Post-party, post-very hot walk, piles of laundry ironed and put away, kitchen floor and kitchen terrace well and truly mopped. Phew, what a day. Continue reading “Sunshine salad”
Month: April 2016
Chunky fruit and nut breakfast muffins
We’ve been invited to our friend’s 50th birthday party this evening. Handily, it is being held in Çukurbaĝ – the almond farming village where we own a converted farm cottage, which we rent out during the summer.
Continue reading “Chunky fruit and nut breakfast muffins”
A REAL view from my kitchen
After weeks of balmy weather, today is so blustery it feels more like autumn than spring – very clear skies, a howling wind and lots of white horses on the water (white geese to the Turks). I happened to look out of the window a few moments ago at exactly the right time to spy Diagoras, the Rhodes-Kastellorizo ferry, coming in – that’s the island of Kastellorizo that you can see behind the ferry. Continue reading “A REAL view from my kitchen”
Piccalilli crisis
It’s true. We’ve scraped out the last jar of piccalilli. At the beginning of the winter, I made a Piccallilli mountain so vast that it probably qualified for some kind of EU subsidy. It is just the thing to perk up our cheese butties when we go out walking – I used to hate it, but have gradually acquired a taste for it after years of making it for Robin. I still don’t like the bits of cauliflower, but I’m in charge of making the packed lunches, so I just sneak those into Robin’s sarnies. Continue reading “Piccalilli crisis”
A very lemony pudding
We’ve been invited over to our neighbours’ house for dinner this evening, and I’ve been put in charge of pudding.
This week has seen an unusual flurry of social activity and we were also out last night, having dinner with friends visiting from the UK. I must say that I was feeling just a little peaky this morning – not enough hours in bed and probably at least one too many glasses of wine. Eeek. Continue reading “A very lemony pudding”
Banana chocolate cardamom teabread
A bunch of over-ripe bananas in the fruit bowl is a good excuse to make banana bread before our little friends the fruit flies come out in force to check them out and render them inedible.
We have a few charity bake sales coming up, so I can stash them in the freezer ready for the next deserving cause. Continue reading “Banana chocolate cardamom teabread”
Walking the Lycian Way
Robin has acquired a Fitbit, so we are rather obsessed with the number of steps we are taking – it’s quite astonishing how they add up (over 20,000 yesterday, since you ask). Our house is on three floors and my reading glasses are never on the same level as me, so I am up and down the staircase countless times in a day. A trip from the kitchen to the bedroom is about 100 steps return, so I think my newly-acquired long-sightedness is accounting for quite a lot of calories burned! Continue reading “Walking the Lycian Way”
Bakewell deluxe
I love Bakewell Tart in any shape or form. Mr Kipling – tick. Sainsbury’s cherry almond slices – tick. M&S Bakewell – double tick. Anything involving almonds or marzipan is good in my book.
My Bakewell Tart recipe comes from Ceserani & Kinton’s ‘Practical Cookery’. I have the 1979 edition – the year I started at catering college. It is one of my favourite books – the spine has not just cracked, but disappeared completely, the pages held together only with the original glue and quite a lot of different generations of Sellotape – and the pages smell of everything I have cooked over the last 37 years. Continue reading “Bakewell deluxe”
Beautiful Belle
I couldn’t resist sharing these photos with you. I only got around to looking at them last night – they’ve been on the card in the camera for over a week.
Beautiful Belle is a gorgeous, naughty, muddy-puddle-loving, affectionate hound of totally indeterminate breed, who turned up on our doorstep two and a half years ago. My friend Sally and her daughter Tilly were visiting us at the time from the UK, and they fell in love with her. Well, Tilly did anyway, Sally just knew when she was beaten. Continue reading “Beautiful Belle”
Hughie’s flatbreads (with added yeast)
We often have these flatbreads on a diet day, as they don’t tempt us to add butter and they are really delicious when freshly cooked. The leftovers are perfect to use as wraps for walking sandwiches or re-toasted, spread with hummus and sprinkled with toasted seeds or leftover chicken or lamb. They freeze perfectly when cooked, and you can also freeze half of the uncooked dough (knock it back after rising, then wrap tightly in cling film before putting into a freezer bag – this stops the dough from rising too much while it is thawing out). The dough can also be used as a pizza base. Continue reading “Hughie’s flatbreads (with added yeast)”
aviewfrommykitchen.com 