When a recipe calls for wholefood it reminds me of my mum who went through a phase of being a bit of a wholefood nut. Wholesome, nourishing food that looks brown and had the texture of sawdust. Obviously things in food have come a long way over the years and this is a recipe for Date and Orange Muffins you can take whole food to a new level. Hold onto your apron because you are going to use a whole orange in this recipe. Actually, it’s two whole oranges.
This is my kind of cooking. A true gather, whizz and mix up recipe. The fact that you end up with a mountain of sweet and moist muffins is just a bonus.
With MT away in Sydney living it up at a conference, Fortnum is at home whistling at doorways looking for his master. An impromptu portrait session on a walk on Sunday was the perfect opportunity for Big Basset to be right up front. Little basset was a little less co-operative and to be frank refused to play along. His loss!
As I stepped into the kitchen garden this weekend it was like being transported to a different world. A place of minor miracles everywhere you look. I still can’t get my head around the fact that I can grow food. Food we eat and enjoy. Food that started by me fumbling with packets of seeds and crossing my fingers that my efforts would not be in vain.
I munched my way around the beds pulling out the occasional weed but otherwise marvelling at what nature has produced for us to eat.
When you’re toiling away outside there is nothing more refreshing that a lemon squash drink break. Brought up on Robinson’s Lemon Barley I didn’t think anything could take it’s place. That is until I tasted Lavendersgreen lemon cordial made just over the hill in Featherstone. This marvellous juice is mighty pricey though so I decided we should try and make our own.
Although we don’t grow lemons yet I have plans for cistrus crops when my dream for a glasshouse comes true. I used the Lemon Squash recipe from the River Cottage Handbook on preserves. It takes a bit of time to do but the results are outstanding and every bit as good if not better. Although those in the northern hemisphere reading this blog might think this is a summer drink hold on – this would be wonderful made with hot water with a touch of ginger or honey or a little medicinal whiskey.
Go on, I know you want to give it a go!
The views from Petone Beach on Saturday were true blue. There were just a few wispy clouds in the sky but otherwise I was surrounded pretty much by blue. It made such a change from the gray blue we’ve been living with for a week or so. Since I was heading south I decided to make a quick photo stop at the beach and take a walk along the Wharf. Last time I took my camera to Petone it was also a beautiful day.
It’s not a pretty beach but it’s a wonderful place to see all of Wellington harbour. You can marvel at the surrounding hills or stare across to the city itself perched on the hillside.
I rest my case with Little Basset. He has been eyeing up the new garden bed every since the landscapers arrived. For a dog that loves soft sand and soil it’s like his birthday and Christmas has arrived all on one day. The fact that the bed is raised and he can think he is above all of us on higher ground just reinforces his small dog syndrome and his ambitions to be top dog around here.
As the one and only leader of the pack, I’m pretty chuffed with the new arrangements out front too. Rather like we might be close to having a front garden instead of piles of mulch and weeds spoiling the garden effect. 2 years and 4 months after we moved in I can now declare our front garden landscaping over.
The first thing I was taught to cook at school was Shortbread. I remember how mine made a wonderful frizzbee when it was finished it was so hard but beautifully shaped. That experience has always made me slightly reluctant to repeat the experience. I tend to skip over recipes that say shortbread or shortcake as they bring those memories of domestic science disasters crashing back.
But with a growing patch of rhubarb and one last punnet of strawberries in the fridge this was the perfect recipe to try. Even if the mention of “short” in the title did make my palms sweat a little. But how could I resist baking something that is described as “one of the glories of the New Zealand home kitchen”. Let me tell you, this was indeed glorious.
When I think of cycle racing it’s not the Tour de France that sticks in my mind. Not that I don’t turn into a cycling freak for three weeks a year. No, my favourite memories of cycling are watching the Milk Race cyclists zooming over Cheney Hill, Nr Newport, Shropshire a short ride from home on my own two wheeler. These were the days of chopper bikes, and a time when kids were free to roam the lanes of the village to watch the cyclists on racing bikes go through our village.
It was like a step back in time at the end of January when I could once again enjoy a professional cycle race speed through my village. Things have come along way in cycling since the 1970s but what doesn’t change is the thrill of the chase and the pain of those uphill climbs.
Being a stranger in a foreign land can be a lonely place. I started this blog to share what our new life was like with family and friends. Little did I know then that I’d have 1001 things to say. But indeed I have. This is my 1001 Domestic Executive post and it feels like quite a milestone.
My first 1000 posts have been about hopes and dreams, reflections of the past and quite a lot of bragging about new and exciting things. I’ve moaned a great deal about the weather, strange kiwi ways, the trials about building a house and how I feel when things just don’t go my way. This blog has been my pipeline to people who matter most to me and although the conversation can be a little one sided I take comfort in the knowledge that there are people checking up on me.
The magic of digital photography processing is a little like cooking without a recipe. Letting your creativity go wild. I wish I could say I’ve come close to getting to grips with the processing of photographic files. It’s a bewildering range of tweaks and twiddles and that’s before you get started on all the special treatments you can give to.
Don’t get me started on design layouts. That’s a whole other industry albeit one that’s a but easier to learn than basic processing. I’m trying to learn new basics every week so you can expect to see some strange goings on here at Domestic Executive HQ.
