Using up pears

Posted on October 9, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged chopped pears, Cookery, Cooking, Custard, digestive biscuits, Food, Fruit, Pears, simmered, softened, TastyLeave a comment

I have lots of pears off our tree, they were hard but are slowly softening. But they have been bruised by falling off the tree and a couple went mouldy. They are tasty and quite sweet. What to do with them?

I cut off the bad bits then chopped up the pears into small pieces. Then I put them in a saucepan and added a little boiling water from the kettle. I added half a tablespoonful of splenda sweetner because it tastes like sugar. I put the pears on a low heat to simmer and soften. Then I made up some powdered custard with about three quarters of a pint of milk. In the meantime I was stirring and crushing the pears till they were soft and cooked. Finally I dished out the pears. I crumbled a couple of digestive biscuits over them to add texture and crunch. Lastly I ladeled the custard over the fruit and biscuits (a bit like a deconstructed pear crumble I think). The result was hot and tasty on a cool autumn afternoon.

Pear time

Posted on September 28, 2022September 28, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged annual crop, Crop, Food, Garden, Gardening, Life, Pears, Plant, sapling, Tasty, Tree, WoolworthsLeave a comment

Pears off our tree and oranges from the supermarket. This shows just how big our pears have grown this year. They needed picking as they won’t ripen on the tree. The tree was a small sapling from a woolworths store in Stoke twenty years ago or so, before the stores went bust. It’s now a tree about fifteen foot high and spreading branches about twenty or twenty five foot across. It grew leaning over because of the weight of the pears. I have to say they are very tasty when they are ripe. I think they are a conference style of pear. We have had around fifty or sixty pears but most of them are too high to reach, the ones in the bowl were low hanging.

Cupcakes

Posted on September 3, 2022September 4, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blueberries, cakes, clotted cream, cupcakes, Food, Middleport, Middleport pottery, Nickiebees cupcakes, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Tasty, Victoria spongesLeave a comment

Opposite the new art venue in Middleport is a small unit called Nickiebees Cupcakes. I popped in to see what they had. I asked about cakes without frosting (too much sugar in it) and we had a chat about whether it’s possible to use a sugar substitute to make the butter cream icing. Afterwards I went back and bought a couple of freshly baked cupcakes. They looked like perfect Victoria sponges. When I got home I went and got some clotted cream and blueberries. I cut the tops off the cakes, cut the tops in half, spread the cream over the cut surface. Then I put the tops back on like butterfly wings. I spooned a little more cream on top and studdied the cream with fresh blueberries. What a tasty treat! Had with a cup of decaff coffee. Tasty and not as sugary as fully frosted!

Cherry tomatoes

Posted on August 28, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged cherry tomatoes, Food, Fruit, Gardening, Hanging basket, Harvest, Plants, Tasty, TomatoLeave a comment

Cherry tomatoes from a little hanging basket in the yard. They ripened over the last few days. Each one is a little burst of flavour. Sunshine in a red, shiny, tiny globe. Held in a yellow bowl. Delicious in today’s salad. We don’t grow much of our own produce but it is great to harvest things like this.

Crumpets

Posted on August 5, 2022August 5, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Afternoon, Butter, Cheese, crumpet, Food, Honey, margarine, Tasty, Tea, Toast, toastedLeave a comment

‘and shall we have crumpets for tea ?’

I don’t remember where that quote comes from. But that’s what we had for our meal this afternoon. Toasted to a slightly brown colour and hot so that the crumpet is cooked through. I usually have butter or margarine on it but today I had butter and then as a treat a small amount of Greek honey.

The porous, sponge like consistency of the crumpet makes it good for absorbing melted butter. The top of a crumpet is full of a lattice of holes, whereas the base is solid, so these lacunae stay filled and only leak slightly. Yummy! I’ve also toasted crumpets, then grated cheese on them and then I gently microwave them for a savoury snack.

This bought back a memory of using a fork pierced through a crumpet and pushed onto the front bars of a gas fire. A tricky thing to do as the fire might burn your fingers as well as the crumpet! Cook the back first then the front, then take it off the fire and butter and eat. (Childhood memories of when life was more basic).

Apples

Posted on August 2, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged apples, Branches, Fence, Fruit, Gardening, mature, Red, Ripening, Tasty, trained, TreeLeave a comment

Our apple trees have got a lot of fruit for a change. I think they are finally maturing and as they have had their branches trained along the fence they are bearing more fruit than if they were growing straight up, some of them are already ripening and turning red. I don’t know their variety but they are tasty.

Oh dear!

Posted on August 1, 2022August 2, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged 100 grams, checking, Fruit, Glucose Syrup, look it up, Sugar, Sweets, Taste, Tasty, Thinking1 Comment

I just saw my friend eat a packet of sweets. Out of interest, because I don’t eat things like that, I wondered what amount of sugar he had eaten….

It’s hard to see but seven sweets have 16.4 grams of sugar, and the packet contains seven servings. One hundred grams of sweets contains 61.4 grams of sugar.

But that’s not all, the actual weight of the packet was 143 grams. So approximately 100 grams of that was sugar…. Like eating a tenth of a kilogram bag of sugar.

This sweet fruity treat has the main ingrelisted first, Sugar, Glucose Syrup, Starch, inverted sugar syrup, etc.

What got me the most was we have a fruit bowl full of oranges in the kitchen. Why is stuff like this sold?

Picnic

Posted on July 13, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cucumber, Food, Lettuce, olives, picnic, Salad, sandwiches, sandy beach, Tasty, TomatoesLeave a comment

Not something I’ve done for years. But a picnic on a sandy beach was fun. Luckily it was a still day so the sand didn’t get blown into the sandwiches! Salad was tasty with olives, lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes. A drink of tonic water and orange juice mixed was very refreshing. It was great to use a real picnic basket. I think we will do it again.

Celebratory Mouse Mousse

Posted on July 6, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Celebration, Chocolate, chocolate buttons, chocolate mousse, Food, Gift, Life, Mouse, Sugar, Sweet, TastyLeave a comment

My friend bought me this mousse Mouse today from a Greek cafe as a gift. I was going to keep it till tomorrow but then I got the news that I have got my painting in the local art exhibition and I just had to celebrate.

He had (yes he’s gone) a chocolate sponge base, chocolate mousse topping and mouse shape, a shiny chocolate ganasche covering and chocolate buttons for ears and a tail. Then two white icing dots for eyes. It was very sweet to look at and eat.

We will go back so I can try some of their savory food. I fancy a Greek salad and stuffed vine leaves.

Croissant and banana!

Posted on July 4, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Banana, Butter, Croissant, Eating, flaky pastry, Food, pastry, Tasty, TeatimeLeave a comment

I wanted something to eat and I decided to have a couple of croissants. I split them and spread a bit of butter on them, but I shouldn’t eat jam, so what else? I saw a banana, it’s a similar shape so I sliced along it’s length horizontally. One half folded into each puff pastry croissant. Delicious! I might try them with whipped cream next time!

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Tasty