The taster day

It's a go in our Pink Cottage kitchen today. Tomorrow is my talk with Darina to see where I want my future to go. The word talk seems so small and almost insignificant but this has been on my mind for the better part of the week.

Darina suggests we make her a pot of tea and some biscuits so the pressure is on. Of course you want your biscuits to impress and amaze her with your hidden talent. This is a big moment, I feel.

I've ummed and ahhhed since the beginning of the course, I knew I wanted to speak to her sooner rather than later and have had a few biscuit ideas going through my mind so today, was D day.
I started off the morning making a simple Thyme biscuit. No pictures as they ended up in the hen bin. I had an inkling they wouldn't work as wonderfully as lavender biscuits but you have to try.

Second recipe that has been on my mind was the mix of lemon and cumin. My folks, especially my Indian Father uses cumin like nobodies business. Lemon is such a great flavour and our first week Darina gave us a Lemon fork biscuit recipe. So, what better way to use her recipe but adapt it to my style…I'm hoping (everything crossed that this will work for her as much as it's worked for my housemates).

It's a super simple recipe, cut down to make roughly 20 biscuits, less if you make them bigger obviously.

4oz soft butter
2oz castor sugar
5oz flour
the juice of one lemon and the rind of the same lemon
about 1 teaspoon of whole roasted cumin.

Cream the butter and the sugar. Add the other ingredients and hey presto. Take a teaspoon of dough in wet hands (will stop dough from sticking to your hands), put on baking paper and press with a fork. Pop in the oven at about 110 and check after 10minutes. They want to be golden around the edges.

The flavour that comes from these biscuits is such a far away land combination. A smash of toasted cumin followed by a citrus burst on your tongue. It's magical. A hit in the Pink Cottage. Let's hope Darina thinks so.

Dog treats #1

This, is for all you pet owners. Whether your super furry animal is a cat, dog, hamster, rabbit, guinea pig, horse (you get the picture) we are all aware that pet treats are an awesome way to spoil our beloved creatures.

The trouble is however, that there seems to be so many treats out there with far too much junk in and not enough goodness….you know what I mean, the weird non pronounceable chemicals with the three types of food dye..not fun. For us or for our animals. Why should we get to look after ourselves and think about all the ingredients, good and bad, that go into our food and we don´t think about our pets food in the same way.  I am guilty of it, looking only at the food, as in the main food supply for my puppy and not what goes into the treats. But…. no more.

So here is a recipe that my mum had been making (thanks for telling me mater!) for our old dog who had big problems with arthritis…

3 cups of whole wheat flour
1 cup of cheese
1 cup of vegetable oil
½ cup of whole milk
2 tsps tumeric/garlic powder
a little pinch of salt
1 egg
1tbs chia seeds

Mix egg, oil, milk, cheese and chia seeds together and let sit for a while.
Mix flour, tumeric/garlic powder and salt together and form a well in the middle.
Add the wet mix to the dry and stir.
Place mix onto a floured surface and roll into about 1 inch, little less and then cut into any shape you want.
Cook till goldeny around the edges, 190 for about 20mins.


TUMERIC is a great great great spice…yes, I love it! Famously known for helping with swelling and joints. This is the perfect, PERFECT thing to add to treats for your pet with arthritis problems.

CHIA SEEDS are famous for helping to keep people and animals hydrated. So, if you're planning a trip with your loved one then add a spoonful to an egg, mix around for a little and do this for several days leading up. You will notice that the chia seeds go glutenous (a lot of vegans substitute eggs for chia mixed with water/apple juice and this give the same binding consistency). So whether you are going on a trip or not, you pet can always do with water in their system and these little bits of magic will help with that.

Hope the pet enjoys :)

Crostini me

This is a magical summer recipe. Where I live we're hitting 45 degrees at the moment and this is a simple recipe that is a godsend. The made up ingredients last in the fridge for roughly a week or so which is fantastic and means that you can use them in other yummy things!

I made my own bread but obviously you can use any bread that you prefer..
I finely sliced and grilled about 15 courgettes…talk about prep time…If its just for a few people do maybe 4 courgettes…I got carried away!
While the slices are grilling away, in a bowl mix a pinch of salt, olive oil and a couple of grated cloves of garlic…
Once the slices are grilled then pop it in the mixture…let it marinade for a while and then toast some bread, top with the marinated courgettes, sprinkle some chopped mint and feta cheese over the top and Bob's your uncle!

Not the best photo, but you get the grilling idea!

Mixing the slices into the marinade

Finished product!

Double coconut and banana muffins

Sounds quite extravagant but let me tell you something…they are delicious and so easy to make…I first came across the recipe here and then adapted it as I didn´t have some of the ingredients…

2 bananas instead of yoghurt
½ cup of coconut oil
1 egg
roughly ⅓ of dark brown sugar instead of granulated

After having mashed everything together add handful of dehydrated coconut and 95g or ¾ cup of all purpose flour and 60g or ½ cup of wholewheat flour.

I also add a good helping of ground nutmeg instead of vanilla that the original recipe asked for.

I don´t have muffin cases nor did I have any baking paper but luckily a week ago in a sale I bought 1000 patti papers…as an English girl I have no idea what 'pattis' are but they work perfectly to make muffins in and look almost like fairy wings cuddling the yummy cakes!

Before the coconut sprinkling and after….yumm. Now just pop in oven for about 20minutes on 200 or until it comes out clean if you put a knife in it!

Nice and golden and if I do say so myself…DELICIOUS!!!

Beet and chocolate cake

So having seen this recipe from the gorgeous blog Bon Appétempt and having just purchased my organic goodies from the market, I came straight home and decided that my purchased beets just had to be mixed with my dark dark chocolate.
So I changed the recipe a little…I'm not a fan of cocoa powder or baking powder so skipped both of these…I find that if you whisk the eggs more you actually don´t need rising agents…yay!
I also don't have cup measurements so just guessed really…but it turned out fabulous!
And instead of the poppy seeds I added some wasabi to my cream and let me tell you…genius. Beetroot and wasabi are one of my favourite combos and it did me proud yet again.

So for this deep red velvety cake all you need is :

roughly 8oz cooked and mashed beetroot
roughly 8oz dark dark chocolate (fork out on the good stuff!)
a handful of fine sugar
1 cup of flour
5 eggs seperated and whisked
about half a block of butter cut into small pieces.

Melt the chocolate over hot water and add the butter in small pieces. Adding butter to the chocolate increases the richness and the texture.
Get your mashed beetroot (I used a food processor but doesn´t matter) and put in a big bowl.
Once the melted chocolate/butter mix is slightly cooler add to the whisked egg yolks (this slightly cooks the egg yolks and will become thicker)
Fold into this the whisked egg whites and then add the flour and sugar.
Mix all together and put in a spring pan and cook….I'm rubbish with times and heat so I just go by smell…once you smell it, its normally cooked!

A couple of things that I would change for next time though is add more chocolate…and maybe even some chilli!

Leftover day

I, normally hate leftovers. I would rather give my guests a doggy bag than face the spare bits and pieces that are left in my fridge for the next day. But having given away 6 ample doggy bags there was still spares left.
It got to 4pm and realising that I hadn´t yet eaten I raided….
Take a couple of boiled potatoes, left over roast lamb and fry it all together in some top quality butter. Garnish with baby roquette and what do you have. MAGIC!

Ten minutes and an awesome meal..

My very first...

Okey dokey, here it comes, my DIY page…and I promise you as a total new-be I will be so much better at organising and making everything look super pretty and if anyone has any hints on making photos look good from an Ipad perlease tell me!

Where I am it is famous for this stuff called Hennequin, a cactus which back in the day was actually the product used to make the first rope (yes, I am history master! haha). We in the Europe world know it as hessian, not sure what Americans call it but, if you find out let me know!
There is so much of the stuff and it is sooo sustainable that they practically give it away and so, I could´t resist picking up a couple of meters to play around with.

The result was these fantastic little bags (easy to put handles on if you wanted) and which I use from taking my organic veggies to the clients, as bins in my guest rooms (obviously not the same ones I take veggies in) and much much more. Everyone seems to love them and everyone seems to want one.
And so, drum roll please, the first person who joins my blog (ah bribery huh?!?!) will get one of these in the post…

Using bright coloured thread to sew up the edges adds texture at the same time as really making the bag stand out