Just Humans Being...

It was our wedding anniversary yesterday and after returning from our pet sit in Devon, then catching up with work for a couple of days - we fancied just being at home, pottering about, making food and preparing our car for it's MOT this morning. We don't really need an official day to celebrate our relationship, we just find it quite funny that time is flying by and it's actually 36 years now since we made that commitment to each other. Anyway, our car "Earl" passed it's MOT early this morning and on the spur of the moment; we decided that that was definitely worth celebrating, especially as it was another beautiful day and we just so happened to be a couple of miles from Coverack, somewhere we hadn't visited for some time. While Earl was in Zoar garage, we treated ourselves to a vegan breakfast bap each from The Bus Stop takeaway, which is in the grounds of the garage. Sarah, the owner is really friendly and it's nice to be reacquainted with her and ...

After many years of bread making, I have finally learned (thanks to Sara at Cotna Eco Retreat ) how to make sourdough this year - using a wonderful old starter made from organic rye flour and pure spring water. As usual, I've tweaked the original bread recipe just because I like to make things simple and we both prefer denser breads.  ♥ Scroll down for the recipe ♥ Feeding the starter. I keep the starter in the fridge until ready to use, then add organic rye flour and warm water. This is how it looks when mixed in... And this is after around 8 hours. The starter gets added to the other bread ingredients and forms the dough.  I use Shipton Mill organic flours and mix it up for variety. Our favourites are stoneground wholemeal, extra coarse wholemeal, wholemeal spelt, light malthouse and dark rye. This is how it looks after being left usually overnight. I line the banneton (proofing basket) I like to use polenta and sesame seeds,...

We are loving our new little place and are feeling very much at home... We gave away our juicer to a lovely friend, as our new kitchen is quite small. We do have a Nutribullet too, which is easier to clean and we start each day with a smoothie. These are pineapple, banana, kale, goji berry, pumpkin seeds, turmeric and spirulina. We add a mix of water and home made milk to the ingredients. Delicious! We have been reunited with our milk maker (which was buried in the jam room at Meadowcroft).  It's great making all sorts of milks again...  And the pulp goes into our porridge! This one is brown rice and almond. Porridge!!! Oats with hemp protein powder, chia seeds, ground flax seeds, rose hips, banana, apple, blueberries and water. Topped with milk, cinnamon, ginger and real Canadian maple syrup... Courtesy of our beautiful friend, Richard - who brings it over from Canada every year!!! ♥ An organic veggie feast - we are still g...

I'm not sure whether we really save money on making our own bread... But we do prefer it & on the odd occasion when we've had shop bought bread - we realise just how good ours is! Through years of trial & error, a bread machine & bloody hard work, we've found for us the perfect combination of simple ingredients that work every time. It has to be  Shipton Mill  flour. We order an assortment in bulk every few months. For 2 small loaves we use 1 kg strong flour. (We love quite coarse flours or spelt)  We also chuck in a handful or two of seeds... Add 3 teaspoons of sea salt. 1/2 teaspoon of rose hip powder. 20g fresh yeast just crumbled into the flour or 3 teaspoons of dried yeast... And 700mls of warm water. We add the water slowly & stir with a metal spoon... Then knead the dough for about 10 minutes & leave to rise (covered with a damp tea towel) for 1 to 3 hours, depending on the warmth of the kitchen! This is after 2 hours in our cold kitchen...