Ireland August 2013

Usually I visit Ireland at least once a year to catch up with friends. I lived there for tree years moving back just before the millennium. I did not get around to visiting Ireland in 2012, a trip was long overdue.

Walk in the forest near Maynooth

 Wise words

Visiting a crafts fair in Castletown House, Celbridge

Castletown House in Celbridge

                

One of the gate lodges of Castletown House which can be rented as a holiday home :)

The Liffey running through the grounds of Castletown house, on it's way to Dublin.

 Picking black berries for a lovely pudding

View over the Shannon at Clonmacnoise

           

The pelgrims path on the left and 1 of the 3 high crosses on the right at Clonmacnoise 

Clonmacnoise Castle

Birr castle and garden

The telescope at Birr castle is credited with discovering the spiral nature of the Whirlpool Galaxy

As you see, I didn't even make it to Dublin, so a good reason to return to Ireland soon.

Plum Season

Plum season is here, so I thought I'd gather all my plum recipe's for you in this one blog post. Cause besides eating them just like that or making jam with them you can do a lot more with plums:

Pruimenseizoen is weer gearriveerd, dus dacht ik laat ik alle pruimenrecepten hier voor jullie bij elkaar zetten. Je kan pruimen zo uit het vuistje eten of jam van maken, maar je kan er nog zo veel meer mee:

• Lavender Plums (lavendel pruimen)
• Plums in puff pastry (pruimen in bladerdeeg)
• Plum cake (pruimen cake)
• Spicy plum sauce (pittge pruimen saus)

You want to know were I get my plums, (re) read these blog posts:
Nieuwsgierig waar ik mijn pruimen vandaan haal, (her)lees dan deze blogs:

• Plums 
• Dutch plums 

Sweet Saturday: Bread pudding with cherries

Bread Pudding with Cherries

• 3 eggs
• 600 ml  milk
• 180 gr of brown sugar
• 1 sachet of vanilla sugar
• teaspoon of biscuit spices (mix of cinnamon 40%, coriander seed, caraway, nutmeg, ginger and glove) 
• 400 gr old bread
• pinch of baking soda (1/2 teaspoon)
• 120 gr cherries (from a can)

Mix the eggs, milk and sugar. Add the bread torn into little pieces. Mix with a soon and add the baking soda and cherries, add some of the juice of the cherries too. Leave to rest and soak for at least an hour. 

Butter a baking tin. Pour the mix into the tin and bake for 45-60 minutes in a oven of 150-175°C.

Enjoy your Sweet Saturday!

Story Bowl: Alice in the Fifties

This bowl was made to commission; the input was: Make a bowl for someone who adores Alice in Wonderland and is a great fan of the fifties era too.

So a bowl in fifties green with the white rabbit, tea-party and playing cards it became. The teacups and the lid of the teapot are loose, removable. The watch is the interior taken from an old ladies watch.

***

Sweet Saturday: Elderberry Flower Pancakes

Pick the elderberry flowers, about 1 per 1-2 pancakes. Shake them well.
Make your pancake batter as your are usual.

Now first I tried to add the complete umbels, like this:

Looks nice doesn't it? The idea is to remove it carefully, the batter has to be dry by this point. It was tricky to get it out starting from the outside, working inwards before the other side of the pancake was burned. Also not all flowers stay behind in the pancake. Very fiddle work and not a lot of flavour.

So I picked all the flowers from the umbels and sprinkled those liberally over the pancake while the batter is still wet.













Turn as usual, eat like that or with an extra topping of ice, cream, suger, .... as I write I think lavender ice would be a great companion to these pancakes.

*** Bon apetit! ***

Note: while picking the flowers of the umbels, keep in mind a lot of pollen will escape covering your clothes in yellow dust.

Note: pick umbels which are in full bloom and dry, preferable after a few days of sun as they will be more fragrant and flavoursome :)

Sweet Saturday: Lemon Balm Syrup

Lemon Balm Syrup

I found the recipe here, but since that site is in Dutch I'll translate it here into English.

Pick some lemon balm (two hands full, make a cup with your hands and hold the leaves loosely). 

Rinse the lemon balm and put in a pot or glass bowl.

Boil 1 litre of water, add this to the lemon balm and leave it to infuse overnight. 

Take the leaves from the water and squeeze. Strain the liquid.

At 500 gr of sugar for every litre and heat until the sugar is dissolved. 

When all the sugar is dissolved and vapour comes from the liquid it's time to put it into clean bottles.

NOTE: I used cane sugar and only 400 gr, downside of cane sugar is that you loose the lovely fresh green colour, as you can see when you look at the bit which did not fit in my bottles, but tastes an smells just as yummy all the same :)

Dishwasher proof

Porcelain, especially some of my pieces, looks really delicate; people hardly dare touch it at fairs and markets. I than usually make them hold the object ;)

Porcelain is so much sturdier than your average ceramic, stoneware, pottery, ... To me that is the beauty of it, you can work very fine and still it will keep it's strength. Other clay would crumble when worked to such thin proportions.

And yes, it dishwasher safe too! Like my new line of butter dishes:

You can find them in my etsy shop, custom orders are welcome too.