Lone Star Chilli and Cheese Bread – yeehah!

Jon has been nagging me to have a go at this idea since we left Houston six years ago…. we used to go to this amazing supermarket called ‘Central Market’ and he used to buy a loaf of this bread each week, without fail. They baked it fresh on the premises and it was incredibly yummy. Now that I feel more competent at making bread I thought I would have a go!
Lone Star Chilli and Cheese Bread

I used the same method and bread ingredients as in my previous ‘Breadilicious’ post: http://kidandkitchen.com/2011/08/20/breadelicious/ ;apart from I used 100% white bread flour, no granary this time

I added 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar and 1 large jalapeno from our garden (deseeded and finely chopped) to the main mix – not the sponge.

I now have a very happy husband (and daughter)…. although a fantastic result at Weight Watchers is looking less likely now! Have frozen the rest to help resist temptation and to prevent the scales from breaking!

Lone Star Bread

A slice of pure heaven!

Abbie’s treat… what do you think she chose??

I just HAD to post about my crazy daughter! Yesterday she finished two lines of her reward chart, meaning that she could choose a great treat when we went out today. Soooooooo…. Abbie decided upon careful consideration of comics, books, toys and other delights that she wanted… CHEESE! She asked if she could have a cheese plate with 3 cheeses on it.

Both Jon and I were completely stunned, but Abbie happily bounded up to the deli counter and asked for ‘that blue one’ (Shropshire Blue), ‘Cammememebert’, and ‘that stripy cheese’ (5 counties). She couldn’t have been more pleased with her choices. She has nearly finished another row – wonder what it’ll be next time… maybe a selection of fine wines!!

The cheese plate!

My latest attempt at a loaf – now sandwich ready!

Breadelicious!

Hooray for handmade bread – it is addictive to make as well as to eat! This week we made 1/2 granary, 1/2 white flour. Abbie and I are loving making our weekend bread and this lazy method fits in well with our routine…..

1.30pm – made the sponge (bit of the flour, water and yeast left to rise) and it in the airing cupboard – then it was off to Glee 3D and to drop Jon off at the station for his boys’ weekend (or Geekfest as they are calling it!).

Click to print off recipe

5.00pm – continued to make the dough, adding the remainder of the ingredients and did a good bit of kneading before putting the dough in the airing cupboard to rise.

We kneaded through 3 Warblers' songs

8.00pm – with Abbie in bed, I started on the next stage – thumping the dough down and shaping it to make a loaf. I spray the top with a little water and dust with flour – I use a shaped stencil to decorate. This takes a few minutes and then it’s onto a baking tray, cover with a teatowel and leave for the morning.

7am – Couldn’t believe that I was up before Abbie this morning – must have been the excitement of baking! I heaated the oven up to 200C (fan) and baked the loaf for 35 minutes. The delicious smell of bread had roused my daughter by then who came down with the words “I’m hungry”…. Neither of us are particularly patient people so we ate the bread, still hot with butter and jam. I broke into my rose petal jam, bought last year in France – heaven!

Can you smell it from there?

Here are the remainder of the instructions for the sponge method…

The amazing Maize Maze, a huge downpour and some smoky cobs!

Last week we were treated to a visit from my sister-in-law and two of Abbie’s cousins; Molly and Jessica. Jon, Abbie and I had passed the Maize Maze so many times this holiday that I thought it was time we finally took the plunge and visted. Have to say I was really impressed with how much there is to do for children; the only downside was that Pip and I were deemed ‘too old’ to jump on the huge inflatables.

Molly and Abbie leading the way through the maze in drier times

We set off into the maze with the fairy trail in hand – you have to collect letters at various stamping points and then scramble them to tell you an ingredient for a potion at the end for a prize! We used Jon’s ingenious method of always going right to make our way around and quickly found ourselves bang in the middle…. that is when it happened. The heavens opened! Rain poured down with such a force that it felt as if someone was actually pouring buckets of water on us. No problem.. I shouted for Jon to get the raincoats out of his backpack.

‘Oh….’ he said… ‘they’re in the car!’. To make matters worse he then looked in his bag and discovered that he had brought his raincoat with him! We were not impressed, but we wrapped Jessie and Abbie up and tried again to make our way out of the maze. It was not a day to wear a thin, white blouse….. all at the prize booth had a good laugh at the lot of us and we obviously looked very pathetic as even Pip and I were given a lolly and packet of seeds! Jon was not permitted a lolly after we told the woman in charge of his error!

Should we forgive Jon?

So to commemorate our wet, but hilarious afternoon, I made sweetcorn (from the maize maze and our garden) with chipotle butter. The butter can be made with chipotle pickle/chipotle hot sauce, mashed into unsalted butter, with a little Maldon salt added. Then refigerate and smear on top of corn on the cob (boil for 10 mins). Grated cheese optional. Smoky and warming….

Making chipotle butter

Our corn is stacked!

This morning’s picking!

Carrots, patty pans, celery, tomatoes, kake, sweetcorn, french beans and the last of the broad beans

Blickling Hall Balls

Our second visit to Blickling Hall in just over a week – we needed to get out of the house so that Jon could work on his final masters assignment. Abbie chose to come here and ‘hunt the monsters’ (a sticker trail in the Hall), but unfortunately the Hall was closed, so we visited the cafe and cavorted around the grounds instead. Abbie enjoyed a Parvanni’s chocolate chocolate chip ice cream. I wished she would stop beginning every ice cream by biting the bottom off the cone! I had a cream tea (very generous amount of clotted cream) and spent the rest of the afternoon feeling guilty about eating it!

Blickling gardens are breathtakingly beautiful and I got to have a look at the gorgeous borders while Abbie scampered around the ‘flower mazes’ and tried to get splashed by the fountain. I am sure that one day I will be taking a very soggy little girl home in the car.. having taken one too many steps towards the fountain!

Enjoying the flowers

When walking in the grounds we found a croquet set and having seen people playing in Eaton Park a few days earlier, Abbie insisted that we had a go. I’m not saying that we played completely to the rules… but a fun time was had by both of us!

Croquet

Picnic in the Park… Sheringham style!

What a beautiful day! I’m sure that most people headed to the beach…. but as Jon hates sand, a walk in a park is always an easier sell! So I packed up what is fast becoming Abbie’s favourite meal and we headed off to Sheringham Park. It is a National Trust Property and I have to say that before we became members, the 4.50 parking fee put us off, but we soon found out that it shouldn’t have…. what a wonderful place to wander! Masses of rhododendrons, tiny paths that lead of the main routes… fairy paths as Abbie renamed them, with all the magic that accompanies the name! To top all the fun that we had on our ‘treasure hunt’ that the park was running for children, we found that ‘Waybaloo’ would be visiting from the 15th-19th September and that children can come to play Peeka! with the Piplings – you can imagine my daughter’s delight!

A tree-made den

Anyway.. to the picnic. This was a repeat of a previous picnic which Abbie and I took with us when climbing up the Catbells in the Lake District (see vid below). She proclaimed it ‘the best picnic ever’ and asked that we have the same when I was planning picnic lunches this week. It is much simpler than previous picnics that I have created (I ususally take an assortment of meats, cheeses, salads and then bread and butter sandwiches/boiled new potatoes) but it does mean that you are not carrying leftovers on your walk – essential when tackling a Wainwright!

Picniccing in the Bower

Abbie’s favourite sandwich filling at the moment is salami, cheese slices, lettuce and tomato ketchup – weird but strangely delicious. Jon and I had our choice of sandwich as well (slightly more conventional fillings). I recently bought re-usable sandwich boxes, instead of using loads of ziploc bags, and they are great as you have a lid to put crisps, carrot and tomatoes in – no plates needed. We finished off with some Victoria plums (delivered from our lovely neighbour that morning) and apples. More fuel than gastronomic experience…. but delicious all the same!

Had to put this vid on – so proud of my lttle girl’s accomplisments climbing the Catbells in the Lake District… fantastic

Change 4 life – Day 2 …. the Bushtucker trial!

Last week we were sent a ‘Change 4 Life’ pack….. I’m sure that if you live in the UK you have received one also. You may have thrown it away, but as a family we have decided to step up to the plate. I have been to Asda, to buy the on offer stuff (being reliably informed by a cashier that it was a big con as they have hiked the prices up of said goods, so that the money off didn’t hurt their profits!) and we are tackling one challenge every day, chosen by Abbie.

Choosing today's activity

So we have played piggy in the middle, with a modicum of success, and today decided to hold a ‘Bushtucker trial’ at lunchtime, sampling new foods. Jon was in charge of obtaining these and came home with an odd, but interesting selection of capers, apricots, Camembert, plums and passionfruit… We then all tasted at the same time and I recorded the results.

The video tells the tale!

We love Samphire…. and eggs

So excited this week when samphire appeared at Aylsham farmer’s market…. at not 1 but 2 stalls. We are so lucky here with how much samphire costs…. i’ve seen it on sale in London for 7 pounds per lb. We bought a huge bunch for 2 pounds!
Simple is best with samphire… we soaked it a couple of times to clean out the sand and make it a little less salty. Then boil it for 5 mins. If you are going to put butter on it, make sure it is unsalted!
We dipped ours in soft-boiled eggs…… fantastic! Abbie tried it for the first time and it was more like than love. She preferred to be given the tips rather than suck it off herself. We just didn’t make a fuss…. we’ll no doubt be having it again this summer.