Sunday, November 28, 2010

Not an old lady flower!

No secret I adore hydrangeas. I used to buy them at huge expense when we lived in Glasgow, here they grow like a weed. Loving that!
And good news. More roses are coming! So I may well have some for christmas after all. I was told by a friend to spray them with 'Shield' so I got some and what a difference - they are looking so much better. I had been hand squishing the bugs on them but was fighting a losing battle. So I got the bee friendly 'Shield'.

Something else I'm loving is Lloyd's feta. This is the second lot and after it was ready, we preserved it in olive oil infused with rosemary. The taste is amazing. I can't wait to try the gouda and camembert  he made a couple of weeks ago, but there's still a long time until it's ready, mores the pity!


We had a glorious night last night with RandV down at the beach. Ness made hot smoked salmon and it was amazing. I would really like to get a smoker now. We did watch Jamie Oliver doing it with wood shavings in the bottom of a biscuit tin, so will maybe give that a go. We had the most gorgeous sauce with it - just Greek yoghurt, shredded rocket, a finely chopped spring onion and some toasted walnuts ( crushed) yummy.

7 comments:

  1. Hi Laura, my partner hot smokes our salmon on a rack in a wok on the bbq burner using sawdust. He brines it in salt, lemon, honey and brown sugar first and the fillets only take about 20 minutes. We try and let them rest for a while but they taste so good......

    Jan

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  2. Ooh that feta looks so good Laura! I can't wait for our camembert and gouda to be ready as well - everyday I get it out and turn it but it has a looooong way to go. Yum that hot smoked salmon sounds divine! There has to be serious benefits to having a friend who is chef. The boys have been out fishing today and yesterday, limits of snapper both days and the freezer is full again. Looks like fresh beer-battered snapper and homemade fries for dinner tonight. Yum.
    Enjoy the sun, the only bummer is how dry it is, the poor garden is suffering . ;-)

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  3. oh Jan that sounds lovely and we have a wok with a rack thingy! Thanks.

    Pippa, hello!

    Lloyds camembert has just got the mould forming now -it started yesterday. The gouda has a tiny spot of red on it now, but also has some white mould from the camanbert cos he has them in the same container for a day! DOH!
    have you bought some wax for yours?

    Lucky you actually having someone in the family who can catch fish - we're both absolutely rubbish. Enjoy!
    We're having salad.

    It's SO dry. We forgot to turn on the irrigation last night and the veggie garden is looking rather sorry today.

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  4. Everything is betta with feta, is the motto at our house. Yours looks delicious.

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  5. Not planning on waxing the gouda, think we will try the lard method to seal it. Ok now I'm going to sound really silly though - are they not meant to be in the same container?? We got 6 camembert so they don't all fit in one container and the only other cheese container we have has that and the gouda in it. Can see a wee bit of white mould forming on the camembert now, nothing on the gouda though.

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  6. now your asking! Lloyd said that if they were in the same container the gouda may get white mould on it too and he didn't want that. Does that make sense?? Poor Lloyd only got 2 camembert :) He went to plastic box and bought a couple of containers there cos they were in an ice cream container!

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  7. Does make sense, but my Mum (if in doubt always check with Mum!)reckons that if they aren't touching then they should be ok. I guess time will tell!

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I love it when you leave me comments, it lets me know there are folk out there reading my ramblings! Thank you, I appreciate them loads and loads
Laura x