Happy Friday!

...and what better way to start the weekend than with an amazing blog post by Greedy Diva about my absolute dream destination - Santorini (and all of the Greek Islands for that matter!) - the only destination still on my "to do" list from when I first moved to the other side of the world!

I promise you that this trip WILL be happening next year!

Sigh...

pic @ greedydiva



Spanakopita

Marrying a vegetarian has certainly opened my eyes up to the horrors of the meat industry, although not quite enough that i'm ready to convert (I still live in hope that I can actually convert Ben to animal, land and planet friendly meat), but it has certainly changed the way I, myself eat meat. I think this article by Hugh pretty much sums it up and like Hugh, I am quite happy to have meat-free days and love discovering new recipes that we not only enjoy, but crave.

One such recipe is this Spanakopita - sure, i've made Spinach and Ricotta type filo pies before, but there's something about this recipe that makes it too incredibly more-ish.

Ingredients

1sml onion or 3-4 spring onions

3 cloves of garlic

Rind of 1 lemon

400g baby spinach

200g feta 

250g ricotta
2 eggs (optional)
Handful of crushed, flaked almonds
Handful of chopped basil
Salt & pepper
****
6 sheets filo pastry
3 tablespoons of melted butter
Poppy or Sesame seeds (to decorate)

In a large frypan, sauté the garlic, onion & lemon rind until soft. Continuing on a low heat, place the spinach on top of the mixture with the salt and pepper and mix through until wilted.

There will be quite a lot of liquid in the pan, so take the spinach mixture out (leaving as much of the liquid behind) and place onto kitchen towel - squeeze out any excess liquid so the spinach is quite dry. Leave to cool slightly.  There won't seem to be much spinach, but this is normal so don't worry.

In a large bowl, mix the spinach with the remaining ingredients. I say eggs are optional, as the first time I made this I accidentally left them out and it still tasted wonderful AND had a lovely texture.

Brushing with butter as you go along, place 4 sheets of the filo over a round, low dish, fanning out around the dish so you have excess pastry around all of the circle.

Fill the dish with the mixture and fold over the excess pastry. Use the remaining 2 sheets to ensure the top is covered and also to decorate to make it look pretty. Brush the top with butter and sprinkle over either the poppy or sesame seeds.

Bake in the oven at 190 degrees for approximately 30 minutes - being careful not to burn the pastry. 

Serve with lemon potatoes or a fresh salad (or both!).

see what I mean about more-ish!!

`

Damson Gin, 2011 Vintage

Well, it's that time of year again - Damson season!

Damsons are shy little things, they only appear for a few weeks around September each year.  As Ben hasn't been travelling near any farm shops as late, we decided we would head to Borough Market on Saturday to try our luck at the Chegworth Valley Farm shop (where we had seen them last year).

The weather forecast was quite good so we decided to jump on a couple of Boris Bikes and cycled the 11 or so kilometres to the Market.  The ride was a bit chilly to start but once we hit Buckingham Palace, the sun was shining and we were having a lovely time.  Bad timing though, for the 2nd time in a month we missed the Changing of the Guard...by just half an hour!  Never mind, we took advantage of the The Mall being closed off to traffic and cruised down past the Horseguards, over Westminster Bridge onto Borough.

Horseguards patiently waiting for changeover

As luck would have it, the Chegworth Valley stall was at the very entrance of the market AND they had Damsons!!!  The Damsons were a little smaller than the ones we used last year, so we ended up buying NINE punnets for our planned 3 batches!  Apparently they had been selling them for the past 2 weeks and only thought they would have 1 more week left in season - so this was finally some good timing on our behalf.

After moseying around the Market for a little while, soaking up the amazing sights and smells, making a few purchases (mushroom pate, walnut bread, fresh ingredients for spanakopita and baked peaches), it was time to get back on the bikes and head home.  We cycled a slightly different way home, but still made our way back up The Mall past Buckingham Palace - i've decided that this is one of my favourite things in London - after 5 years, this is what still makes me feel like a tourist in this city!

We had been debating for a while about which Gin we would use this year (last year, Tanqueray was definitely the winner over London Beefeater).  I was keen to try Sipsmith which is a Boutique Gin we've discovered that is distilled literally just down the road from our house. Sipsmith is produced in small batches and we purchased batch 126, which according to their website was produced on 18 April 2011 and was one of 333 bottles - pretty cool don't you think!

We also wanted to make Tanqueray again, not only because it turned out so good last year, but also because it's my parents favourite Gin and as my lovelies will be visiting us for xmas (just in time to start sipping!), we thought that would be a nice little treat for them :)  Ben also wanted to try a different Gin for his batch, and after consulting our Gin-swilling friend Owen, we decided to make a batch with Hendricks.

So after a good rinsing-off and de-stalking, we set to pin-pricking the Damsons, setting them in their respective jars, adding some sugar (a bit more than last year as apparently the smaller damsons aren't as sweet), and then the final moments of adding the gin.

Unfortunately, NINE whole punnets of Damsons wasn't quite enough, so our Tanqueray batch has had to settle for just half the amount of Damsons, however I suspect it's still going to be super tasty in 3 months time!

The Last Day of Summer...

It's hard to say goodbye to something that hasn't even arrived...

That's exactly the case with summer in London this year.  It's no secret that i've been struggling with the lack of sunshine, but now that it's officially the last day of "the worst summer since the 90's" (at a balmy 18 degrees might I add), I need to somehow come to terms with the fact that there's no hope in holding out for one last blast of sunshine.

Instead, I need to somehow focus on dealing with the next 6+ months - the creeping in of colder air, the lack of daylight, the grey skies, the 5 layers of clothing just to go to the shop to buy a pint of milk, the brown trees having lost their green leaves... etc etc...  Right now that seems almost impossible, adding to the fact that we're not looking to return to Australia until 2013, meaning I still have TWO long winters to get through.

I would like to say right now that I can find some positives in the thought, but to be brutally honest, I have nothing...  if anyone can find a silver lining to this picture i'd love to hear about it!

the view from our bedroom on a January morning...

A confession...

I made these yummy peach cupcakes on the weekend...

I ate 3 of these cupcakes today...

yum!

Ireland

I know i'm going to cause a bit of an uproar by my next statement, but i'm OK with it as I can now well and truly say for sure that - I still don't like Ireland... [shock, horror!]

You see, this was my second trip to Ireland, and I still don't really 'get it'.  To me, Ireland is just an extension of England - but grey-er and dreary-er.  Sure there are some pretty things to look at every now and again, but I just don't think it has any "feeling" - and if you've ever been to Paris or Italy or Swtizerland (etc etc), you will know what I mean - as soon as you step out you just get this overwhelming sense that you are somewhere special - for me, my heart almost bursts every time i'm in Paris... but little old Ireland, i'm very sorry, but you and me were just not meant to be.  

Regardless, I had a nice enough time, and our visitors absolutely loved it (which, at the end of the day was the whole point), and I did get some lovely snaps.  We did have a few memorable moments - a lovely Italian meal in Dublin, discovering a 16th century castle in a quaint seaside town on our drive to the Cliffs of Moher (where Ben made friends with some VERY friendly chickens!) and discovering that no tourist should go anywhere near Limerick!

But I can safely say I have no further desire to return, and will now focus all of my energy in continuing my romance with Bruges this weekend, and dreaming of my heart bursting moment when I arrive in Venice the weekend after!

Galway

Galway

Dunguaire Castle

VERY friendly chookies

Dunguaire Castle

Dunguaire Castle

Looking out from Dunguaire Castle

Kinvara Village

Looking out from Dunguaire Castle

Cliffs of Moher

Tower atop Cliffs of Moher

Cliffs of Moher

Cliffs of Moher

Atlantic Ocean/Irish Sea

How time flies...

I can't believe just how busy i've been lately.  I guess it's not surprising as our lovely visitors (Ben's mum and aunty) arrived last Saturday, so we've been busy getting out and about and showing off our favourite parts of London.

Tonight, I fly to Dublin to join them, then in the morning we're hiring a car and setting off into the Irish countryside to see what we can discover for the weekend.

Hopefully i'll have some of my own pics to share next week!

Irish Countryside @ pinterest