Bakewell tart

I love making this bakewell tart, it always looks perfect, and it's devoured within minuets for putting it out on display in the cafe.

300g Shortcrust pastry
110g Sugar
110g Margarine
110g Ground almonds
50g  Ground rice
2 eggs eggs
1 tsp Almond essence
6 tbsp Jam
110g Icing sugar + 4 tbsp boiling water
Handful Toasted flaked almonds

Line a 9" flan tin with the pastry and blind bake for 12 mins, remove the baking beans and bake the pastry for a further 8 mins.
Whilst the pastry is baking whisk together the sugar and margarine, then add the ground almonds, ground rice, eggs and almond essence and whisk together.
Spread jam over the blind baked pastry and top with the almond mixture. 
Bake at 170 C for 25 mins until golden.
Once cool, spread over the icing and cover with toasted flaked almonds.

Simple Tart perfection! 

An unexpected holiday: Glamping

So I don't get many holidays, it's part of being self employed and being a total control freak of my business. But every now and again everyone needs a break from the everyday. We were all set to leave for France on a little get away for 5 days.  Our mum amazingly bought a house out there about 8 years ago and we have steadily been doing it up. But you can read more about that on the blog soon.

I finished work on Tuesday night and rushed home excited to be leaving the next day, I burst open the door shouting 'I'm on holiday!!!' Only to be met my mikes more than anxious face. Our flight to France had been cancelled...

Refusing to admit defeat and stay at home we began a search for a new holiday! Being spontaneous was always so easy when we were travelling, mainly because we had all the time in the world, so what if we had to wait a day and a half for a bus! But this was not the case this time. We looked at last minute flights anywhere...No. No flights. We looked at various hotels....No. So expensive or booked up. Finally I thought glamping would be great, I love glamping and have done it before in tipis, it's like camping but with ascetics. Perfect. Many of them were also booked and pretty expensive until finally I found La Rosa. I have known about it for a while and always wanted to go. We phoned them up and they were so helpful, they felt so sorry for our flight cancellation and set about giving us the best holiday ever! 

La rosa is a hotel and glamping site, the hotel is based in Whitby and the glamping site about 40 mins out of Whitby.

 So I donned a vintage headscarf, packed a vintage suitcase and pocketed my new lomography fish eye baby camera (an early birthday present from mike) and off we went, briefly stopping off at a farm shop for some supplies. olives count as supplies, don't they?

On arrival we met Mandy who told us they had upgraded us from the blue bird caravan to swallow barn, and OMG!! We're talking a circus themed barn here guys! Two wood burning stoves, a roll top bath, a big comfy bed and a compost toilet built out like a throne! The views were amazing, the decor eclectic and the people lovely, what more could you want! Oh yeah, it's all for charity! All the money from swallow barn and blue bird caravan go towards the open nest charity. The open nest chairty is a creative, forward thinking, charitable project which provides respite care for, and campaigns on behalf of adopted children and adoptive parents. Visit www.theopennest.co.uk for more information. 

South of France - Part 1

Just a very quick 'bonjour' from the South of France (as I am on my holidays you know). A few days ago we set off on the 1000 mile journey from Yorkshire to Montazels. Travelling by car in France is actually much nicer than in England (as long as you have air con!) as the roads seem less frantic and there are literally hundreds of picnic spots along the motorways, so you are not always subjected to a service station if you need a break.

We took an over night ferry from Hull to Belgium and then stopped near Limoges before making the final leg of our journey. Here's a few photos from a town called Montauban that we stopped in for lunch on our final day travelling.

Okay, I'm going back to my book now... hope you are having a lovely week

Emily x

Thai Salmon Noodles

This is one of mine and Mikes favourite quick and easy Asian meals. It looks like a lot of ingredients but just try it once and you will realise it is actually really simple and totally delicious.

2 salmon steaks

1/2 broccoli 
15 spouts / or other green veg (this time I used asparagus)
2 cloves garlic

3 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup tahini 
1 tbsp honey
1 lime (grated and juiced)
1 tbsp grated ginger
3 tbsp soy sauce 
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
Pinch pepper flakes

2 nests of noodles 

Bunch coriander
4 salad onions 
Sesame seeds

This seems like a lot of ingredients for one meal however quite a lots of it is stuff you are likely to just have in your cupboard, especially if you are big Asian food lovers like mike and I, and if your not, try this dish and then you will be. Feel free to miss the odd thing out or substitute where necessary due to pantry supplies or dietary requirements.

1. Turn oven to 180-200oC. Put broccoli florets and halved Brussels spouts (asparagus) in baking try with olive oil and crushed garlic. Bake for 15mins.
2. While they are roasting make the sauce by simply combining all the sauce ingredients together, set aside in a big bowl and add chopped coriander (saving some for garnish) and chopped spring onions.
4. Put a pan on to boil for the noodles.
3. When the broccoli and sprouts have had 15mins push them over to on side in the tray and add the salmon steaks and cover the salmon in hoisin sauce. Put back in the oven for another 15-20mins until salmon is cooked.
6. In the last few mins but the noodles on according to the packet usually 3-4 mins.
7. Add the noodles and vegetables to the bowl with the sauce, spring onions and coriander and give a good mix. 
Divide into bowls and carefully take the skin off the salmon and break up into bite size pieces and put on top of the noodles, garnish with coriander and sesame seeds. 
8. Eat.

This seems like a really faffy recipe at first but once you've done it once you realise it's really simple: veggies, sauce, salmon, noodles, mix altogether! 

Bell jar

I bought this bell jar at Christmas and used it for a table center piece. I don't have a photo but it contained a super kitsch Christmas scene, of a tree, a deer, snow and some fairy lights.

Since Christmas I keep changing the displays in the bell jar, here are a few examples, some have worked better then others and I'm going to start trying to do more seasonal scenes, i.e birds nest in spring, artificial, of course!