Busy Bees in Sussex

Currently I am staying on a farm in Sussex. It is a beautiful part of the world and also perfect for photography!
Me and my family and been put in charge of feeding the pigs in the morning. It is such a fun job and the pigs are always to excited when they hear us coming. There are some piglets as well. There are four and are so sweet to look at!

Every night we put out a nature camera which captures photos in the dark! We have got photos of badgers, rabbits, foxes and lots of wild birds such as pheasants and sparrows.

Photo of a badger we took using the nature camera!

We have been very lucky to experience some great weather! We have been on many walks with the dogs and have thoroughly enjoyed them!
I   would definitely recommend sussex as a place to come and stay.
I used to live down here and I had some really magical times.

Below is a photo I took of a bumble bee pollinating some flowers I found in the woods. The lighting is perfect and really shows of the colors and  the beauty of where I am staying. I hope to post more photos of the farm when I get the chance.

Today I am going into a local town and hoping to have a look at some of the shops. We are also going for a lovely long walk with a pub lunch at the end of it!

Bumble bee pollinating a flower in the woods

Calf in the fields near were we are staying

How to stop food cravings

I was reading the Easter edition of the Waitrose magazine and I came across a very interesting article about how to stop food cravings.

Follow a low glycemic diet when possible, avoiding sugar and refined carbohydrates. These foods give a sudden sugar high but I the space of at least half an hour they can quickly lead to hunger and and energy dips.

If you are in the midst of a craving, remove yourself from the situation and try to ignore your hunger. You could try going for a walk or calling a friend or even reading a book, to distract yourself from your hunger.

If want sugary snacks such as biscuits or chocolate, try swapping them for nuts, dried fruits or fresh fruits or vegetables such as a handful of tomatoes or raspberries.

Swap unhealthy savoury snacks such as crisps, roasted or salted peanuts for carrot sticks and houmous or olives,

I hope this is a helpful to stopping un healthy cravings!

Good Eggs

This Easter don't just restrict your self to chocolate eggs. Eggs are an alternative to your average toast or cereals at breakfast time. What an amazing amount of goodness is packed in just one egg!
Eggs contain 14 important nutrients such as vitamins and iron.
They contain vitamin B12 which helps to make red blood cells in the body.
There are many different uses for egg such as omelette, scrambled egg, poached and fried fried egg. These are quick and easy and can be made any day for breakfast.

For a boiled egg

Boil and water until bubbling and add in egg. Boil for 6 minutes and serve with buttered toast, salt and pepper

Personally I enjoy and boiled egg in the morning before a busy day!

Breakfast smoothie

I am hoping to try this delicious receipe soon. I first saw it on Jamie Oliver's YouTube channel. It is very refreshing and includes all the essentials for a good breakfast to get you through the day.  It has carbohydrates,  dairy and protein.
Makes 1 pint
1 banana
Handful of porridge oats
2 tablespoons of fat free yoghurt
Handful of nuts
Frozen mago or any other frozen fruit
1, squeezed lime

Blend until the consistency that you  like your smoothie!

Larder essentials

In my eyes here are just a couple of supplies essential in a larder

• Rice
• Pasta
• Tea
• Coffee
• Salt
• Pepper
• Herbs/Spices
• Stock Cubes
• Tins of: tuna, beans, chopped tomatoes, sweetcorn
• Sauces (tomato, oil and vinegar)
• sugar
• flour (plain and self raising)
• dried fruit
• biscuits (sweet and savoury)
• Jam and marmalade
• Marmite

Lemon and poppy seed cake

This is an old-fashioned tea cake - a is a great pudding served with lots of lemon or vanilla ice-cream.

115g unsalted butter (softened)
115g castor sugar
4 large free-range eggs
180g ground almonds
30g poppy seeds
zest and juice of two lemons
125g self-raising flour (sifted)

for the lemon syrup

100g castor sugar
90g lemon juice

for the lemon icing

225g icing sugar
zest and juice of one lemon

Method

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4. Grease and line the bottom and sides of a 20cm springform cake tin with greaseproof paper.
Using an electric whisk, beat the butter with the caster sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs one by one, beating each in well. Fold in your ground almonds, poppy seeds, the lemon zest and juice and the sifted flour. Spoon the mix into the prepared cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until lightly golden. You can check to see if the cake is cooked by poking a cocktail stick right into the sponge. Remove it after 5 seconds and if it comes out clean the cake is cooked; if slightly sticky it needs a little longer, so put it back in the oven. Allow the cake to cool on a rack.
Make your lemon syrup by heating the sugar and lemon juice in a pan until the sugar has dissolved. While your cake is still warm, make lots of little holes in the top with a cocktail stick and pour your syrup over.
To make your icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the lemon zest and juice, stirring until smooth. When your cake is almost cool, put it on a serving plate and pour the icing carefully over the top. If you pour it on to the middle of the cake, then let gravity disperse the icing down the sides, you get the 'drizzle' effect! Give it a helping hand with a spoon if you want.

Poll

Hi everyone!
I thought about starting a poll about which kind of recipes you would like me to post! I will give each poll a week for you too make your desisions! I made one today about different kinds of cake.
Personally my favourite is the lemon and poppy seed cake! It has a lovely moist flavour due to the ground almonds in it. It is a Jamie Oliver receipe but I added a spoonful of lemon curd to give it a lovely flavour!
Be sure to check the poll each week to choose which recepie you would like me to do! It really helps so I can do create posts that you enjoy! :)

Cook Books

I have a wide variety of cook book which inspire me to try different cuisines and styles of cooking or baking. I don't have a favorite cook book but I enjoy looking at vintage cook books which have lots of distinctive ways of cooking that I may have never seen before!

Some of my cookbooks

As you can see in the vintage cookbook, they drawings are so colourful, they have a very
vintage look about them!

 These are some of my cook books about different cuisines. They each have a selection of recipes originating from a specific country. With these kind of cook books you can create authentic European dishes!

Close up Garden Photography

My garden is a north facing garden so we don't get the best of the light when it is sunny, but when it is sunny I like to make the most of the sun to take some photographs!
Here are some of the photos I took:

Leaves of the olive tree

Landscape photos

Even though the lighting wasn't great this after noon, I still managed to capture some of the beautiful landscapes that Forest Green had to offer!
I also enjoyed a meal in the nearest restaurant called the Parrott. I had a seasonal vegetable soup with rosemary and home made bread. I am hoping to find the recipe and upload it to my blog soon!

Quirky cog on a barbed wire fence

Hidden house on the edge of the field

View of Forest Green

Menu and the Parrott

Photos

 I realise these aren't recipes or food related but I thought I would share some of the photos I took whilst walking my dog this morning! Photography has become a new hobby as I got a new camera yesterday. It is a cannon PowerShot SX400. Its a great little camera to carry around and get a quick photo!
I was thinking about doing a section on this blog for some photography. I haven't decided what kind of style I want to take my photos in, but I enjoy close ups, landscape and nature photography

Italian Breadsticks

Most of my bakes are inspired by the Great British Bake off!
These bread sticks are created by Ali, one of last year contestants. They include unusual but delicious flavors and are fun to make!!
Follow the link to find the recipe to make these bread sticks!  http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/italian_grissini_86213

 

Home made whole meal bread

This bread is a simple recipe that can be made using a bread maker or just simply by hand (when kneading you can just use plain white bread flour) I prefer the old fashioned hand method because I feel I get more of the satisfaction when the final result comes out of the oven!
Secret to success:
It may sound like cheating but you get the same satisfaction by using a supermarket bought bread mix! There are loads of different varieties, whole meal, plain white, granary. All you need to add is butter and water (and some elbow grease when kneading!)
I am going to enjoy a slice or two of my bread with some salmon and boiled potatoes with lots of lovely butter on top!