Sorry it’s been a long time between drinks. I’ve been diverted by more personal things lately – like getting married. The big day is tomorrow, so I will again be off-line for awhile. But before I go I’ll leave you with a taster for my next series of posts celebrating the coming of spring.
To round off our mid-winter meal, we finished with my first ever pie – apple and blackberry. I made it using a recipe in my trusty Australian Women’s Weekly cookbook. Here it is baking in the oven.
I’m quite proud of it because I made the shortcrust pastry myself – with the help of the food processor – and also the filling. BB was a huge help – he was the apple peeler!
In the end the crust was a little burned (I put it on the top shelf at the beginning of cooking – should have been low-middle shelf), but it still tasted lovely.
The bread accompanies a warming bowl of pea and ham soup. Our local butcher does a mean ham hock – he has his own smokehouse out the back. The smokeyness the hock gives to the soup really lifts its flavour above any other soup I’ve made, making this my favourite soup.
Last Christmas I got what has proven to be the best of gifts – a bread maker. Before this, I had never made bread before – working with yeast and dough seemed so daunting, and time consuming. Now I can make loaves like this. Well, the machine does.
My bread maker has rarely gone into a cupboard since I got it because I’m addicted to the smell and taste of freshly baked bread. Who wants to eat store bought bread after this?
The beagle was a bit fed up of the cold and rainy weather of recent weeks.
She was much more chirpy when the sun stuck around.
Static and Silence 