Harvest Moon Soup

This soup is super easy and very satisfying.  The key is the cute presentation – here ladled into a hollowed out pumpkin and garnished with a dollop of sour cream and some dill.

2 pounds zucchini, cubed
1 1/2 cups water

1/4 cup sour cream

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Place Courgette/ zucchini and water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil – reduce heat to medium and simmer until zucchini is very tender.

Pour into a large bowl, and when cooled to workable temperature  blend to  puree soup until almost smooth. Return soup to saucepan and add remaining ingredients. Stir over medium heat until warm.

PS    I take no credit for either the recipe of the lovely photograph as This recipe came from here:

http://leberpr.com/blog/?p=494

Roast Turks Turban Pumpkin Soup

This is an easy and adaptable soup that can be made with most squash or pumpkins.

* Roughly chop a medium size squash (about1kilo should be OK for 4) cut into large cubes or wedges      whichever is convenient.

* Put in a lightly oiled roasting tin with some crushed garlic cloves (4-5) and season well with salt and pepper. (There is no need to skin either of them at this stage).

You can flavour the cooking oil with coriander, or use a ready-flavoured oil like chilli, or walnut. Be sparing with these oils as they could easily over power the squashes own flavour.

* Place them into a preheated oven at 190/ gas 5 for about ½ hour or until tender and coloured.

* Cool sufficiently so you can scrape the flesh from the skin.

* Pop the flesh of the garlic out of its skin and place the squash and garlic together in a blender.
* Add either 1 litre of vegetable stock, or chicken stock, or stock and milk. You are aiming for a thick creamy consistency.

* Blitz till smooth - you may have to do this in batches depending on the capacity of your blender.

* Return to a saucepan and heat gently, taste and season. The soup should be a creamy consistency.

* I personally like small chunks of veg in my soup, so you could keep back some of the squash or maybe add some pre- cooked courgettes, or parsnips cut into small pieces to add when returning soup to the pan from the blender.

* Add flavourings like;-
Grated nutmeg - good with butternut squash,
Swirl of soured cream

Lightly fried garlic slivers

Good flavours to add to stock are rosemary or thyme (remove before liquidising).
Taste for seasoning and add more stock if it's too thick. You're aiming for a fairly thick and creamy consistency. Return to the pan and heat gently, don't let it boil.

Serve with some chunks of fresh bread - poppy seed is fabulous, or try ciabatta or crusty wholemeal bread.

ENJOY

I've been to 'Liberty's'

I was in London at the week-end and went to visit the ' Liberty' store, needless to say I went up to the haberdashery and fabric department. It was awesome and I had to be dragged out screaming I WANT EVERYTHING !! but my purchases were very modest as are my finances. So I had to make do with buying some 'Rowan' pure wool DK in three very yummy colours. I haven't a clue what I am going to crochet, but it could be a cushion cover. I just had to have those colours to start with.
I also bought some very beautiful buttons to add to my stash, they were very reasonably priced. The young assistant admired my goodies and said she also loved those colours. I will keep you posted as to what they will be used for when I actually get time to do any craft work. The garden and allotment and all the gadding about we have been doing lately seem to have put any crafts on hold. Ah well at least I'll have something to do in the cold winter months.

Spelt Bread recipe

At last a recipe for you. This is the first ever loaf of bread I've ever made, and I am so pleased with it. It was easy to make and we both loved the taste.

My finished Spelt Loaf

Delicious with Butter

SPELT BREAD

This recipe originally appeared in The Daily Telegraph a couple of years ago and has since built up quite a following on the Internet.

Mixing up a yeast dough and then baking it without giving it time to rise (let alone kneading it) is counter-intuitive, but it works. Baker Andrew Whitley says that if you let it rise slowly, in a cool place overnight, it will be even better. ( I just gave it 15 mins lightly covered before popping in the oven, as was suggested when this recipe appeared in the week-end magazine from the Sunday Mail)

Ingredients
1lb 2oz/500g spelt flour
2 sachets/10g fast-acting dried yeast
½ tsp sea salt
2oz/50g sunflower seeds
2oz/50g sesame seeds
2oz/50g linseed's (optional)
400-500ml warm water ( use enough to form a dough)
Heat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6.

Method
Combine all the ingredients, adding the water last. Mix well and when the dough is well mixed together lightly flour your hands and the work surface and gently shape the loaf to fit the tin and then turn the dough into a greased loaf tin.

Leave lightly covered for 15 mins then -
Put straight into the oven and bake for 55 mins.
Remove the loaf, turn it out of the tin and then return it to the oven without the tin for a further 5-10 minutes.


And here is another recipe to try using Spelt flour and In season Rhubarb. I have to admit that I have yet to try this one myself, I will post the result when I do.

SPELT AND RHUBARB CAKE

Spelt's nutty flavour goes well with rhubarb.

Ingredients

5oz/140g butter
7oz/200g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
4 pieces of stem ginger in syrup, chopped
7oz/200g spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
14oz/400g slender rhubarb stems
Caster sugar to finish

Method
Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Line a cake tin about 7in x 11in/17cm x 27cm with baking parchment.
Melt the butter and stir in the soft brown sugar.
Allow to cool slightly, then mix in the eggs, ginger, flour and baking powder. Scrape the mixture into the lined tin and spread out.
Trim the rhubarb to fit the tin length-ways and lay over the top of the mixture, packing in as many stems as you can.
Bake for 35-45 minutes, until the cake is risen, golden and cooked through.
Brush with some syrup from the ginger jar, dredge well with caster sugar and allow to cool in the tin.

More Squares

I have been meaning to post these photo's of the squares that I have done from the new book '200 Crocheted blocks' I crocheted them weeks ago and haven't got around to doing anymore as we have been away for a few days visiting friends who live on the Isle of Wight also both Austin and I went down with a horrible cold/virus of some sort that he had first and then passed it on to me and guess who got the worst dose of it ?? yes did you guess it was me ! I feel better today but my ribs still hurt from the coughing and I feel drained both physically and mentally, I couldn't manage to even read a magazine leave alone crochet, I just couldn't be bothered with anything. Austin picked it up from the grandchildren, I only hope we haven't infected out friends. Anyway enough of the whingeing here are the photo's

These are made from the left over wool that I used for Florence's throw. I don't have any plans for them at the moment, I guess they are more of a practice at some of the blocks from the book. These were relatively easy, and some in the book look very hard, so I left those for the time being, and when I feel much better I will attempt to tackle the harder ones.

Health benefits of Rhubarb and it's juice

I thought that I had read somewhere recently (probably the daily paper) that rhubarb juice was beneficial to health. So when I harvested lots of the said stuff on Tuesday I decide to save all the juice as I had added too much water and it needed to be poured off. Anyway here are some very good links to places that tell us all about this wonderful juice. It taste lovely and you can even make a mix with oranges as well, check these out as it's worth a try. Also try googling ' Health benefits of Rhubarb juice' as lots of other sites and info came up.

http://web.me.com/davidperryphoto1/GardenBlog/A_Photographers_Garden_Blog/Entries/2009/5/4_Rhubarb_Juice:__A_Many_Spendored_Thing.html

http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,rhubarb_juice,FF.html

And here is one from good old 'Waitrose' must be good if they have a recipe. If you try it and like it please let me know.
http://www.waitrose.com/recipe/Rhubarb_Juice.aspx

I think Florence liked her throw, but --

she would rather get on with her new walking skill, and couldn't wait to take the throw off and get down, she did look cute wrapped in it though, and her mummy loved it.