29 November 2016

KITCHEN : LIGHT AND BRIGHT

Sometimes when the day is a bit dull because the weather is awful and the skies are full of much rain and I'm thinking I wish we were on holiday in a sunny part of the world.... it's then that I have a reality check and realise how lucky we are to live in this house, whatever the weather.  


We have achieved so much with our home. 
We bought it knowing that it needed updating and renovating

The room that I favour most, has to be the kitchen. 
It's a room that we all naturally gravitate towards, 
whether it be to sit and read a book or listen to music or to make and eat food.  
It has an advantage that it's always filled with natural light (even on the darkest of days) - north, south dual aspect windows  
enhanced by any light bouncing off the white painted walls.  

 

I like to remind myself of what the room looked like when we arrived......

BEFORE


BEFORE


It's changed a lot!!

16 November 2016

WINDFALLS FROM THE ORCHARD

It's still very Autumnal here
Leaves are slowly leaving their branches
and we're collecting numerous 'windfalls' from the orchard.

 
 


One particular tree has some lovely juicy red cooking apples.
We can't eat them quick enough before more fall. It's difficult to decide what to make with them as we have apples 'coming out of our ears', 


 but today I made three small upside-down toffee apple puddings.



They are perfect for a Autumn pudding and delicious with a dollop of crème fraîche.

Here's the gorgeous recipe -
 Instead of making three little cakes as I did, 
you can combine all the ingredients to make one larger size which shows off 
the pretty fan shaped apples.

Serves 6- 8
topping
75g (3oz) light muscovado sugar
50g (20z) butter
 
3 red dessert or cooking apples, core removed and thinly sliced

sponge 
100g (4oz) butter
100g (4oz) caster sugar
2 eggs
175g (6oz) self-raising flour plus 1tsp baking powder
zest of 1 small lemon

Grease a 20cm (8") deep cake tin and line the base. 

Measure the ingredients for the topping into a pan.  
Place on low heat, stir until just melted and pour into the prepared tin.  
Lay apple slices in a spiral on top.

Measure the ingredients for the sponge together into a bowl, beat until smooth.  
Spoon over the apple (the mixture is fairly stiff) and spread out evenly to cover.
Bake in a preheated oven 180C/160CFan/Gas 4 for about 40 - 45 minutes.
Leave to cool for a couple of minutes in the tin.
 Invert onto a serving plate, 
remove the paper and serve warm with custard, cream or crème fraîche.

Taken from Lucy Young - Aga Easy