Bean Sidhe

Had a lovely birthday with lots of great gifts, cards, visits and 'phone calls.  Some lovely hand crafted items, which will feature later when I've scanned them.  To those who've sent them THANK YOU!  I really appreciate the time and care that's been put into my choosing and making my gifts and cards.

Had family to dinner (or is it lunch? - well, it's dinner when I eat it mid-day).

I have been watching too many episodes of Masterchef I think - I tried out some new (to me) recipes.  However, the constestants can rest easy for now - I don't think I'll be giving them any competition!

For starters we (my assistant chef and myself) did salmon mousse in cucumber on a bed of watercress (recipe from Mrs Beaton's book).  It set well and I was pleased with it.  My guests said it tasted good too.

The main course was roast beef and roast veg and you all know what that looks like, so no photo. 

For my birthday I had an ice cream making machine so my first attempt at ice cream,  rich vanilla, was put before the testing panel and pronounced a huge success.  I had decided to attempt brandysnap baskets (never done them before, nor seen them done).  They looked somewhat agricultural (a big feature of my cooking), they tasted gorgeous BUT wow, were they hard!  They ended up in the bin because I couldn't afford a dental bill.

So, undeterred, I decided to try a tuille biscuit (never done one of these before either).  One trayful resulted in a mess of crumbs, nice tasting but useless for icecream.  The other trayful, which I cooked slightly longer and left to cool a bit, came out useable - albeit not very atristic.

I also made a boozy jelly using the fruit and juice from my Rumtopf . 

My sister in law brought me a beautiful light sponge birthday cake - it's a wonder it didn't float away - but I'm glad it didn't!

Here are my gifts - a distinct cookery theme this year.

My niece brought me these - I LOVE them when they are fresh and juicy (no, they are NOT conkers - they are chestnuts).

Art Group

On Monday Jane showed us how to make a start on Encaustic Art (thank you Jane) and I finally got around to using the kit which Dorothy had loaned me (I'll bring it back soon Dorothy).

Here's the result of my first try.