Hi guys! I’m back! Had a little summer break from blogging for a few weeks whilst we went away to Spain, and you know me, I’m just not the type of organised person who gets in cover whilst I’m away or schedules posts and all that malarkey. Anyway how are you? I am good, so glad to be back in the normal swing of life. I’m a pathetic creature of habit. We spent 2 1/2 weeks in Spain, and it was a mixture of boring, wonderful, too hot, brilliant, stressful, tiring and relaxing all at once. I struggle a bit on holidays. And having spoken to other women, I don’t think I’m alone. I DO have great moments, lots of them, but I need to be doing things (a book and a camera are complete essentials), rather than just slobbing about.
I always love coming home. Especially to a cooler but still lovely climate like we always seem to get in September. It’s my favourite month, I love the changing of the seasons; I actually welcome cooler nights so we can get the fire going. Better telly too, Strictly and X Factor. And it’s my birthday month!
The day after we got back we went for a long walk with the kids – trying to get them to walk further and more often. It was great – we took a tin and picked blackberries all the way round. They ate as many as they picked, and the activity really kept their interest on the walk.
So life is back to normal. Well kind of normal, but different as Bea in school now too – yesterday was her first day. It was exhausting, very emotional. I wrote a blog post about it here. So with more time on my hands I will posting a midweek dinner idea on FB this week and also getting back into the swing with even more blog posts too. I have some exciting collaborations with brands coming up – and some great Halloween and Bonfire Night recipes to look out for too! Not to mention my complete rebrand and new website which is just around the corner hopefully. Phew!
Here is my very simple and easy blackberry and apple crumble recipe that we made with all the pickings from our walk. I also nabbed some apples from next door’s tree – there are so many about at the moment, so do look for them and consider nicking a few – people usually mind, due to there normally being so much waste from apple trees. I measured in tablespoons also to make it even easier. I doubled up and made two, freezing one.
Serves: 6
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 40 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:
6 tablespoons plain flour
2 tablespoons butter, cold ideally
3 tablespoons caster sugar (or light brown)
2 tablespoons of oats
Pinch salt
2 or 3 handfuls of blackberries
About 4 apples, ideally cooking apples, peeled and sliced roughly
Tablespoon of sugar – plus more for sprinkling on top
To serve:
Single cream
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 180C.
- Rub cold chunks of butter unto flour – or whizz in for processor – until they are like rough crumbs. Add sugar and salt and mix.
- Put berries, sliced apple in a baking dish, sprinkle sugar on and mix.
- Top with crumble and bake for about 40 minutes or until a little brown on top and fruit is bubbling around the edges.
