LAVENDER & JUNIPER

Lavender & gin cupcakes

Add 1 tbsp of dried lavender to cupcake mix for 12 cakes.

Ice with 140g icing sugar, 3tbsp gin, fresh lavender flowers to decorate.

Leonora & Beryl love; love each other, love being old, loved being young, love a gin in the afternoon under the shade of the purple rhododendron.   Leonora has a deep hearty chuckle, Beryl has a naughty giggle.  Leonora wears a shirt and tie.  Beryl likes to show her knees in a skirt.  They see their ex husbands from time to time – it’s all very amicable.  They are good “companions”.  

    

CHICKEN LIVER & FIG

Pate with fresh figs

50g butter

125g bacon, chopped

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1 red onion, chopped

500g chicken liver, chopped

4 sprigs thyme

125g button mushrooms, chopped

50ml milk

4tbsp sherry

Splash of balsamic

Melt butter in a pan & add the bacon, garlic & onion.  Soften.

Stir in the liver & cook 15 mins. 

Season well & stir in the thyme, mushrooms, milk & sherry.  Cook till evaporated.

Add the balsamic & blend till smooth

Serve on toast with fresh figs, rocket & a drizzle of balsamic glaze

He had such a great affection for his Morris minor; his heart would skip a beat when a fellow owner saluted as they passed on the road.  

APRICOT & CHIPOTLE

Frozen yogurt

2 cups yogurt

½ cup milk

1 cup pureed apricot

¾ cup chopped apricot

½ cup agave syrup

Very finely chopped dried chipotle chilli

She likes motels a lot better than she does hotels, but she doesn’t know why.  Maybe it’s the light in the morning.  That probably has something to do with it.  The light in motel rooms is more natural.  It’s not as if the maid put it there. 

Richard Brautigan: Getting to know each other

CINNAMON & SHERRY

Grilled grapefruit

1 grapefruit, halved and segmented

1 tbsp sherry

1 tsp of demerara sugar

Pinch of cinnamon

Place under a grill until caramelised

“My dear Dorothy who rattled your cage? I advise having a wee drop of something strong with your breakfast and things will feel much more agreeable”.

CINNAMON & SOUR CHERRY

Muesli


1 cup hazelnuts

½  tbsp hemp oil

2 cups rye flakes

1 cup barley flakes

1 tbsp wheatgerm

¼ cup pumpkin seeds

¼ cup linseeds

¼ tsp cinnamon

Dried sour cherries

Toast all except the cherries at 180°C for 15 minutes.  Add the cherries.

This morning I sat with the back door open and let sun come in.  I smoked a cigarette.  I drank sweet milky tea.  I watched Thomas hack at the hedge with some rusty garden shears.  He had a pair of those bright yellow marigold gloves on.   

PEACH & RED PEPPER

Peach & roasted red pepper salad  (Serves 6)

3 red peppers, sliced

lemon olive oil

¾ tsp cumin seeds, toasted and crushed

1/8 tsp chilli powder

½ tsp sea salt

Zest of 1 lemon

4 peaches, peeled & cut into chunks

Roast the Peppers 180°C for 15 minutes.  Mix all together.

“Jack handed her a folder filled with samples of carpet in every hue.  They had names like ‘apricot & peach salad’ and ‘morning daffodil’”  James Wilcox; Modern Baptists

HAZELNUT & EGG

Dukkah (Adapted from Ottolenghi recipe)

70g hazelnuts, with their skins


2 tbsp sunflower seeds


1 tsp fennel seeds


1 tbsp cumin seeds


1 tbsp pink peppercorns

3 tbsp coriander seeds


1½ tbsp sesame seeds


1 tsp nigella seeds


½ tsp Maldon sea salt


1 tsp smoked paprika

Roast the hazelnuts in the oven for 10 minutes then add the sunflower seeds for a further 10 minutes, keeping them separate from the nuts. Spread the fennel seeds to a frying pan for 30 seconds. Add the cumin seeds and cook for another 30 seconds, then tip both into a little bowl.  Roast the peppercorns about 30 seconds, then transfer to a separate bowl. Cook the coriander seeds for up to a minute and tip into a third bowl. Reduce the heat and cook the sesame and nigella seeds together until the sesame turns light brown. Crush the nuts them coarsely, then transfer to a medium bowl. Lightly crush the cumin and fennel seeds, and add to the hazelnuts. Repeat with the coriander seeds, followed by the peppercorns and then the sunflower seeds. Add these to the nut bowl, along with the sesame and nigella seeds, add salt and paprika, and mix well.

They were big questions, but he didn’t really care. 

He turned back to what he was eating and gave it his full concentration.  

GRAPE & THYME

Tuscan grape bread 

Adapted from Diana Henry recipe for Stella magazine 

Stella Magazine recipe

"I begin by informing my reader that for everything good or bad that I have done throughout my life, I am certain I have always earned due approbation or reproof, and therefore must consider myself a free man".  Giacomo Casanova


Cheese, wine, bread & grapes all barely before noon.  It's not a day to be serious.  

HORSERADISH & MARMALADE

Add fresh grated horseradish to marmalade.  Spread onto buttered soda bread.

A perfume has three parts.  The first thing that hits you in the head: small light molecules that evaporate quickly.  Next are the heart notes, the main body of the perfume.  Last are the base notes, which you may not even notice for the first half an hour, but give the perfume depth and solidity.  Barnabe Fillion; perfumer

CHEESE & BANANA

*toasted bagel
*comte cheese, melted
*sliced banana
*pinch of dried chilli flakes

“Lets sit out on the porch steps, I know it's cold but I’ll make a pot of hot black coffee & toast some of those bagels & we can crochet together”.

BEETROOT & HORSERADISH

Hummus

*1 can of chickpeas

*2tbsp tahini

*1 lemon, juice

*1 clove of garlic

*2tbsp olive oil

*3 small beetroot

*3 sprigs of thyme

*1tsp caraway seeds

*1tbsp horseradish

Blitz all ingredients

The business of growing old can be fun; it can be a rose tinted spectacle, it can be pink. 

CARDAMOM & COFFEE

Mix crushed cardamom with the ground beans

“Coffee induces wit.  After a big dinner party it is taken standing up.  Take it without sugar – very swank: gives the impression you have lived in the East.”  Gustave Flaubert

 

RHUBARB & ELDERFLOWER

Ice cream

*500g rhubarb, 1cm lengths

*125g sugar

*60ml elderflower cordial

*400ml yogurt

Heat the rhubarb & sugar till dissolved & very soft.  Cool completely & mix in the elderflower & yogurt.  Churn in an ice cream mixer & freeze.

Granny pants content and happily pegged on the line of an English country garden.  Large, high cut, with a remarkably expandable waistband that will carry on beyond the belly button.  They come in an array of floral patterns and a pallet of pinks.  Anything is possible.  They hold in her womanly paunch, helping to consolidate her figure (and, by that measure, to accentuate her voluptuous bosom). 

AVOCADO & NUTMEG

By the 70’s, they had become as much a cliché start to a meal as grapefruit

Jane Grigson 

TOMATO & HORSERADISH

Bloody Mary ketchup

*3kg ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped

*4 onions, chopped

*4 cardamom pods

*½ tsp pepper

*1½ tsp ground mace

*¼tsp dried mustard powder

*Cinnamon stick

*½ tsp all spice

*10 cloves 

*1½ tsp celery seeds

*1 bay leaf

*2 cloves of finely chopped garlic

*2tsp paprika

*Salt

*175ml cider vinegar

*80g soft brown sugar

*Horseradish

*Tabasco

*Worchester sauce

*Vodka

Put the tomato, garlic, onion in a large pan and simmer for ½ hour till soft then blitz.  Put in all but the last 4 ingredients & simmer for 1½ hours till thick & reduced.  Strain.  Add the horseradish, tabasco, worchester sauce & vodka.  

Hair of the dog… velvet underground records, still in your pyjamas, a pot of coffee, talk of last nights antics.