I made 2 school girl camera errors yesterday.  In the morning I left my camera at home and so missed the chance to snap Harvey playing for his school football team beating a local school 7-4.  Then my battery ran out of juice 😦 . So I missed some stunning photo opportunities but I did manage a few at least.  We had a day out beside the sea.

Harvey and I met Michelle at The Black Douglas and had a lovely table upstairs looking out at the sea.

I had lentils with eggs and chorizo which was ok.

This was naughty but perfect – lemon polenta cake.  Unfortunately, I ate really badly after this.  Really badly.

Today was another day and I made a fantastic smoothie to start the day with.

I found the recipe on Gena’s Choosing Raw blog which I regularly check out.

Raw Apple Pie Smoothie

Ingredients (serves 1-2)
2 apples or 1 apple and 1 pear, quartered with core cut out
1 frozen banana
1/4 cup cashews
3 tbsp hemp protein
2 pitted dates
1 1/2 cups almond milk
2 tsp apple pie spice
A couple of ice cubes (optional)

Blitz all the ingredients together in a blender until smooth.  I blitzed for ages so it was really smooth.

This was delicious.  I used 1 apple and 1 pear as I had a very ripe pear to use up.  It was thick, smooth and completely delicious.  Definitely one to try and very Autumnal.

I was working today as we are so busy.  I started at 8am so I could have a little break at 10am to do a walk.  It was such a glorious day.  Warm and sunny.

To make it even better I had the lovely company of Vegetable Grower Up The Road.  I haven’t seen much of my friends lately so it was really good to catch up with one of them.

After a few hours work I was treated to a lovely roast chicken lunch.  James and Harvey cooked roast chicken, roast potatoes, a lovely gravy made with giblets, a huge pile of vegetables and a little redcurrant jelly with port on the side.  Delicious.  Thank you chaps.  It seemed rather strange having a Sunday lunch without a glass of wine!

After an afternoon’s work I made a quince crumble.  I picked these up yesterday at Perfect Partners in Cranbrook.  Quince look like large yellow pears.

They are incredibly hard and difficult to peel and core but I persevered.  After being peeled and cored and chopped in to 6-8 pieces,  I placed 4 large quince in an oven proof dish with 35g brown sugar sprinkled on top.  I barely covered the quince with water and then put them in the oven on 160°  C for 2 hours.  They came out orange, looking more like peaches.

I drained the juice which I cooled and gave Harvey to drink later which he enjoyed.  I then put on a crumble topping and baked it for half an hour, serving it with custard.  Naughty but nice.

I enjoyed my quince crumble.  I haven’t had one since around this time last year when Kath made me one.  Missing you very much my dear – could do with you being here at the moment.

Here’s hoping next week is better then last week, for all of us.