wordless wednesday

what to do with a marrow...

Two weeks after placing a winning bid at the Harvest Festival Auction for a fabulous box of vegetables I still had a marrow sitting around waiting to be used.

My options:

• use it as a doorstop
• display it creatively as a seasonal decorative ornament
• do nothing and leave it until it shrivels / goes mouldy (often the most likely option) 
• make some jam or chutney
• do something more interesting with it!

I went for the last option.

It was a biggish marrow, and not wanting to make stuffed marrow I searched online for new and unusual recipes and found 'Marrow Bake' & 'Marrow Cake'.  So for no other reason than I liked the fact that they rhymed - that's what I made.

Both recipes required grated marrow - so after 40 minutes with a hand grater this is what I ended up with...exciting stuff eh?  Before starting to cook with it I tipped the grated marrow onto a tea towel and squeezed it to remove excess moisture before weighing it for the recipes.

Marrow Cake - enough for two 1lb loaves.
3 eggs
250ml vegetable oil
400g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
375g plain flour
3 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp grated nutmeg
                                              225g grated marrow

1. Beat the eggs until fluffy then add the oil, sugar and vanilla extract.
2. Mix in the flour, spices and baking powder.
3. Finally add the grated marrow before sharing it between the loaf tins.
4. Bake  in a preheated oven - 170 C / 325 F / Gas 3 for 45 minutes.

The loaf tastes lovely, is quite moist and freezes well.  

Marrow Bake 

    100g plain flour                               1/2 tbsp chopped oregano

    1 tbsp baking powder                     1 tbsp chopped parsley           

    1 onion, chopped                           1 tbsp chopped basil

    450g grated marrow                       1 tsp caster sugar 

    125ml olive oil                                1 tsp salt

    4 eggs                                            50g grated Parmesan Cheese

Oven temp - 180 C / 350F / Gas 4

1. In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, cheese, parsley, oregano and basil.
2. Add the eggs, oil, onion and marrow and mix well.
3. Pour into a 20 x 30cm baking dish and bake for 30 - 35 minutes until golden.

If you like frittata then you'll enjoy this! 

It tastes great warm or cold and you can use dried herbs instead of fresh if that's what you have to hand.


These are both recipes that I'll bake again - but I might get someone else to do the grating next time!

And as a last thought...are marrows one of the last truly seasonal vegetables?  They're never in shops outside of the UK growing season (or not that I've noticed) and I'm pretty sure you can't buy it frozen.  

Links for the online recipes:

Marrow Cake
Marrow Bake

i'm reading...

Or perhaps I should now say...I'm trying to read Dan Brown's 'Inferno'.

Here's an alternative view!

I lay the book balanced on the edge near the sink, and walked away thinking it would be really stupid sad if that book slipped into the water as I had of course just filled the sink.

So no awards for guessing what happened next.

After drying out for two days I'm now going to attempt to read the rest of the novel.

And no matter how brilliant (to be decided) it may or may not be, I don't think I'll be able to pass it on to anyone else.

wordless wednesday

wordless wednesday

snods edge beer festival

A busy, busy weekend here.  Although we weren't involved in the setting up of a local beer festival we are good friends with those organising it.

Over the weekend we each had our 'jobs' to do, OH manning the pumps and me in the kitchen - yes I know it's gender stereotyping but that's just the way it worked out.

This was the fourth year for the 'Snods Edge Beer Festival' and proved to be the biggest yet, although small by comparison to other venues it attracted so many customers that the pumps had all run dry by the end of the second day, which I suppose is far better than them running dry on the first day.  
We had 12 local real ales with such delightful names as 'Blackhill Bottom Busty', 'Jarrow Rivet Catcher' and 'The Olde Potting Shed'. There were also three ciders: Clan McFannie, Muckle Toon Rosie and Steel Bonnet. The ciders proved particularly popular - well they would wouldn't they with names like that.

I didn't spend much time in the hall with the beer drinkers as there was too much to do cooking four different types of pork sausages from The Northumberland Sausage Company: Newcastle Brown Ale, Tarset Valley Marmalade and Red Onion, Wark Chilli Sizzler and Traditional Thick Pork.  On the Saturday alone we cooked over 200.

Not a very good photograph - but it was a very, very, very hot oven.  

Then there was the peeling and chopping of 13 kg of onions to fry, for the sausage sandwiches ....the smell of onions permeated everything!      

On Saturday afternoon a local trio, the Larks' played acoustically and they were fantastic, so we sang along in the kitchen to well known classics from from the likes of The Beatles, Carol King and James Taylor .  I forgot to get a photograph so I found them (as a duo) on You Tube...

wordless wednesday

festival of thrift

This was the second year for 'the festival of thrift' a free family fun festival at Lingfield Point in Darlington.  After visiting last year and thoroughly enjoying the event I was really looking forward to going along again.

The festival site as last year, was set over a large area with substantial parking, great buildings and enjoyable spaces.

There was so much to see and do and a fantastic family fun atmosphere, it was brilliant to see that the event had grown in size, in the number of stalls and activities and the numbers of people attending.

...one of several camper vans where you could enjoy an afternoon tea
or a meal themed to match the van's decor

...enjoy a 10 minute show - viewed inside the Whalley Range's All Star PIG
(notice the curly tails!)

singalong with Ida Barr's Mash Up

...call in at Madame Chapeau's to get your own designer hat

...create a terarium

...have fun inside plastic greenhouse with huge amounts of sparkling confetti -
it reminded me of the crystal dome in The Crystal Maze (showing my age!)

...make your own miniature garden with the Nu-urban Gardeners

...boogie with the Car Boot Disco Bingo!

...jamming inside the 'Jamallot' tent.

I wasn't quick enough to book onto one of the workshops this year:

 chocolate / sushi / charcuterie / bread making / fish smoking / 

tapestry /patchwork / jewellry / fire glass / crochet, etc.

I'll definitely be signing up for one next year.

wordless wednesday

big green sunday

Today the weather was lovely, although a tad on the cool side.  Whilst the rest of the country seems to have been blessed with sunny and warm weather over the last few days, we've had mist, drizzle and much general greyness. 

However, sunshine and blue sky appeared today and this was perfect for the Big Green Sunday my OH and grandson were involved with.

Held at a retreat centre in 60 acres of parkland in Northumberland, Minsteracres provided a fabulous backdrop to a day of fun outdoors.

We had a go at pond dipping...

archery...

bird box making...

and saw sheep dog demonstrations...

 ...and although we missed the bushcraft and dry stone walling we saw some interesting fungi...

spectacular Giant Redwoods...

and beautiful artwork...

I hope you had a lovely Sunday too!