All The Good Things

Now that we're more settled in our new place in the country, we've been able to relax a bit more and enjoy one of things we love most.  Entertaining friends.   Recently our very good friend J came to stay the night. We enticed him with offers of lamb roast and pecan pie.  Needless to say, we did not have to twist his arm very much at all.  We stayed up to 1.30 am chatting (good grief, I'm way too old for that....it took me the rest of the week to recover) but I'd decided well before then that I was going to make some home-made crumpets for breakfast.  So, before I finally hit the sack I made up a batch.  The crumpets are yeast based and need to proof for a at least an hour. But I find an overnight proofing works the best.  

It was worth the effort.  We had crumpets with a selection of home-made jams (mulberry - I stumbled across R's secret stash - and apricot), home made butter and a cuppa.  Despite still being half asleep we managed to make it extra special by hauling out our vintage china, without dropping a single piece.  We always make Sunday mornings special by using our vintage china and relaxing over the cross word and paper.  Fabulous way to finish off the weekend. All the better if we have good friends to share with. 

 

A basket of home made crumpets

Lashings of butter and mulberry jam

R made the butter using a vintage butter churn I got him for his birthday one time.  I'll post a picture another time so you can see how groovy it is.  It does take a lot of work.  It's not any cheaper than bought butter. But it is a lot creamier and well worth the effort.

Last year we discovered an apricot orchard which sells apricots direct to the public.  The granddaughter of the owners was telling us that her granddad makes the "best apricot jam ever" from a particular variety of apricots.  Sold. We bought 5 kilos and the end result was the best apricot jam ever!!

R and J enjoying breakfast.  R is very focussed on the mulberry jam and wasn't going to waste valuable time looking at the camera.  Seriously, we really miss our mulberry tree.  We used to get a good 15 to 20 kilos of fruit from the tree, so plenty for scoffing and plenty for jam.  But I've not been able to make mulberry jam since we've moved down here, so that last jar is very precious.  We have planted a mulberry tree.  But the one at our old house took a good 20 years to produce enough fruit for jam.  Watch this space......

J bought me these lovely flowers.  What a sweetie huh.  The arrangement was just stunning.  The photos simply don't do it justice.  A week later we're still enjoying them. I think the arrangement  was done by Vasse flowers. Simply the most beautiful arrangement I've seen. Apart from Mum's obviously. 

We didn't have this cake for breakfast (we're way too old to get away with that kind of caper).  R made it for me for my birthday. It is a spiced ginger and dried cherry cake (although, R used fresh cherries). It was delicious. One of the nicest cakes I've tasted in a long time.  R chose the recipe because he knows I love ginger and cherries (how sweet) and because it had a small list of ingredients and even few instructions.  So R.  Made me laugh out loud, as he so often does. Love that man. 

Loved that cake.  If you're lucky, he might make one when you visit one day.  And that is a bribe!! 

In the meantime, if you ant to give it a go yourself, the recipe can be found at Epicurious and it's called Ginger Spice Cake with Dried Cherries. And no, you're not reading the ingredients incorrectly. It does contain mustard. 

On a sadder not, today would have been D's birthday.  I think about Dad often and the memories help me feel less sad.  Today I just thought about him a little bit more than usual. Still miss you Dad.

The Great Ice-cream Experiment

One of the many things that R especially misses about living in Greenmount is partaking of some of the ice-cream delights on offer at the Midland Junction Ice-creamery.   Last time we visited Midland Junction we had a chat with the owner who told us about some new freezer packs that stay as cold as long as dry ice.  Which is way longer than normal ice or freezer packs.   I did some googling and found some made in Australia by a company called Chill Co.  Chill Co claimed that, used in the proper ratio, the freezer blocks would stay frozen for up to 11 days.  So in the interests of R getting his ice-cream fix (and me some respite from his mutterings about how much he misses same) I bought a few to try out.  And so began The Great Ice-Cream Experiment.  

We had to travel to Perth this weekend so I duly soaked the newly acquired freezer packs (which arrive in flattened form, as thin a sheet of paper) and froze them a couple of days ahead of our trip.  We used them on the way up and they stayed well and truly frozen over our five hour journey (we had a few stops on the way).  Which encouraged us to stop in at Midland Junction on our way home and purchase a three tubs of their delicious ice-cream, being Roasted Toffee Almond, Mint Chip and Jaffa.  These were carefully wrapped in the freezer packs and placed in a freezer bag (just the kind you get at the super market).  

A quick stop in Pinjarra to check whether the ice-cream was frozen established that it was. Much to Rodney's disappointment who was prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice and eat what he secretly hoped was the softening ice-cream to save it being wasted.  We arrived home about three hours later and unpacked the still frozen ice-cream.  We enjoyed a bowl each for dessert.  Rodney is a very, very happy camper.  That might be the understatement of the century.  And I declare The Great Ice-cream Experiment a success.