The Wordsmith Studios Photo Prompt this week is “Drink Up!” and here’s my response to Rebecca’s challenge. To join the photo fun, pop over to Wordsmith’s Studios and introduce yourself.
Iced water with a slice of lemon, lotus candleholders and a silver vase with Bleeding Hearts.
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. Content and photos © Misky 2013. Please do not reproduce without permission
Here’s something just for the fun of it! Play along if you wish or just read the comments.
My cupboards are filled with basic ingredients, very few packaged convenience food, lots of flour, lots of ground coffee and tea, several bottles of olive oil, dried fruits and massive amounts of nuts and seeds, oatmeal, cornflakes, granola, diet drinks, and a few jars of olives, artichoke hearts, and dried pasta.
Are your cupboards full of basic ingredients for cooking from ‘scratch’ or are they primarily packaged foods that you consider quick and easy to make?
Well, it beats me. I don’t know why. Facts are facts though, and every chef on telly peels their Portobello mushrooms. Even Jamie peels his. The contestants on Master Chef do, too.
So I decided to try it both ways. One peeled, and the other not. Same ingredients. Both on the same tray, baked at the same temperature for the same length of time.
Guess what? No difference whatsoever. If anything the unpeeled one held its shape a bit better. Now I don’t know why the professionals bother, and I wondering what’s up with it. Do you peel your large, flat mushrooms? Is there a benefit?
By the way, these were really yummy. A drizzle of olive oil, then topped with the chopped up stems, sautéed chopped garlic, fresh chives, and thin shavings of cheddar cheese and lots of pepper. We like pepper. Baked in a medium oven for about 12-minutes until the cheese blistered. I’ve also made these with pesto smeared into the dark gills, then sautéed garlic, chives and parmesan shavings. That’s good too.
I’d be very interested hearing if you peel your mushrooms!
Fyn is the area of Denmark where my husband comes from. It’s a lovely area, a small island, with rich history and scenery that inspired Hans Christian Andersen to write. Here are four photos that I took recently while we were clearing out my mother-in-law’s house, who recently passed away.
If wishes were houses, this house would be mine. It was for sale about 10-years ago, and I think I’ve missed my opportunity to own it. I’ve admired it for decades. It’s set on a small knoll with a forest behind it and a lake with a wildlife reserve at the front. To the left is a small road, and on the other side of the road is a harbour filled with sail boats. This photo is for my friend, Joanna: This is where I’d live if I could.
This was my husband’s grandmother’s farm house, which is a short bike ride from my mother-in-law’s house. When his family owned it, it was an apple farm.
Fields of daffodils in bloom near my mother-in-law’s house.
And another field a short distance from the one above. There are fields all around Vester Aaby with daffodils right now.
I hope that you enjoyed this brief glimpse into a small corner of Denmark.
GREEN HEAVEN
She stirs warm green pashminas
of sun-drenched basil,
into misty verde days,
snowy Parmesan
drifts into pasta.
Heaven can’t
wait!
BABY CARROTS
Baby carrots dressed in orange
sweeter than candy
orangier than Halloween.
Peeled, cut and steamed,
slicked light with honey
and gleaming
Poetic form: Epulaeryu
Homemade Cut Flower Extender. This mixture is comparable to the little packets that you get with cut flowers. Works a charm!
Ingredients
Directions
Make homemade Febreze for a few pennies! I’ve been using this method of refilling my Febreeze spray bottle for about a month now. I don’t like to use scented sprays inside the house, but there are time when something burns in the kitchen, and that’s when I’ll reach for the spray bottle to just quickly clear the air.
Refill that empty bottle of Febreze!
Ingredients
Directions
August was busy. There was a new driveway and garden path made from brick cobbles, there were Mellow Yellow posts (yellow is one of my favourite colours!), there were scones and a possible problem with using sugar-free fizzy drinks in this recipe because of chemical changes under high heat. I don’t think I’ll try using sugar-free fizzy drinks in the future for scone recipes, as I not sure about its safety. There was bread and tomato salad, walnut and raisin bread, baked eggs with tomatoes, and latex gloves for gardening.
We brought Gabi to meet the family in Denmark. Gabi is the newest member of the Misky family who married my youngest son yesterday at Brighton’s Town Hall. It was a wonderful day, and we couldn’t be happier for them both.
August 2013, we’ll all head to Columbia for the grand church wedding, where it will be our turn to meet all of her family in Bogotá.
Here are a few places near my in-law’s house where we took Gabi.
And then there’s my garden. The grapes ripened beautifully on the vine tied into the ridge of the greenhouse, but it’s been such a cold summer that none of the same grapes growing along the fence have developed beyond the size of hard green peas. Very disappointing.
We had a bumper crop of asier, a variety of cucumber commonly grown in Denmark for pickling. We pickled enough asier to fill a huge earthenware crockery pot plus several litre jars. I also put up pickled beets (bought the beet root at the market), plus 2 litre jars of garlic dill pickles spears.
I added a good rounded teaspoon of dried chilli pepper flakes to each jar, along with half an onion coarsely chopped, 6-7 sliced garlic cloves, and lots of fresh dill. There’s no real recipe for these easy pickles but the basics are:
Misky’s Bite Me Refrigerator Pickles
You’ll need enough washed cucumbers (cut into thick slices, spears or left whole) to fill a scrupulously clean jar. Place one large dill frond at the bottom of the jar, add some cucumbers, add some of garlic and onion, add more cucumbers, then more dill, onion and garlic, and repeat until the jar is filled. In a pot, pour equal amounts of water and cider vinegar (I used 250ml each water and vinegar), bring to a boil for about a minute, then add 1 tablespoon each of sea salt and sugar. Stir well until dissolved, and return to a boil. Finally, pour the boiling vinegar mixture over the cucumbers, and then seal tightly. Allow to cool completely to room temperature, and then refrigerate. They should last a few months in the fridge. I say that they ‘should’ – I’m not really sure about that because we eat them too quickly.
…. and so now on to September. Hedgerow berries, apples, and a new front door on Tuesday. YIPPEE!!
