..the only way to guarantee that everyone will enjoy the food is to ask everyone to bring a dish.  It's not about the amount - I provide lots of food, but it's to cater for the diabetic, the vegetarian, the vegan, the gluten intolerant....

We had a glorious summer lunch in the garden. We moved the table into dappled shade, everyone helped (as my lovely family always do), we ate and drank and took a pause between courses for a swim/paddle board, or just a paddle (me!.

More tomorrow..

I kept seeing these recipes for ice cream made with cottage cheese, so I went to town for the ingredients - 250gm  of cottage cheese, 1 cup of fresh strawberries and 3 tablespoons of honey. Blend really well and freeze for  3 hours or so .

I was about to make it when I realised I had picked up a carton of cottage cheese with onion  and chives. Oops. Another trip to town.

The straight strawberry version was really nice. I'll be making it again.

Smoked peppered mackerel fillets, beetroot, a good squeeze of lemon juice. Best accompanied by a chilled glass of wine and eaten outside. I sometimes add a crumbling of fetta cheese.

..which has stopped sugar cravings altoghther! I am not very interested in celebrity diets, but I am impressed by people who live simple healthy  and long lives, as in the Blue Zones and Pioppi in Italy.


People who don't go to the gym and take supplements, but eat real food and plenty of it, and who walk and do soe manual labour most days. Peple who fetch and carry and help each other - it's all too easy to just sit and press buttons or give orders to  to Alexa and have everything brought to the door!  I find some of the technology wonderful of course. I am not against it but I do want to stay grounded and real and keep things simple when I can. It satisfies something in me which I can't quite explain.

Real coffee with cocmut oil, turmeric, cocoa and connamon, a hadnful of nuts, an apple and a square of dark chocolate.

..to accept an invitation to a fundraising afternoon tea so soom after returning from a week of super-healthy juicing..

but it would have been rude not to, don't you think?

It was absolutely delicious!


Thank you so much for all the lovely comments yesterday.

I shopped yesterday for all the ngredients, I prettied up the kitchen and cleaned all the worktops, filled a basin with hot soapy water and put out a fresh tea towel, and opened the recipe book at..
Sardine and Lemon Pate..

and at the very moment of taking this photograph the electricity went off. Yet another power cut (yet more wild weather).

This one lasted only a few hours, not a few days!

I namaged to make the pate, two plum crumbles and a large pot of Moroccan Mince. The coffee and walnut cake will have to wait till tomorrow - I am too tired tonight.

..cooking!  Unusual for me. I can cook, but don't partiularly enjoy it. However I do like good food and the freezer needs restocking after the four day power cut. My very small, slightly shabby kitchen (it really needs some money spent on it) was not very inviting so I spent half an hour clearing and cleaning all the worktops and prettying it up a bit so that it was a place I wanted to be in.

Taking inspiration from the yellow plums I found some cards and flowers and put on some music and the linen apron,

 a gift from a friend which somehow makes me feel likke a real cook.

All ready to go..

..and delicious. My new favourite biscuits..

Youtr Best Year Yet Question Nine - What are my Top Ten goals for the next year?

..looking like a Dutch old master oil painting.

I have just cooked them. Lightly poached in water and some dark brown soft sugar - not too much - a shake of ground cinnnamon, a pinch of grated orange rind, they are best served hot with some good vanilla icecream.

..that I wouldn't dream of scoffing a whole packet of amaretti biscuits in one go? It's not just that they are far more expensive. No, something else is at play here.

Maybe you never would binge, but are there some things you could binge on and some you just couldn't ever scoff all at once?

I found myself pondering this ridiculous question several times today! :-)

What could be nicer than a digestive biscuit?

Two digestive biscuits?

Or hlf a packet of digestive biscuits! Shame on me I had the whole packet one evening.

I suppose there are worse sins..

Mascarpone with icing sugar and sprinkles..We all enjoyed Colm Toibin's The Magician.

..with cake.  I am glad I took the photos of the meadow when I did because it has rained all night and all day today and much of the garden has been flattened! The flowers of a five foot tall campanula are almost touching the ground.

Ah well, summer may return. You never know.

I will return too, after a bit of a blog bteak. Wishing you fine weather and nice cakes wherever you are.

So simple to eat super
healthy here in July.

We seem to be getting summer in fifteen minute intervals - one or two a day if we are lucky, thus my delght to get a couple of hours sunshine at our family lunch. But we are back to drizzle, mist, cloud and wind, and very low temperatures. I have lit the woodburner a couple of evenings.

Summer herbs looking a bit bedraggled! Until recent visitors came I have been sugar free for quite a while now, and it has benn surprisingly easy. The best thing is I find everything else tastes much better, and when the home baking is finished I don't think it will be hard to go back to no sugar.  How is it going with you Susan?

Yay! Sunshine fot our family mid summer lunch yesterday, The forecast was poor so I set up a table inise, then I set up a tableoutside - jus in case.

It wasn't raining and there was enough wind to dry my tee shirt.

By the time everyone arrived it was getting warm so we set out the food buffet style inside and took our drinks and plates out intto the sunshine.

It was absolutely delightful with laughter, good conversation and delicious food!

I have such a lovely family.

I hope you had some sunsine.

Coffee will make you jittery

Alcohol will impair your judgement

Drink water

Lots of it

X

Am givng up sugar rfor a month.  Squished raspberries on hot toast is just as niice as jam!
 

..of beautiful little pullet eggs fresh from the farm..

Setting a pretty table is a small creative act - it's about respect for and gratitude for the food, a little ritual . Perhaps it's a bit like saying grace.

..by the delicious food in Copenhagen, I made myself an open sandwich.

Mackerel fillets, apple, parsley, lemon mayonnaise, lemon juice and some oil from the tinned fish. On buttered rye bread.

Eating it outside added to the pleasure.

The chocolate eggs are still haning on their branches, silently. That is they are not calling out 'Eat me eat me' as chocolate annywhere in the house usually does!

When I came back from the retreat having had three juices and one soup a day for almost a week, I found I could take it or leave it  when it came to cakes and sweets - which is the way I have always wanted it to be. And I have finally lost those few pandemic pounds.

SO pleased!

..blue skies, new lambs, Easter eggs, hot cross buns, blossom, bees and a birthday cake for my sister. I hope you have aslo had a lovely day.

I know some people have a Dry January, avoiding alcohol for the month, but I am going to have a Wet February - not with alcohol but with water!

I am lining up six glasses of water each morning and will drink them throughout the day. I know it benefits my health and I know I rarely feel thirsty and so forget to drink enough water, so....

There is some truth in the saying what you focus on is what you get.

My decision to change my word, despite my reservatios,  was a good one. See this post.

February posts in 2023 were mostly about romance. This one lists romantic things and your suggestions were a wonderful addition.


(To access the archive on your phone click on comments and scroll down,)

When someone gives you a panettone on New Year's Day all your good intentions about returning to healthy eating get shunted back a few days..