A spot of baking: savoury, sweet and with gin

After a particularly busy week today has been a day of cooking and baking, and that's a great way to destress.  The radio is turned up a notch or two, I have the house to myself and I'm in the process of making a lasagne for tea and while the rosemary focaccia cooks I'm already thinking about what's potentially up next.

It's been a while since I made focaccia though and luckily I had some yeast that was still just about in date and willing to do its thing.  If you've got quick active yeast at the back of the cupboard like me then it's worth knowing that salt kills yeast and sugar helps it.  So if you're not sure if it's going to do anything mix it with warm water and a smidgeon of sugar, if it froths use it, if not throw it away and head to the shops for some more!

I've the rest of the packet to use up so there could be plenty more focaccia to come, or even better pizza oven pizzas.  Making bread always amazes me, so few ingredients but such a lovely outcome.  The kneading is therapeutic too, and go some way to counter the stresses of this week.

I mean, from this:

To this, about thirty minutes later:

It smells good, and I'm looking forward to tucking into it later on. 

The bolognaise of the lasagne is cooking away and there's just the cheese sauce to make.  In the local supermarket earlier I was feeling lazy so thought I'd buy some but it was not to be as they only had carbonara sauce on the shelf.  I was clearly meant to make my own. 

Finishing with something sweet

Now that I've got into the mindset of baking today, I want to continue.  You may remember I have a penchant for cake and would happily eat cake for breakfast.  They do in Portugal, and so that means it's allowed.  It's probably also why I like Portugal so much, in fact I even know the Portuguese word for cake (it's bolo in case you need it)

Thinking about what cake I could make I remembered a cake my SIL made on our last visit - a gin and tonic cake.  I know, it sounds delicious doesn't it, I can tell you hers was and the flavours have been stored away for future use.  There was also a strawberry and prosecco cake which I'm hoping will also reappear when we visit in the future. 

THE MAIN INGREDIENTS - BUT WHICH GIN TO USE?

But gin and tonic cakes, they definitely work.  But which gin?  We already have a selection (as you can see) and I suspect that each will give the cake its own flavour, and there's plenty of scope to experiment.  I think this is where miniatures, like these from Just Miniatures could come into their own.  For example I think a more fresh and floral flavoured gin would work well in a cake, but we tend to be drawn to more robust, juniper styles to drink.  Clearly I'd like all the gin, but that's not so practical. 

In my quest to find a recipe I'd use, I've already found the following recipes:

• Gin & tonic cake, BBC Good Food
• Gin & tonic loaf, Good Housekeeping
• Gin & tonic tray bake, Delicious magazine
• Iced gin & tonic bundt cake, Sainsbury's magazine

But I'd be keen to know if you have recipe you stand by, or of course, ones to give a miss.

* This is a collaborative post but all views are my own.

Highlights from a day at Gardeners' World Live

I can't believe it's Tuesday evening already and I'm only just sitting down to write my highlights from Gardeners' World Live which we popped up to Birmingham for on Sunday.  It was a long day, leaving home before 7.30am and not getting back until 9.30pm but we had a great day, were lucky with our train connections and saw lots.  The day ended with a Chinese takeaway and some photo editing, with my highlights chosen that evening.

Would I go again? Yes. So if you've thought about visiting but haven't been sure I'd recommend it.  For me, shows like this are all about the gardens and the displays. I tend to avoid buying too much, although we did leave with some cheese and some Whiskey and Toffee Vodka from the adjoining Good Food Show.  There were lots of plants to purchase on those crates on wheel trolley things tackled me at least a few times while I wasn't expecting it. I was less keen on transporting plants home by train, but perhaps if I lived closer or if we'd driven then it might have been an option.

I've driven to the NEC before, albeit from Norfolk which isn't as straightforward as you think it might be, but even so after our train journey this weekend, it's safe to say I'm a train convert.  The downside though is trying to predict when you're ready to come home in advance, and I think I was optimistic with that, which resulted in the longer than usual day.  Although if the weather had been nicer I'm sure we wouldn't have noticed it quite so much, and would more likely have spent time making use of the plentiful outdoor seating areas.

So onto my highlights

One of the first show gardens we saw was this "Breath of Fresh Air" garden, and it certainly was.  The helenium-type yellow flowers against the leaves of the hosta made for an unusual combination and well, as you know, I'm rather partial to a pop of yellow.

A BREATH OF FRESH AIR ON THE APL AVENUE

The Made in Birmingham garden was one that I'd seen on Gardeners' World before our visit and I was looking forward to seeing it.  I love veg growing in rows nice and orderly like this and in my mind's eye my allotment would look like this, without weeds of course, just like this one.  I think MOH was more interested in the train carriage, but declined the opportunity to see the garden from the other side. 

MADE - AND GROWN - IN BIRMINGHAM 

You'll definitely be seeing more of this garden on the blog, and you never know one day I may be able to grow veg as neatly as this.  It's a long shot, but definitely something to aim for!

Another feature of the show was the Beautiful Borders area, and there were many of these small plots of loveliness which I insisted we walk around every side of every single border.  I've chosen a few photos from this part of the show as not only were they great to look at and full of inspiration, but they also used plants that you or I would have in our gardens and looked, dare I say it, attainable?

The first one represented one of my favourite books - The Chronicles of Narnia - and was complete with a wardrobe.  I'm teasing you though as I'm showing an arty-farty pic, but it's so gorgeous I had to include it in a highlights post.

BEAUTIFUL BORDERS: THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA

The Marie Curie With Love pulled at all sorts of heart strings with its message pebbles around the pool, and while it was touching to read these messages, and I'm sure leave them, the bridge did make me smile for the designer's attention to detail. 

BEAUTIFUL BORDERS: MARIE CURIE WITH LOVE

The Pyramid Garden was a jumble of beauty (with apologies to the designer if they're offended by my description), but to me it was the dense planting and plants that most of us recognise that was central to its appeal.

ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL BORDER: THE PYRAMID GARDEN

After we'd systematically admired each of the Beautiful Borders my eyes were taken by a row of wheelbarrows, which turned out to be a rather long row of wheelbarrows planted up by local schools.  Each wheelbarrow was a "meal in a barrow" and it was great to see how the schools had tackled this, and the meals they chose.  The stone bugs and painted wooden spoon plant labels of this one were the deciding factor on which of the many photos to include, but you may have seen my Instagram on Sunday where I shared a chicken in a wheelbarrow...

A MEAL IN A WHEELBARROW, JUST ONE OF THE COMPETITION ENTRIES

I've chosen the next few photos for their colour and form, and you'll not be surprised to see a succulent or two along the way I'm sure.  But first up is this vivid reddy-pink phormium, which was also in a glossy red pot.  If you want colour, this certainly delivered.

COLOUR AND COLOURFUL POTS IN THE WYEVALE GARDEN CENTRE SOLUTIONS GARDEN

In the flower marquee I quickly sniffed out the cacti and agaves and this one caught my eye.

We also stopped a while and admired the air plants, they really are quite peculiar and yet fascinating at the same time.  I've a feeling there'll be more about these on the blog too, but I'd be interested to know what you think of them?  I was almost tempted to buy one of these but found it hard to choose just one.

AIR PLANTS, WIERD AND WONDERFUL!

It wasn't long though before I stumbled across some more succulents, these ones having a picnic.  Quite random, but pretty nonetheless.

A PICNIC OF SUCCULENTS

The Floral Marquee was a mix of exhibits and plant sales and a hive of activity.  There was a cafe in the centre but it seemed pretty low on stock compared to the many food vans around the show so we stuck to searching out the more unusual plants, like these carnivorous ones.  Don't get too excited though as they're unlikely to solve any fly problem you might have as they are only likely to eat around six a year.   

CARNIVOROUS PLANTS

The markings are spectacular though, and it's easy to see why a fly might be tempted in.

My last highlight photo is one of a stand offering wedding floral arrangements and the fountain of champagne glasses filled with flowers looked spectacular.  Probably a little too delicate for my clumsy self (and apart from the fact that I'm not in the market for wedding flowers) but an unusual, and pretty take on wedding flowers.

So, now you can see why - or part of why - it was such a good day.  I'll be sharing more photos from my visit, interspersed with all the other photos I've already promised to share.

Taking care of our teak garden furniture

It's got to the time of year when we almost expect the weather to be good hasn't it?  And by good, I mean warm enough to sit in the garden without adding an English summer 'layer' (aka a cardy) and generally over the past few weeks, I think we've done ok.  

As ever some days have been better than others, but it's also clear that our garden furniture has also seen better days.  Pondering this I realised it's been a while since I spent an afternoon sprucing it up.  But, I think it's getting to the time to give it some more attention, don't you?

Teak garden furniture is a classic, but yet on-trend choice for garden furniture, we've had this set since 2008 and apart from that one scrub have done very little with it.  We should do more, I'm sure but the silvering has a certain appeal, and if I'm honest you forget how good it looks when it's cleaned and spruced up.

This year for the first time that I can remember I've moved our houseplants out into the garden, and they seem to be really enjoying it.  But as you can see, they'd look better if the table had some care.  But it's relatively easy to give teak outdoor furniture some TLC and improve its looks and longevity, and it's a task this time I'll be delegating to MOH (he doesn't know yet!)

I read somewhere that it's going to be a good year for strawberries this year, and so far that prediction has been proven right.  We're currently in strawberry overload from the plot and the plants we have in our garden are also producing fruits, which they don't always do.  I love a strawberry or two, so I'm very much in the "long may it continue" camp - what about you?

MOH though is getting to the "what strawberries and cream again" point so let me know your best ways of using a glut of strawberries.

STRAWBERRIES - YUM!

We're off to Gardeners' World Live tomorrow and I'm fully expecting to be "assaulted" by lots of loveliness, for the garden and for my tummy, as there's also entry to BBC Good Food Live too.  It's my first time at the show, so it'll be interesting to compare it to both the house and garden shows I've been to this year.  

But I bet I'll see plenty of garden furniture, and I bet plenty of it will be teak too.

* This is a collaborative post, but all views are my own.