Phoenicia – Peace and tranquility

Essentially it’s one main road with the odd house down a track now and then. But the main road has such character that you could spend a week just visiting on each shopkeeper and listening to their tales – some of old and some anew.

Phoenicia Wines and Delicatessen - a characterful general store 

We arrived late afternoon and were in need of wine and nibbles.  This charming deli looked too good to simply walk past. The Star Spangled Banner was flying gently in the breeze outside, there was a faint smell of cheese wafting through the door and well it just looked too much like a shop from The Waltons so I had to go in!  We left laden with bread, cheese, wine, triskets (imagine salty shredded wheat) and lollipops from the cashier who feel in love with my girls.

The wonderful deli on Main Road

The next morning we woke up early to the sound of birdsong.  Annoyingly loud birdsong.  ”Better the birds than the bears” said the guy we met en route to breakfast.  We were told it is common to find bears in the garden rummaging through the garbage cans.  Big brown ones and their babies too.  My girls thought this rather cute and wanted to stake them out that night but thankfully they’d forgotten all about that idea by bedtime.

The Phoenicia Diner – Uprooted from Brooklyn by owners who didn’t want to retire just yet

For breakfast we headed to The Phoenicia Diner.  We were encouraged to drive but it was such a beautiful day we couldn’t. We’d been cooped up in the car the day before and needed to stretch our legs.

An old diner uprooted from Brooklyn to the heart of the Catskills

We  walked along a dis-used railway track through the forest.  Until 1954 the railroad carried factory hands and robber barons en route to holiday in the grand resort hotels and small boarding houses along the line. We could relate to how excited they must have felt seeing the inviting mountains.

Walking along the dis-used Phoenicia railway lines

We would never have discovered the old railway station had we taken the main road.  It seemed to be standing still in time waiting for the next steam train to whistle to a stop.

Phoenicia Railway Station

We played American settlers arriving for their holidays in the mountains.  We balanced and wobbled on the old sleepers and hunted down Jimeney Cricket who was making rather a loud racket.  (I’ve written a whole other page on the diner as it was just too good for a paragraph or two).

Brios Pizzeria – Quite possibly one of the best pizzas I’ve ever eaten

Quite possibly one of the best pizzas I’ve ever eaten was at Brios

I’ve eaten a lot of pizza all over the world, all over Italy for that matter.  I’ve seen it made quickly at a roadside eatery in Naples and in grand wood wired ovens in Tuscany – always the same way.  Dough, sauce, toppings, cheese.  A standard technique.

The pizza at Brios is different on two accounts.  Firstly, the chef part cooks the base and then adds the sauce, toppings and cheese. The result is a crispier pizza with absolutely no soggy, doughy bits.  Secondly, the base of the pizza is covered in sesame seeds.  I cannot tell you what a difference this makes to the flavour.  I actually ordered fish and salad but ended up eating half of my daughters’ pizza too because it was so, so good.

Graham & Co – A stylish take on motel accommodation

Somebody, somewhere had the brilliant idea of taking a old motel and converting it into an effortlessly cool place to stay.

Luxury motel living at Graham & Co

Graham & Co is minimalist and uber trendy.  You get two Budweisers on check in.  There are stylish toiletries, bare lightbulbs and Tivoli radios in the rooms.

Chic and clean

Trendy toiletries

Locally handcrafted keyrings

Gorgeous branding

There are hammocks in the best spots of the garden and in the evening the owner screens films in the garden and lights a great pit of a fire so you don’t get cold.  It’s the kind of place you just don’t want to leave because the views are so achingly beautiful.  We look forward to going back in the summertime when the pool is open as it looked so inviting.

Lounging around

Don’t pass this sleepy hamlet by..

So if you are ever in the Catskills, don’t pass by this sleepy hamlet with it’s wonderful smell of pine trees and wood smoke.  Stay a while and get to know the folk.  They serve great food and wine – mostly sourced locally.  They have great gift shops selling locally made crafts, glass and pottery.  They have a quaint little church that’s been around since the 1800s.  They like having a chat and have stories to tell.    Just one thing…leave your watches at home and go with their flow.

Thank you Phoenicia.  We’ll be back soon xx

Origins in Mexico

Vanilla beans originated in Mexico.  For hundreds of years the Totonaco Indians guarded the secret flavour until they were defeated by the Aztecs and had to handover the delicate vanilla pods as a tribute to Montezuma.  He in turn was conquered by the Spaniard Cortez in 1520 and so vanilla found its way into Europe along with cacao beans.  It was mixed with the beans and honey to make a drink called “chocolatl” and consumed only this way  until the early 1600s when the Queen Elizabeth I’s apothecary suggested is may be used as a flavour in its own right.  And so it’s popularity grew.

A labour of love to grow and yield a good crop

Vanilla pods are actually the fruit of an orchid and because of the way the plant is shaped, the orchid needs help to pollinate and produce fruit.   For hundreds of years, the only part of the world where these orchids could be naturally pollinated was Mexico.  This was all down to a little bee called the Melipone.  Once the wines started to be smuggled out of Mexico from the late 1700s, the orchid flowers needed to be hand pollinated in order to bear fruit – the vanilla pods.  Now when I say ‘hand’ pollinated I do mean that literally.  Even now, vanilla farmers the world over use wooden sticks the size of a toothpick to lift the thin membrane of the flower to press the pollen against the female organs.

Gorgeous vanilla pods

The plant then grows between 30 to 100 pods depending on how old it is and how large the grower has let it become.  Larger plants produce less pods so the farmer may focus on keeping plants small for about 10 years before leaving them to grow to their full capacity of between 50 to 70 feet tall.

It takes six to nine months for the green pods to grown and turn yellow at the tip.  This signals that they are ready to harvest.   Each plant is checked every day to make sure pods are picked at exactly the right time to be cured.  Traditionally in Mexico the beans would have been wrapped in blankets and straw and then baked for a day.  Nowadays the beans are soaked in hot water and the spread out to absorb the full heat of the sun.  Then they are wrapped in blankets and straw to sweat overnight.  This process could go on for several days until the farmer is happy the flavour is right for mellowing for a further few weeks.  You can see a step by step guide on the Ndali vanilla website.

Worldwide production means a range of flavour profiles

Vanilla is now grown all over the world with Madagascar being the largest producer.  Indonesia, Tahiti, India and Uganda also grow vanilla so there is a choice of flavours that we have access to that the Elizabethans would never have dreamed about.  There is a great summary on the Nielsen-Massey website which goes through the key producing types, their flavours and suggests some cooking suggestions to match.

Getting the best out of vanilla

Sadly I grew up with ‘vanilla essence’ which is sweet and sickly – nothing like proper vanilla extract or paste.  It took me a while to transfer my taste-buds and learn the right balance for my palate.   Here are a few tips which might help you move away from essence and get the best from the various quality vanilla products there are now readily available in supermarkets.

• Firstly decide on which vanilla product best suits what you are cooking or baking.  Vanilla extract is a great store cupboard ingredient.   It’s versatile and has a mellow flavour.  But because of it’s liquid form, it will thin out whatever you are adding it to.  Vanilla Bean Paste is slightly more expensive but it’s thicker and you can get the aesthetics of the seeds without any diluting or thinning out.
  
• Think about whether you are adding flavour or complementing and enhancing other flavours. For example it works really well to balance out the bitterness of coffee and chocolate and the acidity of tomatoes and citrus fruits.
• Heat kills the intensity of the flavour so use it towards the end of the cooking process.   For baking, it’s best to cream it in with the butter.
• Store vanilla at room temperature.  Properly stored you can keep the extract for about 5 years and beans for about two years.
• Dry the beans out on a shady windowsill and use again in tomato soup or to flavour sugar.

As far as health benefits go…

There doesn’t seem to be many health benefits associated with vanilla.  For me it simply smells amazing and tastes wonderful which never ceases to put be in a good mood.  In fact I often light vanilla scented candles in the evening of a stressful day at work.  It seems to work its magic in food and outside of food.

Perfect for sweet and savoury

I wasn’t too sure about using vanilla in savoury dishes until I tried some of Eric Lanlard‘s little canapés at a Neilsen Massey hosted event at his Cake Boy Boutique.  I loved the smoked salmon sandwich. The salmon had been spread with a thin layer of vanilla paste and this was just enough to balance the smoky flavour without any sweet or bitter after taste.

Smoked Salmon and Vanilla Baguette

But it was this little gazpacho shot that sold it to me.  There was simply no acidic after taste and equally it wasn’t sweet.  Just blend a clove of garlic, a few spring onions, three large fresh tomatoes with a tablespoon of sherry vinegar.  Dilute with water and season to your liking, add a teaspoon or so of vanilla paste and then leave to infuse overnight.

Gazpacho and Vanilla Shot

How do you use vanilla? Have you tried it in savoury as well as sweet dishes? 

I also came across this amazing infographic which does a lovely job of summarising popular edible flowers.  You’ll find this and lots of other brilliant illustrations at Illustrated Bites 

Related articles

• Cooking with edible flowers – a history (lovefood.com)
• 6 Edible Flower Recipe Ideas (theflyingfugu.com)
• Cooking with edible flowers (utsandiego.com)
• Edible Flowers for Spring (thedailysouth.southernliving.com)

We all know there are plants and foods that can cause a lot of adverse and painful reactions.  Mushrooms  immediately come to my mind.  But there are more – many more.

Let’s take Green Tea.  It’s benefits have been linked with cancer prevention but drunk in excess some studies have shown liver and kidney damage.   But this Green Tea and Sake Cocktail looks so inviting?

Green Tea and Sake Cocktail at Cafe de Mort – click image to see full write up

Or how about some bitter almonds like those in this macaroon? 4-9mg of Hydrogen Cyanide in each one.  And if that doesn’t convince you, perhaps a medley of Aflatoxin, Theobromide and Myristicin – all found in Peanuts, Cacao and Nutmeg.

Bitter Almond Macroon at Cafe de Mort – click image to see full write up

I consumed all of these at a recent London pop up called Cafe de Mort organised by Remember A Charity.   The event was held to raise awareness of how much of a difference a charitable gift could make, once we’ve looked after our family an friends.  As a nation, 75% of us already give to charity but only 7% include a charity in a Will.  Two out of three guide dogs and six out of ten life boat launches are paid for by gifts in Wills, as is over a third of Cancer Research UK’s life-saving work.  I think that’s as amazing as the food we ate.  

A little Will on a little card

So, at this time of year, while you’re thinking about your ISA contribution, tax deadlines and council cutbacks, why not write out a little postcard.  I did it on the night of the dinner after the third course – just in case!

“I, ………….., being of sound mind and memory, do hereby direct that all my estate, which I may own at the time of my death, I bequeath to ……………………… with the exception of …..% of my estate, which I give to my favourite charity/ties, namely…………………

In witness whereof, I have subscribed my name to this, my Last Will and Testament, this ………..day or …………(month) 2013. 

Still not convinced?

If you’re still not convinced here’s a list of everyday botanicals that could be lethal:

1. Apple – The seeds are mildly poisonous.  they contain a small amount of cyanogenic glycoside and it is possible to ingest enough seeds to lead to fatalities.

2. Apricots and other members of the prune family also have potentially lethal levels of hydrogen cyanide depending on the amount consumed.

3. Kidney beans – Eating as little as five could lead to excessive vomiting and diarrhoea.

4. Nutmeg – contains Myristicin which is a hallucinogenic.

5. Rhubarb – the stalks are of course edible but eating the leaves could leave you in convulsions or a coma because of the corrosive acids.

Have you eaten anything that could kill you? Indeed have you ever suffered any adverse effects after a meal? 

I think that’s just so sad. It’s a wonderful feeling. Complete and utter indulgence every now and then never did any of us any harm.  And this is exactly what I feel like doing this Easter.

Reaching for decadence

I’ve had a pretty busy time already in 2013 and so after turning the Blackberry off for the holidays today, the first thing I reached for was not a cold glass of wine – another thing guaranteed to make me feel decadent – but rather a huge slab of chocolate. An Easter egg in fact.  A Serious Dark Fix Chocolate Easter Egg from Hotel Chocolat.

Pure decadence

A luxury for all your senses

The thing with decadence is that I have to smell it too.  The scent of Coco Chanel perfume on a night out, the aroma of good coffee brewing in an independent   quiet and expensive coffee house or the smell of new LK Bennett shoes.  Chocolate has without a doubt got that smell which transports you into a different world.

And those wonderful sounds of decadence – clinking of Champagne glasses – or the popping of the cork for that matter.  The satisfying snap of good quality, dark chocolate beneath your fingers. That’s got decadence stamped all over it.

And let’s not forget about the tastes. Chilli, champagne, truffles, silken ganaches.  Different textures, different flavours evoking memories of travels and cuddles.

I revelled in happiness after a long day.  I forgot about work, trains, pushy commuters and that freezing icy cold wind.  Each bite turned a little relaxation cog somewhere inside and before I knew it, there was no more chocolate left.

Some would say it’s greedy. I’d say it’s completely in line with the definition we started with – a deterioration. A deterioration of stresses and woes. A deterioration of modern day worries into a world of smiles and warm glows.

Happy Easter xx

Feeding.

Aside from cuddling, it’s the very first thing we mothers do. It’s instinctive. It’s primal. It’s raw.

It starts with milk

Milk is a non botanical which I am completely in awe about. On my very first day of being a mother, it riddled me with so many emotions. It wouldn’t come so I was distraught and demoralised. The one thing I had to do for my daughter and I couldn’t do it. How would I cope with everything else? Contraptions and massages followed with feelings of humiliation. I slept. I relaxed. It came. I cried with the pain but smiled at the calm it brought to Amber. I felt satisfied. There was nothing else this newborn child needed right then except for me. I delighted and dozed in this selfishness.

Purées and mash

Weaning came too quickly. How much complexity baby rice brought. How much waste practising the right consistency. Thankfully, the excitement wore off quickly with my girls and I was grateful. Indeed I was proud they wanted to move to more challenging tastes. It started with apples and pears and progressed to carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potato, peas, parsnips. Nothing acidic. Nothing complex in structure.

Herbs and spices

The part I had been waiting for. A little hint of garlic. A tiny pinch of cumin. Turmeric as standard went into everything – just a sprinkling. Basil, parsley, coriander, mint. The leaves of all our herbs were fascinating to fingers eager to work. The textures were intriguing. Hard. Soft. Crunchy. Cold. Warm.

This was a time when cooking started. The self satisfaction returned with gusto each time my girls asked for more. little portions. Big smiles. A warm glow inside me.

Learning their tastes….

The warm glow inside was as bountiful with Amy as it was with Amber. She liked different tastes. She explored the food her sister had moved on to. It was all a complex project which kept growing and developing. Flavours and matching them to a balance – Sweet. Salty. Sour. Bitter. Hot.

…and stretching their imaginations

Of course feeding was not and continues never to be about giving the girls the food they like. I want them to see and smell and most of all explore food. Where does it come from? How does it grow? How do we cook it? Why is it good for us? This is the part I am in love with. Head over heels and utterly lovestruck by.

I am lucky. They are great eaters. They are enthusiastic about everything we eat and keen to learn to cook it. And that’s the next adventure now beginning. Like many mothers cooking together starts with cake. Well why not? Because it is after all, also the role of a mother to spoil. To coddle. To love.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Related articles

• Mother’s Day Cupcake
• Mum of The Year Competition
• Cooking with Kids via Great British Chefs
• Mother’s Day Lollipops by Ren Behan
• Mothering Sunday in Blue and White China by Lavender and Lovage

1. Stack ‘Em High – Nigella’s American Pancakes by Louise and Crumbs and Corkscrews

She toyed between these lovely pancakes and cheesy triangles as the most nostalgic food of her childhood.  I prefer these! I loved her story of Granny Vi so be sure to go and have a read.

@CrumbsCorkscrew

2. Reckless Retro Cheesecake by Sally at Recipe Junkie and The Attack of The Custard Creams  

Not a baked cheesecake but a good ole fashioned set in the fridge cheesecake with a great easy recipe for Blackcurrant Jam.

@RecipeJunkie27

3. Syrup Sponge Puddings by Jen at Blue Kitchen Bakes

This recipe is from Nigella Lawson’s How To Be A Domestic Goddess book which like many of us tends to be the one we refer back to time and time again because the recipes work.

@BlueKitchenBake

4. American Pancakes by Lisa – the lovely American baker at United Cakedom 

More pancakes but this time with maple syrup and lotus biscuit spread atop.  I agree with Lisa that sometimes the smallest things make us nostalgic.  I was peeling cucumbers the other day and had a flashback to my days in Japan sitting watching the sushi chef in the window yearning to go inside and have a chat but never quite mustering the courage.  Like Lisa – faded and fuzzy memories but memories all the same.

@unitedcakedom

5. Banana and Walnut Cake from Katherine at Leeks and Limone

This recipe is from Nigella’s How To Be A Domestic Goddess and brought back the years spent at university for Katherine.  Her friend used to make banana cake after a fragile night out.  I’ll have to try that one!

@leeksandlimoni

6. Lovely heart shaped Drop Scones by Sinea at Sinea’s Pantry

I love these heart shaped scones which were prompted by a memory of Great Granny as she made these for Sinea’s family when they visited as youngsters.  She has very fond memories of helping with the mixture and being allowed to spread our own butter and jam onto them.

@justsinea

7. Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich by Susan at A Little Bit Of Heaven On A Plate

Now this is probably one of my favourite recipes – if you can call it that because as Susan says, it’s so easy.  It was a breakfast treat served with lashings of laughter for Susan and her good friend.  I think it’s wonderful to have food related memories of laughing.

@Heavenona_Plate

8. Chocolate Topped Cupcakes by Elizabeth at Elizabeth’s Kitchen

Two brand new Nigella books, one new house and a young baby and these cupcakes have featured in Elizabeth’s kitchen time and time again.  This is the great thing about Nigella’s recipes – you just want to go back again and again because they work.

Image courtesy of Elizabeth’s six year old daughter!

9. Pineapple Upside Down Cake by Sally (again) at Recipe Junkie and The Attack of The Custard Creams  

Another entry by Sally – clearly a big Nigella fan.  This time memories and nostalgia about a time when cooking was therapy of sorts.  I can relate to that. I tend to bake when I’m stressed.

@RecipeJunkie27

10. Chocolate Key Lime Pie by the wonderful Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog 

A lovely twist on a Nigella recipe raising memories of an American childhood that was never had! That made me chuckle as I too could imagine eating bucket loads of this delicious pie had I been an American kid.

@Choclette8

11. Granny Lawson’s Pie by Gabriela at Travelling Wilbury

This one has an interesting adaptation as Gabriela is from Argentina so she adapted this pie version into empanadas which is a lovely way to link back to her homeland.

@gaviota_uk

12. Boston Cream Pie by Sam at Smart Cookie Sam

I loved this post. Had some beautiful imagery of Boston which reminded me of being there with my husband too – only I was 6 months pregnant at the time.   This recipe is from How To Be A Domestic Goddess and it’s a lovely variation with the ganache topping.

@smartcookiesam

And finally not a recipe but a post by the creator of Nigella Forever, Sarah of Maison Cupcake.  It’s about Aix En Provence from her France on Fridays series and this image of a window made me incredibly nostalgic as all the feelings of living there as a young student away from home came flooding back –  lost, lonely, confused, elated, sensitive, excited, exuberant, bewitched…

@MaisonCupcake

It was a life changing year for me in so many ways so thank you Sarah for helping me reconnect with those old memories and for letting me host February’s Forever Nigella challenge.

Related articles

• Forever Nigella #23 – Nostalgia (thebotanicalbaker.wordpress.com)
• Cook Book Challenge 3: Nigella Express (thehungrysparrow.wordpress.com)
• Dark & Delicious (thedailybeast.com)

A spoonful of sugar….

Sugar is a carbohydrate that’s naturally in most fruits and vegetables.  In fact I’ve read some research that says that it’s actually healthier to eat a spoonful of sugar than it is some soft fruits such as figs, bananas and mangoes which contain up to 13g each!  I think I prefer the fruit.  Sugar beets and sugar cane contain to highest quantities of sugar and so are mostly used to make the refined, granulated sugar we use every day .

A fascinatingly simple process

The sugar beets are washed and then sliced for soaking in hot water.  A hot sugary liquid is separated away and concentrated into a deep, brown syrup.  The brown colour comes from the natural concentration of molasses.  This is then cooled and then whirled in a machine similar to a washing machine on the final spin.  This makes the molasses spin away leaving brown crystals which are then sprayed with hot water leaving them pure and white.  The process with sugar cane is similar except the juice is squeezed out using a press – much the same as an old Victorian clothes press.

Why it is essential for cooking

Next time you use sugar, think about WHY you are using it.  You’ll find it isn’t always to sweeten….

1. It incorporates air into the butter in the creaming process giving you a light and fluffy cake
2. It speeds up the growth of yeast by providing nourishment the yeast needs to expand.
3. It delays the coagulation of egg proteins in custards meaning you get a nice thick texture as the custard cools.
4. It acts as a preserve for fruits and fish as well as delaying the time it takes to discolour.

Flavoured sugar 

Flavoured and coloured sugar will be a big trend this year.  No experts behind that opinion. It’s my own.  We all know how to make Vanilla Sugar now.  Jamie Oliver reminds us every time he uses a vanilla pod.  But this post by Rattlebridge Farm on flavoured and coloured sugars that makes the experimenting look easy and enticing.

Image courtesy of Rattlebridge Farm

I must admit that I’ve been rather taken with Chocolate Sugar.  It tastes like granular cocoa powder and we’ve had it on all sorts recently.  Replace it in custard for a lighter, chocolatey custard and indeed ice cream.   A bit expensive though when a dollop of vanilla bean paste will do.  It was also rather nice for dipping whole strawberries.  Decadent I know but it was a Friday night after a long, long week!  I added a spoonful to a latte at work and got an afternoon tea treat without having to buy the chocolate biscuit.  That’s a good thing right?

My favourite though was a light sprinkling over pancakes drizzled with maple syrup. It gave just the right hint of chocolate without the usual shavings from the secret stash of Rococo Bars.

Strawberries on Vanilla Pancakes Sprinkled over with The East India Chocolate Sugar

So this is how sugar starts to evolve.  I for one am glad. I couldn’t live without it and will certainly not be giving it up any time soon.  It’s just too versatile and fun to experiment – a spoonful is often all it takes.

Do you use coloured or flavoured sugar? Do you have any recipes to share? What’s your favourite type of sugar? 

Apple Bounty

A 60% decline in traditional orchards

Sadly this isn’t the case for many fruit trees as the the number of orchards has declined by 60% since 1950. The two key reasons were to make way for urban development and pressure on small scale orchard owners from commercial growers.  I’m all for business growth and development of communities but there is a part of me that wants to cherish the days of old lest we forget how to even plant a seed.

There is a simple and strange satisfaction that arises from putting a seed in the ground and watching it grow.  The trees I have been planting over the last few months at the Forty Hall Farm Community Orchard in Enfield, where I volunteer, have been grown according to traditional methods and bought using our fundraising pot to be planted and nurtured in a traditional way.  No bulldozers. No pesticides. Just hard work, patience and an ethos for doing the ‘old’ thing.

Multiple payback from a few pips

We have some years to go before our little trees start to bear any fruit.  I wonder how long little Mary Ann Brailsford had to wait for her first Bramley? I wonder if she was out with her binoculars like my little Amy in search of the best and most juicy.

Hunting for the best one!

I can’t wait for the blossoms and fruit to come and I take comfort in the fact that our efforts and waiting are creating little habitats for species of wildlife that might otherwise be forgotten.  We have over a hundred trees of different varieties including an Enfield Apple sourced from The National Fruit Collection at Brogdale.

Over 1200 varieties of apple in the UK – let’s go find them!

It only took a few pips to create the infamous Bramley.  It only takes a few pips to keep a tradition alive for another 100 years.  Go on. Give it a go.

Related articles

• A Wintery Wassailing - GB Chefs
• Building Common Ground - The Foodie Bugle
• Are we planting an apple tree or an orchard? (labrevisited.wordpress.com)

Nigella Bites – a cookbook I use time and time again

Her book, Nigella Bites, was one of the first cookery books I bought and used properly.  I remember watching the TV series captivated by her commentary and the food.  Marvelling that she ate it all right there in front of us.  The simplicity of the instructions and the lack of fuss propelled me into cooking and baking more.  She made me believe I could do it.

There are recipes in this book that hold so many memories for me so it’s one I’ll never part with.  Not even hand down to my girls.  I cherish it not for the recipes but the memories it holds.

The only birthday cake recipe

One recipe that I’ve made every year since 2002 is the Chocolate Fudge Cake.  It’s just bloody marvellous!  Goes down a treat with adults and children alike.  I’ve baked it for almost every birthday …

Amy’s 1st Birthday

And adapted the decoration to suit my daughter’s hobbies and party themes.  From mermaids and pirates …

Amber’s Seashell Cake for a mermaid themed party

…to ponies.

Amy’s My Little Pony Cake for her pony grooming party

Flicking to the page in the recipe book brings a nostalgic smile for all the birthdays gone by and anticipation for those yet to come.

A worn but cherished page 47

Forever Nigella #23 – Nostalgia 

If you’re not familiar with it, Forever Nigella is organised by Sarah at Maison Cupcake.  You can bake, make or cook absolutely anything from any of Nigella’s books and this month, as I am the host, I’ve chosen the theme of Nostalgia.

I hope you’ll share your memories of the Nigella recipes that are nostalgic for you.

If you don’t have any of Nigella’s recipe books, there are lots of online sources so you can still take part:

• Nigella’s official site
• BBC Food
• Channel 4 Food
• UKTV Good Food Channel
• Food Network
• Daily Mail

A few guidelines from Sarah 

1. Blog your entry by 28th of February 2013 showing:
a) the current Forever Nigella badge
b) a link to this post : http://wp.me/p1FV2w-I4
c) a link to the Forever Nigella page at Maison Cupcake: http://blog.maisoncupcake.com/forever-nigella

n.b. posts must have been published since the announcement post. Archived posts need to be re-published afresh if you wish to submit.

2. Remember copyright.
You must NOT reproduce Nigella’s recipes verbatim. Tell us which book it is from and/or link to it online. If you’ve adapted the recipe in some way i.e. changed at least two ingredients or amended the method then it’s ok to publish the a recipe in your post but you MUST write directions in your own words.

3. Submit your post
Email me the link to your post (thebotanicalbaker AT hotmail DOT co DOT uk), copying in Sarah (sarah AT maisoncupcake DOT com).

You can also tweet your post quoting #forevernigella. I am on @botanicalbaker and will retweet any that I see. You will find Sarah at @MaisonCupcake.

I’m so looking forward to seeing your recipes and hearing your stories! I’ll post a round up on 1st march 2013.