Gimme Five! Bookends

We had a bit of a spring clean and de-clutter last week. We have bookshelves in many of the rooms in our house, all of them packed to the gills with books we haven’t touched in years. Lots of interior decoration books from the eighties when stencilling, stippling and rag-rolling of walls and floors were all the rage!

We purged enough of them to fill 4 banana boxes and gave them to a dealer we know who sells at the Todmorden flea-market on a Thursday. We now have lots of freed-up shelf space ready to fill with new interiors books, recipe books and vintage children’s books. We now also have space for a few pairs of bookends. I had a browse online to see what nice ones were available. You wouldn’t believe the huge number I found that were twee, plain or just downright ugly. Interesting, attractive, humorous bookends were thin on the ground – here are the ones with which we’d like to prop up our books.

Artori book ends – falling books: £15.99, Amazon
Kitchenalia bookend range by Susan Bradley Design: £18.40, Notonthehighstreet
Jonathan Adler dachshund white resin bookends: $49.95, Barnes & Noble
Vintage metal hand book ends – yellow metal: £32.69, Etsy
Knowledge In The Brain head bookends: £120, Harvey Nichols

Cakes & Bakes: Wild garlic, leek and blue cheese quiche

This week we did a review of the book, Pie* by Genevieve Taylor. We couldn’t review the book properly without recreating one of the recipes within, now could we?

It’s currently ramson season – ramsons are also known as wild garlic – so we thought we’d try a timely dish. Blue cheese, leek and wild garlic quiche. Delicious hot, warm or cold with a little side salad of rocket, spinach and watercress.

We have a copy of Pie* to give away (sorry, UK only). Entry below the recipe*

Home-made blue cheese & wild garlic quiche | H is for Home #recipe #wildgarlic #pie #forage

Wild garlic, leek and blue cheese quiche

Print recipe Pin recipe

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 50

Total Time 1 5

Servings 4

Ingredients

For the pastry
180 g plain flour
pinch salt
90 g cold butter cut into small cubes
3-4 tbs ice-cold water
For the filling
2 tbs olive oil
2 leeks washed & sliced
150 g about 4 handfuls wild garlic
200 g crème fraîche
2 eggs
100 g blue cheese I used Dolcelatte but Stilton, Roquefort, Gorgonzola etc would work just as well
salt & ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

Sift the flour & salt together into a medium-sized mixing bowl
Add the cubed butter and use your fingertips and thumbs to rub the ingredients together until you have coarse crumbs
Lift your hands out of the bowl as you rub to add air
Add just enough cold water to bring the mixture together into clumps
Tip the clumped crumbs on to a sheet of cling film and squeeze gently into a ball
Wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes
Preheat the oven to 200ºC/180ºF/Gas mark 6
Roll out the pastry and carefully line a quiche dish
Bake blind for 10 minutes
Put the olive oil into a large, deep frying pan set over a low heat and heat gently, then stir in the leeks
Scrunch up a sheet of greaseproof paper and briefly rinse it under running water
Shake off the excess water, then lay the dampened paper over the leeks, tucking it under snugly at the edges. This creates a steamy lid that will help the leeks soften without colouring
Sweat the leeks gently for around 15 minutes or until they are soft and tender, lifting the paper to stir occasionally
In a colander, rinse the wild garlic under a cold running tap
Drain well, chop roughly and add to the leeks. Re-cover loosely with the paper and cook for a further 5-8 minutes or until the garlic has wilted
Remove from the heat, discard the paper and spoon the softened filling into the pastry tart case and spread evenly. Set aside
In a jug, whisk together the crème fraîche and eggs, seasoning well with salt & ground black pepper
Slowly pour into the pastry tart case, allowing it to find its own level among the vegetables
Cut the cheese into cubes and scatter over the quiche
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the filling is just set
Carefully remove the quiche from the dish to a serving plate or wooden board

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Bookmarks: Pie

Today’s Bookmarks review features Pie by Genevieve Taylor. What a treat, as we love a good pie… who doesn’t?

We haven’t met the world’s lone pie-hater yet either!

Buttery pastry & rich fillings – tasty, hearty & homely. What’s not to like?

You can, of course, find bad examples – the infamous petrol station pie springs to mind – cold, pale, soggy & bland. A very poor substitute for the wonderful offerings in this book.

They’re not difficult things to make. A bit of preparation maybe, but once they’re in the oven, they look after themselves. No last minute running around. Just the gorgeous smell of bubbling fillings & pastry browning to heighten the appetite.

This book expertly guides you through the whole process.

There’s an early chapter covering pastry – different types, methods, techniques & tips.

Then lots of examples of what to do with it.

Hot pies, cold pies, sweet & savoury pies.

Pies from Britain & the rest of Europe , North Africa, America and the Caribbean.

It features meat & vegetarian options.

Some very traditional pies such as steak & ale, cheese & onion and raised game. Others are far less familiar – Tunisian egg pastry pie, creamed celeriac & Serrano ham tartlets, greengage & ginger strudels.

There are a hundred recipes in all, so you’ll never run out of ideas!

The wonderful photography by Mike Cooper is sure to inspire you. The pies are beautifully staged with wooden boards, old knives, vintage enamelware, tins & crockery. The lighting is superb and the images really live.

Recipes are clear & concise – each neatly fitting onto its own page so there’s no turning backwards & forwards.

When it comes to pie, home-made is definitely best so this book is a must for any kitchen shelf. Pies can provide the perfect meal for a relaxed family gathering, a light lunch or a dinner party.

We defy you to read this book and not want to get baking.

So what’s keeping you – there’s pie to be made!!

Pie is also available from Hive and Amazon.

Here’s a little preview of the first pie we tried from the book. It’s a leek, blue cheese & wild garlic pie – an interesting combination of ingredients that could all be locally sourced… and truly delicious which is the most important thing. Blog post with recipe to follow in a couple of days!

[Many thanks to Bloomsbury for this review copy]

Allotment Diary: Gone to Seed

This week, we finally got to do some proper planting on the allotment. We bought a selection of vegetable seeds, got given some allium bulbs by our neighbour and sent off for some wild flower seeds that were being given away by BBC Countryfile & Go Wild.

We sowed some sweet corn kernels using toilet roll inners a few days before we went to the allotment…

…and transplanted them into a newly-laid bed when we got down there.

When we get to the allotment, the first thing we did was to have a quick inspection to see if anything looked any different. And lo & behold, a few of the sweet pea seeds we planted up a couple of weeks before had sent up little shoots – no more than a couple of centimetres tall!

Adelle set about sowing some cornichon seeds into one of the other beds we’d prepared the week before…

…while Justin continued with laying paths and beds…

…and Fudge did what he does best… loaf!

He sometimes gets a bit bored which can often lead to naughtiness so we keep him occupied by giving him a big bone to gnaw on.

We found this old wire basket on the plot so we decided to use it to keep all our tools tidy.

We also found this snail skulking around. The first live one we’d seen up to that point. We doubt it will be the last!

The last job of the day was to clear out these two sinks we found at the back of the plot and put them into place, ready to plant up next time.

H is for Home Harbinger

Month: May 2014

Gimme Five! Bookends

Cakes & Bakes: Wild garlic, leek and blue cheese quiche

We have a copy of Pie* to give away (sorry, UK only). Entry below the recipe*

Wild garlic, leek and blue cheese quiche

Ingredients

Instructions

Bookmarks: Pie

Allotment Diary: Gone to Seed

*We have a copy of Pie to give away (sorry, UK only). Entry below the recipe*

Wild garlic, leek and blue cheese quiche

Ingredients

Instructions

We have a copy of Pie* to give away (sorry, UK only). Entry below the recipe*