Tuesday, 4 June 2019

Sweet Treats

I am a little behind with blogging at the moment, but I am slowing getting around to visit you all.  Nothing wrong, just life seems to be taking over.  Although Gerard has been having some nasty side effects from some drugs he takes.  He has now under the consultants advice stopped taking one of his RA injections and consequently is having a flare up.  Rest and healthy eating is the order of the day.  In fairness we do eat healthily most of the time.  We do have a tendency to have treats when we have visitors and we have had several visitors of the weekend.  Homemade desserts are the best, yum!

We have an abundance of eggs at the moment so I made meringue, so that I could add strawberries and fresh whipped cream to make eton mess.


I also made a strawberry tart with a homemade custard base, using more eggs.



Topping it off with a strawberry flavoured jelly.


Finally an orange cake topped off with butter cream icing and jellied orange.  The perfect addition for afternoon tea.




I have started to use the liners for my baking, so much easier than greasing baking trays.  I am all for an easy life these days.  I have spent a lot of time in the kitchen this weekend jam making and replenishing the empty glass bottles with basil oil.  Apricots were cheap in the supermarket this week and I managed to get some yellow sticker strawberries, making the jam much more cost effective.





Already to be labelled up.  Finally the rain has stopped so I am ever hopeful that I may be able to get out in a few hours and mow the lawn.  I also intend to pick some more herbs ready for drying.  I have an abundance of mint which will be useful for mint sauce.  The roof on the outbuilding is almost finished so next we are going to replace the windows and get the door put back on.  Once the structure is sound we will be able to make plans for the interior and build the raised beds.  It is slow progress but we are thankful progress is being made.  What are you working on?

As always I thank you for your visit and your uplifting comments.

See you soon.


43 comments:

  1. My goodness you have been busy! Those treats look amazing - your husband (and your visitors) are very lucky!

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  2. Yummy, yummy, yummy...
    Hug
    Anna

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  3. Yum yum. We love meringues, and custard tart.

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  4. Lots of delicious productivity there. Hope hubby improves, meds can be tricky.

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  5. I'm sorry to hear that Gerard is having another flare up, though how he's to resist your delicious baking I just don't know, it all looks so scrumptious.

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  6. I hope that Gerard starts to feel better soon, continuous illness grinds everyone down. well done on the jamming front, I picked up some cheap mangoes to make some chutney and will soon have both wild and cultivated strawberries for jam.

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  7. Hope Gerard improves. All that baking and bottling - amazing!

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  8. Good Morning Lorraine, although I guess it's evening for you. I'm sorry to hear that Gerard is having flare ups. I know how painful that is. My prayers go out for him to have relief soon.
    Your kitchen must smell absolutely amazing with all of that baking and jelly making. It looks wonderful!
    Wishing for peaceful and happy days ahead for both of you. And most important, pain-free.
    Love and blessings,
    Betsy

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  9. I am coming to your house to eat! hee hee

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  10. How wonderful to have plenty of eggs from your chickens! You can use them in lots of recipes especially those yummy desserts that you serve to visitors. We're enjoying strawberries (not home grown although we might have some ripening later in the month). I hope your husband gets the advice he needs re. his medication and his health improves again.

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  11. I'm sorry Gerard is having difficulty with balancing his meds, I hope it gets straightened out. Dayle is doing much better. I'm so glad the shed is going to be all set to go soon.. I hope you show photos of the progress. All your cooking and jam making inspire me. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  12. Yummy! I haven't heard of the liners and hope maybe if others haven't that you might give us some info on them in a future post.

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    1. I buy cake tin liners from amazon, lots of different sizes available - loaf tin and 8" round are the ones I buy, Cx

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  13. Wouldn't mind coming to tea at your house!

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  14. Everything looks gorgeous and delicious!

    Sorry for your husband's meds issues. -sigh-

    We want to get flowers for the pots out on patio, but so much rain... No sense of buying them, when we can't get them in, with all the rain. -sigh-

    Gentle hugs...

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  15. So sorry for the flare up. Hopefully, the docs will figure out a different cocktail that works well.

    Those special desserts look divine. Your guests were blessed.

    Hope the weather turns around so you can accomplish your chores without running between rain drops.

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  16. Your lovely desserts must have made your friends happy! Everything always looks delicious out of your kitchen. I'll have to make some basil oil as we love it. Hopefully the weather will allow you to accomplish your projects. Sending prayers for Gerard to get better soon.

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  17. I hope G gets better soon! (He's always on my morning prayer list). No worries about the visiting, when life gets busy everyone understands. I try to stay on top but it's challenging when I'm going in all different places.

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  18. Oh, What wonderful goodness comes from your kitchen. Your friends and family are fortunate indeed! I know you are excited to be making progress on the garden room. Hopefully, all goes well with your husband and he will feel better soon.

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  19. I remember those flares...ugh. Your baking looks incredible!

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  20. Your jam looks yummy as do all of those sweet treats. So sorry about the RA flares. It seems to be a theme on a few blogs. My mom is having trouble recently too.

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  21. How delightfully delicious your desserts look!
    I use a lot of parchment paper but have not seen any made for round pans. How convenient!

    Apricots make the loveliest jam!

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  22. Your baking and jam-making looks very good! You are always so busy! Phil

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  23. Ooh lots of lovely goodies happening at your house Lorraine, I think we'd all love to visit you. I do hope Gerard's meds are sorted soon, not nice being in pain. Take care, Cathy x

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  24. Put me down for a little bit of everything! You've been busy making all my favourites.

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  25. What a super array of sweet treats, they all look wonderful:)

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  26. That all looks so good. Looks like you took advantage of a rainy day for sure. Rain is due here again. We just can't get a break this year.

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  27. Lots of wonderful desserts in this post, Lorraine, and how wonderful to have that abundant supply of fresh eggs too. Hope that Gerard will be feeling better with the med change.

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  28. What a productive day. We are considering it an achievement that we are currently eating jam from 2018 after a few years break from preserving but not actually consuming it all! Now that I have given up the alotment I will have to find other ways to forage for fruit. Jo xx

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  29. Those desserts look so wonderful! I almost never make dessert but we did have strawberry shortcake twice lately with some local strawberries and it was divine. I hope your good cooking makes Gerard feel better quickly.

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  30. Wow that all looks delicious! The strawberries look particularly lovely.

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  31. Sorry to read that Gerard is having difficulty with his meds, hope he and the Dr. can get things sorted..

    Your desserts looks delicious.

    All the best Jan

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  32. Yummy looking food! :-) You and yours are regularly in my prayers...healing for Gerard's RA. I'm glad you are making progress on your building project. I enjoyed knitting with baby blanket making friends this morning. xx

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  33. Like you, I'm finding that I'm getting behind in blogging, and in commenting. Sorry that Gerard is having a flareup and med issues. Praying that all will be sorted soon. Your bakes look wonderful!

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  34. I hope Gerard's medication issue will be sorted out by the doctor and everything will be well soon. Your homemade sweet treats looks yummy.

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  35. Your orange cake looks delish and I have also recently started using liners for my baking, like you said...much easier. It also seems to keep cakes nice and orderly when freezing! Hope Gerard's flair up settles down soon.

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  36. Oh boy...does that look delicious! We are in for a few rainy days around here as well and we need it SO badly! I am actually looking forward to a rainy weekend here. Blessings!

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  37. It's a pity that I can't stretch my arm out through the screen and take your strawberry cake ! I love them. Also the meringue looks delicious.
    I wished somebody would invent a screen you can reach things you like ! Would be bad for us, lol !

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  38. Oh yum, the cake looks amazing, thete is nothing nothing better than homemade strawberry cake during Summer, have a lovely weekend ☺

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  39. Yummy food! I hope to make some jam again this year. Off to a couple graduation parties today. Praying Gerard will feel better soon. Looks like you're busy too😁!! Have a great weekend!

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  40. I hope the flare up is short in duration. I am coming over for a few bites of those delicious treats.

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  41. I just had to come back again and read more, I just love your blog so much, we share so many interests and projects! To think we live so far apart yet so many same likes, our days are still light at ten this far north, Your Elton mess sounds so good, well everything looks amazing!

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  42. Curious about that Eton mess. Is it like a Pavlova?

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