Gloriana

You will have to bear with me for the next week or so as as I am becoming (yet again) very patriotic.  Yes, it is time for Great Britain to celebrate again with the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations starting to take place across the land.

Bunting has been strung along the high street and most of the shops in my borough have Union Jacks flying above the stores.  It looks beautiful.  After seeing the Queen the other week I am even more excited.  I have even decorated the house slightly – photos coming on Friday.

At the moment, a barge is being prepared which will be used as part of the jubilee celebrations when the royal family will row/sail down the Thames and be cheered and hopefully no idiot will decide to take a swim.

The barge is called the Gloriana and is currently moored in Richmond and I am truly in love with it and whilst she won’t carry any members of the Royal family, she will be at the head of the 1,000 boat flotilla and is worth £1 million.  The amount of gold on it is incredible and I love seeing so many people with their cameras and phones taking pictures.

Isn’t she beautiful?

According to the security guard at the boat on Sunday, she is due to be moved today (Wednesday) further into London ahead of the pageant on Sunday.

~ Pru

Cheese Straws

It was my pick for Martha Mondays this week and I chose a recipe that mum and I had been dying to try.  The amount of times mum has asked about when I would make cheese straws is too many to have kept count of.  When we watched Martha make them on Martha Bakes, I knew that we would soon have to try out the recipe.

I watched Martha make these before I made them and although I followed the instructions on the recipe, her way of doing it on the show is easier, rolling the dough with the cheese underneath it.

We liked these.  They are easier to make than the recipe suggests, but I would make them shorter and fatter when I next make them (probably next week for the Jubilee).

Recipe here: http://www.marthastewart.com/332661/parmesan-puff-pastry-straws

I can’t wait to see what everyone else thought of them.  We certainly enjoyed them – the cayenne pepper ones were our favourite.

 

~ Pru

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Where Brette Cooks From

A few weeks back I posted photos of my kitchen and I had such a positive response (thank you).  I love looking around other people’s homes, whether in person or on the internet.  I like seeing how people work in their kitchen and how they organise their cupboards and deal with saucepans and baking trays.

Brette, Founder of Martha Mondays was kind enough to share photos with me of her lovely kitchen and I hope you like them and are inspired by them as much as I am.

We re-did our kitchen about seven years ago and I still love it.  The tiles are glass, the counters are Corian, the floors are blue and the ceiling is faux tin.

This is the window about my sink.  On the shelf is my grandmother’s wooden rolling pin and a photo of my other grandmother with some baked goods she made.  I think of them both as my kitchen inspirations in many ways.

This is the counter where I do most of my work.  It’s between the sink and stove and there are lots of outlets for mixers. 

This is the other side of the sink.  It’s my second workspace, but dirty dishes and pots usually end up here.  The food precessor is here and I use that a lot!

This shows my double ovens and stovetop.  One oven has convection which I don’t use that often but do like having it available. 

This is my collection of cookbooks.  My big stand mixer is all the way to the right.  I rarely use it though because I have to pick it up and carry it across the kitchen to the counter I work on.

My embarassing baking drawer (yes, I really did write a book on kitchen organizing!)

I had never heard of (or seen) a faux tin ceiling but I like it alot.  There is something quite industrial about it, but in Brette’s kitchen it also looks homely.  And the little alcove for olive oil above the cooker is such a clever idea, almost hidden until you look carefully.

And I am certainly moving my baking trays from a horizontal mess (where they all collapse because I always need the tray at the bottom!) to them standing vertically.

I will confess too, that I have yet to show my baking box and cutlery drawers and they are completely like Brette’s drawer above (I take heart in that!)

I am so pleased that Brette showed her photos of her kitchen here.  And I love the idea of thinking about her in her kitchen when we are both cooking the same recipe for Martha Mondays!  Thanks Brette.

As well as being the founder of Martha Mondays, a group which I love being part of, Brette has written quite a lot of cookbooks (including a great one on cooking with parchment paper – no mess or fuss) and has a wonderful no-holds barred blog.

If anyone else fancies showing photos of their kitchen then please leave me a comment.

~ Pru

The allotment at the moment

I have a bit of a problem.  Blogging.  I take the photos, upload them and then stuff happens and I never get around to showing you the photos.  I am also very, very behind on posting photos of Brette’s kitchen which I know you will love – this is coming this week.  I promise.

Last Sunday I spent a couple of hours at the allotment.  With the weather finally dry and quite warm it was the perfect time to assess and damage from the rain and to kneal on the ground humbly and weed.

The entrance to the allotments.

I was so pleased to find that apart from a lot of weeds, everything is growing really well and there are positive signs for the future.

Weeding around the broad (fava) beans completed, next time = the peas!

Flowers turning into strawberries.

And here are a couple of photos of other allotments in our section.

The grassy one:

The perfect one:

I live in hope of making our allotment a bit more perfect, but we need to wait until the end of the summer before making many changes to the layout.  Oh, if only to start all over again…

~ Pru

Clothespin Pinwheels & The Queen

My home is being bedecked in red, white and blue. I have always looked at my American friends with envy in July when everything is prettied-up with the national colours. But the Jubilee is rolling around the corner and so far I have made pompoms (small and large) and now pinwheels in red and blue.

I enjoyed this project chosen by Sara at Sassy Suppers. They are so whimsical. And I found that the card store had red and blue wrapping paper that had a white back so this was perfect.

I struggled slightly to get the drawing pin into the peg but it was so pleasing when they were done. They are currently brightening up the garden but I’m going to take then to the allotment to ward off the birds around the peas soon.

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I also wanted to share a couple of photos from last Tuesday. I took the afternoon off from work and mum and I headed to Richmond Park as the Queen was due to arrive in the afternoon. Friends, I saw the Queen! I have seen her once before, 23 years ago when I was only a nipper, and I barely remember so to see her now was remarkable.

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And even though the sky went from blue to black (and rain and hail) it was definitely worth it!

~ Pru

Gardening in April & May

The last two months have been odd.  Hot sometimes and then freezing at others and then I spent the majority of two weeks holding an umbrella.  I have gone from summer tops to my winter coat complete with scarf and gloves in the space of a week.  Its awful.  And my dear garden has suffering.  We started the month with a hose pipe ban which I am sure will last all summer long.  I actually don’t mind watering with the watering can but when the garden needs a good drenching it is a hard old slog.

But things are taking shape in the garden.  Mum and I finally put down paving slabs under the seats.

Before:

After:

The rhodendrum didn’t fare too well with the rain.

I always find it amazing how quickly the garden springs to life.

The only alium to survive the cold/hot/soaking weather (I remain heartbroken)

And the buds on the honeysuckle, roses and peonies fill me with hope for a great end of spring and beginning of summer.

How is your garden doing?

~ Pru

Strawberry Tart

It was such a hectic weekend that I wasn’t sure if I was going to get time to do this week’s Martha Mondays project, but knowing how much dad likes strawberry jam, strawberry tart, strawberries and cream and strawberries, there was not much chance of me not finding time to make them, and so on Friday night after a very long week at work, I set about making them.  The recipe is here.

 

These were easy to make and although the strawberries in the shops weren’t that great and I ended up mascerating them to bring out their flavour (and therefore my tart doesn’t look as pretty as the Martha Stewart one), they had a lovely feel of summer and I am most certain that they helped to bring out the sunshine at the weekend.

Thanks for a great pick!

Fancy joining us for Martha Mondays?  A super-friendly group of us get to pick a Martha Stewart recipe or craft and then we make it and tell each other what we thought on our blogs.  No pressure, but I can tell you that I have tried so many new things by joining this group.  Go over to Brette’s blog to find out more.

 

~ Pru

Are you following me on Twitter or Pinterest?  If not, then click on the links.  It would make my day, possibly my week too!