#SourdoughSeptember

Chocolate and banana muffins are another (delicious) way to use up sourdough starter, along with ripe banana's that no-one wants to eat. The sourdough starter needs to be fed regularly otherwise it will get too sour and probably a bit mouldy (or even die), so I try and use some every week and refresh the remains with some flour and water to keep it a happy. You may have noticed that I have a very relaxed *read 'lazy'* attitude to maintaining my sourdough starter!  

family tea

I combined my two starters together (Derbyshire starter and a San Francisco starter from Christmas) because I hadn't labelled them and was getting them mixed up. Interestingly, they definitely had a different smell, although I couldn't tell any difference on baking. Now I have a single starter that could be described as multi cultural. Anyway, back to the story. I wanted to make some different bread for family tea instead of a sourdough, so looked for inspiration at the recipes on the BakeryBits blog. These are generally devised by Vanessa Kimbell and I love that she comes up with new recipes for sourdough bread, and also some interesting cakes and muffins using sourdough starter. She also uses a 'la cloche' baking dome so it fits my style of baking perfectly.

I digress......back to family tea..... I found two recipes that fit the bill for today's family tea; Chocolate and Banana Sourdough Muffins, and Cumin and Sultana rolls.

The muffins are incredibly easy to make. It really is a case of mix the crumble topping ingredients and set aside , mix the dry ingredients together, mix the wet ingredients together and then combine the wet and dry together. Plop the mixture into the muffin cases and then pile topping  on the er.... top. Bung in the oven for about 20-25 minutes and there you have it, delicious chocolatey muffins

Muffins ready to mix

chocolate and banana sourdough muffins

The bread rolls are an unusual combination of cumin and sultana, but it really works as a taste combination. The fragrance of the lightly toasted cumin seeds and the baking bread  permeates the whole house making you instantly hungry. The rolls are shaped and then proved in the baking dome base and then popped in the oven with a pre-heated lid. It's so easy. In fact I made another batch this morning, since the last lot didn't make it past teatime.

cumin and sultana bread rolls

I have to mention the amazing purple smoothie I made last week. It started with a spot of blackberry picking from the back of the car park at the flat. They are the most succulent, huge blackberries ever. I just couldn't resist and it only took about 20 minutes to pick nearly a kilo! I didn't fancy making jam using the pretty useless cooker that's in the flat, so decided to freeze the blackberries for smoothie-ing and juicing. What a purple delight a blackberry, yoghurt and banana smoothie is! And so very delicious with sourdough cheese scones for lunch.

Sunny Sutton on Sea part 2

Here again at Sutton on Sea. It's the August Bank Holiday weekend and the weather is glorious. Great news for the seasonal seaside economy, and of course great news for us because it truly is beautiful. Sutton on Sea has been a perennial seaside favourite of my family and I still love it here. Sometimes I don't even mind if the weather is a little less than welcoming......sshhhhh say that quietly,  because it means that it is perfectly acceptable to stay indoors and read or sew or crochet, or even just watch a good film. Occasionally, we break out the board games, although not so much these days as the children are all grown up and mostly not here. However, when the weather is good you just want to be outside. Yesterday I went for a swim in the sea and was treated to the sight of terns diving right in front of me. Today I managed a swim and then a jog along the beach before breakfast. Again, the bird life was teeming. The terns were scouting back and forth and my little jog along the beach was interrupted by the sight of a host of terns, gulls, sanderlings and even a giant black backed gull all resting? roosting? on the part of beach restricted to dogs. 

Later I walked to Sutton on Sea village along the sea front. It's a typically british seaside view with all the brightly coloured beach huts. Joy of joys, my favourite beach hut was open and occupied. I wrote about it in my post 'Sunny Sutton on Sea'. I couldn't resist asking if I could have a look and take some photo's. Fortunately, the owners are used to these sort of requests and were happy to oblige. I've since been informed by a blog reader that the painting of the beach hut was commissioned by the town crier for Sutton on Sea, Mablethorpe and Trusthorpe when he owned the hut.

I have to mention my new favourite wool shop 'The Mill' in Sutton on Sea. It opened in Feb this year  to a new owner @TheCountedSheep  It has all sorts of lovely yarn, and some very tempting ribbon as well as other bits and bobs. I'm so inspired that I'm looking  for a pattern so that I can buy some wool whilst we are on holiday. I'm also particularly taken with the antique sock knitting machine in the window. I really want one. In fact I came very close to buying one from  a lovely gentleman in Ashbourne. He has a huge collection of antique sock machines ready to restore and when our finances have stabilised after the barns are completed, I'm having one!

Cows on my running track

I've found it quite hard to get back into running after my holiday. I have to admit I came back a bit battered and achey after climbing mountains and fording streams so gave in to the pain. A session of physio helped enormously and I would recommend my local friendly physio Di at Fizziofit to anyone. Anyway, my resolve just crumbled when I found cows on my running track. They seem friendly enough, but you just can't be sure........especially when you're not in the mood for running anyway. I know I could just run somewhere else, but I like that my track is exactly 1k long so can easily measure how far I've run, and I know that the hill isn't really that steep and long so will soon be going back down again on the next lap. Also, it means that I can listen to a story on my ipod and be distracted from thinking about the actual running and how nice it would be to stop doing it. I was very pleased that I managed a fairly comfortable 4 laps (4k or 2.4 miles) last week when the cows were in the far field and I only stopped then because my new running shoes had started to rub and cause a blister.

Yarn bombing in Troyes

I almost forgot but on our journey down to the alps we stopped over near Troyes and so our first french adventure was driving into the town to find somewhere to eat.  I was so excited when I saw the yarn bombing that I took lots of photo's. Unfortunately, it was starting to get dark by then so the photo's didn't come out as well as I'd hoped. I wonder how well yarn bombing is received in France. I still fancy having a go one day when the barns are finished. I have plans for a mini woolfest of our own!

More french food

Oops, found some more photo's on my phone. I really need to spend some time organising (and backing up) my photo's. Since our holiday in France, the time has flown by and I realised that it has been a long time since I last blogged, so in a belated catchup, here are few more fab foodie photo's taken at a little restaurant in St Gervais - 'Creperie 4 Epices'. Of course, I had to try a fromage et noix galette (cheese and nuit savoury pancake for us Brits) and it would have been rude not to have a dessert afterwards. I was a bit surprised by the ginormous knickerbocker style dessert because my french isn't as good as I would like so I wasn't really sure what I was ordering, and please note I did NOT eat two desserts - one was more than enough!

Final French Food Fling

Well, we're back in the real world but thought I would do a final post about our french food adventures.

I present to you........the raclette. This ingenious contraption grills and melts cheese which you then scrape onto cooked potatoes and typically eat with a platter of meat. And of course, wash down with some chilled white wine. I can't remember which cheese we used except that it was a combination of gruyere and something else. Another lovely evening on the balcony watching the world go by.

Our last cooking on the balcony extravaganza was to use the pierrade which is basically a hot plate on which you cook some meat. We cheated and bought some ready marinated kebabs with pork and vegetables. There was an element of risk with this one because you have to make sure the pork is cooked through. This pierrade didn't have any controls other than 'off' or 'on' so there was no way to adjust the temperature. We just sat and chatted whilst occasionally turning the kebabs to make sure they were done on all sides. Very convivial, although it was quite smoky and would definitely set off smoke alarms if cooked indoors, as well as making everything smell of barbeque!  Absolutely perfect for the balcony though.

I love shopping in the big supermarkets in France because the fruit and vegetable sections have such tremendous variety. For example, I just had to take a photo of the tomatoes in the Intermarche in Sallanche. There was a whole refrigerated section just for tomatoes. At home it's pretty much a choice of 'salad'or cherry tomatoes, and usually just red ones at that. I'm quite determined to have a greenhouse again when we move into the barns as I really miss having a selection of heritage tomatoes to gorge on......err, I mean *enjoy*. 

Bastille Day fireworks

After our mini epic up Mont Joly we settled to a relaxing evening on the balcony with the inevitable glass of wine and a cheese fondue - ooh la la. Our apartment has several gadgets for cooking French style so you've just got to try it. The plan was to be eating when the Bastille Day fireworks were being set off. We were hopeful that we would get a good view from the balcony because my legs just wanted to stay where they were. In the end we were too hungry to wait for the fireworks.

The view as the sun was setting

And finally, the fireworks.....err, will upload a picture when I can get it off the camera.

Les Randonees des Alpes

.......or walks in the Alps (so far). Having been here before, we have done quite a lot of the local walks, particularly as we didn't have a car last time, so we thought as would try a walk recommended by our hosts. This entailed a drive to Les Contamines, parking by the church of Notre Dames and then taking the footpath up and up and up to eventually reach the lake - Lac Jovet. It was a beautiful day with temperatures forecast for 35°c in the valley, so a good day to go into the mountains where it would be a bit cooler. Now I have to say it was a really lovely walk, but OMG it was hard! Having done very little research beforehand, when I looked it up on the internet when we got back it was described as 'difficult' and 1020m ascent. No wonder I was cream crackered. I'm glad we did it though!

After a day of rest (and shopping), we tried another epic walk - the summit of Mont Joly. We walked up it last time we came but the started clouds came over at the last minute and we saw nothing. Cruel, cruel weather. This time, again it was forecast to be very warm in the valley, so off we set up the mountain behind us part way by car and the rest by cable car. And this is just to the START of the walk. The rest was again up and up and up, followed by even steeper up. The last scramble was not my favourite bit, but the view at the top was amazing. This walk, though pretty hard, was not as arduous as the previous one, and you see kids AND very senior people walking it so you can't chicken out. Again, I'm glad we went, but I certainly knew that I'd walked. 

Photos to be uploaded later