. Sprinkle on the demerara
sugar
8. Bake for 40-45 mins until cake mixture springs back when touched.

I served it cut into slices with some Greek Yoghurt, but I am sure it would be good with any type of cream or even ice-cream.

Try it out and let me know how you get on.

Can you spot the Little Man?

Check out http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2010/08/alphabet-thursdays-rainbow-summer.html

You will have homework to do - but great fun and you get to link to some very interesting blogs.



I sent this photograph of my sunflower to my sister and she emailed me to say who is the 'Little Man' in the bottom right of the photograph. I really have no idea who or what it is - a mystery.

Roasted Berries

This summer recipe is from Barefoot Contessa - Ina Garten.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/barefoot-contessa/recipes/index.html

I make it and serve it with meringues and extra thick cream

Roasted Berries
Ingredients
1 pint strawberries
1 pint bluberries
1 pint raspberries
4oz sugar
vanilla pod

Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to Gas6 /200C/400F
2. Place all the berries onto a baking tray and sprinkle over the sugar and vanilla
pod.
3. Mix the sugar into the berries carefully.
4. Roasted for 20 minutes.
5. Remove from the oven and place into a large serving dish.
6. Let them cool down before serving with the meringues and thick cream.

Try not to break up the fruit. I sometimes use blackberries this time of year instead of the bluberries.
The smell and taste is amazing.

Little Cakes and Sunflowers

My sunflowers are just about all out. They are still growing and I love watching them from the kitchen window as they bob around catching the sun all day long. I will look forward to the Autumn when the birds come to feed. They really bring a smile to my face.

Another thing that brought a smile to my face to-day was these little cakes. I found the recipe in a magazine and just had to try them out. I think they would be better decorated with icing, but I just wanted to eat one so ended up sprinkle some icing sugar on the top.


Litte Cakes
Ingredients
100g custard powder
200g softened butter
2 eggs
4 tabsp. milk
140g caster sugar
100g SR flour

Method
1. Heat the oven to Gas 4/180C
2. Place 12 muffin cases into a muffin tray
3. Beat the custard powder, butter, eggs and milk together in a mixing bowl
4. Add the sugar - mix
5. Add the flour - mix
6. Place spoonfuls of mixture into the paper cases.
7. Bake for 20-25 mins until a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean.
8. Cool on a wire rack
9. Decorate with glace icing and hundreds and thousands.

They really are yummy

ConKerr Cancer

Well it has been a busy week since I saw the post about One Million pillowcases on Craft Hope. I emailed a few people and got lots of replies and the upshot is that I am going to start sewing locally with schools and groups to continue the worldwide mission of making pillowcases. Sylvia is also busy doing a similar project in Oxford and we hope to share ideas along the way.
So any followers in the UK can send me either a completed pillowcase or fabric.
Happy sewing wherever you are in the world.

This Moment

This Moment was inspired by Soulemama
http://www.soulemama.com/soulemama/

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Coventry Cathedral

Yesterday I visited Coventry Cathedral. Coventry was intensively bombed during 1940 and much of the city destroyed. The Cathedral was left with only a couple of towers and surrounding walls. A new Cathedral was built - opening in 1962.
It is a beautiful piece of architecture. Please have a look at my slideshow - or even better pay a visit yourself.

One Million Pillowcases

Another great project to get involved in http://crafthope.com/2010/07/one-million-pillowcases/

As I am on school break right now I will be able to get a good start on sewing pillowcases. I will rally my friends into helping and see how we get on. Will post photographs later.
Craft Hope always has great ideas and now she has her first book published. I checked it out on Amazon and it will be available in the UK from October.
Great job.
Happy weekend