This morning – given that low-lying fog had scuppered our plans to go to the beach – the Minx and I made essential preparations for our forthcoming camping trip into the wilderness. These choco-chip muffins come courtesy of that seminal work, Usborne’s Farmyard Tales Children’s Cookbook.
This was actually our first time ever making muffins. I suspect it won’t be the last.
Preparations are underway for what is rapidly becoming our traditional party to celebrate ‘America’s birthday’ (which is how we explain things to the Minx) or Britain’s liberation from the US depending on your perspective.
This year I’ll try and stay sober enough to take a few pics. This is the only one from last year which wasn’t fatally blurred.
Here’s what is left of my new BFF dessert, culled from the pages of Nigella Express, my new BFF cookbook.
Much as Nigella drives me completely up the wall, Nigella Express really is chock full of recipes which are delicious, a bit different, and very quick and easy to prepare as long as you’ve got the ingredients in the house.
For the above, smash up 125g of digestives or any plain buttery biscuit/cookie in a food processor (I used some LU Marie Lu biscuits with some extra shortbread thrown in for good measure). Add about 50g of softened butter, and continue whizzing until the mixture amalgamates. Press the crumb base into a 20cm spring form tin.
Then whip up 300g of cream cheese, a bit of vanilla and a squeeze of lemon juice with 60g of icing sugar. Whisk up a cup (250 ml) of double (heavy) cream in a separate bowl and fold it into the cheese mixture. Then spoon it over the biscuit base, smooth it with a spatula and chill it over night.
Et voila – took me 20 mins tops. When you come to serve it, spoon a good cherry conserve over the top (Nigella uses St Dalfour Black Cherry, we used Bonne Maman Cherry Preserves) and watch the gluttony begin.
So last Saturday we just hung out in the nabe.
Watched naked people cycle past.
Went for ice cream at the new and very fabulous Molly Moon’s (had the balsamic strawberry which was extremely delicious and the salted caramel which was too salty).
And then came home to watch the setting sun bounce off the downtown buildings from the deck.
I’m so glad we moved to this part of Seattle.
Speaking of which, very long time readers may remember me blogging ages ago about Matt whose videos of him dancing all over the world are some of the most watched on You Tube. What I didn’t know then is that Matt lives in Seattle and always finishes his videos by dancing near a Seattle landmark (the 2006 video finishes at the Troll which is also just around the corner). The final scene of his latest effort was filmed in Gasworks Park, which is just on the other side of the trees which you can see at the bottom of the picture above.
Unfortunately I found out about the filming a couple of days too late (via the new and very excellent Wallingford Seattle Blog) or else the Minx and I would have been there with bells on (in the figurative sense of course).
Watch the new video and be strangely moved. And look out for the very nice colourful houses in Buenos Aires.
So, you’re Posh Spice and you’re off for lunch at New York’s latest powerhouse restaurant Lever House, where a whole brigade of chefs is ready to tantalize your tastebuds with exquisite morsels.
So apparently, according to fashion blog Fashion Addict Diary you order
– a mixed green salad with balsamic vinegar
– steamed veggies
– a fruit plate
– sparkling mineral water
We were invited to our first barbecue of the summer over the weekend and I decided to take some chocolate brownies, as it’s been far too long since I made them.
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The best brownie recipe in the world is from Green & Blacks Chocolate Recipes.
The addition of dried cherries takes these into a different orbit of deliciousness. I sprinkled some chocolate chips onto the finished brownie when it had just come out of the oven and pressed them in with a spatula – er, just because they weren’t chocolate-y or fattening enough.
They turned out great, despite the Minx ‘helping’ out in her usual inimitable style.
I mention these because I was going to bring some to tonight’s Lab, but apparently can’t because of pesky health & safety regs. But do come along anyway and ponder what might have been…
I need to think of an acceptable giveaway. Megan Not Martha has set the bar horribly high and I hear that Mary T from Shelterriffic will be bringing along a new design classic. Also speaking is the delightfully scary Miz Decorno herself. All details here.
It’s funny how important the ‘old country’s’ food traditions become when you move abroad. Hot cross buns are now available all year round in England and are no longer such a big deal – though I still remember fondly feasting on hot cross buns for breakfast on Good Friday morning and being excited because my father was home on a Friday (Good Friday is a public holiday in the UK).
But here they scarce as hens’ teeth and need to be sought out even at Easter time. And even when you can get them, they’re somewhat spoilt by having an cross piped on them in white icing. Which is OK as far as it goes but means you miss out on the essential splendour of toasting the buns and serving them oozing with butter. They’re supposed to be hot. (The clue is in the name).
So yesterday the Minx and I set to work. Having had only mediocre success with the usually reliable Delia in the past, I used this recipe from the BBC website which came highly recommended by some food blog or other (I’m sorry I can’t remember which).
And then I came across my usual raft of translation issues.
I couldn’t find a source of fresh yeast (a big fat boo to the Essential Baking Company – I’m not linking to them – who refused to sell me any) so substituted one of those little sachets which seemed to work fine.
‘Mixed spice’ is a unknown quantity here. I had to look that up on the Internet, to find that it’s a mixture of cinnamon and nutmeg with possibly some cloves and ginger. So that could be recreated.
Mixed peel, however, was impossible to track down. Chopped, candied citrus peel turns up in all sorts of British home baking and is traditional in hot cross buns, even though the slightly bitter flavour is disliked by many and the peel if often picked out.
But who knew? I made the buns without and although they tasted wonderful that slightly bitter edge was definitely missed.
I followed the recipe and piped on crosses of flour and water paste which are then baked in the oven so they form an integral part of the bun. And then we gobbled them up, hot from the oven, with plenty of butter. Although the Minx proved how American she has become by requesting a ‘cold crossed bun’ sic.
It's funny the things you end up missing as an expat. Who would have imagined that glace cherries would be among them? But I haven't been able to find those ridiculously sweet and sugary candied fruits in US supermarkets, until a few weeks ago when I found a pot in DeLaurenti, Seattle's legendary Italian deli.
So the Minx and I set to with a will to make Nigella's Cherry Almond Loaf Cake from How To Be A Domestic Goddess, mostly so that the Minx would get to experience that quintessentially British childhood cooking experience of shoving as many sickly sweet and sticky cherries into her gob as humanly possible. It is no coincidence that Jane Brocket from Yarnstorm's new book on classic childhood cooking will be entitled Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer.
Note that my precious cherries were of the traditional lipstick scarlet variety and probably full of unmentionable additives. Nigella suggests using the more natural dark red ones, and yes, Nigella, I would if I could.
Cooking from a UK book in the US is not without its challenges. You will notice that UK books use metric measurements instead of cup measures (to which I have become entirely converted since living here). So I first had to fiddle with my scales to stop them weighing in pounds and ounces. (The hyperlinked recipe above gives quantities in cup measures, presumably from the US version of HTBADG).
Self-raising flour also doesn't exist in the US, so I had to refer to the Internets to find out how to make it from plain flour (add 1tsp of baking powder to every 125g/4oz of flour according to Good Housekeeping). And then I had to use the Internets again to find out how to convert centigrade temperatures to Fahrenheits. Can someone somewhere please unify all these measures immediately? It really is doing my head in.
But the resulting cake is one of those quietly delicious cakes that you appreciate much more in adulthood. I had to add a brown sugar crust (not exactly a hardship) to appease the Minx's disgust at the lack of 'sprinkles'. And yes, the cherries did sink towards the bottom of the cake, as is only traditional and right.
A bowl of linguine alle vongole from Nigel Slater’s The Kitchen Diaries (the clams in this part of the world are so good and so cheap).
A bar of Green & Black’s Almond chocolate (if you couldn’t get this in Seattle I would have returned to the UK by now).
The definitive BBC version of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle (the perfect Lizzie Bennett, eat your heart out Keira Knightley) on the telly.
Some knitting.
No, I’ve not exactly become American quite yet.
