Preserved

I've been busy turning a tree load of bramleys into apple butter this week. If you're in the US then this probably makes a lot of sense. If you're in the UK: apple butter is a sharper, less viscous type of apple jam. There is a lot less sugar involved and it is pureed halfway through the proceedings.

Many people use a slow cooker. I don't. I'm not being snooty about it, I just don't own a slow cooker. I had to do a jar-count to see how many batches of the stuff I could make. I also decided to do a general round up of preserves while I was about it. It's coming up to Christmas and I generally give people preserves (they make nice gifts...yes I am also very poor while trying to figure out what my job is going to be!).

The final tally.
Elderflower cordial - 4
Elderberry cordial - 7
Sloe Sherry - 2
Sloe Gin - 3
Rosemary Oil - 2
Chilli Oil - 2
Damson Jelly - 2
Pickled Beans - 3
Winter Chutney - 1
Apple Chutney - 2
Green Tomato Jam - 3
Gooseberry Chutney - 6
Damson Jam - 6
Victoria Plum Chutney - 3
Apple Jelly - 15
Damson Chutney - 7
Mincemeat - 2
Chilli Pepper Jam - 3

And not nearly enough empty jars. I wouldn't come around to dinner any time soon - you might be forced to eat jam so I get another jar free for this year's goodies.

And there are currently 6 jars of apple butter with another double batch on the hob as I type.

Vick.

A day in the kitchen

I spent today cooking and pottering around.

very lovely organic garlic

beheaded

dressed for heat

all done

ready to be added to...anything

all from the greenhouse

thyme and flavoured oil

midway through being baked to death

very roasted tomatoes

thin slices

much salt

dinner

I also read the paper. Drank coffee. Wrote some letters. Did some tidying up. Wrote some new recipes. Now I think I need to do some ironing. It's an exciting life here.

Vick.

Cake Hyperbole

For the last two weeks I've been in Ireland staying in County Galway. It wasn't until almost the end of the holiday that I went into Galway itself - the point was to get away into the countryside rather than being in a city. The main thing that I wanted to do, other than see Galway was to go to Charlie Byrne's bookshop. I found three J.M. Barrie plays almost the minute that I arrived in their bargain section and then spent another hour wandering around the shop. I also found a lovely copy of Flesh and Blood by Michael Cunningham (one of my favourites) with no price in, upon checking it was way out of my price range very sadly. Still looking for a nice copy of it. It was gone midday when I finally left and I asked the staff working whether they could recommend anywhere nearby to eat. I got directed to Sweetie Pies. I still wish I had managed to find Flesh and Blood but the recommendation made up for the loss.



On walking into Sweetie Pies you are greeted with a massive array of cakes, cupcakes, muffins, bites, pies and pure joy. It's beautifully decorated and the staff - oh my, the staff are just so wonderful.



They do a great all day breakfast selection along with a very wide range of lunch and dinner options. Needless to say I followed by bacon, chicken and avocado ciabatta sandwich up with a cake.



Red velvet cake, which is one of my all time favourites. And it had edible glitter on the top. Heaven. And Doris Day was playing...this may have had more of an appeal to me than most but it just made my day even more complete.


I took a toffee muffin and a coffee & walnut cupcake home with me as well as the remnants of my red velvet cake (it was huge). I still can't decide which was my favourite but I think the muffin might just win.



If you are ever in Galway I would really recommend going there. Heck if you're in Ireland you should try it. No, wait, just book a plane ticket and make a holiday of it. Right now.



I've found my perfect cake shop. What to do with the rest of my life now?






Vick.
www.vclinde.co.uk 


Sweetie Pies is on Middle Street, Galway (was too excited to note the number) you can call them on 0872566887 or email at galwaysweetiepies@gmail.com. 

Cookie #2

I am on a quest to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie.I have a list of ingredients that it must include but no real idea of timing or of quantities.

This is the first batch. It was largely made from a recipe I found on the internet and then seriously tweaked to make sure it had all of the ingredients I wanted.

The result was okay but definitely too sweet with a strange quantity of chocolate and a much too large batch-size.

Will be playing around some more with the flour: butter: bi-carb ratio and see what happens to batch #2!

Conclusion: these crumbled but didn't really 'crunch' which is what I was looking for. I also want to get some better quality chocolate chips because the ones I have are too sweet for my taste.  This made far far too many so that needs to be fixed too. Work is never done I suppose!

Vick.

www.vclinde.co.uk

Too Many Cookies.

No, really. I've read almost a hundred cookie recipes today (I know, the best possible use of my time) trying to find something like the recipe I want.
I know which ingredients it needs to have but I want a base recipe for amounts and rough oven timing before I start playing. I can't find ANYTHING suitable.

Very good but a double-choc and not quite right yet.

Here's the kicker - it absolutely has to be a crunchy biscuit. I despise chewy choc-chip cookies, they give me uncontrollable rage. It's so disappointing buying a cookie/biscuit and that first split second when you bite in and there's no crunch - aaagh.
I went to school in the very centre of Leicester and when people used to bring Millie's Cookies back I couldn't even bear that horrid artificial smell. I am indeed a cookie snob.
It has to have flour, sugar, vegetable oil, vanilla, oatmeal, huge amounts of dark chocolate chips, no cocoa, preferably some golden syrup, possibly either eggs or butter but definitely not both, bi-carb or baking powder, coconut and treacle.

Situation so bad I don't even have two picture of cookies yet

Any suggestions? Secret family recipes you can tease me with or at least give hints about? Non-secret family recipes I can have? Something on the internet/inside my recipe books that I've missed?
There's a lot of great looking US recipes out there but they all seem to be for chewy (rage) cookies.
See this is the frustrating bit because once I have a basic recipe I can start playing around. This is stage one, I have a vaguely okay recipe that is going to be tested tomorrow if I find nothing better before-hand. So if nothing else this is warning for a glut of cookie posts to follow.

Love and calories,

Vick.
vclinde@gmail.com
www.vclinde.co.uk

http://www.etsy.com/shop/vclinde
@vclinde

This Week

This week I have mostly been eating:

Triple chocolate death cookies. Adapted from a Nigella recipe, with more chocolate added, different flour and varied cooking times.




Homemade bread. I enjoy using my parents' bread machine when I am at 'home' but I don't like the way that it cooks the bread so I make the dough in the machine and then hand shape it before baking it in the oven.


Salted butter caramel which was a complete disaster. Well, maybe not complete. It tastes great but there is an awful lot of it and it refuses to set so I have no idea what to do with it. I am going to try making some chocolates with caramel in, otherwise I'll be eating it all with a spoon. Healthy, right? I've also finally tried making a ribollita which was gorgeous and I will certainly be making that again. There's no picture - I ate it before I remembered to take one. Because of the cold weather I've been at home quite a bit which has allowed for lots of slow cooking, mainly roasting. Luckily walking around everywhere has burnt a fair bit of all this naughty food away.  

This week I've been working on:

Making Etsy treasuries. I've never done this before but they are addictive and I'll be making more very soon I feel.






Adding a page on Facebook. It's not that I didn't think of using Facebook before, but up until recently they allowed you to have an Etsy tab within your profile, so now that this has gone away I've made a page for the business.

I've also been joining groups, adding people to circles and favourite as well as just generally trying to improve my profile online. This was spurred by the snow-blockade of last weekend when I was stuck and couldn't get to my favourite craft show of the year so I decided to make the most of the extra time.





This week I've been interneting here:

The very lovely Adele and her super-hero team have put up the first edition of Un:Bound Video Editions which manages to be both informative and fun at the same time. Go and check it out, there's no 'or else...' but you will be missing out!


I've forgotten which of my friends popped this online but it's brilliant. (Possibly Emma Jane who has a real knack for finding amazing things on the web so I usually assume she found all the best links.) It reminds me of being on the beach when I was very young and went on holiday with my cousins. While we didn't manage anything like this, my genius of a cousin (not exaggerating - he's the smartest person I know) used to build sandcastles that had foundations and were structurally sound. I added the shells.

St. Kilda Football Club Luckily for me, and unfortunately for everyone who talks to me, things are kicking off over in the AFL again. This means I will be getting excited about drafts, rookies, games, analysis and how amazing these guys are. Again. Apologies.



This week I've been reading:
*The Library of the Dead - Glenn Cooper. I'm not sure who recommended this to me but it's not one I would pass on. Stock characters and too many different time zones that jumped around a lot. It's a shame because the basic idea was original, clever and gripping.
*Hush, Hush - Becca Fitzpatrick. Another one I wouldn't pass one. This time the idea was unoriginal, unconvincing and dull.
*Selected Poems - Lawrence Durrell. I've lost count of how many times I've read this but it never gets any less perfect.
*The Summoning & The Awakening - Kelley Armstrong. Enjoyed this one but an awful lot of it feels like set-ups for the next book. I love the idea and the plot keeps getting better. My main niggle with it was that the main character, who wants to be a film director, keeps stating how she would film the events if she was making a movie. Very irritating but easy enough to skim over.
*Succubus Blues - Richelle Mead. A good mix of characters and some interesting twists (you could see most of them coming but they were still intriguing and well worked out). Definitely going to keep going with the series.
I'm not putting links for the books because these aren't real reviews - I've not written this week's batch yet!

And now the snow has finally started melting so hopefully a warmer, more mobile week to come. Happy weekends to all.


Vick.

vclinde@gmail.com
www.vclinde.co.uk
@vclinde

Cheese Scones

One of my favourite recipes, and easy to adapt. One of my friends over in Australia has asked for this and so I thought I would pop it on here rather than just emailing it over to him. Cheese Scones.

Sift 250g self-raising flour with 2tsp baking powder, a pinch of salt, cayenne, paprika and nutmeg (pepper also works well) into a large bowl. Grate 150g cheese and add to the dry ingredients. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees. Beat together one egg, 1 tbsp vegetable oil and 75 ml milk. Pour wet into dry and mix very well. Start with a wooden spoon but then work with your hands. Turn dough out onto a well floured surface and push out until 1/4" thick. Fold dough over on itself, push down a little and use a cutter to make rounds. Add a little extra grated cheese to the top of each (optional but highly recommended). Place onto a lined baking sheet and pop into the oven for 20 minutes. This will make 5/6 large scones.

The folding of the dough is the important bit of this recipe because when you then bake the scones they will open out and give you the lovely split that makes cheese scones look so lovely. This can be as healthy or naughty as you like - low fat cheddar and skimmed milk, plus smaller scones will make it a bit better (if you only have one). Or full fat cheese (I love using Tickler cheddar) and whole milk makes it all the more luxurious. Toppings also can be a lot of fun to play around with, tomato, cream cheese, or flavoured butters.

Vick. vclinde@gmail.com www.vclinde.co.uk @vclinde