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Hello everyone, Tom here with a quick idea for some Sunday morning baking. Thank you to everyone who commented on my bread post with suggestions on how to use my excess, unfed sourdough starter. I was particularly excited by the prospect of making sourdough crumpets . . . so here’s my take! Kate especially enjoyed…
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Hello from the farthest reaches of rural broadband . . . it’s Tom again. So, who doesn’t like fresh bread? I certainly do, but our local shops have been out of flour, of all kinds, for a couple of months, and my bread baking has been sadly on the back burner. I’ve been eking out…
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Morning! It’s Tom here. Many of you may know that I have a background in biology, but you might not be aware of how my scientific interests and my love of brewing beers and other beverages have, for many years, reinforced each other. I have been brewing for much of my life: from my first…
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After we published my oatcake-inspired cardigan, Land o’ Cakes the other day, Tom reminded me of his favourite oatcake recipe that he’d included in our Buachaille book some years ago. This is a great recipe for whipping up a quick bread-replacing staple (and as long as the mill producing your oatmeal doesn’t also make wheat…
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Today I’m excited to reveal our three new shades of Milarrochy Tweed. There’s Cranachan – a vibrant raspberry red – (named for the traditional Scottish dessert made with raspberries) . . . there’s Hare (named for the animal, with its soft dun-coloured coat) . . . and finally Tarbet: a complex, maritime blue named for…
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It definitely feels like harvest season here: the swallows and housemartins have departed, we are curing our bumper onion crop for the winter, and the trees on the steading are full of fruit. Our neighbour, Brenda, has several beautiful plum trees, which have been very productive this year. So productive, in fact, that Tom has…
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I rather like this time of year. Rowan and heather glow upon golden hills, the bracken begins to turn and every breath of wind rocks and lifts the willow herb, which flies about in clouds. The mornings are crisp, but the days are warm and the sky is always varied and amazing. Formerly for me,…
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For many years, I’ve had a quiet obsession with riciarelli, which I first came across, flavoured with orange flower water, in Betty’s tea rooms in York. Betty’s only seem to sell these wee macaroon-y treats in Spring for some reason, so I had to persuade Tom (who does not need much persuading where baking is…
Read MoreNeither Tom or I are fond of food shopping, yet for some unknown reason we have never ordered our supplies online using one of the many delivery services now available. I finally tried this the other day, and of course made the mistake of failing to adjust the default units under which some items are…
Read MoreThere is no getting away from the fact that I’ve had a rough few days. Please try not to have a stroke, people: the long term health implications of it are really bloody annoying. Sometimes the process of recovery itself can add further problems to the myriad medical issues that follow a brain injury, and…
Read MoreThanks so much for your comments on the last post, which have really got me thinking about what one might term the cultural politics of macaroons (or ons). Clearly I have become far too bourgeois for my own good, since I was talking about the miniature meringues that feature in French / Italian patisserie, rather…
Read MoreI am foolishly excited. This is because we are going away for a few days this weekend. Guess where we are going? that’s right! Islay and Jura! As wild camping is a bit beyond me at the moment, Tom has hired a camper van in which we shall zoom about the islands in comparative luxury.…
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