Blue cheese

I've made my version of Blue Vinny a couple of times, but not for a while, so have started another one off today. Using skimmed milk, and a purchased starter and Roquefort culture. This is it with the blue culture sprinkled on, and I've just added the rennet. It will be left overnight and I'll cut the curd tomorrow morning.

Sunshine and colour

It's a beautiful early autumn day here in the Vale - lots of sunshine and colour about which I find inspiring

Blackcurrant swirl 'ice cream'

A foray into the fridge resulted in the discovery of several cartons of yoghurt, well past their 'sell by' and 'best before' dates - not that I take any notice of them.........  I ate the rhubarb and ginger sheep milk yoghurt for lunch, was lovely.  I love sheep milk yoghurt, it's very different to that made with cow's milk. There were two small tubs of natural sheep yoghurt and half of a large carton of goat milk yoghurt, they got tipped into a bowl with a pot of mascarpone and whisked with a fork. I found the 4th punnet of blackcurrants (that I couldn't find when I was making jam the other day), so gently stewed them with some sugar and a splash of water, then passed it through a sieve to make a coulis. This was swirled into the yoghurt mixture, and it's now in the freezer. It looks really pretty, and a quick spoon dipping suggests it's going to taste good too - the gentle creaminess of the yoghurts and mascarpone offset by the sharpness of the fruit. Looking forward to this one :)

Chair re-vamp

I painted this chair a while ago, but held off from finishing it until I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted something simple, pretty, easy, fairly subtle; I think I achieved it and am very happy with it now. The 'roses' are stamped on with white emulsion undercoat, using the cut bottom of a Little Gem lettuce as a stamp. It's a lovely idea I saw somewhere on the internet, and imagine it can have all sorts of applications - cards are on thing that spring to mind, so will be giving that a go next time we have salad for supper!

Full moon

Last night's moon - not the most wonderful picture really, but I  wanted to try out the zoom on my camera, quite impressed with it :)

In the kitchen today

Cheese and onion bread, inspired by an online friend posting his in our cooking group on Facebook Lunch was avocado and tomato salad in a honey, mustard and gooseberry vinaigrette.  The skins and pits from the avocados were saved and are now in the dye pot with some little cotton bits; the dye will hopefully be a light old rose pink. Will report back on that one tomorrow   Otherwise, much knitting going on for the show entries, and much tea being drunk ofcourse.

The excitement mounts...............

..............  the County Show that is!  Yesterday I received my sheet of entry confirmations, vehicle pass and ticket, competitor's guidelines. Watch this space :)

Tonight's moon

Thought I'd try out the x7 zoom on my camera; tonight's moon is 98%, so very almost full .  Not a bad shot :)

NEPP wine

-- as in Not Enough Peapod wine. Just made a gallon of this this  afternoon, with lots of leftover bits and pieces. Peapods from supper, end of a courgette from the marmalade I made earlier, as were the lemon and lime skins, 3 soft bananas, 1 over-ripe pear and a couple of wrinkly apples; add in the usual gallon of water, some sugar and yeast, top on and will be fizzing away nicely in the morning. While I hope it will be a good one, there's absolutely no chance ever of replicating it!

Little zesty tip for you :)

When zesting the rind of citrus fruit, use a stiffish clean brush to brush down the grater and get every bit of goodness.  The one in the picture is one of the replaceable heads for my washing up brush, but it's kept for this purpose; washed, dried and back in the drawer for next time.