Walk with a View

Its ages since you came on a walk with me where I live. Its been far too muddy for months now after the longest Winter ever, but the lanes are drying out, the Snow has just about gone from the tops and the Grass is becoming lush and Green...............



The lanes are perfect for a spin on my Vespa Penelope. I cant wait to get her out of the Garage, start her up and have a blast around the hills............



Today we are on foot so you had better put your sturdy walking shoes on as I dont know where we will end up........



Are you ready? Off we go................



Down the lanes..............



Past the Cottages..............



Up high, taking in the view................



Looking down on a Farm taking in the noise of the tractor and the smell of the.... yes, well,  lets not dwell on the pong and carry on............



Shall we go down this footpath?...............



Lets stop to look at the Chickens.............



And feed the horse a juicy Pink Lady Apple.............



Shall we stop at the Lime Kiln for a snack? Something light as its too long a walk to carry a picnic basket. We can sit up against the Kiln as its abit blowy and we can have our Cheese and Grapes and Cocktail sausages..............



Lets carry on now shall we?..............



I do like to be beside the water...............



If we had longer we could go into the Woods but I think we should stay beside the Water as I dont want to tire you out. We will do a long walk in the Woods another day.............





Down to the River............





Across the Bridge...............



Much further down the river and stop to look at the old stone bridge in the distance............



Time to make our way home. My house is down there, somewhere past the white house on the left........





And finally, back home for a pot of Tea. I think we deserve a Cream Cake aswell dont you?.............

Thursday Titter

Ive got a lovely bunch of Coconuts

I really wanted a piece of Cake this afternoon. The only thing I could find in the cupboard was a sad squashed Swiss Roll. With the nearest supermarket a two hour round trip I had no choice but to make my own. I found a bag of shredded Coconut in my baking cupboard, so Coconut Cake it was...........



I have to say I have never been keen on Coconut, although I do like a Bounty (UK milk chocolate bar) and I used to love Cabanas as like the Bounty bar they were sweet moist Coconut but with Cherries too. Why they stopped making them I dont know. They were brought back for a very short time in the 1990's but disappeared as soon as they arrived. I have 'pangs' about the loss of the Cabana bar along with the Frys Chocolate Cream Five Centre. Anyway I think my dislike of Coconut stems from the awful dessicated Coconut my mother used to buy in the 1970's. It was horrible stuff. Small hard bits of Coconut that would get stuck in your teeth. To me it was something you would find on a Chiropodists floor (sorry for that image) It certainly wasnt anything like the long moist shreds of Coconut that I would see on American cookery programmes...........



A few years ago after watching Ina Garten (The Barefoot Contessa) make a gorgeous Coconut Cake using the above Coconut, I just had to track some down.............



This started my love of buying American food on the internet, things that we just couldnt get in the UK. The above photo is actually a few years old. I remember  I was going to have a rant when I saw a Blogger telling someone to substitute Corn Syrup for the UK Golden Syrup and I remember thinking it would probably stuff up the recipe so was going to point out that you can purchase Corn Syrup in the UK, but I didnt bother and the photo sat unused on my memory stick. Since this picture was taken some UK supermarkets do stock A1 Steak Sauce and Skippy Peanut Butter now so I havnt had to buy them online for awhile, but other items particularly if I am following a Nigella recipe does call for ingredients that we dont have here in the UK. The Swirled Peanut Butter morsels (also shown in the photo above) that I used in a Nigella recipe dont seem to be available online anymore and I am down to my last bag so I will be gutted if I cant find them anywhere else as they are delicious............



The Peanut Butter chips are similar to the swirls, but the Swirled Peanut Butter morsels are so cute as they look like little Circus tents. I havnt had the chance to use the Butterscotch morsels yet so will let you know what they taste like..........



I also like to try out the Americans sweets or should I say Candy. The above 'Candy' I bought for Christmas last year for Mr Kittens stocking. I try to find something different for his stocking each year and this little lot went down well. Root Beer Barrels, Hot Tamales (he really liked them) and Peanut Butter M&M's. Ive never seen the Peanut Butter ones in the UK, certainly not anywhere near where I live, they were yummy so if anyone spots them in any of the supermarkets please let me know. The Reeses pumpkin was eaten as soon as it arrived (that was for me)................



The Candy above is my more recent purchase and we enjoyed all of them too, especially the Cherry Ripe which as hoped did taste a little bit like the old Cabana bar. I wish I had bought more as me and Mr K had to share this one, but with anything new its best to try one first otherwise Id be stuck with a load of stuff that no one likes. The next time I do an order I will stock up on these if they are still available........



Anyway on to the Cake, a brilliant tip I learnt from The Barefoot Contessa was to put your un-iced cake on to the stand or plate you want to serve it on and place pieces of parchment paper tucked just under the Cake and around the edges before icing it.......



Ice your Cake and carefully pull the paper out and you should find that the plate or stand  is completely clean. Its brilliant and such a simple idea.........



I dont know how many times Ive tried to move an iced Cake on to a different plate for serving or had to use Kitchen Roll to wipe away smears of icing. Now I do it this way and its less washing up as the Cake is iced and served on one plate........



The verdict...... The Cake was delicious!...........

Today I Have.....

Today I have.............



Washed a huge pile of Laundry, then had to redo some as Alfie decided to jump on the Aga whilst covered in mud and went to sleep...........



Cleaned the AGA, once I managed to shift Alfie.............



Did some shopping at the Farm shop. Apologies for the terrible photo, but my cottage is really dark even in the daytime........



I bought a new purse. I really like my soft leather Tula purse that I have had for years, but I dont know how many times Ive opened the flap for the cards and managed to open the coin bit at the same time and found myself scrabbling on shop floors for stray coins.......



Ive been after a Ted Baker purse for ages and couldnt resist this Black and Pink one.........



Found this Milk Glass Salt and Pepper shaker in the Charity shop..........



I have done some sewing.............



Walked the dog............



Had a half hour sit down with a Macaron and a cup of Tea............



Made Scallops in White Wine and Cream sauce with Garlic and Mushrooms for Dinner..........



I am now going to sit down with Mr K and watch a film, either Alfred Hitchcocks Rear Window or maybe go into the 1960's with Up the Junction. The lights are off, the fairy lights are on and we have Popcorn, Jelly Beans and Coke.............



Well that is my day. I didnt get any work done so will have to make up for that tomorrow, but Im not going to think about that now. Im off to enjoy the film. Hope you have a lovely evening too........