Sunday 14 September 2008

Hello? Is There Anyone There?

Non-UK residents will no doubt be aware, but pleased to be joyously informed once more, that this weekend in England it has mostly been SUNNY AND WARM. Perfectly autumnal in my opinion and I have already seen a profusion of happy gardening reports as that is where most of us have been these last two days.

The Marmalade household is no exception.

There was a lorralorra pruning to do

There were a lorralorra snails

and more snails - beautiful but savage

fading beauty everywhere

and a lorralorraLORRA Spiders !


Lunch was Allotment soup with gluten free bread. I was inspired by Florence's recipe for marrow soup. I had never thought to put Cumin with Courgettes. I did. Plus some dried coriander powder. Yum Yum. It was deeeelish.


I don't have a wheat problem, but I do like gluten free bread made with Doves Farm g/f bread flour. Here's my recipe, it's easy peasy:

450g g/f bread flour
12 fl oz milk (i use soy milk)
1 tbsp sugar or honey (if you use sweetened soy milk don't bother with the sugar)
1 tsp salt
60g sunflower oil
1tsp vinegar
1 sachet of easybake yeast (7g) or 2 tsp yeast
2 large eggs

Method: Warm your milk (and sugar if using) to tepid in a large jug, and add the yeast. Leave to one side in order for yeast to disolve and foam. Meanwhile, measure flour into a large bowl and add salt. When yeast has frothed in the jug, and mix in the oil, eggs, and the vinegar with an electric whisk. Pour this mixture into the flour/salt, stir well with a spoon - it will be a bit like a muffin mix, and empty into a lined 2lb loaf tin. Smooth out with the back of a wet spoon or a wet palette knife and leave to rise in a warm place for 30 or so mins. When it looks risen enough, bake in an oven at 220 (electric) for about 40 mins. Remove from tin, put back in oven for a further 10 mins to crisp the sides. Serve hot with fresh soup and butter.

9 comments:

angharad handmade said...

Cute chicken pic! Hasn't it been a glorious weekend! We have been hunting down some voracious caterpillars today, which had been destroying our plants. The snails don't seem to be too problematic as they seem to gravitate towards the compost heap rather than the plants! Hope you enjoyed the sunshine x

Anonymous said...

re. Toby Buckland
OMG I'd forgotten about tickling the soil!!!

Ali said...

I love the idea of Allotment Soup.

It felt so good feeling the sun on my back for a brief moment this afternoon.

Gina said...

It's been a beautiful weekend - wish I could have come for lunch. I like the sound of allotment soup and that bread!

dottycookie said...

We've been making the most of the weather too - we were at a party on Saturday night and all horrified that that had been the first chance to sit out after dark since July!

Yummy soup and bread. We make lots of bread here too!

Mrs Jelly said...

Warm and Sunny? When?
I missed that!
Stuck in my sewing room with NO WINDOWS!

Kitty said...

My daughter LOVES snails - has kept several as pets. I think she's growing out of it now, but I was always astonished at how beautiful some of the shells were.

The sunshine was wonderful wasn't it?

x

Mrs Moog said...

We had a lovely allotment soup yesterday too. I bunged in a pack of broken chinese noodles at the end and it was gorgeous. Moogsdad had two bowls even though it was healthy!!

Good to see the chickies out and about. Our girls helped with a bit of gardening yesterday. They ate so many worms and creepy crawlies they could barely move!

xxx

Mary-Laure said...

I love love LOVE your flower and snail pictures, they're so alive and fresh!