Blousy Blooms and Something Sweet

Cooking food straight from the ground is something that significantly marks out the Summer months for me. It starts here in this, my favourite month of May. Flowers too are one of my favourite and prettiest pointers to the seasons and no other bloom bellows Summer than the blousy and beautiful Peony.

So, when The Eloise arrived from Bloom & Wild Flower Delivery yesterday I knew straight away that I wanted to share it with you as part of my #stylingtheseasons post for this month. Along with a little something sweet for you to try.

Just like all other Bloom & Wild bunches I've received, The Eloise has not dissapointed. Pulling the protective netting away from the carefully wrapped buds, was like watching a flower bloom in slow motion. The buds have since started to open up and as the petals have loosened have revealed a citris yellow inside which matches the foliage so beautifully. The Peony season is such a short one, so I'll be enjoying these beauties until that moment when a sudden nudge sees all the petals fall in one go. 

Seasonal living and revisiting traditions as the months pass is something, that as a family, we cherish. Some of my highlights from last year were moments when we sat down to the simplest of lunches (Broad Bean, Feta and Pea salad), picked just hours before. Every year since before Wilf was born we've picked and made Elderflower cordial and enjoyed drinking it for as long as it lasts. When he was just a few weeks old I remember a light, evening dog walk, making our way across fields to pick the flowers whilst our tiny babe slept on Sam's chest. That particular year my parents kindly offered to do the making as they were around to help out a bit, "you pick, we'll make" they said, sounded good to me.

We're busy down on the allotment at the moment but the only thing ready to harvest is rhubarb, and lots of it! Determined not to get overwhelmed by gluts of fruit this year, and in attempt to turn as much of the pink stuff into something as quickly as possible, this week I turned my attention to cordial.

I must confess that this recipe is not my own, perhaps I'll have a go at some plot recipes later this season, but for this I plucked the simplest I could find from a quick google search. Consider this more of a recipe review then if you will.

You can find the recipe via the RHS site here, but for ease, I've noted it for you below.

Ingredients:

3kg chopped rhubarb
150ml water
Lemons
Caster sugar

Method:

Slowly cook the rhubarb with the water, in a large pan, until it is soft and mushy. I cooked mine for about 20 minutes or so. 

Strain the fruit through a muslin bag (jelly bag) into a pan, avoiding squeezing the bag as this will cloud the juice. I left mine to strain over night and was surprised at how much came through even though it was only dripping slowly when I went to bed. 

For every litre of juice you have, add 750g sugar and 75ml lemon juice. Heat until just below boiling point to dissolve the sugar, then bottle into sterilised bottles.

This can be diluted to enjoy with cold water, the kids have been LOVING it although it's super sweet so they're on rations! However, I'm most excited about trying it in something a little stronger and a lot more bubbly. This bottle (a gift) and another much larger one will be packed into a basket today and is coming with me to The SISTERHOOD Camp (see @sisterhoodcamp on Instagram for more). Where it will be poured into tall glasses, shared and enjoyed with new friends around a campfire. I can't wait!

Do you have any seasonal recipes or favourite flowers for May? Do share them below, I'd love to hear from you and let me know if you give this recipe a go too!

Wishing you a lovely weekend. x

Thank you to Bloom & Wild Flower Delivery who kindly gifted The Eloise. You can find their full range of #letterboxflowers here.   

Tea with a Twist

I'm a tea fan. It took my a while to join the club (I think I was 18 before I enjoyed a good cuppa) but I'm a fully paid up member now. The closest I've come to a twist with my tea is the likes of Earl and Lady grey or classic herbal varieties like Peppermint and Camomile. Until now that is!

When I started working with Teapigs for #mythursdaybreaktime I was asked if I'd like to try out some of their iced tea and teashake recipes, something I didn't need to think twice about. They very kindly sent me some boxes of their delectable Tea Temples with a few recipe cards and ideas for refreshing Summer time drinks. They were so so good (better than I'd imagined actually) so I thought I'd share them with you here.

I recently tried to give up caffeine for a little while (pah, I know!) I was stopped in my tracks when my husband bought a coffee machine and back on the wagon I jumped. Anyway, while attempting this semi-detoxification I discovered Super Fruit tea and was hooked. So naturally I picked this box out as the first flavour to try with the iced tea recipe. 

Here's how to make it: 

~ take 1 tea temple per person (4 for a jug)
~ add freshly boiled water- enough to just cover the temples
~ brew for 3-5 minutes
~ top with cold water and ice
~ enjoy

I jazzed my cup up with some frozen berries but you could add anything that tickles your fancy. A little gin or vodka would certainly spice things up if you were making cocktails.

The next one I'm planning to make is Lemon and Ginger, I'm imagining a grown up take on lemonade!

Once I'd got iced tea under my belt there was no holding me back! So on Tuesday afternoon, Wilf and I tried out the other recipe card. I merely had to whisper the word 'milk shake' and he was up for helping me out.

This time I opted for Chocolate and Mint. Why wouldn't I want to test out two of my favourite flavours COMBINED in a little tea temple?!

In case the above instructions don't cut it, here's how:
~ pop 1 tea temple into a cup
~ add 100ml freshly boiled water
~ brew for 6-8 minutes and remove tea temple
~ add liquid to blender with 3 scoops of good quality vanilla icecream
~ add a little milk if it's too thick
~ blend, drink and enjoy!

The above quantities made enough to fill 2 of these miniature bottles but I could easily have tripled the recipe and downed the lot! It was DELICIOUS! Next time I'm planning to throw in some chocolate flakes and whipped cream for a little something extra.

I hope you give these recipes a go, as you can see they're super easy and fun to make too. For another fun twist on tea, why not try making scented playdough (you can find a previous post on how we made it here).

Fancy winning a bundle of Teapigs goodies (6 different boxes of tea and a couple of the tea cups shown above)? Simply join in with my weekly hashtag #mythursdaybreaktime this month. Post your breaktime moments on Instagram using the hashtag and tag in me @littlemaldod and @teapigs. I'll pick a favourite shot for August and announce the winner back here over the bank holiday. 

Before I go, I thought I'd share a few little outtakes. Attempting to take photos for this blog without having them photobombed by little people can be challenging sometimes, especially when food is involved! These shots make me smile though, poor Wilf waited so patiently for his shake that I'm not surprised he slurped it greedily in a matter of seconds.

And this little lady was oblivious, marching around the place in her own little world as usual. She'd just been meddling with the washing machine and disturbing her brother who was on the toilet (out of shot) when this photo was taken.

I'm looking forward to sitting at this table with her one day, putting the world to rights over a good cup of tea. Be it hot, shaken or on the rocks, I really won't mind.

A big thank you to Teapigs for kindly sending these teas and for providing the above recipes. You can find a full range of their teas on their website www.teapigs.com

Scented Playdough and Miniature Gardens

On Monday morning Wilf and I set about making something I've been wanting to make for ages. We made playdough. Not just any old playdough though, it was playdough which later on would form the base of the most beautiful miniature gardens I've ever seen.

I remember playing with homemade playdough as a child and used to love it, there's something about the salty feel on your hands after using it. We have plenty of dry, mixed up pots of shop bought playdough already but I fancied having a go at a scented, more natural dough. I found a SUPER easy recipe for fresh Mint dough from The Imagination Tree (which you can find here),  got a Peppermint Teapigs bag out the cupboard and popped the kettle on.

The playdough itself was really quick to make and Wilf enjoyed helping to knead the dough after it was mixed.

In the afternoon, when his sister was sleeping, we headed out into the garden to find flowers and foliage to stick into it. Obviously rocks and stones were gathered and added to the trug for good measure too.

We then set about rolling balls of dough and crating miniature gardens with our cuttings. I have to admit I did close my eyes at one point and pretend I was a lady from the WI in a flower arranging class.....

Amongst our cuttings were sprigs of Thyme, Rosemary and Sage as well as Sweetpeas. Along with the Mint that I'd added to infuse the box, the smell coming from the table was amazing.

My Mum visited later that day and was presented with her own garden to take home with her. I'm not sure how long the poor flowers lasted in the salty 'earth' but they left the house looking very pretty.

It was such a simple activity but one that I'm looking forward to recreating in different guises time and time again. Next time I'm getting the glitter out.

I've shared a photo from this post over on Instagram with the hashtag #summerholidaysideasswap
If you're on it, I can recommend a browse of the gallery for some great ideas.

Thanks for reading today, I hope a wonderful weekend awaits you. x

Bowls Full of Berries

We're enjoying bowl fulls of allotment fruit at the moment, something I'd been looking forward to ever since we were given our neglected, overgrown plot in December.

The pickings are so frequent that we're only just keeping up with the berries that are coming from the fruit cage. The children adore fruit, so much so that "burrberries" and "barbberries" are amongst Anwen's first words.

On Wednesday this week I opened the fridge and noticed a few tubs and bowls of berries which had gone from plump and juicy looking to soggy and squished. They were beyond looking appetising so I decided to make a spontaneous pudding to use them all up.

Made up of just three simple elements, it was so easy but absolutely delicious, so I thought I'd share it with you here.

I'm calling it my 'Nearly-over-but-still-delicious Summer berry pudding'

I started off with a third of a pack of ginger biscuits, and then stirred in a knob of melted butter.

I pressed the biscuit base down into a ramekin (using my handy lemon squeezer).

I added a couple of spoon fulls of warm fruit compote (including raspberries, gooseberries and blackcurrants) which I had gently stewed in a pan.

Then topped it off with a few scoops of Vanilla ice cream.

The ginger biscuit base complimented the fruit really well and the cold ice cream melted into the fruit beautifully. A truely simple Summertime pud. 

Do let me know if you give it a go or try your own variations this weekend.

Lowri x

Easy Peasy Elderflower

Thought I'd pop by with this quick recipe in case anyone spots some Elderflower on their Sunday strolls (it seems to be everywhere at the moment) and fancies making cordial.

I saw friends for dinner last night and they asked how it's made. As I explained I realised just how easy it is, so I do hope you'll give it a go, you'll have delicous sweet cordial to enjoy all Summer long. 

What you'll need:

- 30/40 elderflower heads (only took me about 10 minutes to snip these at the park when I found a tree with nice bendy branches so I could reach!)

-4 unwaxed lemons

-4kg sugar (granulated is fine)

-extra large preserving pan or stock pot (I didn't have one big enough so split the liquid in two before adding the elderflower)

- 50gms Citric Acid (I found mine at my local Chemist)

-A piece of muslin to strain the cordial through when it's ready

-Sterile glass or plastic bottles to pour the cordial into (I use glass for the fridge and plastic ones which I can pop in the freezer.)

Here's how:

-Leave the flower heads on a teatowel to let the creepy crawlies hiding in them to crawl away. I shook mine out in the sink and also ran them under cold water (I have a thing about bugs) although I'm sure it's best not to wash the lovely pollen away if you can help it!

-Bring 4 litres of water to the boil 

-Add the sugar and stir until it is dissolved 

-Take water off the heat and add the Elderflower heads 

-Add the zest of the lemons, then quarter and squeeze them and then add them into the pan too

-Stir in the Citric Acid

-As an optional extra you can add a handful of fresh mint. I added mint to one of my pans (once I'd divided the liquid) as it's lovely and refreshing. 

-Pop a teatowel over the pan to cover it and leave the liquid to steep in a cool place for 2 to 3 days.

-When it's ready, remove the Elderflower heads and lemons and strain the liquid through a muslin square into a fresh pan or large jug. 

-Pour your liquid into your labelled bottles

-Enjoy in your drinks ALL summer long! I can highly recommend it with sparkling water, or added to a Gin and Tonic for a little something special! 

I made this on Thursday afternoon so mine is nearly ready, hence the lack of nicely bottled cordial photos to show you! Here's what it looks like right now.

I have to say, that this is a recipe passed to me by my parents, they seem to have a constant supply of cordial in their fridge! I've been using it for the last few years and have very fond memories of going on a walk with Sam and Wilf when he was just a few weeks old, fast asleep in his Baby Bjorn, to collect Elderflower heads. My parents were staying as Sam's Paternity leave was about to finish, they told us that if we picked the flowers they'd make it for us! 

Another Summer a few years ago, my making was less than successful and involved a Kilner Jar falling out of the fridge and smashing sticky, sweet cordial ALL over the kitchen floor.

I hope you give this a go, once you've tried it you'll realise just how easy it is. Hopefully you'll also look back in years to come with happy memories of the adventures you've had making and enjoying this delicious Summer drink.