Hot chocolate

The best thing about the weather being utterly dreadful is that we finally have an excuse to have a proper hot drink. A home-made hot chocolate. With real chocolate you know, not the powder stuff [chocolate curtesy of my mum :-)]

It was dreadful the other day, really cold and windy. This drink is exactly what we needed to pick us up. Utter decadence, a real treat. The secret recipe? Haha, the simplest ever! Fill up a mug with milk, tip the milk in a pan, add good quality chocolate (about 40g), heat gently until the chocolate has melted. Add a dash of ground cinnamon and serve up quick.

Drink up thinking  the world has been made a better place.

Summer in a glass

It's that time of year again. Not many browning flowers down our end, actually a lot more buds in the waiting.

Last saturday afternoon was a perfect time to collect flower heads, going from one bush to the next. The weather was amazing and the elderflower trees heavy with fragrant bounty.

30 flower heads later and 2 1/2 litres of golden liquid ready to be consumed. Now I just need to make sure it doesn't get demolished in the next few days, it really is very good!

Blackberries coming out of my ears

This is why Boyfriend and I had a super busy weekend. Last year's blackberry brandy went down so well, we thought we'd do it again this year. Boyfriend's dad loved it so much we thought we'd help him get his own batch on the go too. So off we went, rucksack full of tupperwares ready to fill them. We weren't sure if we were going to be too late, I've been seeing ripe blackberries in south London for a couple of months now. But oh no, we were not to be disappointed. In total, we picked 3kg. Yes 3kg!!!! So want to see the work in progress?

Isn't it beautiful? ;-)

And of course there was some 1kg left after that as well, so I got my little apron on (well metaphorically you know) and used up the last of my spare glass jars to make some blackberry jam! The smell in the kitchen was simply divine! I'm now tempted to go pick some more to make some blackberry and apple leather...!

Transformation

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Equals one very chuffed Petit Filoux. My very first elderflower cordial. So ridiculously easy to make, it's silly. And it tastes rather wonderful. Yum!

(recipe from the River Cottage preserves book)