Tzatziki photo journal

Inspired by Montmarte blog  I decided to do a recipe photo journal I hope you like it.

Grate half a cucumber

Sprinkle with salt and leave to drain

In another bowl place 250mls of yogurt

Grind loads of pepper into the yogurt

Finely chop at least 3T of dill and mint combined I usually add more as i love both of the herbs.

Add 1 T of extra virgin olive oil

Squeeze the juice of half a lemon

Squeeze out the remaining water in the cucumber 

 

Add the remaining cucumber with a pinch of salt (remember you have allready salted the cucumber so be careful not to over salt)to the yogurt, some times I add a bit of feta cheese hear for a change.

 

Mix and then you’re done! Enjoy with pita and olives, or drizzled over a lamb burger

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A New Age Weekend.

What a wonderful weekend! The boy was off on a stag do, so I thought I’d catch up on some sleep, and develop some new menus for some of the events I’m doing over the next few weeks. But before all this I went to eco works in Saint Ann’s allotments to do a course in western herbal medicine which was fab. I learnt loads and now know what stuff you can eat for what. Walking to work across the forest takes considerably longer, now I have to stop every five steps to pick some thing I can eat. I have also got some inspiration for an interesting cheese course at the next pop up. The eco works allotment is an amazing place to have your lessons. The allotment is a warren of path ways and considered plots. The class room space is a wonderful straw bail house check out the photos I was enchanted, (I want to build one in my yard in forest fields!). I’m going on loads of the eco works course I highly recommend them especially as they are so cheep. Check out the link to find out more.

Some of the stuff we made Onion cough medicine sound rank but tastes really nice! and comfry massage balm.

Lime flower and lavinder tea this was really nice and I'v noticed forest fields is full of lime flowers!

Cook book of the week is Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favourites by the Moosewood Collective. My Brothers Girlfriend Kez bought this my mum for Christmas; She explained that this is book was developed by a collective who set up a healthy veggie restaurant in New York, which she loved to go to.  I’m not a great fan of low fat cooking but as I read it this Sunday I can see this book is inspired and healthy and none of the recipes I have tried seem to lack flavour. I also really like the way the book is laid out : rather than chapters for courses it has them for dishes for example my favourite  is the stew section. The one criticism I would have is I need photos or images of what the food looks like especially if it’s some thing I have not cooked before.

 

At our allotment we have a plot called the 3 sisters this is a Native American technique where they grew corn, beans and squash together. Each crop supports and protects the other: the beans grow up the corn stem, the squash protect the base of the plants with there shady big leaves. So when I spied this recipe for 3 sister’s stew I was very happy. I’m going to make it and then I’ll post it up. Three cheers for Moosewood!

Off to Glasto next weekend so looking forward to posting soaking dining experiences! which reminds me if you can't aford Glasto, the next pop up experiance will be at Deerstock festival in East Bridgeford tickets are cheep £25! (all profit goes to unisef ) and it should be good.

Floods,Plumbing and Plum Compote

This weekend was the vintage tea party, it totally amazes me that I could have horded so many vintage tea sets and embroidered doilies!

A friend lent me the shop space which was newly refurbished. A kitchen had just been plumbed in! little did we know … the water had been switched off, so we tried to turn it on when we did we found a leek! So for the first hour we were mopping up water and serving customers. Thank god for Emily my friend, (who had done all her own plumbing at home) who with her intellect managed to stem the flow! After that the day went swimmingly! (with a little help from Emily, Mollyqueen and Si! Thanks guys).

I would say that my favourite part of this weekend’s menu would be the plum muffins. Like the tea sets, I had horded some damsons and plums from the allotment in my freezer for later use; and they really did add some thing to those muffins. I based them on an Ottolenghi recipe. I will be using the plum compote recipe again its so yummy and adaptable, I had some left over this morning in yogurt and I can see application in crumble. As I fell in love with this sticky compote I thought you may like to have a bash at it so here is the recipe (it is soooo easy!)   

Secret Vintage Tea Party

lovely weekend with the Good Book

It has been an eventful few weeks: getting used to a new job, doing the Mollyqueen market and doing the Fish and the Loaves night. So this weekend has been nice to sleep (a lot) eat (a lot) and be merry! Consequently I have been scooting through a few blogs, reading the papers, ordering books, reading cookery books, digging the allotment and drinking the wine!

This weekends best rediscovery….. Good Housekeeping Cookery Book! I’m very surprised that my mum aloud me to remove it from her house for further inspection; you can see from the photos it is well used, and has developed a biblical standing in my family home. 

 published in 1972 this book has seen a lot of use (its older than me!)

I just love the beautiful illustrations, fab photos of kitch/retro classic food and drink and other inserts from the family like a Sainsbury's cook and keep card and the odd shopping list or pencil scribble of things like "the cake" written in the margin.

I hope you love it as much as me.