Lovely Boy!

http://tinyurl.com/35t2pwp

A wonderful write up by my dear, dear, gorgeous and scrumptious friend Craig Rowe!
It was indeed a fabulous evening!
Watch Craig Rowe on QVC...he's a star!
x

Apple Heaven

Mother Nature really is a bit of a poppet.She has come up trumps this year and ensured that every blossom on my beautiful apple trees have yielded fruit. What a star!












I'm not sure quite how it happened...perhaps the lack of a late frost...or maybe the abundant rain last year. Whatever the reason - I've had an Appley year.

My eating apple tree for example - most years this old rickety tree only gives me a couple of dozen apples. Little ones which are bullet hard and stick to the roof of you mouth and dry your lips when you try to eat them.
This autumn however, my wonderful tree has produced at least three or four hundred apples, all sweet, juicy, rosy and shiny. What a clever thing.
Now,there is a rumour that when a tree does this, it's possibly a bit of a swan song, but I'm holding out hope that Mother Nature isn't going to be that mean, and this dear old tree is just in a voluptuous part of yearly cycles.

My cookers are still dropping daily. I'm about to make my last batch of chutney and then I'll leave the rest to the birds and fluffy things that jump over the fence of the bottom field, into my garden for a nibble.

A couple of weeks ago, on a very sunny warm October day, my neighbours and friends got together for an apple pressing day. We've all had more apples than ever, and this seemed the best way of using up natures bounty instead of leaving it to rot.
We hired a local apple press, stood it in my garden and started pressing. It was a mini co-operative. Everyone chipped in £5 for the hire, all helped press the juice and then we shared the delicious nectar between us all. Fabulous.

Lordy, so much juice. Surprisingly sweet (even from the cookers) and absolutely delicious. We poured it into into old milk cartons and bottles,then froze most. (It keeps in the fridge for about 3 days un-pasteurised...longer if you pasteurise yourself). I find freezing best though.

The rest?
Well I've filled two demi-johns with apple juice and they are bubbling and fermenting noisily next to my Aga. I'll give it a bit longer, bottle it up and in six months we'll all get together for a Cider and Sausage night - I fear this potential evil brew might make the evening a little messy...but enormous fun!

Blogged In Norway....

....Who'd have thought it!
The most exciting thing for me is seeing the translation! Soon I fancy, I'll be speaking fluent Norweigan food speak!If that makes any sense at all !

Thanks Maria...I'm so glad you like my book and recipes enough to write about them.....You're a star!

http://marias-saltogsott.blogspot.com/

Have a look... X

Lovely review by Helen Peacocke in The Oxford Times

http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/8435066.Lotte_shows_how_it_is_in_a_fine_new_recipe_book/

Here is the link to a fabulous review .....many thanks Helen, it's lovely.

Julie/Julia....Caroline/Lotte

If you have a mo to spare, do take at look at this new blog... Mrs Smithshire is blogging my cook book a la 'Julie/Julia'...

I love it!

http://smithshire.wordpress.com/

Another stonking book review...

Thank you Nicola for a lovely review...(see below)...here is a large plug for her fabulous website http://www.raggedyanngirl.com/
it's called Raggedy Ann Girl in a Barbie Doll World, and it's brilliant!

Lotte's Country Kitchen - a book review


Let me begin by saying that I have dozens of cookbooks. And a very small bookshelf. I already have to do a seasonal rotation four times a year to accommodate them all, so to get a permanent place on my shelf, and become splashed with the traces of the favourite recipes within, a cookbook has to be very special. Lotte's Country Kitchen is a shoo-in. Author, broadcaster, blogger and self-confessed 'nutty bird', Lotte Duncan has produced something I had thought impossible - a real country cookbook with accessible, interesting, fun and non-stodgy recipes. Food that fills you up and nourishes your soul. Recipes that are as much of a pleasure to cook, as they are to share with loved ones. Menus that will impress your 'tasters' without leaving you a frazzled heap on the kitchen floor. Food that people love. This is real cooking for real people. From the delightfully stimulating salmon, leek and spinach lasagne to hedonistic hot cross bun chocolate and rum pudding, there is something here for every taste, every hunger and every occasion. Even as a non-meat eater I still found plenty of choice and, believe me, I've read many a 'country cookbook' that relied solely on meat for savouries and suet for desserts! Now, I'm not going to suggest that Lotte's Country Kitchen is ideal for the constant dieter - that's not the point of the book. There are lighter options on offer but none of that all-very-healthy-and-pretty-but-leaves-you-hungry arty kind of food that takes hours to prepare and five minutes to consume. Who wants to be the hostess who leaves guests hungry and reaching for the biscuit tin as soon as they get in? Lotte's guests leave her home satisfied and so will yours. There is comfort food like the marvellous Mum's macaroni cheese, as well as posh nosh in the form of salmon, orange and bronze fennel pate. The decidedly grown-up plum vodka (which gives a fabulous kick to a mulled wine) is in perfect contrast to the gratuitously girlie Mr Darcy's pink glittery macaroons.



Helpfully the book is divided into chapters each of which are devoted to a month, so it is quite possible to join Lotte on a year-long exploration of seasonal ingredients and seasonally appropriate dishes. But I defy anyone not to rush right in to whipping up January's enticing nutty treacle tart. There are also lots of helpful tips and lovely snippets of life chez Lotte too. The photography is excellent, the recipes easy to follow, there are instructions for conventional ovens and Agas and, unlike most cookbook reading experiences, you’ll actually find yourself laughing out loud as you go!



But I'd like to offer a little warning. If you're one of those Bree Van der Kamp types, for whom perfection is everything, who has a huge granite topped kitchen with sleek surfaces and gliding draws and an array of barely touched gadgets on the counter top. If you need to be a domestic goddess a la Nigella (who I love, by the way, but no-one really lives like that, do they?) then you need to take in a huge breath, scrunch up those shoulders, let them go again and r-e-l-a-x before opening this book. "Lotte's Country Kitchen" is no place for anyone that takes themselves too seriously! This is one cookbook that will bear the splashes of the food you cook for a long-time to come!
Lotte's Country Kitchen is available now in the UK and from November in the US.





All about Nicola Rippon Derby-born Nicola Rippon is a freelance writer. She has been a regular contibutor to the "Derby Telegraph" and "Derbyshire Life & Countryside". She is the author of a number of books of both local and national interest, including "Derby Our City (2001) and "Derbyshire's Own" (2006); and is the co-author of "Goodey's Derby" (2003). In 2001 she wrote and co-produced the highly-acclaimed film "Derby: A People's History".Educated in Derbyshire at Dale Primary and Littleover Schools, she is a long-suffering Rams season ticket holder. Her latest book "The Plot to Kill Lloyd George: The Story of Alice Wheeldon and the Peartree Conspiracy" was published in 2009 and she is still ridiculously excited that she can search for herself on Amazon! With a number of exciting projects 'in the pipeline', two cats to follow around and a vegetable patch to tend, Nicola is grateful for this opportunity to vent and muse on this blog.

Burning the Summer Away...

Last Saturday we all got together for the last fire pit of the year.

Much wood and tree bits were burnt, including the first of my autumn cut back. We cooked the food from the Fire Pit Chapter in my book....Lamb with garden herbs, Flatbreads, Cheesy Mustard Pull-Apart Bread,Vegetables in Foil and Sausage and Bean Casserole.
We drank far too much than is probably sensible....ate too much pudding - Jamakewell Tart and Chocolate Mess (no pictures of this unfortunately - it was too dark by the time we ate it..and I was probably a bit too tidly to hold the camera!)....And generally said goodbye to Summer and hello to the cold mornings and chilly evenings of Autumn.

I believe (for it is a little bit hazy) that we may have heralded it in rather well !

It really was a wonderful time - a warm fire brings people together. It comforts us, cuddles us and keeps the wild animals at bay. It enables us cook delicious food, gives us the ability to tidy up the garden and when sat around it, makes us all just stop, relax and take time to chat and laugh until we need the loo!

At some point, towards midnight, a couple of us snoozed, one or two snored and those still conscious, loaded on the logs and kept us all warm.

My poor head paid tribute to our fireside ramblings and sloe gin drinking around the toasty fire the next morning. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

If you want to try cooking on a Fire Pit..all you need is my book (Lotte's Country Kitchen) for the recipes, some quite bonkers friends (we all have a few of those) and some wood and matches.
Plus of course a fit young man to dig it out....my favourite bit!

Everyone must help though (that's the best bit).... this can be building the fire, cooking the flat breads or simply icing the cinnamon rolls (thanks Alice, Olive and Maddy)!

You can buy my book at all good bookshops or pop onto Amazon and order it there.

Let me know how you get on!