Lemon Drizzle Cake

There's a lot of lemons in the garden right now and I adore lemons, so I decided to give a lemon drizzle cake a go.
I found a recipe for a lemon and almond version, and as I also love almonds, this sounded lovely.

Here's the INGREDIENTS

• 225g softened butter
• 225g caster sugar
• lemons, 4 zested and 3 Juiced
• 4 medium eggs, lightly whisked
• 200g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 50g ground almonds ( I only had 10g so bulked it up with 40g of dessicated coconut and it was amazing!)
• icing sugar

RECIPE

1. Heat the oven to 160C/fan 180C/gas 4. Butter and line the base of a 20cm round cake tin. Beat the butter and caster sugar in a large bowl until pale and creamy. Add the lemon zest (reserving some for decoration) and mix well. Whisk the eggs gradually into the butter mixture, beating well between each addition – don’t worry if it curdles. (mine did a little bit) 
2. 
   Sift together the flour and baking powder and fold into the cake mixture using a large metal spoon or spatula. Add the ground almonds and 3/4 of the lemon juice and fold until thoroughly combined. Spoon into the prepared cake tin and bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out without any raw mix on it.
3.  
   Put the cake tin on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Meanwhile mix together the remaining lemon juice and zest and enough icing sugar to make a runny icing and then drizzle over the top of the cake. Cool in the tin for a further 30 minutes and then remove from the tin and cool completely before serving.

 I prick the top of the cake so that the drizzle soaks in even more. I've made this a couple of times recently and it simply disappears. No idea where it goes!
(It should be noted that I make this super lemony.  If you'd rather, just add 3 zested and 2 juiced lemons)

YUM

 

First Crayfish of the Season

I went diving on Friday and got a cray fish.
( I should say here, that there are very strict limits as to how many you can take and how big they need to be!)

Anyway, mum loves them and we've been so busy since she got here that last night was the first time we were actually able to have crayfish for dinner.
After trying out lots of different ways of cooking them we learned last year that steaming them in a fish kettle was the absolute best way. It keeps all the flavour in!

So, Lloyd went out to the garden and gathered up keffir lime leaves, a couple of limes, coriander,  some lemongrass and used some of our garlic. How amazing to have all this in our garden!! We ended up having a dinner, that in a restaurant, would have been extortionate - and here we were having it for the price of a dive tank fill.

 Banana (the wonder cat) inspecting, what he wished, was his dinner!

In the fish kettle - ready to be steamed - love the colours. All you do is put everything in and add about 1cm of water to the fish kettle.

The smell while this was cooking was amazing - it was like we were in Thailand! Lloyd steamed them for 20 minutes and they were absolutely delicious! The tails came out of the shells perfectly.

 It was served with a baby rocket salad, toasted walnuts, shaved parmesan and a simple lemon dressing. Mum said it was the best meal she'd had since arriving and I have to say I agree. Lloyd did himself and the crayfish proud - I think they were the best I've ever had!

Bits and Bobs

It's been a week of bits and bobs!

We've treated poor old Conchita's legs twice now, and the difference is astounding. Already the old horrible scales are coming off and there are lovely new ones underneath.  So I can hopefully assume we've managed to kill the mites. Only problem with the vaseline on her legs - it makes her terribly messy looking as it gets all over her feathers! Still, I'm sure if she could thank us, she would.

I've been doing a spot of baking and done a bit of reshuffling in the kitchen.We have a lovely Kitchen Aid mixer we were given as a wedding present. Unfortunately it's been up on a shelf that I can't reach! So if I'm baking, unless Lloyd is here to get it down for me, I use a hand mixer. This was silly! So I moved some stuff around in our minuscule kitchen so that there's room on the worktop for it.

I made some melting moments the other day and the difference using the proper mixer was astounding! It just makes everything so much easier and less messy too. The dough was brilliant and so smooth. Best melting Moments ever!!

 

I think I'd exhausted the dogs with a big walk, which Banana the miracle cat joined! Here's 2 of them resting! Let it never be said cats and dogs don't get on! And look how huge and healthy Banana is again!

This morning I was up bright and early for swimming.  The sun was just rising and it was stunning. Makes it totally worth getting up before 6am!

But! My favourite thing of the last few days...Asparagus season! My asparagus bed is doing really well this year, especially since it's only been in for three years. We love asparagus! It's really difficult to try and save it until there's enough to eat properly!!

And! Today is Lloyd's birthday. He's working, but is managing to (hopefully) finish a wee bit early so he can drive back down and be in good time to go out again. We're meeting friends and having a lovely dinner out.

A busy few days

On Friday Dan and I went for a dive. It's winter now and we didn't see another soul out on the water - it felt like we had the whole bay to ourselves!
The water is colder, but my fandabby new wetsuit is amazing and keeps me nice and toasty.

On the second dive I heard weird clicking, whistling noises. I've never heard them before and couldn't work out what they were. When we surfaced I asked Dan if he'd heard them. He had - Dolphins!!! So we were swimming around in earshot of dolphins - we didn't see them, they could have been far away, but it was an amazing thing to hear! I won't forget that in a hurry.

I call these underwater daisies!

Me, being an air head!

 

I know this is all fuzzy, but I like it - When I'm underwater I feel totally at home, I love it. I sort of feel all serene. 

 ( which I pretty much never feel on land!!)

Then on Saturday my friend Claire and her daughter Amber came down from Kaitaia and the three of us went to a roller derby! I went to one once before down in Whangarei and it was fun. This time it was one of the same teams and they had a match up here. It was a right laugh, and totally makes me want to get a pair of skates.
It was absolutely freezing, though, and I didn't really thaw out until the following morning!

On Sunday Lloyd and I drove down to Auckland - Flight of the Conchords were playing at the Vector Arena. They're terribly funny, talented guys. They'd played a lot of smaller venues throughout NZ, but hadn't made it very far north and also the tickets were like gold dust. So they decided to see if they could fill a huge stadium. They did - almost three times over! And what I loved was that they kept the ticket prices low so that at a push anyone could afford to go. Our seats were shocking - way up in the gods, third row from the top - but they were right in the centre. ( admission time - I am totally terrified of heights - I tried to send my friend a text and my hands were shaking so much it was utter nonsense!) However once they came on stage I almost forgot about how high up we were. They were brilliant. Real laugh out loud brilliant. It was also great, cos we met up with a couple of friends we hadn't seen for years and had an absolutely lovely time with them.

Terrible picture, sell out audience, very high up!

We got home later on in the afternoon yesterday and really didn't have the energy to do much! So, Lloyd got some soup he'd made out of the freezer and I made some dough, and made it into sort of garlicy bread roly poly, pull aparts. And I have to say they were way nicer than any bread I've made!! I'll most definitely make them again they were absolutely yummy with the soup.

Mum has gone home

We had such a brilliant time. but it was too short, as usual. She stayed for three weeks, but it still flew past. For her last couple of days the 2 of us went down to Auckland. We stayed at the Langham ( mum's treat!) and it was excellent as usual. On Tuesday evening we went to Euro for dinner. A week or so ago I read on Sue's blog that she and Joe had been and it looked amazing. It was. Lovely!

 We both had the duck to start, and I had an eye fillet for main and mum had a scallop risotto - but sadly after all this we were too full for one of their amazing looking deserts - ho hum, will just have to go back again!

There is a yacht race happening down in Auckland just now so the Viaduct has lots going on, the atmosphere was amazing. Lloyd is lucky enough to be sailing down tonight with friends and will spend the next 5 days living it up down there. I am staying at home to animal sit! There were even more spectacular yachts than usual in the marina.

We also did a wee bit of shopping and dropped in to Sabato, which has to be my almost all time favourite deli - only beaten into first place by Valvona and Corolla in Edinburgh.

I bought some spoils to keep me going while Lloyd is away and to cheer me up after mum left. She'll be back again in November, though!

The Yellowest Mayonnaise

On my sidebar you'll see a recipe for speedy mayonnaise. It is a great recipe ( stolen from Masterchef Australia) but it has one huge pitfall. It doesn't always work. Even if you do exactly the same thing each time. We decided this wasn't great as it wasted eggs and oil, so we went back to the good old fashioned way of egg yolks, oil, a touch of vinegar, salt and mustard with the loooooong, sloooooow drizzle/mix method, and this does really work, every time.

My wee chookies are doing us proud and laying like they're all having a wee competition between themselves. We can hardly give the eggs away fast enough, so today I've been making a pavlova for a doggy birthday party, tomorrow (it's for the humans!)  with egg whites, and with the yolks I made the yellowest mayonnaise.

I could, however, have used a smaller jar!

yummy cake

we've got friends coming over this afternoon, so I baked a cake.

nom nom nom.

we're listening to Cole Porter, Too Darn Hot!

The Culinary Institute ~ Kerikeri

Last night the Culinary Institute held a dinner for their student chefs to showcase what they have learned and we were lucky enough to go along to it. We've never been to anything like this before, so didn't really know what to expect, but it was the most wonderful night.

This was the menu

I forgot to take a photo of the first course, but from then on in I remembered - and I'm so glad, because it all looked so beautiful - and the taste was amazing.

 There are some very talented chefs in the making, here.

It's funny because, as it was a tasting menu, the courses are fairly small and it's very deceptive! You think after the first three courses you're not that full but by the end of the meal I think we were all ready to explode! We got several dishes of beautiful petit fours with coffee and we could barely manage to taste one! I noticed we weren't the only table unable to eat anymore, because there was a lot of surreptitious and not so surreptitious wrapping of truffely delights in napkins to be smuggled home for later - wish I'd thought of that!

Russell, ferries, fish and chips and sunsets...

It always feels like you've been on holiday after a trip over to Russell. Perhaps it's because we always go by boat ( even though technically speaking it's really on the mainland) or because it's right on the water or it's always sunny! But there is something rather lovely about coming home on a wee boat in the dark after a lovely evening out.

We got the 'happy ferry' over - it's the small one

It only takes about 15 minutes to get from Paihia to Russell and it's all very pretty.

We just wandered around when we got there as it was such a lovely evening then we went to Kamakura for dinner. I had prawn tortellini to start which was yummy

then fish and chips - something I never have in a restaurant, really, but gosh it was nice!

And while we were eating away this is what we were looking at...

Pretty special.

Then we got the ferry home.

A perfect evening.

Macaroon Heaven!

If you've been reading this blog for a wee while you'll know about my history with macaroons.  If not, have a look HERE and here (where I actually get to eat one!)  I've really wanted to make them again but haven't plucked up the courage.I was obviously scarred by the whole ordeal.

Anyway, this weekend Claire and Debbie had a car dilemma. Debbie's car broke down on the way to Action World in Paihia. All I did was stagger around in my pj's while Steve got a tow rope from us. I lent them my car so they could carry on, but it wasn't like I was using it!  

I've been down in Auckland for a couple of days ( that's another story) and when I got home these were waiting for me.

( they are for Lloyd too and I promise to share them! )

 I can't believe the bother they must have gone to get them cos I'm pretty sure you can't get them up here. So I just wanted to thank them in the most public way possible! I think you two are flipping great! 

Thank you so so so much. They are the best present ever!

Basil, tomato and mozzarella salad

Dinner last night!

Yum

I just toast some crusty bread, put the salad on top of it and add olive oil and balsamic. The basil is from the garden, the tomatoes are from New World ( ours are only flowering) and the mozzarella is from Mahoe Cheese. We're lucky enough to have them just a few minutes from the house. If you ask them nicely they will make up a bucket of mozzarella ( and just put it in brine) especially for you when they're making a batch and it is simply delicious. It's a real summer staple of ours, and to be honest we couldn't make it for what they charge us - we love the folk at Mahoe!

Oh and just to say, thinking of all my lovely family and friends in the Uk who are presently under about 4 feet of snow - poor mum got a terrible shock when she arrived back from 2 weeks of glorious hot, sunny weather, with a lovely tan, to minus whatever and a country covered in snow. Mad as it would seem, I would actually rather like to be there. I love snow. It's our Christmas Parade this evening in town and its incredibly humid and hot - and I think it should be snowy and white at Christmas!

Anyway, I'm of to mow the lawns - smothered in factor 30!

Hot Smoked Salmon

It's been on my mind since we had it on Saturday night. We were going to go the biscuit tin route, but didn't have a big enough tin or a rack that would fit into a tin. So we bought one. Ok it was a bit more expensive than the biscuit tin method, but we were going to have to buy a tin and the rack. Also to make us feel better the "Big Red Shed' had 30% off.

Some salmon was duly purchased, Lloyd put  brown sugar and salt on it and let it all soak in for about an hour. I set up the smoker as per instructions (ish) and put the salmon on to smoke. Following Jamie Oliver's timings.

All the smoker stuff

Salmon ready to go

After 10 minutes

Remember to do all this on a non flammable surface.

Do as I say not as I do.

Additions to the recipe...

See flames coming from wooden table

 rush to kitchen to get fire extinguisher
extinguish the cr@p out of table
Rescue salmon.

Salmon looks delicious.

Moral of the story - people who live in wooden houses should always have a fire extinguisher to hand and should always follow instructions...to the letter.