Fuddle - food with a cuddle

Whenever we have a fuddle at school one member of our department always brings homemade smoked mackerel pate. We love it! So much so we've taken the recipe home to make it ourselves. I've just given it a go and it's so easy I highly recommend trying it.

You need:
a pack of smoked mackerel - 3/4 fillets
a pack of cream cheese
3/4 ramps
black pepper
smoked paprika

Grill the mackerel to warm through and remove the skins. Slice and fry off the ramps then blend the mackerel, ramps and cream cheese together. Add black pepper for seasoning and a pinch of smoked paprika then ensure you chill before serving. Simple as that really but tastes delicious.

Oh if anyone is wondering what a fuddle is - food with a cuddle! Buffet style lunch where everyone brings something different to share. Yummy.

Baby Bunny Gift

On hearing the great news that our friends are having a baby instead of getting them a congratulations card I thought I'd make them a congratulations bunny. Having got a magazine subscription for Christmas with lots of things in it to make from food to crafts this bunny seemed a perfect congratulations on your news baby gift!

 How cute is it!

Summer Holiday booked!!

Stateside here we come!!

Summer holiday is booked - in advance I know but due to last years highly busy wedding season we are getting our holiday booked in now! So the plan, fly to San Francisco, see the sights, then live it LA style, then onto to San Diego via train. Finally the stop off on the way back is two nights in Chicago. I love the windy city and as Daniel has never been and we've both be to NYC a few times we thought Chicago would be a great shout.

Now to figure out what to see, eat, do...

Curtains Complete!

As we are now in our home and are redecorating I decided to try and make the curtains, for the guest room to start with just in case they weren't very good! They took ages, mainly as I triple checked everything I was doing and they are interlined with fleece as well as the lining material just for a little added insulation. But lo and behold they are finished!!! And actually they don't look too bad.

Decorating begins!!! Room 1 'Amelia's'

Now the plasterer has been and skimmed several ceilings we can begin decorating! Even though he was very clean and tidy plaster still get everywhere so after a mammoth clean decorating has begun in the 'Amelia' room. To be honest we need to get rid of her face! All holes have been filled (believe me they were quite a few) and all woodwork has now been sanded - skirting boards, door frame and windows. We are now ready to whitewash the ceiling and undercoat. It is going to take a few layers of paint to cover her face, mainly because it has been painted on in black and is massive!

Here is my photo log of the room transformation - doesn't look like much at the minute but it takes a while to prep the room ready for painting!

Say goodbye to that mural!!!

Wedding 3 - The Crossland's

Wedding 3 was The Crosslands - Tom and Claire. This was the wedding where Daniel was best man and of course he did a fab job. Everyone commented on how good his speech was, clean but funny. Needless to say it was another lovely wedding. The meal this time was a nice change of soup, sausage and mash and cheese cake and the theme was cartoon couples. I was sitting on Fred and Wilma with Zara and the ushers and the little table treat was a very nice looking cupcake - I've not eaten it yet though.

Just like any wedding where you are there for the whole day, it is a very long day! Too much wine was flowing and as probably guessed I had a very sore head the following day...and the following day after that!

Here's the happy couple and our table treat!

The Bake Off is Back!!!!

As you can probably tell I am very excited about the new series of The Great British Bake Off! We didn't even know it was coming back on and luckily noticed it just before it began!  I'm looking forward to seeing what they will make this series.

Over the summer hols I have been baking, first a cream tea for guests, then tweaked the cakes from the cream tea to take back to London when I visited. They are lemon and elderflower and are lovely. Then I thought I'd make some quiches, this was really to use up the goats cheese as it was towards the end of its life. Turn into a delicious goats cheese and onion quiche. Have since made some small individual vegetable and cheese quiches too for packed lunches.

Oh we got given a bread maker as Daniel's parents no longer use it so have been trying that out too. It's OK, makes nice bread though the loaves are quite small so only do for a couple of days. That's OK I guess for now but might need to supplement the home made loaves with bought ones when I go back to work as we'd be baking them every day!

Not sure what to bake next - maybe coffee and walnut cakes. Or I might wait for inspiration from the next GBBO episode!