Veggie still life

We have always had bats in the attic… my father spent a lot of his time calculating the possibility of [volume + weight of bat poo = ceiling collapsing in on top of us] (in the same way that he calculated how many guests would be at our wedding at home, approximation of how much they would eat, and as a result of calculations, three days before the wedding decided to dig out a new septic tank)

Our early memories are of bats flying in windows at dusk or once when my mother found one attached to clothes that had come in from the washing line, and nearly lost her life at thesight of the “mouse” attached to her sheets! So on Thursday last, we spent the day cooking with our organic vegetables from Beechlawn Farm, here in Ballinasloe (http://www.beechlawnfarm.org/) in anticipation of our “Bat-ty” friends getting together here before our Bat-Detection Walk.

Menu: (another three) Banana and chocolate breads, soda bread, vegetable soup and bacon and mushroom pasta (carbonara-like-delicious-obsessive-and-compulsive-food), pots and pots of tea, and the piece de resistance (However do you add those French dashes over the e??): non-alcoholic mulled wine- well….: mulled spiced fruit drink, might be more correct, a la (definitely need to figure out how to add the dashes) my friend Meabh- very fragrant and warming!
MULLED SPICED FRUIT DRINK

I put approx 1 litre of orange, apple and cranberry juice into my slow cooker, about 20 organic cloves, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 vanilla pod, 3 spoons of sugar, half a grated nutmeg (and chucked in 2 small halves that were too small to be grated anymore without grating my fingers-eeeww!!!!), turned it to “High” and let it cook all day.
By the evening it was (a funny colour, granted, but,) very aromatic and delicious- just the thing before we went out tramping around old laneways and forests with bat detectors in our hands, and listening to the wonderful Pat, the BatMan. The children had a ball, with torches in the dark, listening for hoots (owls) and clicks (bats) and anything else that dared make a sound. Truly a night to remember- thank you Pat and Tara!

Then Friday, after a cold autumn start, warmed up to feel like the last dash of summer, and we went down the boreen to the river…

                                                  (after a few hot scones we were on our way…)

                                                     …Through this beautifully crafted iron gate beside our house…….

… and they are off!…..

                  check out those lichens!!! Super-pure air down here (apart from the methane gas (from the cows, not us))

         The methane-gas offenders…

Finally! Summer has arrived… a tad late, but no matter! Baby Grace, boys, Pebbles (the handsome hound, above) and I went down the boreen for a walk in the afternoon, hoping for a delicious crop of blackberries. Didn’t come back with quite as many as I would have hoped for- but then again, Grace and Liam ate their body-weight in blackberries, so maybe that’s why I only ended up with a few…

…I picked some other gems along the way….

And then we came home to another batch of delicious Banana and Chocolate Bread, just as Fergal walked in the door (which necessitated a large pot of tea of course!!)

One of these days (maybe even today?) we are going to walk down to the bridge with the kiddies and my camera and photograph it in detail, for it’s the details like the old gate, autumn leaves and ancient walls that make it such a treat.

But before I go any further, here is the recipe for:

Banana and Chocolate Bread

(I use a loaf tin lined with greaseproof paper & preheat the oven to 160’C)

Needless to say I just turn on the Kenwood Mixture and start flinging the ingredients in… Queen of Finesse, thats Me)

Cream 1 packet (approx 125g) of unsalted butter (softened) with 125g caster sugar.

Break in one of 2 large eggs, mix completely, then break in the other egg. Mash 3 large over-ripe bananas and add to the mixture.

Add between 100-200g of chocolate-we favour a good milk chocolate (i.e. one with about 35% or 45% cocoa solids- can get this in Lidl) The more chocolate, we find the chewier and delicious (and, strangely, flatter) the cake is. (I’m getting light-headed at the thought!!)

Add 200g of self raising flour to all of this, then scrape the mixture into the tin and bake for about 50 mins- 1 hour. Then when it is cooled, turn it out, or else like what happens in our house, I’m taking it out of the oven, find “someone” (a.k.a. Fergal) has made a pot of tea then the resident savages start into it and demolish it, still hot and runny (be careful of the very hot chocolate!). 

Stores well for a good few days (and that’s why I made four for our “Bat Walk” tonight, and now I’ve only 1 left which I doubt will last till evening… I think I’ll have to crank up the mixer for another few loaves)

While I was out photographing the garden:

I decided to photograph our shop displays-I’m always putting these off because I think I need the light to be a certain way etc etc (procrastination) but anyway, I went and gave it a go, and was quite chuffed with the result. I want to do some more, set up specific things, but as I was doing it at speed while Grace was asleep (she loves helping/dementing me when I have the camera in my hand- takes twice as long) I didn’t get quite that far. But at least I’ve made a start… 

I’m off now to make up a spiced mulled fruit-wine for tonight, something warm and sweet and delicious to set us up for tramping around a wet, dark forest with a bat detector… oooh, I can’t wait!!!!!

We had a day of visitors, tea, plum crumble and cream, -(Victoria plums, I think they are called- from my dads plum tree. I brought home a bag of them to save him from himself as he eats practically the entire crop. Totally fruity, my dad)- tomatoes and courgettes from the polytunnel, onions and raspberries from the garden (yes, yes, the sum total of our days: eating, drinking pots of tea, nursing and crafting amid varied gossip sessions) It’s like Breastfeeding Central at our house these days!! I made the cake above for Grandad Toms birthday yesterday (not actually a relation at all, but we’ve poached him as our own)- this is a fool-proof Victoria Sponge which I filled with vanilla double cream and homemade jam from the market (we ate all of ours within… oooh how long would it have been? approximately a week)

Victoria Sponge Recipe (adapted from Nigella Lawson (being me I could never leave anything alone.))

-I use a cup to measure my ingredients- not as big as a mug-like an old-fashioned tea cup

Gently melt 225g unsalted butter, then, in my Kenwood, I chuck in approx

1+1/4 cups of caster sugar, 1+3/4 cups of self raising flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder and 1/4 cup of cornflour (this makes it lovely and light).

Turn on the mixer and into this: crack 4 large eggs one at a time, then a teaspoon of vanilla essence. While the mixer is turning, I pour the melted butter slowly into the mixture, it will be a bit runny, but pour it into prepared 9″ sandwich tins and bake in an oven, preheated to 180′C, but turn down to 160′C once the cake is in. The filling asks for fruit, jam, and really begs for double cream (with a bit of vanilla sugar mixed in… yum)

Two great baking books I use a lot are “How To Be A Domestic Goddess” by Nigella Lawson, and “Bake” by Rachel Allen. Really great recipes, photos and instructions… and now you know why I’m not like Twiggy!!!!!!!

And meanwhile, in my free time (!) I made a hat for our dear sweet Dorothy. Dorothy has the cheese stall at the Farmers Market here in Ballinasloe, and last week when I went in to get my cheese and fish, Dorothy looked cold. It was a cold, miserable day, and I thought of how cold she would be in the months ahead, and with this gorgeous Japanese yarn crocheted together with a purple cotton, I made a slightly flapper-style hat in double crochet, with a cute turned up brim, decorated with a covered button and little ribbon. Dorothy is just far too lovely to wear a woolly hat!

We are off to Galway tomorrow for a Home Education get-together with other families around Galway county, always great fun and lots of chat. we have new people joining HEN (Home Education Network) all the time, so it always makes for a varied and interesting meet-up. My long-time friend Tara (long story-have known her, literally forever) has helped arrange a Bat Walk and Bat Detection near to us here at the end of the week with her lovely husband Pat leading the group (I was going to say a naturalist, but, is that someone who likes running around in the nip?) Anyway, he’s very “nature-friendly” and full of great information-one of those people who’s so enthusiastic about what they are interested in that they spread that enjoyment to everyone else. So should be a great evening. I think that will call for more banana bread and scones… (Erin, I promise the recipe here next time!!!)