Spinach Christmas tree

A week ago in 2018  we had another lovely young chef. Isadora (aged 4) came with her mother Lu to show off her cooking skills. She was so helpful and made the From Spade to Plate cooking activity so different.

A few weeks ago, I promised to make marmalade with the group, as it is so easy (as we use Mamade) and quick and not something we could have for lunch.

        

we made a Spinach Christmas tree to go with the Soup

We went into the garden to harvest the carrots to make a simple but delicious Carrot Soup 
We added potatoes, (peeled by Isadora)   carrots, an onion to the pan, covered it with stock and after 20 minutes when the vegetables were soft, we pureed it into a lovely soup. This time we did not have bread with the soup but these lovely looking and delicious tasting Spinach, cheesey bread sticks.  With the left over pastry and spinach mix we made some savoury 'tortolini' shaped puffs. Easy to eat and very tasty with the soup.        

Testing for the recipe book - crepes, biscuits and a pumpkin soup

Those were the days. This weekend  2 years ago, Andrea came to help figure out how to publish the cookery book and came with a Pumpkin so we decided to turn this one into .... Pumpkin Soup. To be honest our 5 spice recipe in which we normally use butternut squash, would have been much better. So won't give the recipe we used as it was a little mediocre.  Use the Butternut squash and 5 spice recipe instead substituting a pumpkin.

      
In addition we made some Christmas biscuits, three different types. The Honey jumbles, we changed into heart shapes, The thumb print  biscuits and the puff pastries christmas trees came out well and were quick and easy to make.

For the Christmas trees, take a pre-rolled sheet of puff pastry, sprinkle with the cinnamon and sugar, cut a 1 cm strip from the short side of the sheet and layer over it self, zig zagging and reducing the width, resembling a Christmas tree. Pierce a cocktail stick through the top to the bottom and follow the rest of the recipe.

Whilst all this was being made we tested the Cheese ball share and tear bread. I prepared the bread dough before hand to speed things up. We used a mature Cheddar cheese to put inside but think a blue cheese might have been nice too.  Apart from it tasting so lovely, it looked attractive too (even though I say it myself)






Simone was in charge of the Crêpes Suzette and turned this basic ingredients into a scrumptious desert. We used  hot melted butter and Marmalade to make the sauce, to pour over the crêpes but for those who like a tipple, a little orange liqueur added to this sauce would be very nice too.







Lu, Asako, Sayaka, Simone and I worked hard to fit in so many lovely recipes in just 2 hours, the end result was well worth it though.

Leek Soup, Pear Custard Pie and Pasta

It was a little bit of a shock to see that the leeks in the allotment were about to go into flower so steps were taken to turn these beauties into a lovely Vegan Leek and Potato Soup which we had with a yoghurt and oat bread.

Noor making the Leek & potato soup

Isadora making the bread under dad's supervision

As the group wanted to make home made pasta we had a taster of pasta with a simple tomato sauce, topped with cracked pepper and parmesan cheese.

This is how it is done.

Look what I picked!

Picking conference pears for our desert

June and Noor preparing the pears for the pie

Pear Custard Pie

What a lovely morning we had.

Having been on holiday there is an abundance of fruit and vegetables

Back from holiday and we are welcomed by a glut of tomatoes, runner beans, courgettes and even apples. I have decided to do the from Spade on Monday eventhough it is a bank holiday, I suppose it is even nicer as that way the whole family can come.

Before Tina and her family set sail for the US , she let me harvest appleas from her garden and on the way there I noticed that the apples in behind St Luke's church are ready too so have decided to turn them into juice, (there is something special about the first juice of the year)
It should be nice to do for young and old, especially the tasting.
The pictures turned out to be a little pink as we were working under a red gazebo to protect us from the blazing sun,
            
After sending out an FB announcement that we would do a family event we had a wonderful turn out.
Lu, Francisco and Isobella, Karina and Urban, Melendra, Robin and Bridget, Suzie K. Vasey, Brian , Gray and Natalie, Lucy, Omer, Theo and Thomas, Akiko and Yosuka all showed up to turn the apples into delicious juice, and apple juice.  Although we had a lot of apples, with so many people coming to help, Mark and I went to pick apples from Githa's garden and later he took Akiko, Yosuka and Suzie across the street to pick the apples in the alley way

For lunch we made wraps filled with cream cheese,  courgetti spagetti, carrots and bean salad, lettuce and grated cheese, as it was  30degree C. too hot for cooking I think
           

Courgettes and runner beans and new potatoes

As the courgettes are growing fast and furiously, we turned them into vegan fritters and had them with new potatoes and runne beans. A simple but tasty meal.  We also had the first of the blackberry cordial harvested this year.

Kevin and Rozenn preparing the runner beans

Lu and Tom

Carmen, Kevin, Rozenn and Simone harvesting new potatoes

Carmen, Lu, Tom and Simone making the courgette fritters

Asparagus Soup, Bulgar Wheat with roasted vegetables, Chive blossom vinegar

The gardens are looking beautiful. Flowers are showing off their amazing colours and shapes

 

. To preserve them for a little longer than this week, we turned the chive blossom into
Chive blossom vinegar. The colour was already gorgeous after 1/2 hour of making it. I can't wait what it will look and taste like in 2 weeks time, when it should be ready to strain and bottle.

The recipe for the Bulgar Wheat with honey roasted vegetables went down really well too. We used the brown bulgar wheat which was different from what Yasmin and Rozenn knew, but the chewy texture was lovely with the honey roasted vegetables.

We ventured out into the sunshine into the allotment to cut some asparagus for the cream of asparagus soup. We boiled the asparagus chopped in 1 cm pieces in stock, setting aside the tops to add later. we then made a white sauce and added it to the stock. With a hand blender we turn this into a smooth and velvety creamy soup. We added the asparagus tops and heated it through for a couple of minutes. this was then served with some flatbread and chive blossom.

We also picked  the heads of the orange calendula, which we used to dry and will turn into
Calenduala  oil in a few weeks time.

As always it was a lovely lunch we wonderful friends from all over the world.
Brasil, France, Holland, Israel, Japan and June representing the UK! W