30 Nov 2009

And another thing - Leaf Love …

I  like walking on my own and I look all around, but rarely down.  Quite serendipitously (love that word) as I photographed a little woody glade on my Heath walk, I looked down at the carpet of leaves and saw this:



Honestly, I swear, I have not altered this photo! (Honest.)  The leaf was just there at my feet and perfectly summed up Thanksgiving Day.  Serendipitous indeed.  Had to share…

Caro x

A Walk on the Wild-ish Side …

It seems that many people in blogland were giving a nod to the American tradition of Thanksgiving last Thursday.  I spent a part of my childhood living in the USA (Florida) so it's a day that still gives me pause for thought.

I mentioned at the time that I was off for a walk in appreciation of a beautiful sunny afternoon and winter colour on Hampstead Heath.  So an hour and a half of fresh crisp air later and what have we got?  Yup. Plenty of colour still out there!

Blue sky, Yellow leaves, Purple Hebe, White Fatsia, Green Moss, Red berries:




 


And on the way home, growing in someone's garden, a new plant to me:

 

which, thanks to the December issue of 'Gardens Illustrated', I now know is Callicarpa bodinieri.
(My photo doesn't do this plant justice; the berries are a real pop of purple and the leaves a deep, glossy green.  A real treat for colour-starved eyes!)

So what am I thankful for?  Winter sunshine, gardeners who make the world a more beautiful place, the opportunity to grow veg and flowers outside my own door, good friends to share this with, living so close to one of the great London green spaces and - of course - all of my family and friends.
Hope you also had the space and time to reflect.

Caro x

26 Nov 2009

Chopping and tweaking …



Gardening is a matter of your enthusiasm holding up until your back gets used to it.  ~Author Unknown

Well, I've made a start on clearing the ivy in the long bed - five bags waiting to go into the compost maker at our local recycling centre.  (Although it doesn't look much sitting there, I'd like to point out - ahem - that those white bags are quite large - really huge, in fact.)  I paced out the task (to ease my aching back from all the bending over) and I reckon another six sessions should do it.  (On the other hand, we'd get it all done in one session if the Commuuuuuuuunity gets behind it.  Perhaps an appropriately applied welly boot would do the trick… )

On another note, anyone who's looked at these pages before might notice that I've finally put aside the time to figure out how to install a subscription feed.  Yup.  Now you can have my latest mutterings delivered to your mailbox!  (But only if you click the link in the sidebar on the left.)

Now, as I've been sitting at my computer for too long and have got a bit chilled, I'm off to look for rainbows of colour via a nice long Thanksgiving walk on Hampstead Heath, and to warm up and enjoy this beautiful, but cold, London day. 

Phase 3 of Beetroot Mania will be revealed tomorrow.  See you soon friends! 

25 Nov 2009

It's a piece of cake, really …

After quite a storm last night, the day has dawned clear and bright in London.  The Gods have been kind to us as today is earmarked for more Ivy Clearing - this time, hopefully, with a small team working together.  So before I go outside to get on with the hacking and chopping, here's phase two of Getting to Know Beetroot.

Next up in my bid to like beetroot:  Chocolate and Beetroot Cake.


Your tea, Milady, is served. 

I'm told that this is what is described in Australia as "bonzer".   So I scoured the web and found several versions and chose this one by Simon Rimmer.  Verdict: Actually, not bad.  Moist, chocolatey and not too sweet but with beetroot undertones (unsurprisingly) and incredibly easy to make. (I think I must have quite a sweet tooth, though, because somehow the chocolate hit wasn't as intense as the look of the cake promised.  Does that make sense?  Next time I'd add more chocolate.)

Edited!  Have just taken a piece round to L for a taste test.  Verdict:  "Mmm.  Mmm.  That's really nice.  No, I like that.  I think that's just right.  Is the recipe on the blog?  I'm going to make that.  What size tin did you use?"  And, actually, I enjoyed my taster piece as well.  As did my teenage son (who had two pieces yesterday.)  Because it's moist with good 'keeping' qualities, L thought it nicer than straightforward Chocolate Sponge Cake.  Wouldn't it be nice if you could all come round for a tasting! Caro @ YRG x


The original recipe came from the Good Food Channel and made an enormous cake (23cm tin) so I made a two-thirds mix (17cm tin), using 2 eggs rather than 3.  My quantities below, or go here for the original recipe.

(1)  Heat oven to 190C.

(2)  Cook and peel the beetroot. (You can have fun with this part: it can look as though you're the victim of a nasty Kitchen Accident as the juice drips!)


(3) 116g plain flour; 50g cocoa; 6g baking powder; 150g caster sugar.
      Sift all these ingredients together into a bowl.

(4)  2 large eggs; 133ml corn oil; 150g cooked beetroot 
      Place all the above in blender and whizz up together.

Woohoo!  Now that's what I call pink!

Fold (4) above into (3) above.

This looks disgusting, but don't be put off.

Put into a lined 17 or 18 cm cake tin.  (I like to keep it simple by using these from Lakeland in UK.)


Bake 30 minutes but be prepared to give it an extra 5 if the skewer doesn't come out clean.

See how I cut the liner to fit the tin better?
Notebook:
  1. I couldn't get Corn Oil so used Grapeseed.  Seemed to work okay.  
  2. Recipe asked for raw beetroot which I thought would be a bit crunchy in the cake so I pre-cooked by boiling, then cooled and chucked in the blender.  My logic was that the recipe wanted un-dressed beetroot rather than salad beetroot soaked with vinegar.
  3. The cake was nicest with a blob of squirty cream, which was the genius idea of my son.  (It's also nice with homemade chocolate custard but if I gave you the recipe for that, I'd be getting right off the subject of gardening, garden produce and your 5-A-Day veg!) 

See, it's quite nice in close up too!

    23 Nov 2009

    Trying to like Beetroot …



    A couple of week's ago I suffered a touch of the "blogger's black hole" (my brain got distracted by half term holidays and wouldn't produce anything worth reporting) and because of that I don't think that I mentioned our beetroot had finally matured into an edible state.  There it is, in the photo above.  Quite respectable, don't you think?

    Before the weekend, I retrieved some of our beetroot from the Veg Patch.  I'm trying to overcome my dislike of beetroot by trying the home-grown variety in a number of guises.  (After all that thinning and watering and nurturing, I have to at least try.)

    First up:  Cooked Beetroot.

    Wash and chop leaves off to 3 cm, leave the roots intact (stops the colour bleeding out), then put in a pan of cold water and bring to the boil.


    Simmer 30 to 40 minutes. Pull one out to test - they're done when they peel easily.


    Drain and cool.  (Oops, 'scuse fingers!)


    Peel and slice.



    So, cooked by boiling, then cooled, peeled and tasted (no dressing).
    Verdict: Not bad, but not hankering for seconds; quite nice eaten warm.  Fabulous looking.

    P.S.  I also tried them par-boiled and then oven-roasted with parsnips, butternut squash, sweet potato and Vivaldi potatoes.  Verdict: other veg - yummy;  beetroot - yeeuch!
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