Elderflowers are out

Terence and myself were out hiking on Sunday near Galbally and some of the Elder trees were in full bloom - luckily for me I had a box in the car so we started collecting the flowers...and when coming home, I was lucky again as I had enough sugar, lemons and citric acid to make a batch of elderflower cordial.....the smell in the kitchen was amazing after I added the flowers to the sugar syrup....the next day I strained the mixture and bottled it nicely. Half a bottle is already gone - just love the taste of summer....and my Sunday breakfast is sorted now as well as I got a bottle of prosecco in the fridge.....what better way of starting a lazy Sunday but with elderflower prosecco

Dandelion Preserves

The other night I was watching the River Cottage and that gave me an idea to make use of the vast amount of dandelions I have in my garden (yes, I know it is a weed and should be removed but the lawnmower broke down and I didn't have a chance to cut the grass - I swear). I collected the flowers (do it when the sun is out as they close the heads when the sun is gone) - leaving the blemished ones behind for the lawnmower. Soaked them in cold water for 24 hours.

The next day I rinsed them and put them in a pot with a few slices of lemons, poured boiling water over and kept it on the boil for about 15 mins. The water turned a lovely golden yellow colour. I drained the flowers, reserving the water. Poured the water back into the pan and added jam sugar, kept it boiling until the water turned a deep amber golden colour - made the setting test and poured it in sterilised jars. The colour is really amazing and the taste is sweet but summery..... I will never look at dandelions the same way..... Find more dandelion recipes here

Some things you might not have known about dandelions:

1. It is the official flower of the University of Rochester
2. Dandelions have a high level of potassium
3. Its taproot will add nitrogen to soil (important for gardeners)
4. The roasted, ground roots can be used as a caffeine-free dandelion coffee.
5. Dandelion leaves contain abundant amounts of vitamins especially Vitamins A, C and K

My Baking Marathon

After Shaking our apple tree I ended up with a basket full of apples. And since Brown Thomas already opened up their Christmas Shop at the end of August, I decided to make mincemeat so that I am prepared when the first orders for mince pies are coming in (they are the yummiest). And since it would have been a sin not to make apple pie, I decided to make a deep one and ended of course up with to much pastry to jam tarts joined the parade. For some reason I also fancied to make chocolate brownies...you can never have too many brownies...or can you?? And all this baking makes of course hungry so I made a mushroom quiche for lunch....and after this, I had to take a big break in the sunny garden and enjoyed a well deserved Barbera del Monferrato Minola 2003...This wine is produced using traditional methods and the grapes are grown in a biodynamic way. the colour is at first almost a dirty red but when opened abit, settles to a nice rich brownish colour. The taste is almost smokey but with rich fruit flavour at the same time....you can imagine that the rest of the day was spent in idle sweet nothing...