Blackberry Days Part 2

I honestly thought that the blackberries had all but finished, but I saw my friend Susie yesterday on the lane between our two villages, picking merrily away whilst her two terriers waited patiently. To be fair they weren't the most perfect of specimens, (the blackberries, not the dogs)  but as Susie says, they would be fine for blackberry vodka.

Blackberry vodka? Oh no, I don't do vodka....ever since the olden days.. since the first Christmas after leaving the convent school, I got drunk on a number of vodkas and lime. You will note that the exact number isn't mentioned. That's because I'm unsure of the number - it may have been four or five. No more though...

My first hangover. I thought my head and stomach  would explode, and I vowed never to drink the stuff ever again. I couldn't even stomach the smell of Roses's lime cordial for years either.

So the thought of blackberry vodka even after all these years was distinctly unappealing. Until yesterday.

I blame my friend Laura. I was whizzing down to her place to get something to knit a gash on my arm, which kept splitting open. Another incident down at the allotment in case you were wondering....

Ever efficient, she had a well stocked medicine cabinet cleaned, the wound and patched me up...but unlike my local doctor's surgery ,she also offered me a wee glass of blackberry vodka.

She's made quite a lot this year as well as other fruit vodkas and gins.

I smelt it first, fruity but clean. I took a tentative taste...and I began to smile. Bursting with blackberries, it also was so smooth, I polished the glass off faster than you can say "Hallelujah". My decades long aversion to vodka was cured in a couple of minutes.

On my way back up the hill, I bumped into Susie, who was still blackberrying. I think she's out to outdo Laura in the quantity stakes....they'll be getting a still next.


So guess what I was doing this afternoon? Walking Boo around the village , picking about 500gms of  blackberries to make a bottle 's worth.

Which I have done, and which will now be put away until Christmas. Or perhaps not - depending on my willpower.

Today's track is from Josh Kemp, a Midlands musician in his early twenties, who I met the other week at the launch of Oxjam. He's a engaging songwriter, with some gorgeous love song lyrics, but he's also such  a good guitarist. What's more, he really made me laugh with this song taken from his new EP Sofa Surfin.

His hangover was far more extreme than mine ( I just lay in a darkened room) ....but I expect it strikes a chord with many....

 

Blackberry days

It's the right time to be baking. And not because of the Great British Bake off either, although I do love the programme in a perverse sort of way. Mary Berry is a national treasure and I admire the talent and fortitude of many of the contestants...but as an impetus to improve my baking skills....no!

Don't get me wrong, I adore cooking...and I am particularly partial to home made cake, tray bakes, and biscuits. What I call homely baking. I'm a whizz with  banana and chocolate loaf, apple cake, blackberry loaf, and Bridget's biscuits .They're all very simple things that can be whisked up at the drop of a hat, and don't take too much effort. My Lemon drizzle cake and Turkish orange cake taste lovely, but I wouldn't score highly on presentation.

You see, I'm rather slapdash when it comes to cooking and baking. I throw things in, roughly measuring them on my old sweetie scales as I go along and hoping for the best. I'm what my mother  calls "kack handed" - I tend to end up wearing as much of the cake mixture as goes into the oven, and flour just seems to drift and cover the kitchen .

The thought of being precise, being judged and being what I call downright fanciful, just gives me the heeby jeebies when it comes to baking. There's quite enough pressure in my life thank you without sweating my guts out on a set in the middle of nowhere with lots of other contestants who are lovely but wanting to beat me at the same time.

So it's not the Bake off which is getting me itchy and twitchy to start baking again...it's the time of year. Autumn. There's been so many blackberries this year, and I can only freeze so many....so it's time for a blackberry loaf.

Now I don't know where this recipe came from...or when...but it's written on a scrap of paper, in my handwriting.

It's really easy to make, and can keep for about five days. Having said that, this loaf doesn't last long...it's very moreish.

I give you a Blackberry loaf for a kack handed cook....

 Ingredients

3 and a half oz of butter
2tspn baking powder
8oz plain flour
1oz oats
5oz of sugar
2 ad a half oz blackberries
6 fluid oz milk
a beaten egg

So here's what you do....

1.Grease and line a 1 lb loaf tin with greaseproof paper.

2.Sift the baking powder and flour into a mixing bowl then add the oats, sugar and half of the blackberries. Mix together

3. Melt the butter in a saucepan , then stir in the milk and egg. (Careful now...you don't want scrambled egg!)

4.Put the mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix, before turning into the loaf tin. Sprinkle the rest of the blackberries on the top of the mixture.

5. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius...that's 350 fahreneheit for about 50minutes to an hour until firm to touch.

6.leave in the tin for about 5 minutes, the put on a rack and sprinkle with a handful of sugar.

And there you have it...a very simple loaf, which wouldn't win any prizes when it comes to beauty and fiddlyness in the Great British Bake off...but which is simply lovely about elevenish with a strong cup of coffee.


Today's track is "Blackberry Way" ...not by the Move or ELO...but by the Wonder Stuff. I really like this version...

 

Wordless Wednesday- black dog and blackberries