Looking for Wild Fruit

So we have been rather busy of late and I wanted to share this with you. We have been gathering things growing wild from around our area for winter use. Not the easiest thing as we live in quite a built up area however we managed to find an abundance of blackberries and wild figs! 

The figs I made into muffins which I put into the freezer and will bake one each morning for Evie before she heads to school. 

The blackberries I have frozen into batches to use for winter crumbles and pies! Yum!! 

Mmmmmmonday Morning brunch

Monday mornings! most people hate them… I certainly did until recently when i have decided to take some time off work and spend time cooking and crafting for a little while. its been pretty bleak weather here but the sun decided to shine this morning and so we decided to have a little family brunch.

French toast
Bacon
Scrambled Eggs
Berries and locally farmed honey! Yum!

French toast is made in so many ways but here is my family recipe.

4 eggs beaten in a bowl with two heaped tablespoons of icing sugar and a splash of milk.
Soak the bread but not until its too soggy then fry it on a gentle heat until browned each side.

Serve!

Wineberry Jam Recipe!!

Wineberries!! Ever heard of them? I hadn't! But my mother in the UK has a massive glut of them! We decided on a warm summers afternoon to pick as many of the little sticky things and make a jam out of them to see us through the winter.

Evie loves red berries and so more went into her belly than in the tubs but by the end of the day we had plenty to work with.


The recipe I used is:

• 1kg Wine berries
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1kg bag jam sugar (the one with pectin added)

This is the same stable recipe I use for any of my jams

1. Before you start, sterilise your jars (see tip below) and put a plate in the freezer to chill. Tip half the raspberries into a preserving pan and add the lemon juice. Mash the berries to a pulp over the heat with a potato masher, then leave to cook for 5 mins. Tip the cooked berries into a sieve over a bowl, then once all of the juice has drained off, firmly work the pulp through the sieve with a wooden spoon until you are left with just the seeds.
2. Tip the juice and pulp back into the preserving pan and stir in the sugar. Heat gently, then add the remaining whole raspberries. Bring to the boil, then boil rapidly for 5 mins. Remove from the heat and drop a little jam onto the chilled plate. Now push your finger through it – it should wrinkle and look like jam. If it doesn’t, boil for 2 mins, then test again.
3. The top of the jam may look like it has sediment on it, but I find that if you stir it well as it cools, a little of this disappears. Pour into the jars and seal. It will keep unopened for a year, although the lovely bright colour will darken a little. Once open, keep in the fridge.

Now at breakfast times we get the jam out and Evie delightfully tells us that we made this at Grannies house! Wonderful! 

A little trip to Italy with the weevil

Had a wonderful little trip with Evie to visit her Papoon in Italy. We visited the stunning town of portofino and did a little bit of shell collecting :)

Urban Gypsy Chic

Just wanted to share these little pics of my little on in urban wilderness. I didn't take the shots, a dear friend did but I thought they we're share worthy as they are so beautiful! 

Eggs For Breakfast

Well, its december now and I am starting to get into the Christmas spirit! A little too early to put up the tree but I figured I would do something nice for my little one today.

Above are my festive eggs! No culinary skill needed!

My non-stick cookie cutters however.. were a let down and a nightmare to wash off afterwards no next time they will be greased prior

Very simple… heat a pan, crack in the eggs and viola! Fini! 

Evie loved them!

The Olive Harvest

 

 This weekend was a lovely weekend! Evie and I took a little trip into the French countryside to help my Brothers family in laws with their olive harvest. My parents had olive trees but sadly each year there would be an ussue with them and we never got to harvest them. 

Flopsie assisiting with the harvest

 

 Evie wasn't overly interested in helping until the end to be honest. She is still a little young and she preferred searching for the neighbors cat more than anything. However once Flopsie (Bunny) started to help out Evie soon got the hang of things and would march around telling everyone to be careful and not to stand on any fallen olives.

All the olives that we collected will be taken to the mill on December 6th and pressed for their precious oils. I did however bring home a large bag and shall be preserving them this evening so... next blog post will be about olives too :)