Becky Bakes…

It’s been another glorious week here in our little seaside town, with only a little rain falling overnight yesterday. But on Tuesday we decided to have a day out, not least to celebrate our wedding anniversary, and Snape Maltings were our destination. It’s a place we’ve visited numerous times, the home of the Aldeburgh Festival as well as a food festival in September, but it also houses a variety of retail outlets and usually has an art exhibition too. This visit didn’t disappoint with a magnificent “Wave” painting by Maggie Hamblin on offer. £75K was a little out of my price range though 😉 There are options for lunch too – an Adnams pub, a revamped cafe and a restaurant overlooking the marshes, with the river running by. It was low tide but we clearly saw some very large fish trying to stay cool in the vanishing water. If you feel a bit brave there’s a barge moored on the quayside which is available for overnight stays, but I’m not sure I’d want all those visitors strolling by the windows. Back home for dinner at the Fludyers which never disappoints. Quite a day x

… it’s over let it go! Bernard Braden and Millicent Martin were responsible for the TV programme I think, but you’re probably too young to remember it 😉 It’s been quite a week here too. We saw an old friend for a couple of days and enjoyed a lovely lunch at Ely cathedral in spite of the pouring rain. Then the usual routines kicked in… Emporium, Knit&&chat, Cake Friday, hair cuts and the dentist with, in the midst of this, two batches of Brownie. It’s one of our most popular downloads and came about after a lesson with our VIth form who wanted to find the best Brownie available, so we made a box-mix as well as five different versions. Whilst I can’t remember where it came from it was judged the best one and I’ve made it ever since. Have you tried it yet ? xx

From time to time I come across a phrase or words of wisdom which I want to save and ponder over. I tend to write the words on a piece of paper and then put it in a safe place. You know what’s coming next…where did I put that ? But today I came across one of my notes and on it was scrawled “Cooking as an act of love”. Well…..now I think about it, I always make the dishes our children like when they come here and frequently boxes of Brownie go to Norwich (another going this week 😉 ) We all do it don’t we? It’s not that we want to spoil them but giving them their favourite food is showing we care as well as remembering what they enjoy most. I’ve no idea where I came across this phrase but it’s worth thinking about , even though it’s instinctive. x 🙂

…the weather is cold, or whether the weather is hot. Whether the weather is dry, or whether the weather is not, I’ll weather the weather whatever the weather, whether I like it or not. It’s been a mixed week here – summer came and went and has come back again. Thank goodness for the greenhouse to protect our crops from all the wind we’ve had this week too, not to mention the slug invasion. They haven’t properly found their way in yet, but we’re keeping an eye out for telltale nibbles and obvious decimation. My flowers are still providing them with nourishment so next year I’ll be much more selective about the plantings. Even the birds aren’t finding them as tasty treats, largely due to the presence of an unruly mob of magpies who don’t give other smaller birds a chance to land safely. Whilst we do have a cat, Minnie, she has never caught a bird, only a couple of mice which were delivered to me as gifts. So is this Summer? Maybe. We’d better make the most of it 😉

Summer has arrived… I think. We’ve had two days of sunshine, no rain and it’s jolly hot. I’m not complaining – it means there will be fewer slugs marching through the grass and flower beds, eating almost everything on their journey. I have “dealt” with over three hundred in the last couple of weeks and it hasn’t been fun. I’ve promised a friend that I wouldn’t go into detail, so I’ll leave you to guess the rest 😉 But today the schools closed for the summer holidays, the six weeks of anxiety for parents. Already one lady is asking if there’s anything to do here… we live on the coast. We have a sandy beach. What more do young children need? Another final moment came to the antique shop in our little town, so this morning’s Cake Friday delivery was depleted, although there seems no shortage of businesses wanting to rent shops as they become empty. Good news too, for the fish and chip shop which closed suddenly. My nonagenarian friend will be delighted that it’s been sold and looks like reopening before too long. It’s her go-to lunch on Fridays and fish pie just doesn’t taste the same, does it? x

It seems like a lifetime ago that we were living in South Carolina, near the state capital Columbia, just off route 378, from Georgia to the coast. Nearby was the Old Cherokee Trail, a much more emotive route out of the south for that tribe. However, at the top of the road there was, for a short time, a restaurant named Brix. Its’ claim to fame was that if you needed a knife to cut your steak you could have your money back. We never did. It was incredible. Now, here in our little seaside town we have a lovely butchers shop where, after much prevarication on the part of the steak buyer, we’ve found the best steaks in town. There’s so much to be said for shopping locally whether it be the butcher, the baker and even the candle(stick) maker. Let’s not forget all the other “indies” too, not least our favourite bookshop. My Cake Friday list is changing. We’re losing some shops and gaining others, but we must continue to support our High Streets, otherwise we’ll be disappointed when we find they’ve gone. x

At the weekend I decided to make a bulk batch of Slo-bol – slow-cooked bolognaise sauce. I try to keep a supply of properly labelled boxes in the freezer but we’d run out. Carrots and celery were on the shopping list for the soffrito and it occurred to me that since we’re now in salad season there was a risk these wouldn’t all get used. So I spent a while on Sunday chopping all the carrots and celery, as well as four onions, so that I could freeze bags of ready to use vegetables for the next time I make a bulk batch of bolognaise. I’m trying hard not to waste food but since we gave one of our young friends the “overflow” fridge freezer, space is at a premium. Consequently several of last year’s frozen tomatoes found their way into the pan. Champion freezer sorter cum organiser (hubby) was then called upon to find space for the five boxes of slo-bol. Much sighing ensued…. 😉

We’re lucky in this part of sleepy Suffolk as we have a number of lovely places to visit on sunny summer days – and on not-such-nice days too. One of them is the National Trust site just outside Woodbridge where an Anglo-Saxon burial ship was found in 1939. The outbreak of war delayed progress with the excavations, led by Basil Brown at that time. There is a magnificent visitors centre with a shop and restaurant, but the purpose of our visit today was to see and climb the viewing tower which helps get a view of the site from on high – there are 89 steps to climb in this steel structure but it’s worth it. The cranes at Felixstowe docks were clearly visible too. National Trust lunches are always good but the queues were enormous, due to coach parties wanting to see the Time Team wrapping up their dig. So off we went to Melton where we relaxed with a glass of Prosecco and lamb koftas followed by fish. Now I’m a great fan of fish and chips but often can’t eat it all, so ordered a small portion. Husband, on the other hand, went for rainbow trout. It was enormous and rested on a bed of local new potatoes and asparagus with caper butter and a garlic sauce. Phew. Bad choice. He’s still recovering, even after a walk by the river. No dinner needed tonight 😉

In the past I’ve never been able to describe anything as a trip, because that means I might have “had a fall”. We always spoke of school “visits” or “excursions”, never trips! But this week we had a visit to a garden centre run by a lovely family I’ve known for a very long time. There was a purpose for the visit – I needed to replace a patio rose that I somehow managed to kill several years ago. It was a delight to drive into the countryside with the sun shining at last and then wander amongst the shrubs and perennials, annuals and pots too. Obviously it would have been rude not to sit and mardle over a coffee and share a very large piece of coffee cake, then pay for our impulse buys (and the rose) then fill the car boot. It was then that we realised our son would be flying back from Sarajevo and passing overhead. We must have looked quite suspicious hanging around the carpark, then waving frantically to a passing Airbus, but, to be honest, we do it all the time – the tech team has the app, of course!

It seems that a large number of people in Britain have been affected by the latest outbreak of E.coli which is caused by bacteria normally living in human and animal intestines. It causes very unpleasant symptoms and anyone suffering with it should stay at home until the symptoms have gone, as well as staying away from vulnerable family members. Good hygiene is always crucial when handling food, we should always wash our hands before preparing meals as well as washing our fruits and vegetables. Many years ago we were made aware of problems in Italy when crops were watered with inappropriate sources of water – I don’t want to be too graphic, but you probably get my drift. So in spite of our strawberries and raspberries tasting better straight from the punnet, please wash them before you eat them, wash your commercially grown tomatoes and don’t serve salad leaves beyond their date. Stay safe x