SUMMER FRUITS CRUMBLE

WE use such a huge amount of bread at Skylark for our breakfasts each week that we end up with a pile of crusts from the ends of the loaves.
I tend to store them in the fridge for a week then process them into a big batch of breadcrumbs. I never realised until starting this job just how many things breadcrumbs can be used for. Our main use most weeks are for the sage and onion stuffing for Sunday lunch or our Homemade scotch eggs. Meatballs are a firm favourite too!

For our fruit crumbles i usually just make a topping from flour,sugar and rubbed in butter but this week discovered a new method using breadcrumbs so i decided to try it out and so glad i did.

Today the farm's shop had given me some soft strawberries, plums and peaches that couldnt be sold so i chopped them all up and put in a heatproof dish with a sprinkle of water and a shaking of sugar over the top. I put this in the oven for 10 minutes for the fruit to soften.
In a bowl i measured out 100g breadcrumbs, 100g oats, 100g sugar and then rubbed into the mixture 60g butter.
I took the fruit out of the oven and covered with my crumble topping and baked for a further 15 minutes.
Served with some gorgeous homemade custard this deliciously crunchy crumble sold on the specials board in no time at all!

SKYLARKS FIRST BUFFET

IT'S been a special weekend in the UK with the Queens Diamond Jubilee celebrations. On any royal occasion i always get a lump in my throat and a real sense of British pride when seeing The Mall, leading up to Buckingham Palace, packed with supporters.

The Mall on Diamond Jubilee Weekend

It wasnt such a big crowd at Skylark this weekend but we also celebrated a 60th occasion. The cafe was hired Saturday for it's first evening event, a 60th birthday party. The buffet was to be all handmade so it was a long day for me.

Buffet Food

I prepared 5 vegetable quiches, Scotch Eggs, my own square vol-au-vents (filled with prawns and coronation chicken) and sausage rolls.

Buffet Food

Wraps filled with ham and mustard mayonnaise, beef and horseradish mayonnaise, and cheese and farmhouse chutney.
Even homemade breaded mushrooms. Coleslaw and savoury rice accompanied the finger food.

Buffet Food

After the savouries we served homemade strawberry cheesecake, banoffee pie and chocolate orange trifle but unfortunately i didnt manage photos of these.

It was hard work but a successful evening and hopefully the first of many.

The Malteser Tree

I'm rather proud of my youngest son.
He's one of those kids that excels in everything he does,and he DOES everything! Football,rugby,saxaphone, clarinet,golf,pool,snooker,fishing,scouts, to mention but a few.
 He also knows you have to work hard for things and since January has washed the plates and pots on a Saturday at Skylark Farm to earn his own money. Here he is on the right of the photo with one of my chefs.

Today he even came the other side of the kitchen as we were short staffed and i taught him the basics so he could help out.

So in the week when he asked me to help him make a malteser tree, similar to one my sister had made me at christmas,as a gift for his English teacher, who was leaving, i was happy to help.

We started with a terracotta pot and filled it with melted chocolate and put a stick in the middle topped with a polystyrene ball and left it to set.

We then poured some melted chocolate on the ball and stuck maltesers on it.

We carried on until the ball was covered.

We colured some fondant icing orange and green and made lots of flowers.

Which we stuck between the maltesers.

I tied some ribbon around the stick for decoration.

Made a gift tag.

And the end result, a gorgeous Malteser Tree.

His English teacher was extremely "touched" by the gesture and loved it.

I'm entering this post in this weeks Handmade Monday which can be found on Handmade Harbour blog organised by Wendy of 1st Unique Gifts.

 I'm off there now to see what other crafters have been up to this week.

 

Linked Also on Foodie Friday and Everything Else  

FEATURED ON BBC NEWS

We had a BBC camera crew in just over a week ago doing a feature on free range eggs and EU rules.
Here is my boss on the news
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-18237053

Unfortunately they didnt film the cafe so my 5 minutes of fame will have to wait!

ORANGES AND LEMONS

Oranges And Lemons  say the bells of St Clements.

Did you know this is a line from an old English nursery rhyme and singing game which refers to the bells of several churches, all within or close to the city of London? To see the full version of the rhyme take a look at Wikipedia. 
To me it refers to what i did with a box of fruit i was given today from the farm shop which was not good enough to be displayed on the shelf any more!

Oranges and Lemons


It was a very, very hot day and i remembered a recipe i had used once before to make old fashioned traditional lemonade and thought it would work just as well combining oranges and lemons to make a very refreshing St Clements drink.

INGREDIENTS

1 Cup Water

1 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Freshly Squeezed Orange And Lemon Juice

3-4 Cups Cold Water

METHOD

Put 1 cup of water with the sugar in a pan and boil until all the sugar is dissolved and a syrup is formed. Add the juice and carry on boiling for a few minutes. Take the pan off the stove and add 3-4 cups of cold water, depending on how strong a flavour you prefer. Refridgerate until cold. Add lots of ice when serving for a very tasty refreshing fruit drink. Perfect for the extremely hot weather we are experiencing at the moment!

Skylark Homemade Orange And Lemon "St Clements" Drink

I obviously made this in a much larger quantity for the cafe. All in all we have sold 8 jugs of juice this weekend and lots of people have commented on how tasty it was, so go on give it a go!

This week i'm entering this post in Handmade Monday which can be found at Handmade Harbour and is organised by Wendy of 1st Unique Gifts in the hope that a few of you may be tempted to give the recipe a try.

I'm off there now to see what has been happening in the world of handmade this week.

SKYLARK FARM NEW SUMMER MENU

THERE'S SOMETHING NEW HAPPENING AT SKYLARK FARM.
Today saw the arrival of the new summer menu at the Farmhouse cafe.
Designed by Create-a-Brand  , a local marketing company, the menu has a warm feel to it with a large sunny egg on the front.
The breakfasts remain constant as always.

Skylark Farm Summer Menu

Teacakes and homemade scones are still there.

Lovely photos of the farmers breakfast and sunday roast.

Farmers Breakfast and Sunday Roast

Sandwiches now come with a flowerpot full of chunky chips and side salad.

Brie and Bacon Sandwich served with Flowerpot chips and Side Salad

And introducing the new summer salad.

Scampi Salad

Truely scrumptious in the heart of the beautiful Northamptonshire countryside. Hope to see you there soon.

HOW TO MAKE SCOTCH EGGS

So the warm weather has finally arrived and the view from Skylark Fields Farmhouse Cafe is beautiful. What better way to spend your lunch break or day off than on our new picnic benches looking out over the yellow sun drenched Northamptonshire fields.
Our new menu is planned for the weekend too so it's hopefully going to be busy, busy, busy this weekend.

View From Skylark Fields Farm

 As the warmer weather comes many people like to have days out with picnics and what nicer picnic food than homemade Scotch Eggs. So easy to make and tasty either hot or cold.

So first hard boil your eggs. Put them in a pan of water, bring to the boil then time them for 10 minutes. Remove from the stove and run the cold water tap over them til cooled. Peel when cooled.

Hard Boiled Free Range Eggs

Wrap sausage meat around the eggs until you can see no white. It's a little fiddly but be patient.

Set out 3 bowls. One with seasoned plain flour, one with an egg and milk mixture ( i used 2 eggs and 1/4pint milk), and the 3rd with breadcrumbs.
Take each egg, roll in the flour then in the egg mixture, then cover with breadcrumbs.

Deep fry for 5 minutes at 170C. Then finish off in the oven at 160C for a further 15 minutes to ensure the sausage meat is cooked through.

Leave to cool for your picnic lunch or serve for tea with chips and beans. If you've never tasted hot scotch eggs before i recommend you try them as they taste lush!!

Scotch Eggs

*TOP TIP* Once you have mastered these have a go at curried scotch eggs by adding some curry paste and mango chutney to the sausage meat before wrapping it around your egg. A taste sensation!!

Thanks for popping by.