Category Archives: At Home

English Garden Mint and Iced Tea

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Iced Tea with mint and fruit

Iced Tea with mint and fruit

For a lovely summer drink, I can think of nothing else than iced tea that instantly hits the spot in terms of quenching thirst.

It has to be icy cold of course.

To make it up fresh is much better than the type you can get pre-made. At any rate I think they are too sweet to taste. I prefer the sharpness of fresh lemon and lime to cut through the taste of the tannin in the dark tea.

The version shown is simple to make.

In a jug, pour hot water, about 90c (not boiling), into this add two tea bags. this can be green tea or any blend you prefer. For a more traditional taste, I’ve used an English Breakfast blend which is great as it is refreshing without being too strong or smoky dark.

Add slices of lemon and lime and let them steep in the hot water with the tea bags. I like to leave the lemon and lime peel on the slices so that the scent of the peel infuses with the juice and tea. You can of course experiment with any citrus fruits, oranges or grapefruit works well too.

When the jug has cooled, remove the tea bags, you can remove the lemon and lime slices too, but I think they look lovely in the jug and when they slip into the glass tumblers.

English mint and Strawberries

English Mint and Strawberries

English mint is at their best in summer, you can of course get mint ready cut and trimmed from most supermarkets at any time of the year, but I think they are best when in season, cut fresh from the garden.

I’ve bruised the leaves to release their lovely scent. You can add this to the drink, just before serving, I think the scent of the mint really lifts the drink.

As we had a bottle of vanilla syrup in the cupboard, I added just a splash of this to the cups along with some slices of fruit. You can add sugar or honey to sweeten the drink as well.

Vanilla monin Syrup

Vanilla monin syrup

I think Vanilla and Strawberries work great together, so in they went into the cups along with lots of ice cubes to make the drink icy cold.

To vary this, you can add different pieces of fruit when serving.

I hope everyone in the U.S. is having a great time celebrating the 4th of July.

Please let us know by dropping a comment on what’s your favourite drink for summer.

 

Father’s Day and a 5 star breakfast – Update

Posted in At Home, Family & Life, Food, Wellbeing by
Breakfast tray with freshly brewed coffee, sesame seed bagel with bacon.

Breakfast tray with freshly brewed coffee, sesame seed bagel with bacon.

I managed to wake fairly early this morning, by the time I headed downstairs, my eldest was awake too, this was a good sign.

Reminding her to wish her dad a happy father’s day, she asked what I was doing up. I let her know that I was making dad breakfast.

Columbian Coffee, Marmalade and Rasberry Jam for breakfast

Coffee, Jam, Marmalade, ingredients for breakfast

She got out of bed pretty quick and came down to inspect what I was doing. By the time I had found the bacon in the fridge, she was in keen to join in and with the pan on the stove had taken over to fry the bacon.

We had Sesame bagels in the cupboard, along with sliced bread, so these went into the toaster.

By the time the coffee was brewed, my youngest had made an appearance, she took one look and disappeared upstairs.

Hand Made Father's Day Card

Hand Made Father’s Day Card

When she came down, we had just started to put breakfast on the table. She presented her dad with a card.

I hadn’t seen what she had written and assumed this was a card she had gone to buy with her nanny when she came to visit on Tuesday. Turns out she’d made it.

It produced a burst of laughter from my husband. I looked at the card and as he’d only just had his birthday, the humour and timing was perfect.

Although I’d had an idea to treat my husband to a breakfast, the kind you get in a swanky hotel, when you order room service, wearing their fluffy bathrobe and slippers.  We used to enjoy these as a treat on weekend breaks, when we were just a couple without kids, when breakfast would arrive cooked to perfection. It didn’t turn out quite the way it was planned.

As my cooking skills are basic and it mostly involved keeping my eldest from burning herself on the hot stove, it ended up a simple home made breakfast, with a few good ingredients. I think this breakfast turned out better.

Organic Veg Box update

Posted in At Home, Food, Wellbeing by
Bunched carrots

Bunched carrots

These lovely carrots were in Friday’s Organic veg box.

As they arrive complete with their stems, they are a reminder that they were freshly pulled from the ground.

They can be a little soft, because they are so fresh and have not been stored for long like winter carrots, so we like to soak them in very cold water so they become crisp and crunchy. It makes them easier to slice too.

We only needed five of these to add to the garden peas which we had already in the fridge.

As the weather had become cloudy, we decided against a barbeque outdoor.

Since most of the food had been bought for a planned barbeque, we had light summer veg, such as garden peas and asparagus, so we used these as part of Sunday’s roast .

The Pork Belly which would have been for the barbeque, was scored and then salted (to take the moisture out) to make the outer layer of fat crisp up in the oven.

It takes a good 2-3 hours for the Pork Belly to cook slowly on a low heat, (about 160 degrees) so that the fat within the meat can release it’s deliciousness.

In the past, we’ve usually roasted pork above a bed of root veg, so that as the juices run, they combine with the veg to make the gravy. A side effect of this is that the roasting pan at the end of the meal is easier to clean.

Roast belly of pork

Roast belly of pork

Belly of pork is thinner and this meant that resting it on veg might make the whole thing soft. Instead, we filled the bottom of the pan with water and put the pork above on a rack, so that the meat could roast with a bath of steaming water to keep the meat tender.

It worked out quite well as the skin became crispy and the meat was soft and buttery.

To compliment the pork, a sauce was made, with fresh apricots, that had been peeled and the stone removed, they were cooked with some sugar and honey and then strained to take away any pulp to make a smooth sauce. (We didn’t have any cooking apples to hand)

Along with this, was some Venus black rice that was a gift. We had never tried this variety of rice, and when cooked the rice turned a deep purple and had a nutty aroma.

Even though the weather was overcast today, we still enjoyed the time to just cook and enjoy lunch together.

The smell of the cooking and food usually brings the cats in from the garden, and today was no different. They sit on the kitchen window sill inspecting the meat, waiting for one of us to relent and feed them.

Shelling the garden peas with dad
Freshly shelled garden peas and carrots
English asparagus cooked till tender
Slices of roast belly of pork
Black Venus Rice
Freshly made apricot sauce

Friday’s organic vegetable box

Posted in At Home, Family & Life, Food by
Organic Vegetables

Organic Vegetables

We’ve been getting a box of organic vegetables delivered since we started our eldest started weaning.

Now that the girls are older, we’re a little more price conscious about food and don’t always buy organic produce anymore. But the organic vegetable box is staying.

Every fortnight, the yellow van arrives early, and I am usually the first to see it pull up in front of the house. It is always a surprise to see what’s inside, the seasonal food that comes has been sourced carefully and I love the fact that we’re trying out vegetables that we wouldn’t usually buy in the supermarket.

As it’s summer, most of the box is salad. So here’s a few things that we’ve done with this lovely box of veg this weekend:

Cucumber, tomato, lettuce leaf and yellow pepper salad

Summer salad with Red Salanova lettuce

1) Summer Salad with Basil and lemon dressing.

For the salad we used the Red Salanova Lettuce, some of the tomatoes, spring onions and the rest of the ingredients in the salad were the Yellow Peppers and yellow cherry tomatoes that were in the fridge.

For the dressing, we used fresh basil which was growing on our kitchen window sill, the juice of half a lemon, a small dollop of whole grain mustard, extra virgin olive oil. Since we had a small jar of mini baby capers in brine, I used this as well, plus salt for seasoning.

Chopped basil infused in olive oil and lemon

Chopped basil infused in olive oil and lemon

To get the Mediterranean aroma of basil to infuse into olive oil, I roughly chopped up a small handful of basil and added the olive oil and the juice of the lemon. I used honey, but if you don’t have this to hand, something sweet such as syrup or even marmalade is a great alternative. Using the pestle, this was roughly blended together with the whole grain mustard, mixed again until it was combined into a lovely mixture. I added some salt for seasoning, tasting it with my finger until it was right. The final ingredient added was the mini baby capers, which my eldest suggested as she liked them in salads.

The scent of rain

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image

Last evening as I walked home, the pavement was damp with the rain that had fallen earlier in the afternoon. The weekend had been hot and sunny, the warmest it has been for a while.

As I walked the scent of the rain was everywhere. It is such a wonderful scent and made the walk home all the more enjoyable. The smell evoked freshly cut grass and earthiness as if nature all around had finally burst through.

It seems that there’s a great deal of scientific study that’s been done on this subject.

Scientists in Australia first named it Petrichor, and they worked out that it is the blend of oils secreted by plants after a dry spell.  These oils, when released become mixed in the air and creates the smell that we associate with rain.

We have a screen of ferns, at the front of our house which in wetter years, grow amazingly tall. As I arrived home, I noticed the tiny beads of rain on the fronds. I’m glad that I managed to capture it.

This year, the fronds of the ferns have reached over the windowsill of our front window. I am grateful that they are so beautiful to look at, as they distract everyone from the sight of our windows which have not been painted since we moved in.image

Every year, without fail, the ferns grow back after they have died down in winter and even though, most years we forget and neglect them as they should be cut back once the frost has taken hold.  The fronds turn brown and brittle and lose the lush green of summer.  We usually don’t get round to cutting them back until it is almost spring, and then all the faults in our front windows become glaringly obvious. It is a surprise that they grow back so quickly after being so badly treated.

This year, I am determined to get a decorator to paint the windows, they are very old. We live in what is referred to as a 1930’s semi and the romantic in me wants to keep the leaded panes of glass, but they are now letting in water and urgently need attention.  Having an old house means there is a constant list of things that needs to be fixed.

But, just for a brief while, the rain and the luscious green fronds of these ferns have replaced the never ending to-do list and I am thinking about poetry, the verses of John  Betjeman about surburbia and the beautiful rain in Summer by Longfellow:

How beautiful is the rain!

After the dust and heat,

In the broad and firey street,

In the narrow lane,

How beautiful is the rain

Back to that never-ending to-do list…..

Peppermint & Citrus room spray

Posted in At Home, Fragrance by
Peppermint & Citrus room spray

Peppermint & Citrus essential oil room deodoriser

A few years ago, we had a downstairs cloakroom installed. It has been essential, in a house with young children. However, whilst useful, it does not have any windows, as it’s located beneath the stairs, a tiny room that was created from the broom/meter cupboard.

At times the air as you can imagine gets a little stale, even with the extractor fan on full!

There are a great many room scents available, but in a small enclosed space, I find the scent can be a little cloying, especially ones that are commercially made and created with synthetic fragrance.

If you have a spare 10 minutes and want to make your own, this is a very simple, but effective room scent receipe I have made from essential oils. It freshens without being overpowering.

Mitcham Peppermint oil is becoming a real favourite, the minty smell is both sweet and sharp. It really is like inhaling a peppermint sweet.

Mixing this with the citrusy scents of Bergamot and Lemon creates a refreshing scent that combats any whiffiness.

Ingredients:

100ml spray bottle – either new or one that has been cleaned out.

20ml vodka (used for dispersing/mixing the oils)

10ml vegetable glycerine (optional) used to help the oils disperse in water

70ml of distiller water

20 drops of Peppermint essential oil

20 drops of Lemon essential oil

10 drops of Bergamot essential oil

Put all the ingredients into the spray bottle, put the lid on and shake vigorously. That’s it.

The scent takes a couple of days to mature, if you think it isn’t strong enough or think it’s too peppermint or citrus, you can adjust it by adding in a few more drops of oil, whichever you want to get the scent you are after.

Mitcham Peppermint

Posted in At Home, Fragrance, Wellbeing by

Mint and Serendipity
Embed from Getty Images
A few weeks ago I decided to try and make home made skin cream. Embarking on this project was sparked by the idea for a family blog. If you are interested, it can be found here.

So having decided to make the skin cream, I ordered the ingredients I needed online. Since I had some peppermint essential oil, I discovered in a cupboard, I thought I would try making peppermint foot salve. You’ll find the recipe on the family blog if you are interested in making it.

The problem was that the peppermint oil was, well, past its shelf life. In fact the date on the bottle read 2008 and though it didn’t smell bad, I decided not to chance it and once again turned to Google to search online to find some peppermint oil.

The search resulted in a link to an intriguing description of Mitcham Peppermint essential oil.

Well, that was it, I had to order. Less than 3 miles from my house is the town of Mitcham.

When we moved to this area, we found out Lavender was farmed as a crop in nearby Carshalton. Apparently, the area isn’t just known for Lavender but Mitcham Peppermint. According to history books and information I found online, Mitcham and Peppermint goes way back, in fact back in time to a reference in a book written by Daniel Lysons called The Environs of London, written in 1792.

Wow, what a great bit of history about the area that I’ve discovered.

I’ve been using the footsalve for about 2 weeks now and all I can say is that it the texture feels indulgent and decadent. Best of all, the essential oils in the salve not only smell lovely, it has the effect of making my feet tingle. The sensation and scent of peppermint makes me smile, I look forward to kicking off my shoes and smoothing on the salve after a long commute home from work. History and indulgence, is this serendipity?

 

 

Hello world!

Posted in About, At Home, Family & Life, Fragrance by

Hello World

This is the first post from the Scented Abode, which is all about fragrance, aromas, anything really that provides inspiration for a home and life enjoyed through scents found in everyday things.

When people ask, “what’s your earliest memory?” 

All I could think of was that it was a sense of something, whilst it was very vivid to me, I found it impossible to describe, it was more of a sensation, a feeling that I remember as a very young child.

It wasn’t until much later, probably in my teens that I realised that it wasn’t a sensation or feeling, it was a scent that I associated with my home.

Outside the first house that I remember as a child, was a plant with white flowers. It climbed up the front of the house, I can’t remember exactly if it was a porch or just the drainpipe, but the flowery scent was so strong, it filled the air as I played outside.

Much later, while drinking a cup of Chinese leaf tea, it dawned on me, as I looked at the little white flowers bobbing in the mug, the scent took me back to the memory of playing outside our house.

It brought back the smell of the green plant with white flowers and I realised it must be Jasmine. It is and always will be a scent that brings familiarity and a sense of belonging to me.

Does that make sense? Perhaps I’m crazy. I’m hoping that there are a few people that can relate to what I’m writing about.

Please visit often. I hope to share different scents, discovered and enjoyed from childhood through to present day. Scents that have made a difference to me, my home, my kids and my family, whether they are small or significantly something that has changed my outlook, mood or simply something that’s just, well amazing.

I look forward to seeing you here.