Archive for September 2008
South Shields
Posted on Sun, Sep 28, 2008 at 19:53 by Michelle
Quite by chance we ended up in South
Shields yesterday and how blessed I feel to have this beautiful
beach practically on my doorstep. I was actually on my way to one of my
favourite places in the world, Newbiggin
by the Sea, when I realised I did not have any money for the toll at Tyne
Tunnel, and as I was almost at the tunnel entrance, Shields was the
next best thing.
We got there and left my car next to the park which seems to be undergoing some redevelopment. There used to be a little train running around it, and I couldn't see that, but the play area was vastly improved and the boating lake was still there. We crossed the road and walked down to the beach past the skate park, which was getting plenty of use and the kids on bikes and skateboards were entertaining to watch. On we walked to the beach turning left towards the mounth of the Tyne and plodging along the shore to the jetty. We sat there for a while watching the small boats in the bay and the fishermen on the jetty, then headed back along the beach to the ampitheatre. It is a very impressive sea front and it was lovely to sea it being so well used on a glorious autumn afternoon.
There are a couple of bar/restaurants which are on the same side of the road as the beach, The Tavistock had a train carriage front and we checked out the menu, it looked like avery reasonable Italian, and somehwere to bear in mind for a special ocassion. Further along there was The Sandancer pub/restaurant, Sandancer is the name given to people from South Shields and with all that golden sand to dance on, who can blame them?
There are marquees being set up in preparation for next weeks Great
North Run which ends at shields. It's unlikely I'll be anywhere in the
vicinity next weekend when that is on, but if you happen to see it on
the TV try to get a glmpse of the amazing place it ends.
Blackberry Picking
Posted on Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 17:37 by Michelle
There are some disused rail lines near our house with an ambundance of
blackberry bushes, as it is blackberry season here in the fozen north
and I love very little more than free food, we went out 'blackberrying'.
In 2 sessions of just over and hour each we picked about 15lbs of lovely
juicy berries.
Then comes the choice of what to do with so many blackberries, and, it is to be noted blackberries need to be used quickly after picking. Within a few hours they develop a white mould growth unless they are washed and washing removes a lot of the flavour.
I made;
- 2 apple and blackberry crumbles (delicious)
- 2 pots of apple and blackbery jam (very nice, if slightly runny)
- 2 pots of blackberry chutney (a keeper and I will use more blackberries for this next year)
- 4 pots of blackberry jam (more about this to follow)
I've made jam with blackberries for the last 3 years and it always sets very hard, too hard to even get the knife into. This year for the blackberry and apple I used my breadmakers jam setting, and the jam turned out very nicely. When I got it out of the cupboard to make the blackberry jam, the paddle was missing. I have searched the kitchen, turned out my drawers and even moved the yucky thing in the bottom of the dishwasher, but the paddle did not turn up. Racking my brains for what could have happened to it I thought back to the last time I used it, when I made the blackberry and apple. I have to conclude that the paddle fell into one of the pots of jam. I didn't think it could have without me realising it, but there is nowhere else for it to be. Chris took two pots back to school with him, so I will have to wait until he's eaten it to find out.
Handy hints for blackberry picking.
- You will get prickled. Wild blackberries have thorns and nettles grow with them. Wearing long sleeves will help but your hands will still tingle when you get home.
- Wear close toed shoes, beach crocs just don't protect your feet from the undergrowth, as I discovered.
- Taking a hooked stick helps to pull the higher branches down, (I never remember to take this.)
- If you want to use two hands to pick at the berries, put your container on the floor, don't be tempted to push it in among the brambles, where it could be dislodged when you reach for more berries, leaving you with 2lbs of berries in the undergrowth which mush when you try to pick them back up. (As our researcher found out).
- lunch box size containers are great anything much bigger and the berries at the bottom will squash under the weight
Anyhoo, as I couldn't find the paddle, I had to make the jam in my jam pan. This has the benefit of being able to boil 4 lbs of jam at once, but the blackberry jam comes out really hard, and no amount of research gives me the reason for this. In fact blackberries have so little pectin it should be really difficult to set. My solution is to mix the hard jam with some of the first lot which was slightly runny, thereby achieving a (sort of) spreadable consistency.
|Start of Term
Posted on Sat, Sep 20, 2008 at 19:06 by Michelle
The kids have gone back to school. It is a two day trip to take them back. The journey there was about 6.5 hours. I took them into school made up their beds and unpacked Chris's stuff into his cupboard. I spoke briefly with the houseparents and then went and met with some other parents for a quick drink and to moan about how my kids love Summerhill more than home.
I gave one of the other parents a lift back to the school, so got to see Chris again before leaving for the evening. He was weaving about on his ripstick and having a great time. "How is it," I asked, "great mum, I'm so pleased to be back". "Have a safe journey, I'll see you at parents weekend". I tried to call him the next day but his phone is turned off. I did speak to Charlotte who was on her way downtown to have lunch with a friend. "I miss you already" I said. She laughed "I can tell".
I had a long journey back with lots of diversions because of roadworks, and feeling bereft that my kids are gone for 11 weeks. When I arrive back home the house is quiet, it's quiet everywhere, but I find it difficult to settle. So I make dinner but there's no one to call to the table and to hear there chatter and jokes.
On Monday I go back to college, my routine will fall into place and over the next couple of weeks I'll miss them less, and, can you believe I'll be exasperated when they call me and I'm in the middle of doing something else.
|Posted in Family (RSS), Summerhill (RSS)
Cupcakes
Posted on Sun, Sep 07, 2008 at 10:36 by Michelle
Cupcakes
Unsurprisingly cupcakes have become very popular.
People are choosing to have them instead of traditional wedding cake, they are great for kids parties and well, any occasion, or none.
I made these as part of the thank you present, and they are extremely light and very nice. I thought my muffin tins were large, and this was supposed to be enough for 12 but I got 18 huge cakes. I think I'd make them in a smaller bun tin next time and get lots more but daintier cakes.
The icing was a new one for me, and absolutely perfect, it piped really nicely and tasted divine. Definitely a keeper.
This is an American recipe, I've converted where it helps me.
Ingredients:
- 1¾ cups cake flour (see muffins) (235g)
- 1¼ cups plain flour (170g)
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 2 sticks butter (225g) cubed and at room temp
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 200C / 180C fan / gas 6.
- Line tins with paper cases.
- Combine all dry ingredients
- Add butter and mix until coated and crumbly.
- Whisk eggs, add milk and vanilla.
- Add wet ingredients in 3 parts, beat until incorporated, but DO NOT overbeat. Lumps are fine.
- Dived among tims, fill ¾ full.
- Bake for 17 -20 mins rotating after 10 minutes.
- Leave in tins for 5 mins than transfer to wire rack to cool completley before icing.
Cupcake Icing:
Ingredients:
- 1 stick of butter (115g)
- 2 cups icing sugar (sieved)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
- ¼ cup double cream (milk will substitute)
Directions:
- Cream butter until soft and pale.
- Add sugar and beat slowly.
- When all sugar is in add the other ingredients.
- Beat for 5 mins
I used my food processor to mix the icing, and it gave a lovely smooth, easily pipeable icing.
I tried these cakes straight out of the oven and wasn't impressed, they tasted heavily off egg. After they had cooled and were decorated they taste perfect.
It is the nicest cupcake receipe I have tried, the recipe for that and the icing were from Billy Reece's Bakery in New York, he shared the recipe with Martha Stewart
|Posted in Cupcakes (RSS), Food (RSS), Recipes (RSS)
Blueberry Muffins
Posted on Sun, Sep 07, 2008 at 8:23 by Michelle
My neighbours very kindly give us tickets to the theatre that they couldn’t use. It was a Horrible History production of the Vile Victorians and my 12 year old loved it.
To thank them I made up some cakes. I usually make cakes as presents as I think it says thank you without going over the top. They cost pennies to make, but a lot of thought and time go into them.
I made these Blueberry Muffins. It was an English recipe, so easier to follow than American I doubled the quantities to make 12 and changed the plain flour to my substitute of cake flour.
I don’t know where to buy cake flour in the UK, (I’m going to have a look in Makro). To make my own for every 135g of flour I remove 2 tablespoons and replace with 2 tablespoons cornflour then sieve.
Blueberry and White Chocolate Muffins
Ingredients:
- 300g cake flour
- 100g sugar (golden caster), I didn’t have so used granulated
- 1 tsp baking powder
- pinch salt
- 150g blueberries
- 150g white chocolate, chopped into chunks
- 2 beaten eggs
- 100g butter, melted and cooled
- 200ml milk
Heat the oven to 200C / 180C Fan / Gas 6.
Put paper cases into a 12 hole deep muffin tin.
Mix the dry ingredients together.
Add the blueberries and chocolate and coat well with the dry ingredients. This stops the blueberries sinking.
Combine the wet ingredients.
Add the wet to the dry and quickly incorporate.
DO NOT overmix or beat, it should be lumpy. As soon as the ingredients
are incorporated divide into your tin.
I use a 1/3 cup measure to spoon them out but an ice cream server also works.
Cook for 25 mins on the middle shelf and turn half way. (check after 20 mins).
When a toothpick/skewer or bona fide cake tester comes out clean they’re done.
Leave in the tins for 5 mins before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
These weren't sweet enough for me, and as I often reduce the sugar in a recipe I can only think i forgot to double that quantity when I made them, only putting 50g instead of 100g. They are very filling.
|Posted in Family (RSS), Recipes (RSS)
Google Chrome Review
Posted on Thu, Sep 04, 2008 at 11:27 by Michelle
As a bit of a geek, I downloaded Google Chrome as soon as it became available. Currently I use Firefox almost exclusively and with it's IE tab it's just about perfect.
As I use Google for pretty much everything else in my life, email, photos, documents, notebook and calendar. To be able to integrate all of this within one perfect and good looking browser seemed almost utopian.
I like Chrome, and if all I did was browse then I would probably use it. It looks good, it is light and noticeably faster than any other browsers I’ve used.
For the foreseeable future Firefox will remain my browser of choice, because I like the sidebars, and I use Roboform which stores thousands of my passwords and is not currently supported, or according to their website, likely to be in the near future.
|Posted in Geek Alert (RSS)