A wet cold Sunday afternoon so baking was one way of staying warm indoors. My d.Aisling had a hen/kitchen party recently as she is getting married next Friday to her partner Nigel,her future mother in law Ena gave her a loaf tin among other things and at the time I thought that is a waste as Aisling does not bake apart from some rice krispie cakes. Ena makes a pot cake which is a family tradition and has often passed some on to Aisling which I have sampled.Ena also gave the recipe to her, being very optimistic I thought, but a wet Sunday afternoon did the trick! Aisling made the potcake and it turned out so well the first one was eaten before she thought of taking photos....so she made a second one!
Ena's Potcake1 mug of fruit
1 mug of water
1/3 mug of sugar
2 oz margarine
1 egg
2 mugs of self raising flour
Put the fruit, sugar, water and margarine into a pot. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for at least 30 mins, stirring often. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Add the egg and flour, stir until well mixed. Add mixture to a greased loaf tin. Bake in a cool oven (gas 3) for approx 1 1/2 hrs.
The smell around the kitchen while it is cooking is divine.The cake cooling out of the tin
The finished cake is moist and tasty.We usually spread butter on it to eat it, it could be a cross between a brack or a cake, whatever it is delicious.
I had also started baking in my house and made sausage rolls and my first batch of mince pies this year.I use mince in a jar as I never think of making my own in time to have it for Christmas.I used Catherine's pastry as usual from
Dispatches from the Deise8ozs Self raising flour
4ozs butter/margarine
1oz icing sugar
1egg & enough milk to bind dough
When making savoury recipe as in sausage rolls I leave out the sugar and use a pinch of salt.It is light melt in the mouth pastry
This was all very labour saving baking. I use sausages, I skin them as I was taught in school many moons ago. Slit the skin of the sausage and put into boiling water for a couple of minutes and the skin just peels off.I also use a dried stuffing mix , made up and mixed through the sausage meat.Lay mixture out on a strip of pastry, dampen one long edge with water and roll up with the join underneath.
Cut into whatever size you like, brush with milk or beaten egg and put a couple of slits in the top
I made mince pies using the sweet version of the pastry,I was not partaking in Guinness while baking but I know this pint glass is the ideal size to cut out the pastry bases for this tray!When my late Mother was baking she always used a glass as pastry cutters would have been considered a frivolous waste of money!
The days baking,cooling on the rack.
Youngest daughter Aisling got married to her long time partner Nigel on Friday at a beautiful civil ceremony with a family lunch afterwards.They spent the weekend in Dublin so I was babysitting for the weekend which is why I have not been on blogging for a few days.
The beautifull bride going into the registry office
Most of the wedding group. It was just both families and it was a lovely intimate ceremony and a relaxed lunch and evening afterwards.
Kevin was dressed in his 'James Bond' tuxedo for the day!He was ring bearer and wrote a speech all by himself, after the speeches he wanted to say something so wrote it out and stood up and spoke.
The Murray family all dressed up
Aisling with her brothers.
A wet cold Sunday afternoon so baking was one way of staying warm indoors. My d.Aisling had a hen/kitchen party recently as she is getting married next Friday to her partner Nigel,her future mother in law Ena gave her a loaf tin among other things and at the time I thought that is a waste as Aisling does not bake apart from some rice krispie cakes. Ena makes a pot cake which is a family tradition and has often passed some on to Aisling which I have sampled.Ena also gave the recipe to her, being very optimistic I thought, but a wet Sunday afternoon did the trick! Aisling made the potcake and it turned out so well the first one was eaten before she thought of taking photos....so she made a second one!
The smell around the kitchen while it is cooking is divine.The cake cooling out of the tin
The finished cake is moist and tasty.We usually spread butter on it to eat it, it could be a cross between a brack or a cake, whatever it is delicious.
I had also started baking in my house and made sausage rolls and my first batch of mince pies this year.I use mince in a jar as I never think of making my own in time to have it for Christmas.I used Catherine's pastry as usual from Dispatches from the Deise
This was all very labour saving baking. I use sausages, I skin them as I was taught in school many moons ago. Slit the skin of the sausage and put into boiling water for a couple of minutes and the skin just peels off.I also use a dried stuffing mix , made up and mixed through the sausage meat.Lay mixture out on a strip of pastry, dampen one long edge with water and roll up with the join underneath. 
Cut into whatever size you like, brush with milk or beaten egg and put a couple of slits in the top
I made mince pies using the sweet version of the pastry,I was not partaking in Guinness while baking but I know this pint glass is the ideal size to cut out the pastry bases for this tray!When my late Mother was baking she always used a glass as pastry cutters would have been considered a frivolous waste of money!
The days baking,cooling on the rack.
I was out one evening recently and admired a necklace a lady had on,she told me it was a genuine Pearl necklace and she had bought it online for a fraction of the price charged in town.I am not 'into' buying online apart from Ebay and Amazon. I was at a bit of a loose end today and thought of it while on the computer so I went window shopping!
They are Japanese fresh and saltwater pearls 100% genuine,hand knotted and fully appraised.Pearls have a bit of an old fashioned press but I was amazed at the colours, from traditional white to black
Silver grey look nice too, oh decisions! They have a choice of gold or silver clasps and a range of bracelets and earrings too.
I went into the small print also, orders are dispatched within 7-10 days and an email will be sent to notify you. They have a one year guarantee which is good for a buyer living a couple of thousand miles away.
A quick visit to the plot to assess any damage done by the recent storms, not all bad but our poor scarecrow did not fare too well even though he is still standing.The cross piece for his arms has come loose and is only held up by the coat sleeves for now. He is standing on a plot we used for onions and since harvesting we have been covering with waste leaves and weeds plus a sowing of a green manure called Phacaelia. He is now nearly knee deep in a nice organic mixture which will be covered (soon) to rest for next year.
The Brussel Sprouts also took a battering and the netting blew completely off but there was no bird damage to the stalks.Some of them nearly blew over but the sprouts are growing nicely and we will have some for Christmas dinner. We have harvested quite a lot of them which is why there are hardly any visible on the lower stalks.
The French garlic is doing fine I hope the recent spell of wet weather does not do them too much harm as they hate getting their feet wet!The raised bed may help in that respect.
The organic Irish garlic has finally begun to grow too
Our leeks were shaded from the atrocious wind by the brussel sprouts and are doing OK also
I had cut this parsley right back to ground level when I dried the parsley some time ago. The head has sprouted again and it looks like we will be using fresh not dried parsley for the Christmas stuffing.
