A Day of Domesticity

It rained all day yesterday, starting with a soft mizzle before breakfast, working up through light drizzle to steady drizzle and then proper rain by teatime. It was nice to stay indoors and play catchup and I found myself back in my old winter-time routine of doing the ironing mountain whilst listening to the Archers Omnibus.

My middle daughter, G, was in a cooking mood. She wanted to make Quiche for to take for lunch during the next week. Many of my cookery books - they all usually prefixed "Country" or "Farmhouse" didn't have a quiche recipe, so we had to fall back on my original Margeurite Patten cookbook, and the quiche turned out really well. Then G made Chocolate Chip Muffins, messed up by mixing up two recipes side by side and so had to make a double batch to use up the double amount of sugar she'd added. What a hardship it will be to eat these! Just the thing for hungry returning-from-the-Festival appetites I think.

Now you know what she had for tea too!


Yummy muffins . . .


We were low on bread so I made an oaty loaf (everyone likes oaty bread - just wish I could get the flour in larger bags.) The only trouble is, half of it disappears before it has even cooled! When she came back from Uni this time, G couldn't believe how filling home-made bread is compared with the steamed bread from supermarkets, which you need half a loaf of to make the same impression as ONE slice of home made. I think she may even make her own bread when she returns to her Uni flat - she already makes her own pizza base, so this is a natural step . . . I am glad that both my girls think home-made from scratch is best. My son is good at bread-making too, and he will often do the kneading for me if I'm busy.



Today I have to collect T and J from the Green Man Festival at Usk, so I will be on the road all day. I intend to stop in Brecon on the way, and have a stroll round my favourite shops (again - we were there on Thursday, after dropping them off, but couldn't linger then). I have promised steak and chips for tea (they've been living on pot noodles all weekend as they are the lightest food to carry!), followed by Apple Dappy and custard. Apple Dappy is our favourite dessert - a real West Country rib-sticker - and is so tasty with the spices (ground cloves, cinnamon, etc.) I am pretty sure that the recipe is on my original Codlins and Cream blogspot, but I will put it up on here later.

Kim, who stayed with us last week, asked for some of my tried and tested recipes last week, so I shall put up a post when I have time. I have some standby recipes which we have so often they take little thought in the preparation, including various cobblers, savoury chicken, and other bung-it recipes which have stood the test of time.

>APPLE DAPPY

225gram/8 oz/2 cups Self-Raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

50g/2 oz margarine

150 ml / 1/4 pint / 5 fl ozs milk

450g/ 1 pound/ 2 v. large cooking apples

1 tablespoon Demerara sugar

½ level teaspoon each of cinnamon, ground cloves, ground nutmeg (or 1 teaspoon mixed spice)

Syrup:

1 lemon or a little lemon essence

1 tablespoon golden syrup

15g/ ½ oz margarine

100g/ 4 oz sugar

200 ml/ 7 fl oz water

Make the syrup first. Peel a fine strip of lemon rind and squeeze the juice from the lemon. Put rind, juice and all other syrup ingredients into a pan and stir over a gentle heat until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and leave in pan until needed.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Rub in margarine. Mix to a dough with the milk. Roll out on a floured board to a rectangle about 20 x 13cm (8 x 5 inches) and 7mm/ ¼ inch thick.

Peel, core and chop apples. Spread them on pastry. Mix sugar and spices together and sprinkle over apple. Roll up pastry and apple like a Swiss roll. Then cut into slices about 2.5 cm/ 1 inh thick.

10. Grease an ovenproof dish and lay slices flat in it. Remove lemon rind from syrup and pour over the apple slices. Bake in a moderately hot oven: :Gas 6, 375 degrees F, 190 degrees C, for about 30 minutes. Serve with cream or custard.