Last week at Jelly Festival

Jelly Festival

This time last week we were serving food to a steady stream of happy cider drunk punters at Jelly Festival, South Creake, Norfolk. The lead up to the festival was a little stressful. I guess the most stressful thing was not knowing what quantities of food to per-order in anticipation of the hopefully hungry festival goers or, how little to order in case the event was a wet wash out. It was both.

The week prior to the event, Stu with the aid of a workshop full of tools and an eye for typography, started to design a sign for our stall. We were selling BBQ sweetcorn with various flavoured butters, garlic bread, BBQ mushrooms drenched in garlic butter served in a toasted baguette and for pudding, chocolate brownies.

sign making in progress

Days before the Saturday event, I foolishly decided to order 14 cases of sweetcorn. That's 420 cobs. Yikes. I also ordered 40 baguettes and I made 144 servings of Ottolenghi's brownies. What an over ambitious fool I am. Why didn't I believe the weather forecast and why didn't I realise that we could never have manage to sell 420 cobs on the 2 large BBQs even if we were busy from the 12pm start? Still, it was the first time Stu and I had sold food at a stall and also the first time we have ever cooked in the same kitchen/gazebo/field together. We managed to co-ordinate mechanically, and with the help of our dearest friend Rosie who was serving the customers, we did managed to make a slight profit. All thanks to the sunshine though, if the rain hadn't cleared like it did at 3pm, we would have been in miserable, damp and in gloomy debt but instead, we're thinking where and when is the next festival? If we do ever repeat this formula, I don't think I really want to spend Monday morning selling (almost giving away) boxes of sweetcorn to Norwich market stall holders in 'Apprentice' style cut your losses sales-girl mode.

our stall

Warm honeyed figs

My Lidls bargain of the day - a box of Israeli green figs, perfectly ripe and very cheap. For 20 figs, the box cost less that a fiver - not bad. I hadn't dropped in for fruit and veg so to wasn't paying attention to the goods on offer, but a lovely elderly man proudly showed me his about-to-be-purchased box of figs, saying that this will tide him over until he starts to climb a fig tree for perfectly ripe figs on Elm Hill. He then shared his favourite way of eating them, he said that they are delicious fried with butter.

I've just tried his suggestion, adding to the butter; honey, a cinnamon
stick and a squeeze of lemon. I then dolloped on a heap of Greek yogurt
and drizzle of honey. I liked them a lot.

Play and Freeze

Make ice-cream with no mess, no electricity but possibly a broken toe....

Apart from the almost injuries, Play and Freeze is brilliant and a must have for anyone with a team of energetic helpers and ice-cream lovers. Fi, clever ol' Fi, turned up to the campsite with an early birthday gift of ice, rock salt, cream, vanilla sugar and chocolate chips and a large cube wrapped in paper - the Play and Freeze.

We've tried a few flavours, so far raspberries, cream and Greek yogurt is really good. I've been making a banana cake lately which requires the bananas to be cooked in a butterscotch sauce. I can't stop thinking about how tasty caramelised bananas would be when added with cream and Greek yogurt to the ice-cream ball. For now, here's how we made raspberry ripple.

Firstly, add ice-cubes and rock salt to one end.

To the end end, add cream...raspberries, Greek yogurt, vanilla sugar and milk

Then roll it, kick it (gently) drag it, fight over it for ten whole minutes, stirring it a few times.

then eat it.

Back at Stiffkey

Our impromptu camping trip to Stiffkey last week was, as always fabulous and mostly very relaxing. We even managed to dodge the rain and lap up some sunshine - not an easy thing to do over the past few summers. The lack of sunny days is depressing, Stu noted that we've haven't had the sail up (our makeshift shade from the sun on the decking) yet this summer. Last year we had it up so much more, and we thought last year's climate was bad. I'm sure the indifferent weather is affecting us all, perhaps not the girls so much but it definitely is me. Being inside, hiding from the rain when I know we shouldn't be, isn't fun and I guess that's why camping is good. You're outside pretty much what ever the weather, windy, cold, wet and sunny. The girls never seem to mind the cooler days but then they are not aware of what seasons mean and what we expect from them.

At Stiffkey, we pitched at our usual spot, ate bbq'd meat and fish, made ice-cream and walked out across the five bridges to the beautiful and quiet sandy beach at Stiffkey. The best bit, was the marsh tide. Watching the beautiful sunset reflect on the pools of water across the marsh is wonderful. Stu and Evie even managed to swim in the creeks in the following high morning tide. I had the excuse of staying out of the biting wind and staying in the warm tent drinking tea and reading the A tale of 12 Kitchens while Matilda dozed.

Todays blooms

Smoked Eel and Beetroot

Beetroot is one of the few surviving plants on our allotment that hasn't been munched by greedy, gluttonous slugs and snails. I think that our plot, being positioned next to the rolls of old rotten carpet and waste ground is asking for trouble. When I walk up the path and, towards the old timers in our allotment group, I notice they have beautifully formed, perfectly pristine lettuces growing in the neatest rows with no trace of  gorging snails. But it's OK, I'm not bitter or envious, despite once thinking our plot was being sabotaged by people sprinkling weed seeds all over our once ,very neat raised beds. I guess it's just a slightly irritating learning curve of what to grow and what not to bother trying to grow.

So it's a good job we like beetroot as much as we do, as this is going to be our bulk crop this summer along with the fennel, which so far, is also doing mighty fine.
Beetroot raw, grated with carrots and mixed with lemon juice and a peppery olive oil is my favourite way to eat it. I also love it roasted with rosemary and garlic then cooled, sliced and eaten with horseradish and a strong cheddar in a sandwich. Or, like I first mentioned, grating it raw and mixing it with creme fraiche, dill and Dijon mustard and topped with deliciously meaty, smoked eel. If you're put off my eating eel because of the way it looks alive, don't be. When smoked, it is really tasty with a firm texture and deep oily flavour - excellent with beetroot.

A relaxing get-away

Two weekends ago, Stu and I stayed in a yurt belonging to some friends of ours. It is set in a beautiful secluded meadow in Suffolk, surrounded by mature trees and acres of pasture. I think it was the most relaxing (child free) 24 hours we had had in four years. We sat and read books and the Saturday papers and cycled to The Low House in Laxfield, where we ate well and watched the locals arrive in 007 themed costumes before cycling back with a bit more speed than we arrived.

I was pleased to have some quiet time, as the previous week I ordered a book from Amazon called the The Creative Family, written by American blogging Mum of three, Amanda Soule.  I don't regularly read her blog, Soule Mama but I was aware of it. Other blogs were raving about this book and the reviews on Amazon were very complimentary so I bought it. I wanted to get on the  'good mama' band waggon instead of being the grumpy selfish one I so often am. I read this book while at the yurt, and I have to say, I turned into a holistic, patient, creative, positive and gentle Mama almost instantly. Wow, the wonder of books and the gentle persuasion of words and pictures.

So while we were listening to nothing but birds chirping in the glorious meadow -

I tried a bit of rope knitting with fencing steaks...
(Not easy).

... Stu climbed a oak tree and fitted a swing...
(It made my heart race and I worried that an ambulance would never find us)

... and we ate breakfast in the fresh air and gently drizzling rain.

starter all over again

I'm just loving Future Radio.
The music they play is excellent and I rarely have the urge to tune off
unlike most BBC stations. Some of the DJ's are rather comical (I'm not
sure if they are meant to be) but they share some interesting info and
twitter on in rather a endearing manner. I also love the People's Playlist,
where folk like me, select 12 of their favourite tunes to be aired on
Future Radio at the weekends. One day I might get organised enough to
do that, but for today, I'm happy that I have just won a mystery CD for
texting in the correct answer to a shuffled up song. Yey!

Something I'm not so happy about is that I've finally managed to
kill my sourdough starter. I tried to revive it by feeding it chunks of
a peeled apple (I was desperate) but it refused to bubble and regain
life. In some ways I'm quite pleased I'm not having to make loaves
every week but on the other hand, I loved the process and the addiction
I had with trying to create the perfect sourdough. I also loved the
fact you can prepare a really quick meal with stale toasted sourdough,
lightly rubbed with garlic, olive oil and topped with roasted tomatoes.
I think I have just 3 remaining loaves left in the freezer before I know I will be very
tempted to start another batch of starter.

A loo with a view

I failed to capture the view on Saturday evening from this outdoor lavatory, complete with and old pine wash stand and enamel basin, but believe me, this has got to be one of the best lidded loo stops I've been too (since last year). The bright sunlight in the photo leads out to Morston marsh and looks like like this.... only it's so much better when you're there.

The reason for being in this beautiful spot, was to celebrate a friends 40th birthday. It was camping gathering with a 60's party on the Sunday night in a beautiful handcrafted geodesic dome tent. I'd not seen a geodesic tent before, this one is made from lengths of hazel fitted together in a series of triangles to form a sphere and then covered in large sheets of canvas.

See that blue sky? Where has it gone?

Spring Changes

I have become a little garden obsessed over the past few months. I hit
a bit of a miserable patch back in April where I totally lost interest
in cooking. Something in my mood was turning food sour. I couldn't cook
and I didn't want to.  I also wasn't sleeping well and my moods were,
well bloody awful but with the help of warm sunny days, Nytol, a bed time book and no internet activity after 9pm,  I feel so
much better.

We've now got an allotment and today when I visited, it was covered in the vigorous weed known at fat hen. I could not believe the density of the stuff. It had smothered my veg seedings to the point I couldn't see what I had planted. With the help of  Rosie and Matilda, we managed to pull up most of the thatch of weed with Matilda wielding what ever garden tool she could find, she also managed to destroy the few seedings I has planned on eating. Errrrgh.

We were very lucky with getting an allotment this year. I had applied to Norwich Council in Feb only to be told the waiting list was at least a year away. I then heard of a scheme called Grow Our Own - GO2, where allotments were available - but not only that, it is a scheme where seeds, seedlings, plants, manure, tools and advice are all part of the package. We've had it about 6 weeks now. We had to dig up a heap of weeds and old potato plants and then raise the beds to help deter small feet from trampling our small plants. We now have a selection of  things growing, a smaller section then I had last week due to Matilda's 'weeding' and the harsh frost a few nights back.