Food, Interiors

Ooops!

We ate all the cake! Actually, it was a pudding. And a delicious one.  So much so that it was all eaten up before I remembered to take a picture. It was called Torta de Laranja and if you’d like to have a go yourself you can find the recipe here,  it’s flour free so good if you’ve been having trouble finding that.

Strangely enough I didn’t find the recipe on a cookery page but posted in a gardening group I belong to!

 

Here are some pictures of a cake I made for Easter, I don’t often bake (or make puddings) just for the two of us – I’m too greedy and could easily polish off most of a cake on my own, so it’s too risky. But it’s nice to have a treat now and again.

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that was my last jar of Paradise Kitchen jam*

And there’s some of my favourite chocolate olive oil*** cake (it’s also flour free) and breakfast goodies here**

 

* Unfortunately Paradise Kitchen closed last year, but Kate has given George some jam making tips so that’s part of his lockdown homework.

 

Good luck with the recipes if you try them.

 

Caroline  x

 

**Giulia Giannetti photography

Sarah Beattie Food on Facebook

***Chocolate Olive Oil Cake, Nigella Lawson

 

Food, Tourism, Uncategorized

It’s not business as usual

It’s another lovely sunny day, it was the Spring equinox yesterday,  and a week tonight the clocks will go forward marking the start of British Summer Time. On Thursday I saw the first lamb locally – though I think it would have been an unexpectedly early arrival. It’s the time of year when I start thinking about welcoming our guests.

IMG_4780

Sorry not just now

But not this year.  Please follow government and NHS advice and don’t think about travelling, don’t ignore the restrictions. I appreciate that it might seem tempting to escape the cities in search of isolation in the Highlands but it will cause chaos in rural communities.

I’m often asked about life here on Seil,  “idyllic” is often mentioned, and yes, we are very lucky to live here, we have beautiful surroundings, clean air and a wonderful community.

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Spring bulbs, a “thank you” from friends a few years back, still going strong

But It’s going to be a hard time here too. So many people earn their living from tourism and hospitality and have seen their jobs disappear overnight. But you can help. Eventually the restrictions will be lifted and we’ll be able to welcome you back. In the meantime, if you can,  and I know many people have lost their jobs too, think about buying vouchers and mail-order items. That way there’s a better  chance they will still be  here when you can come back.

Everything* takes longer to get here, we pay extra for our online orders;  never mind the bridge we’re an island when it comes to delivery charges.  Don’t get me wrong,  we might complain about these things in the pub, but we do love living here.  But at the moment the pubs, as well as all the cafes, restaurants, museums and other attractions  are  closed.

We’re half an hour from  our local district hospital but our nearest  intensive care unit is nearly three hours away in Glasgow.  Our  health centre is great, but it’s designed to cope with our small population. They’ll happily treat emergencies among summer visitors but can’t cope with large increases in patients.

Our local producers and shops are working hard to maintain supplies and make sure we have food and access to it, but our supermarkets are struggling too. We love serving you our freshly baked bread, but flour has disappeared from the shelves – perhaps in a future post I can share how we’ve been utilising less common ingredients?

 

Here are a few Seil and Easdale businesses who are selling vouchers:

The Fisherman’s Kitchen

Sealife Adventures

Seafari

the Puffer Bar and Restaurant, Easdale

 

Wherever you are, stay safe and follow the guidelines.

very cute Bramble pic

 

Caroline, George and Bramble

*Not the actual post, we have a remarkable postal service, occasionally it seems as if things arrive even before I’ve sent them.

Food, Plastic Waste, Tourism, Uncategorized

Looking forward, looking back

January,  named for two headed Janus,  who could look forward to the future while reviewing the past.  As we’ve headed into the “twenties” the papers have been full of reviews of the decade and thoughts for the future. It gave me quite a shock to realise that we’ve been in business for half of that time, so what has happened over the past five years?

We opened our doors at the end of July 2015 with just the one room, Nancy.

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“Nancy” as she looked then 

We continued the next summer, still with the one room but with a few cosmetic changes and plans for expansion.

bedroom 3

new lights and blanket for 2016

And then in September packed up the old kitchen ready for its demolition and replacement

Our cooking options shrank somewhat

and we became very familiar with these…

paint

By the end of July 2017 we were ready to reopen with Nancy

new chair and  bedside tables

 

being joined by Flora

Flora, our suite with private bathroom and sitting room

Over the next couple of years we’ve updated, introducing more Welsh textiles to Nancy; the room is named for my Welsh  mother.

Developed our baking reportoires..

Moved to larger less wasteful toiletries

Lomond Soap

and continued having fun

toast glasses

hosting lots of lovely guests

 

Some things never change, January is still the month for these

Seville oranges

resulting in lots of this

marmalade

2018 vintage

2020 batch

and the 2020 batch

Which I think gets better every year.

So looking ahead over the next couple of months we’ll be digging out those paintbrushes to get everything looking fresh and lovely to begin welcoming you again.

Happy New Year

Caroline, George and Bramble xxx

Looking both ways up and down the Sound

Food, Uncategorized

Banana bread, blogs and downward dogs*

As I write this the house is filling with the delicious scent of bananas and baking; I’m making a banana loaf ready for our next guests.

 

When I first started baking for guests I made Welshcakes, (though these are  cooked on a griddle not baked) to share a little of my Welsh background. And of course because they’re delicious

 

I also wanted to use Scottish recipes, though I still haven’t perfected shortbread despite having a few favourite family  recipes to choose from.   Oatcakes and butteries have been more successful

finished oatcakes

 

and  bolstered by that experiment with puff pastry I’ve had a go at the French breakfast classic, croissants.

ome made

Following other blogs has opened up a world of recipes for me, I love reading the posts here and made a batch of breakfast cookies last year.

cookies

 

And so back to my banana bread, it’s out of the oven and cooling down. But where did this recipe come from?

 

Well I tasted it first on a picnic last week and asked for the recipe. And this morning after yoga class I was given not just the  recipe but a little bag containing some essential ingredients.

banana bread recipe and ingredients

 

And now to share…

slice on a plate

 

*the yoga pose

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Food, Uncategorized

Work in progress…..

We’ve been away doing our own bit of ancestral tourism and exploring a little of the Western Isles.

uig teapot

..and maybe enjoying the odd cup of tea

Now we’re home it’s all systems go for the summer so I’m back to the baking. Yesterday was Welshcakes and oatcakes, today I’m trying something new.  Croissants.  So far the technique is similar to the one for Aberdeen butteries but more, well, buttery. I don’t have a family or neighbourly recipe for them, I’ve gone back to my trusty Good Housekeeping cookbook.

 

They need to rest in the fridge for half an hour, and that time’s nearly up.

 

 

To be continued……

Food, Uncategorized

Oatcakes

I tried making an old Scottish staple today. Oatcakes. I didn’t have any family recipes, though I’m sure there must be some, so I used this one from BBC GoodFood. And as I was using up some ingredients,  I tweaked it slightly. My gluten free oats were coming to the end of their shelf life so in they went and then I thought it would be nice to make them entirely gluten free so used gluten free buckwheat flour. I used salted butter, again using up stocks, so didn’t add all the salt.

oaty dough

work in progress

The finished products suited my taste but I think in future I’ll add the recipe quantity.

This  recipe and all the others I found asked me to bake the cakes but I set aside some to cook stove top on the griddle , this is how they would have been cooked in the past. The stove top version worked but the oven baked ones were crisper.

baking tray

ready to bake

All in all I was pretty pleased with the result and they weren’t at all difficult. So now I have an addition to my repertoire and one I can offer to guests on a gluten free diet.

finished oatcakes

finished product

Food, Uncategorized

A recipe from across the Atlantic*

My baking repertoire expanded this week.

I was given this recipe for butteries by a neighbour recently. They are a speciality of the North East of Scotland, particularly Aberdeen, a flaky buttery confection, perhaps the Scottish version of croissants; but unlike their French cousins these pastries are salty.

 

My first memory of them is one in which they were elusive. I’d gone  to the North East for the wedding of a college friend and my travel companion who knew the area better insisted I try them. Unfortunately our search took place  as we drove back South the morning after the wedding and fell foul of Sunday closing. Not a buttery could be found.

 

Later they began to be available in Edinburgh but I was never that keen. Now I think I just didn’t try the right ones. They were a bit fiddly to make being a puff pastry, and very far from “healthy” as they are full of fat and quite salty. But the end result. Mmm. Even if I do say it myself. Flaky, buttery scrumptiousness.

A picture you ask? Too late. Sorry Reader, I ate them**

emptyplate

 

*Clachan sound which runs past Sheiling is technically the Atlantic, our neighbour lives on the mainland .

** I didn’t eat them all, MrS had some too and we froze a batch before baking.

 

 

 

Food

Branching out

I’ve had a move away from family recipes to explore gluten free baking. My initial attempts substituting gluten free flour in regular recipes had varying success, shortbread ok, bara brith (a Welsh tea bread) less so. I decided to look for recipes which were designed  flour free. A quick search took me to Nigella Lawson’s website nigella.com which has lots of delicious flour free choices.

So far I’ve tried her chocolate olive oil cake (also dairy free), flour free brownies and clementine cake. All turned out well, I’m blaming my ancient oven for the burnt top of the clementine cake!

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I cut off the “overcooked”bits and added lime buttercream

All three of these use ground almonds as their main “filler” so beware if you have a nut allergy. They are pretty rich and calorific too, enjoy in moderation….

Nigella advises that they are best enjoyed fresh and perhaps even warm but  you’d need quite a large party to polish them off. The  brownies at least freeze well.

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chocolate brownie – I had to “test” after freezing

I have cooked a version of the clementine cake using polenta rather than almonds but can’t find that recipe at the moment, if I remember correctly it produces a denser cake.

After all that “testing”  thank goodness for sunshine and some lovely walks.

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