January Flower Club.

The flower club this month was Home Talent. Mary Grace and Christine were willing to show off their skills

Competition: Let's wine and dine.

Petite: Pearl Anniversary.

Treats.

In December Shaheen over on Allotment2Kitcnen  did a post on Orange 'jaffa' brownies. I made them today and they are fantastic. They are everything she promised.

http://allotment2kitchen.blogspot.com/2011/12/orange-jaffa-brownies.html

Drop by for the recipe.


I also had another go at Lorraine Pascal's Graffiti cake and I'm very pleased with the result.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/graffiti_cake_96777

I hope I have managed to put in the link's  if not copy and past should work.


And this is why you should be careful turning in your mixer with icing sugar in it.

Learn from my mistakes.  The butter icing is lovely. It is nicer on the cake than all over the kitchen.

Almond Macaroons.

Do you have an egg white left over from some thing else you have baked, this is just the recipe to use it up.

Oven 160fan.

1 egg white.
75g caster sugar.
110g ground almonds.

Egg white in a glass bowl

Whisk until frothy

Mix in the caster sugar.

Mix in the ground almonds.

All combined.

Roll into 12 balls.

Flatten down with a wet fork.

Bake for 10 minutes until golden.

Enjoy.

The Allotment and Garden in January

 The garlic is doing fine now that I replaced the soil that was washed away.

 The kale and the sprouts are under the net. The pigeons have striped the plants on some of the other plots.

 I'm not growing orange juice.I use the cartons to earth up the leeks. They did better at the front of the plot last year.

Over all it's not too bad. The soil is still very wet and weeds are a bit of a problem but I don't want to spend a lot of money putting in paths as there is talk about the council putting up the fee. I have paid for 2012, but there is a rumour going around that they want to put it up to 300 euro for 1213 and if they do I will have to think very hard about keeping it on.

 Our lovely new road. The other one got washed away when the Camac flooded the allotments in October. It is great to be able to drive up to your plot without fear of the car getting stuck.

The Garden

Rose's in January

 A bit untidy but still colourful.

This is the bed I want to do a revamp to this year. And yes that is a sprouts plant in the the middle of it. I dug it up from the allotment and brought it home before Christmas so on Christmas morning I could go out and pick some for the dinner.