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Mango and Cherry Loaf

Posted in At home, baking, Food, Home, inspiration, lifestyle by
Mango and Cherry Loaf

Mango and Cherry Loaf

We usually make this lovely cake with over ripe bananas. However, as we had an over ripe Mango, which no one was too keen on, I thought it would be good to try using the banana and apricot recipe rather than throw it away.

Having rummaged around in our cupboard, I discovered we were out of dried apricots, but we did have some dried figs, prunes and a tub of glacé morello cherries.

Mango and Morello Cherry

Over ripe Mango and morello cherries found in our cupboard

Since cherries would give the loaf some colour, I decided it would do rather than go and get some dried apricots. I like the idea of using what’s in a cupboard and experimenting more than sticking rigidly to a recipe. This is by far the best way of discovering something new and tasty.

By the time I had assembled the ingredients, my eldest appeared in the kitchen and decided to help with the baking. I was smiling since a few days ago I’d written a post about Google search trends, the British Bake off and that I would have to get my kids to help me with some baking.

There was no need to ask, baking is, next to Minecraft something that my eldest enjoys.

Based on the recipe from the River Cottage Family Cookbook, this loaf is very simple to make, there are no whisks or electrical appliances involved, just a spoon and some elbow grease.

Cream the sugar and butter together (Prior to this I had accidentally put flour into the bowl and had to separate the flour from the butter as I had been distracted by my daughter peeling the skin from the over ripe Mango and mashing it up with a fork).

Add the 2 eggs and beat until mixed together.

Add chopped morello cherries.

Add the grated zest of 1 lemon (we used half a lemon zest and all the zest of a small lime)

Add the mashed mango (or over ripe mashed bananas as in the original recipe instead) and add to the mix.

Mashed Mango for baking

Mashed overipe Mango

Gently fold in the self-raising flour.

Pour into a loaf tin which has been lined with a large loaf tin case, I like this as it’s easier to clean the loaf tin afterwards. It also means I don’t need to butter the tin.

Bake in a pre-heated oven for 50-60 minutes on 160c/Gas Mark 3 (Check around 50 minutes, put a knife/skewer through the middle and if it comes out clean, then it’s ready)

The lovely scent of the baking and the mango and cherry filled the kitchen and our living room and this got the attention of both my hubby and youngest who wanted to know when it would be ready to eat.

Unfortunately, they needed a bit of patience as once it was removed from the oven, it needed to cool on a baking rack before it can be enjoyed.

As the loaf was baked just before tea-time on Saturday, it was perfect to serve as our dessert. We usually find that although the loaf will keep for a few days, it never usually lasts longer than a day because it gets eaten as snack.

I think this recipe made with Mango and Cherry makes a lovely alternative to the bananas and apricot version.

Softened butter with eggs and sugar

Soften Sugar and Butter and beat the eggs

For the reciepe:

Dried apricots (squidgy ones) or Morello Cherries 75g

Saltanas 75g (we didn’t have any so used more cherries)

1 Lemon

Unsalted butter, 100g soft but not melted

Caster Sugar 125g

2 large (free range) eggs

3 large ripe bananas (we used a large mango)

Self raising flour 200g

Loaf tin measuring about 13 x 23 x 7 cm

Do let me know if you’re looking forward to watching the Great British Bake-off.

Soften Sugar and Butter and beat the eggs
Over ripe cherry and morello cherries found in our cupboard
Mashed overipe Mango
Mango and Morello Cherry cake batter
Tin loaf cases
Cake batter in loaf tin
Mango and Morello Cherry in loaf tin
Slices of Mango and Morello Cherry loaf
Original recipe for Banana Loaf cake
The River Cottage Family Cookbook

English Garden Mint and Iced Tea

Posted in At home, Drink, Food, Home, Uncategorized by
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, Food, Health & Wellness, Home, 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 Food, Health & Wellness, Home 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 Family, Food, Home 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.

Mitcham Peppermint

Posted in Home, Scent, 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, Family, Home, Scent 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.