Simple Pleasures

Baking a loaf of bread has to be one of life's great simple pleasures.

I rarely find the time sadly but I had some family coming over for dinner and wanted to go the extra mile. I realise I am way behind on no knead bread as it seems to achieved cult status online but my goodness it is fabulous!! The original recipe that people refer to is Jim Lahey's in the New York Times . I wanted a little something extra for mine so I used this adaptation from The Gardener's Eden which adds in fresh rosemary.

The basic principle is that you use a small amount of yeast and the bread is left to rise for a lot longer than usual but without any kneading. It is then cooked in a casserole so that it steams while it cooks producing a lovely soft inside. You then take the lid off for the last bit of cooking to get a golden crust.

I was extremely smug about the final result as it very closely resembled my idea of the perfect loaf of bread (although I have to say this is entirely down to the recipe as opposed to any particular skill in the bread making dept!). Look how pretty....

Birthday Cookies

It was my cousin's 60th birthday this weekend so I spent Saturday making him cookies. I took a series of snaps of the process.

I made a simple vanilla cookie dough and cut the shapes out. I chose birthday presents, birthday cakes and comets (the latter because he is an astrophysicist!) The key is to stick the dough back in the fridge after you cut the shapes out to reduce the chance they will spread in the oven:

I baked the cookies for 10-12 min:

When the cookies were cool I piped an outline in Royal icing:

I then filled the cookie in with more royal icing let down with some egg whites. Once this was dry I piped details onto the cookies. The comets were dusted with edible glitter:

If I did them again I would make the design less fussy on the presents as the ribbon doesn't quite work for me but I was really happy with the rest and they went down a treat at the party!

A Veritable Valentines Feast

We arrived home with our Borough booty and prepared the feast to end all feasts.

We started with six native oysters. My brother's partner is French and her parents bought us an oyster set for our wedding that we have been meaning to Christen ever since. I have to confess to being slightly nervous of doing the shucking so Mr Crafty stepped nobly into the breach:



Served with lemon wedges, shallot vingegar and Tabasco they were truly delicious:



We then went on to Fois Gras (I know - it's not PC and I did feel a pang of guilt whilst buying - I have no excuse but all I can say is that it is a very rare treat for us) with Sourdough Bread from De Gustibus and a fanstastic Monbazillac sourced from Edward Parker Wines via a wine buff friend at work:



The main course was leg of lamb from Northfield Farm with dauphinoise potatoes and green beans:



We just about made room for the oh so pretty strawberry tarts from Konditor and Cook:



But by this point we were seriously running out of steam...

I Heart Borough

To say that my husband and I are fond of food is an understatement much to the detriment of our waistlines. This year was definitely a foodie Valentines day. The romance began on Friday night when I arrived home to a beautiful bunch of red roses. On Saturday morning we headed for the fabulous Borough Market along with half of London! It was packed but we braved the crowds in order to seek out some tasty morsels for our evening meal.

Turnips turns vegatables into a work of art:









The heart stopping array of chocolates at Dark Sugars:



Rows of cheeses at Neals Yard Dairy:



A happy Mr & Mrs:



To be continued...