Olives

My olive trees have produced a lot of fruit this year and I always have the urge to harvest it. I tried this once, with the naive and romantic notion of picking the olives, putting them in some pretty jars and eating them when friends came round on a summer's evening .. I didn't know they had to be cured which is a laborious job of cutting a slit in each one, immersing them in water and changing the liquid every day for 6 days. After that they need to be stored in sterile jars in brine for 5 weeks, then drained and flavoured with lemon, garlic, herbs and stored in olive oil for two weeks. Then ... you can eat them. I threw the lot away after a few days as they looked foul, however I am tempted to have another go this year.. I'll let you know how I get on.
© 2013 nicky linzey

midday

I struggled with this subject as I was extra busy on Thursday - so at lunchtime I was eating a sandwich at my desk. 

taste

A lovely salad nicoise for the word taste - day 20 - the august break.

Taste

I was a bit stuck on Friday for the word taste and I didn't have much time to do the pic - I think it shows! Anyway - for me a bacon sandwich is one of the ultimate tastes. I don't eat much meat but I'd find it hard to give this up.

Yellow

Day 3 of August Break - Yellow - a tapas evening and a few glasses of this on Friday night with friends mmm.. .

Celebrating . . .

Yesterday we celebrated the Queen's Jubilee. We had a tea party at a friend's house and I ate my bodyweight in sandwiches, scones and cake, it was delicious as you can see. I'm not particularly a royalist but I cannot help but admire the Queen at 86 and the 60 years of her reign.

healthy

We've been eating meat free meals for a couple of weeks and there are many delicious vegetarian recipes around. This one is from years ago and I'd forgotten how tasty it is.

Lentil Loaf
225g red split lentils
2 bay leaves
1 clove of garlic crushed
1 onion finely chopped
100g cheddar cheese grated
150ml tomato juice/passata
2 eggs beaten
fresh or dried mixed herbs
salt and pepper to taste

Put lentils in a pan and cover with water, add bay leaves and garlic and boil until tender (approx 15 mins). Drain very well and remove the bay leaves. Chop the onion finely and mix with lentils and grated cheese. Add the tomato juice and well beaten eggs, season heavily with herbs and add salt and pepper to your taste. Mix well and put in a loaf tin which has been lightly oiled and lined with baking parchment. Bake for an hour at gas mark 4/350F/180C. Cool slightly before turning out and serve at room temperature.
We ate the loaf with a vegetable slaw. If you try it, I hope you enjoy it.

Artificial

I love watermelon and probably buy it for how it looks, more than for the taste. The colours are so bright they actually look artificial.
© 2010 nicky linzey for illustration friday

Greed

Finished off all the chocolate biscuits left over from camping.
© nicky linzey

Celebrations

It was my Mum's birthday at the weekend and as a family we always make a big deal of these days. After all, they are kind of special. It was the first truly hot day of the year and so we were able to be outside for the evening - a real treat.
My sister made her 'speciality pudding/cake' which is simple and delicious - I am going to have to share it here:
She buys a ready-made large sponge flan base which she cuts into 3 - horizontally - you are left with 3 thin layers. Don't worry if you muck this up - it is very hard to do - you can easily patch it up later! 
If it is an adult dinner, douse the sponge with peach liquer (Archers). If not just layer it with sliced strawberries and softly whipped double cream. When the final top of sponge goes on, cover with more cream and decorate with strawberries. Leave for a while before serving to go all gooey.
As you can see - 3 of us contributed to this and we had drunk too many glasses of the pink liquid on the left! Plus my nieces were throwing strawberries at it from all angles. Rather artistic I think, and my Mum loved it!

Weekend

I've been busy with work last week and entertaining all weekend, so have had no time for Illustration Friday or weekword. I'm missing them. On the upside I've cooked, eaten and drunk myself silly and had a great time with friends. What did you do this weekend?

Harvest

We harvested the butternut squash from the allotment this weekend. Much better than last year, we harvested 30 HUGE squash. They will keep us in soup supplies all Winter.

Craving

I don't have a particularly sweet tooth but occasionally I find myself craving a piece of my Grandmother's Lardy Cake. Luckily I have her original recipe and as Gra is such a good baker he now makes it for me. It's very unhealthy but delicious and anyway who cares!
Recipe below if you want to try it.

© 2009 nicky linzey for Illustration Friday

Ingredients

450g white unbleached bread flour

1 tsp salt

100g vegetable lard

7g sachet of dried yeast

300mls/half pint warm milk

2 tsp clear honey

150g currants (soak in warm water & drain)

100g sultanas (soak in warm water & drain)

50g soft brown sugar

1 tsp mixed spice

Method

Into the bowl sift the flour, add the salt and rub in 25g of lard. Cream the honey, milk and yeast and mix vigorously with the flour to make a smooth dough (adding more milk if necessary). Shape into ball, cover the bowl with film and leave to rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes. Drain off water from the currants and sultanas, mix together and knead into dough until the fruit is evenly distributed and leave to rest for 10 minutes.On a floured top roll out into a rectangle about 150mm (6 inches) wide by 300mm (12 inches) long. Soften the lard and spread over the bottom two thirds. Mix the soft brown sugar and mixed spice and sprinkle on the larded area. Fold the top unlarded third down and the bottom third up to make 3 layers. Roll out to the original size rectangle again, roll up from the bottom like a Swiss roll. Cut in half to make 2 thinner rolls. Place each roll cut side up onto a greased baking tray and leave to rise in a warm place covered with clean tea towel for about 1 hour. Before baking, lard the ends to stop the rolls from coming apart then bake in a pre-heated oven 200°C / Gas 6. When cool, glaze.

Glaze

To make the glaze topping place 3 tablespoons of golden caster sugar in 200ml water. Boil to dissolve and thicken - when you have the consistency of a heavy syrup take off heat and drizzle over the top of each cake.

Celebrate

It's Valentine's Day so I'm going to celebrate the love in my life, plus it's My Jack Russell's birthday!! A quick doodle this week - pen and ink on a photo of some gazpacho soup I made in the Summer!

© nicky linzey 2009 for Illustration Friday

olive and blue

I'm amazed that I've got olives on my tree this year. They're a bit wrinkly though so I don't know if I'll pick them.

Sugary

My drawing of petit fours for the theme of sugary on Illustration Friday this week. I love the colours and shapes of these little cakes when they are made well, the're like individual works of art.

© 2008 Nicky Linzey

More squash

This is the first drawing of the squash I did that led on to the 'packed' illustration.

I've now found out more about growing these from seed - they are known for being promiscuous! Apparently I should pollinate them by hand if I want to retain the variety as they can cross-pollinate, then I would need to put an elastic band on the top of the flower to stop any insects crawling inside. Sounds like a bit of a palaver to me. I haven't had any problems before and I rather liked the shock of all the strange shapes growing. We tried some for lunch yesterday, they were yummy and, as we're still here, not poisonous!

© 2008 nicky linzey

Enough

Gray makes the most delicious home-made pizzas - I just can't get enough of them.

3 of my favourites here: chorizo, basil, tomato, & olive; anchovy, tomato, chilli & olive; and rocket, tomato & olive with a free range egg on top! Mmmm...

If you click on the illustration it will appear more clearly on your screen.

© 2008 Nicky Linzey. For Illustration Friday

Midsummer madness

It was a lovely day yesterday so we made a rash decision to shut down our computers and head to the beach with a picnic. It always seems more enjoyable doing something like this when you really should be working! I won't tell if you don't.

Healthy chocolate

I decided to have a healthy salad last night - cut fresh from the garden - it tasted great - I was very pleased with myself. And then I remembered something . . .

...

. . . needless to say, it didn't last long!