Home by the Fire.

February at the cottage has brought beautiful clear bright skies & chilly days.

All along our garden hedge at the side of the church Snowdrops pop up their delicate little heads. Such a pretty gentle pure flower that adds such joy the the garden at this time of year. Soon the jolly sunny Daffodil will be blooming all around the village, already they are standing tall just waiting to open.

~

The Rooks in the Spinney at the end of the garden are flocking & starting to nest. They are one of the busiest birds & chatty too while they work building their nests up high in the Pines. 

It is wonderful to hear the songbirds in the early hours when the sun is rising. Spring seems just around the corner & our thoughts are on the vegetable patch & what we are going to grow this year.

Last year we bought a piece of land off our neighbour who wanted to make his garden smaller. Our plans for this land is to make an orchard using old heritage varieties, so there will be much to do once the weather gets warmer. We levelled  & cleared the land of trees & bushes in the Autumn finding some lovely old items from times gone by. 

~

Life has been wonderfully busy at the cottage, I do love a busy kitchen & that is where we have been spending most of our days near the wood burning cooker.

~

I have been experimenting with different types of bread.

This one was a country loaf with Basil & tomato in it.

A lovely bread to have with a hearty soup.

~

A little touch of Spring.

I found this beautiful 1920's tea set last Summer, it's perfect for Spring time.

~

The twins decorating little boxes.

They love to be at the table with you.

~

I had some coloured glace cherries to use up from Christmas so added them to rock cakes instead of raisins.

The children loved them & they looked so pretty too.

~

The smell of fresh bread is one of the simplest joys.

~

Fruit Bran Loaf & Wartime Ginger Oat Biscuits.

~

This is the first time I have made these little biscuits & they were lovely.

~

Wartime Ginger Oat Biscuits.

~

In a pan melt 4 ozs of margarine with a dessert spoonful of golden syrup & 3 ozs of demerara sugar. If you can not get golden syrup honey might work or a light corn syrup.

Add to the pan 4 ozs of self raising flour & 4 ozs of oats, plus a tea spoon of ground ginger.

Mix well & spoon small rounded balls on to a greased tray.

Bake for 12 minutes at 325 / 170  

~

Making quiche & mincemeat maids of honour.

~

A visit to the Maud Foster Windmill.

They sell the most wonderful stone ground organic flour.

~

I purchased some strong Spelt flour for bread making.

This is the first time I have used this flour, it has a lovely flavour.

~

Making Marmalade.

~

The oranges & lemons brought a little touch of sunshine to the kitchen.

I had never made Marmalade before, there was such a wonderful smell while making it.

~

Jolly little jars of sunshine.

It tasted beautiful & I will make it every year now.

~

We have quite a few meat free days in the week.

This is a favourite of our's Wartime Woolton Pie.

It's root vegetables cooked in stock with a mash potato & cheese topping.

~

You can find the recipe on the internet, Lord Woolton was Minister of Food in the Second World War.

~

Ma larkin's Shortbread from her little cookbook.

I use this book so much & really recommend finding a second hand copy, they are out of print now.

I use the quiche recipe from that book as well.

~ 

Cinnamon Raisin bread for Sunday tea.

~

I use the same bread recipe most of the time & play around with it, this dough was made with half whole wheat flour.

~

Little everyday cinnamon buns.

~

In a bowl mix 4 ozs of margarine with 4 ozs of sugar until soft.

Add 4 ozs of self raising wholemeal flour, a drop of almond essence & 2 eggs. Add a drop of milk to make a soft dropping consistency.

Fill small cake cases & sprinkle tops with plenty of cinnamon & a little sugar.

Bake in a moderate oven for 15 minutes, check after 12 minutes.

~

I have another 1930's bow scarf on my needles.

This one is for myself, I do love vintage greens.

~

Wholemeal Madeira Cake from Delia Smith Book of Cakes.

Another wonderful book you can find second hand which I use all the time.

~

A new book arrived in the post last week.

I have the others in the series which are wonderful. This book is full of history, idea's & such lovely photo's.

I have been making my way through all the Miss Read Fairacre Series this Winter, such a wonderful series to disappear into each night before bed.

I can see me reading them again & again.

~

The twins all ready for a little disco in their new 1950's style dresses.

father Christmas bought them their faux pearl necklaces.

~

Homemade sausage rolls & fruit cake.

~

Light Fruit Cake recipe.

~

Cream 6 ozs of margarine with 6 ozs of soft light brown sugar.

Then add 3 eggs, 4 ozs of plain flour & 4 ozs of self raising flour.

Lastly mix in 6ozs of dried fruit & 2 ozs of glace cherries.

Spoon in to a greased & lined 7 inch cake tin & spinkle top with sugar.

Bake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours at 325.

~

Saturday Tea.

A weekly tradition.

~

The joy of board games.

~

I found some raspberries & blackcurrants from our garden at the bottom of the deep freeze so I made a pie using bramley apples as well.

Lovely for our Sunday dinner.

~

We made London Buns for the first time but used lemon zest instead of mixed peel.

The girls love to bake & get great joy from serving them at tea time.

~

Last week we popped over to a lovely market town called Louth.

They have a reclamation yard, we are looking for a new old scullery sink to replace our even older one.

It's a wonderful place to have a rummage.

~

Another quiche, a great way of using our eggs now the sun is out & the chickens are back to laying.

~

Custard cake for lunch.

~

This is just my basic sponge recipe that I have posted before but I add a thick custard to the middle.

~

My love for this little boy just grows & grows.

He is my shadow & gives such joy.

~

Every evening he is here closely by my side.

~

A few new finds from our local antique yard the other day.

It was cold but lovely to get out & find some treasures.

~

Thank you dear readers for all your comments, I read & appreciate every one.

I hope you enjoy the recipes.

Fondly Michelle

~

Summer's End

Summer has come to an end once again & the kitchen garden is giving up it's wonderful delights. It is delightful to see how well the marrows, beetroot, tomatoes & potatoes have done.

The days are becoming shorter & have a faded deep glow to them. Hay & wheat is all harvested now & the fields all now have their earth all turned & ready to lay bare all Winter.
There has been an abundance of hedgerow fruits this year & the robins are back in the garden watching you work.
Holly berries are everywhere on our trees that line the front of our garden although at the present they are hard little green berries waiting to ripen into the pretty scarlet colour that we know so well.
The Hazel trees in the lanes & our garden are fruiting well, the squirrels & rabbits are making the most of the fallen nuts.
~
Tomatoes from our garden.
~

Harvesting beetroot.

~

We have an abundance of raspberries so I made some muffins.

~

The girls sunflowers have been blooming lovely.

~

I made a honey cake from Beatrix Potters Country Cooking Book.

It was a lovely cake, I used honey from our village. We have a man who has bee's & just lives behind the church.

~

Molly Cake.

A lovely lady on Instagram made this so I looked it up & used the Waitrose recipe online.

It turned out lovely & uses no fat or eggs.

~

A lovely walk last week over the wheat fields, the weather was warm & breezy.

We have never seen cows before in this field, it was lovely to see them.

~

The twins enjoying a ride on their scooters along the lane.

~

The simple beauty of golden wheat.

~

Daisies & wheat.

The wild flowers are beautiful in the fields around us.

~

One of the wheat fields halfway through harvesting.

~

We spot some blackberries on our way home almost ready for picking.

~

Home grown Victoria plums, hedgerow blackberries & home grown raspberries make such a pretty colour for chutney.

~

I have never used berries before in chutney. The colour was so pretty & it smelled wonderful when cooking. It is quite a runny chutney, we will see in a month or so when we try some if I will make it again.

~

Daisy passed all her GCSE's, we are so proud of her.

She is now going on to study her A levels.

~

Over the Summer we have been decorating our bedroom.

There were ten layers of old wallpaper over the beams so it took some work.

The quilt is very precious to me, I made it over a few pregnancies all by hand.

~

I thought you would like to see our little 1930's electric cooker, we use this when it is to hot too light the wood fired cooker.

~

Victoria Sponge.

I make this using the sponge recipe I have posted before.

~

The apples are nearly ready for harvesting.

~

The end of our garden is such a magical place.

~

Sun shining through our hazelnut tree.

~

Fresh eggs.

Thank you ladies.

~

The twins enjoying the last week of Summer after we hung the wash out.

~

Sweet George.

~

Fresh raspberries for the twins breakfast.

~

The marrows have done so well this year, I am trying to think of different ways to use them.

~

Plum & greengage Crumble.

A few ladies on Facebook & Instagram have asked for the recipe.

This is the crumble recipe I use all the time, sometimes I add a few oz's of oats.

Rub 5 ozs of self raising flour & 3 ozs of butter together.

Then add 3 ozs of sugar, if using oats then mix them in now.

Sprinkle sugar over fruit & then crumble mix.

Bake in a moderate oven for about 45 minutes.

We had it served warm with cream.

~

Ruth Mott's boiled fruit cake.

I make this often & would advise anyone to get her book.

~~

Victoria Plum Jam.

~

I do love the sweet taste of this beautiful jam.

~

All ready for the pantry shelved.

Both our eldest Son's gave me pretty Cath Kidston jam covers as gifts, they look to pretty on the jars.

~

A few readers have asked for a selection of my favourite cookbooks so here they are.

I do have a cupboard full of cookbooks but these are the one's I use all the time, as you can see Ruth's book is in there.

Sorry it has taken me so long.

~

I love this time of year when we harvest the fruits of our labour.

It has taken me a while to do this post sorry, the laptop lost it & I had to rewrite it.

Fondly Michelle

~