Claire | Things we make

Browsing All Posts filed under »Claire«

FFTO Baking Challenge – November

November 28, 2009

The Fresh From The Oven (FFTO) Challenge for November was set by ‘Goodshoeday” from with knife and fork blog. It is a White Tin Loaf that uses Dan Lepard’s kneading method and has milk in the recipe to keep it soft and slightly sweet. It was quite a nice challenge to have as although the bread […]

Snowdon or Bust

November 25, 2009

In the Summer we had a lovely camping trip to Wales, though even as we drove home we were hankering to go back. We have visited Snowdonia many times before but we felt that there were more things that we wanted to do. So as soon as we got home we booked a cottage for […]

Pizza’s for Pudsey

November 12, 2009

Our local Artisan Bakery is The Loaf, in Crich. This week they held a charity ‘Pizzas for Pudsey’ evening in aid of the BBC’s Children in Need. Andrew and Roger were busy planning for the event so I pitched in to help out with a bit of inspiration for the topping of the cakes. The […]

Sunday Walkies

November 8, 2009

It took George and I until lunch time to get dressed and out for a walk today. That’s Sundays for you. When we finally got out the sun was shining, the trees were Autumnal and the dogster was champing at the bit. We saw some lovely toadstools and mushrooms on the way George did warn […]

Bread Bowls

October 28, 2009

My second challenge for the Fresh From the Oven Bread Baking Group was something I had seen in Richard Bertinet’s book: Soup Bowls made of bread dough. He had the idea after getting an indian takeaway and thinking how unappetising it looked in the plastic trays. Corry of Bake it Off has taken Richard’s recipe […]

Food Photography Workshop

October 24, 2009

Yesterday I travelled down to London to the Scandinavian Kitchen to a photography workshop run by Chris Windsor and organised by Helen from a Forkful of Spaghetti. Arranging for someone to pick up George from school was the main bit of planning that I had to do, along with charging camera batteries and packing a […]

Spooky Stuff

October 21, 2009

Here is a little early Halloweenish post for you… Last Friday was our annual Ambergate School Spooky Disco. It was a bit earlier than normal, it is usually closer to Halloween, but double bookings and half term got in the way. The Friends of Ambergate Team organise it as a social event for all the […]

Bagels Schmagels

October 15, 2009

George is off poorly today and we are stuck in the house, so it seemed a good day to post about hot chewy bagels. I adapted this recipe from a BBC one. It’s a good thing to make on a rainy afternoon and makes you feel very accomplished when they come out of the oven. […]

Two Experiments and a Competition

October 7, 2009

I made a fairly ordinary meal last night of sausage and mash, but had a hankering to experiment a bit on the side. I had seen a photograph on Foodgawker of Hasselback potatoes on a blog called Seasaltwithfood and wanted to try them. So in addition to a mountain of fluffy mashed potato (I always […]

Fresh from the Oven – Curry Stuffed Buns

September 28, 2009

I have recently joined a group called ‘Fresh From the Oven’ which is a monthly bread baking group. In essence the group has a monthly challenge to all bake their version of a given bready recipe. This months challenge was curry stuffed buns. I made them really early in the month and have been desperate to post this […]

Cupcakes again!

September 27, 2009

We have had another busy Weekend of enjoyable tasks. I’ve been baking cakes and Ed has been building a deck, whilst George has been playing with friends and helping out whenever he fancies, so everyone is happy. Our Friends Katie and Adam have 2 lovely little twin girls Evie and Nell, and a boy called […]

Chutney 2009

September 16, 2009

2008’s Courgette Chutney, made by Ed, was a resounding success. We ate plenty of it ourselves and also gave some to friends and all agreed it was really quite good. A good dollop with cheese on toast or with crusty bread and ham was always welcome. We even ran out before Summer, so this year […]

Monday is Risotto Night

September 7, 2009

As you may have read from earlier post, we often have risotto on a Monday. If there is meat left from the Sunday roast I will concoct a pie or some sort of crispy meat dish, but this Weekend was a bit topsy turvy and we had our Sunday Roast on Friday. The leftover roast chicken […]

Bank Holiday Clearance

September 1, 2009

A lot of this Weekend has been spent having a big clear up in the garden. After Ed’s excavations we had a couple of tons of rocks, stone and dirt to get rid of. It was stopping me getting to the compost heap so composting had slowed down recently. Not so much a hot compost heap, but […]

Frosted Cup Cakes

August 27, 2009

Here are some tangy orange and lemon cupcakes. The frosted topping has Philadelphia Cream Cheese with a syrup of super reduced orange and lemon juice whisked in. I love it when a recipe works out at just the right quantity to fill a dozen good deep muffin cases. Ernie, our Border Terrier is always very interested when I […]

New Urban Farmer Recipes

August 25, 2009

Here is a delicious lunch that I had this week. It is a recipe from Celia Brooks Brown’s upcoming book The New Urban Farmer. They are Pea and Feta egg cups that include fragrant fresh mint out of the garden. They are really quick and satisfying to make as they puff up in a muffin tray in minutes. They […]

Absence makes the garden grow faster

August 21, 2009

We got back from 5 days away on Monday and had a great time camping in Snowdonia. I always love getting home though, not only do I miss home itself, but it’s always good to see what the garden has been up to. When we got back from our holiday last year we were surprised to find that […]

Courgette Flowers

August 12, 2009

I’ve got so much to do today as we are off camping in North Wales, so I shouldn’t really be posting about stuffing courgettes. That said our very cute Border Terrier Ernie is snuggled on my lap and tea is mashing in the pot so I have a few moments to spare before the chores begin. Our friends […]

Alliums for the chop

August 10, 2009

Finally we have had a Weekend with 2 days of sunshine. It’s been the first chance to get the onions, garlic and shallots out of the ground and allow them to dry in the sun rather than dragging muddy bulbs into the kitchen. I was also spurred into action on reading the MTP Blog. I […]