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.