Bagels, cream cheese & jam

Back in the day when MOH and I got together, and when we were ‘commuting’ between our respective houses one of MOH’s specialities was a bagel, cream cheese and blueberry jam. Something I’d not had before, but it was quite a hit. Initially this became a staple weekend breakfast, but over the years somehow it’s fallen off our radar, and I’m not really sure why.

Sometimes though life reminds you of these things, and circumstances even align. That’s exactly happened last week and resulted in a throwback breakfast, and very tasty it was too.

MOH had a planned trip to London, and as he would when we lived in Greenwich he stopped off at Brick Lane for some bagels. They really are the best, and I’ve an inkling that it was when we tasted these bagels (or beigels) that the shop bought bagels fell out of favour - there really is no comparison, trust me.

While MOH was in town I tested out my new preserving pan with the blackberries we picked from the local hedgerow following a recipe I’d tried before. I’m quite partial to a blackberry jam it seems, and had written about two on here before. This time I opted for the blackberry and lime jam, which simply adds lime zest to the jam mixture.

We picked about half a kilo of blackberries and that turned into two jars of jam - as you can see one’s a little larger than a usual sized jam jar, and there was also enough to fill a ramekin which we’d keep in the fridge and use immediately.

MY HOMEMADE BLACKBERRY & LIME JAM PICTURED ON ONE OF MY NEWEST SUSTAINABLE ‘KITCHEN TOWELS’ MADE FROM MY WONKIEST PATCHWORK BLOCKS AND OLD TOWELS SEWN TOGETHER. PRETTY AND PRETTY USEFUL TOO!

So with MOH bringing home the bagels, and my afternoon jam making - all I needed was some cream cheese, which fortuitously I had in the fridge. (It’s a great fridge standby and as well as on bagels, it’s also good for pasta and to make a quick cheese sauce for cauliflower cheese or lasagne - and it usually has a long ‘use by’ date too).

So Brick Lane bagels, cream cheese and homemade blackberry and lime jam (not the blueberry jam we used to have, but close enough) and what a breakfast it was. The jam even solicited unprompted praise from MOH, so a result!

Isn’t it great when circumstances align?

Drying bay leaves

It seems funny to be writing a post sharing drying bay leaves on the day when we have finally got some proper rain here, but it’s a good as time as any. And by proper rain, I mean that is actually collecting in the trugs and watering cans I’ve left out specifically to catch the drops. Up until today, we’ve had some drizzle and light showers, but nothing that even covers the bottom of the smallest garden trug. Like many areas, the rain is much needed so hearing it about 3am this morning it was good to know that the forecast had finally come true. One spell of rain won’t fix the current issues, or the drought, but it is a most welcome start. Ironically, our hosepipe ban came into place yesterday…

But anyway on a much sunnier day last month I took my pruning shears to our two bay trees. They used to be in a similar spot in the garden, but somehow had got split up with one finding itself under more tree cover than the other. As a result this one was much leggier, and the leaves less dense - and it was in need of a good trim.

And there were too many leaves to just compost. The less-nibbled and better leaves were saved and washed so they could be dried, and with a needle and some offcuts of embroidery thread I had a mindful morning threading leaves into the very simplest of garlands ready for drying.

Previously when I’ve done this the weather has been less than constant, but this year with heatwave following heatwave, I confidently hung each mini ring over the willow spokes on our fence. It was only when I stepped back that I realised together they had created a festooned effect.

And yes, that’s a lot of bay leaves. My plan is to share the small garlands with family and friends, though I need to get better at remembering to take a bunch or two with me when we go visiting!

They’ve dried really well - as you’d expect with the weather we’ve been having, but I didn’t want them to get too dry. So they’ve been brought inside and have hung briefly on the dresser before being stored in air tight containers. So now I’ll have to redouble my efforts to remember to distribute them!

Uses for bay leaves

As well as using dried bay leaves in stews, sauces and stocks to add earthy flavours, I also use bay leaves:

• when boiling or steaming vegetables or fish,

• in bags of flour to deter mites, and

• on the barbecue with new potatoes, alternating potatoes and bay leaves.

I’m sure there’s many other uses for this versatile plant, let me know if you have a favourite way of using bay leaves and if you dry herbs from your garden.

Two ways to enjoy Oxford Rye, from The Oxford Artisan Distillery

This post contains items gifted by The Oxford Artisan Distillery.

Over the past eighteen months, like many people during the pandemic, we’ve drunk more at home. With pubs and restaurants closed, it’s hardly surprising is it? Noticeably though we’ve enjoyed drinking more spirits than before, and have been experimenting to find a drink that we both like equally as much, rather than having a couple of bottles on the go.

So when I was offered the chance to try what’s described as “a unique English spirit” I was keen to find out more. MOH was also keen to try this telling me it would be like a bourbon - and that was before it even arrived.

When it arrived, it was confirmed as a ‘rye spirit’ and not a ‘rye whisky’ - you, like us might be wondering what the difference is. A ‘rye spirit’ must be under three years old - so a ‘rye spirit’ it is. Or a liquid rye as it’s described.

Want to know more?

I thought you might. It’s distilled from ancient heritage rye, a commonly cultivated crop in pre-industrial England. It’s distilled twice and rested in American oak barrels. The heritage grains are chosen for their flavour and are grown mostly within 50 miles of Oxford. That brings another dimension - sustainability - the grains also improve the quality of the land and the wildlife by the farming methods which avoids using all pesticides and uses traditional methods to manage the land.

And it tastes good too

It has a distinctive flavour - there’s definitely vanilla and spice. MOH has a better ‘nose’ than me and regularly identifies ingredients in food, whereas I’m much more “I like that” - and I liked this. Looking at the tasting notes there’s also sandalwood and the spice is described as “nutty and spicy notes”.

To start with we tried it neat as we’d drink whisky, which for me is with a splash of water. And it was very drinkable, and a nice warming feel so would work well for an end of meal digestif.

The bottle also suggested trying it as a long drink, with ginger ale, Angostura bitters and lime - and with a warm, sunny day this weekend gave us the perfect time to try this. After a mostly lazy day interspersed with chores, knowing we had plans to sit and enjoy the garden we’d spent time working on, was a very good plan.

So that’s what we did - moving to the end of the garden to catch the last of the sun, we enjoyed an Oxford Rye take on a dark and stormy - on a day that, thankfully, was far from dark and stormy. While it was good neat, in my opinion this was better.

* With thanks to The Oxford Artisan Distillery for providing The Oxford Rye for me to try for the purposes of this review, all views and opinions are my own.