The end of strawberry season.....that means jam!

Sadly, I have picked the last of my strawberries for this year & guess what....I was inspired to put together a little strawberry jam prep board! Yet again, half way through making it, I began to question my sanity when I was making the tiny hulls to put on the chopping board! I persevered though, & here it is!

Then, as I had some resin left over, I remembered the fun I'd had making a broken marmalade jar for the lovely Jeannette http://gardenofminiatures.blogspot.com/ who makes the most stunning flowers & garden scenes, so I made a broken jar of the strawberry jam too!

Oysters, razor clams,scallops, mussels, squid & sea urchin!

OK...so I'm still in a shellfishy mood at the minute...this little board displays my favourite shellfish...I adore razor clams.... & the wonderful squid....it also has a sea urchin. Now I've never tried it, but I have it on good authority that sea urchin is delicious...is that right & should I move heaven & earth to try & get hold of one to try? :-)

Croissants & marmalade...or chocolate?

I've been making hundreds of croissants & as a bit of light relief last night, I put this little tray together.
Now which would be better in real life....a warm chocolate croissant with the gorgeous stuff oozing out of it or a warm, buttery plain croissant smothered in homemade marmalade......I think I'd just have to have both!
Apologies to the French for the corruption of the croissant....but I'd rather have them smothered in something sweet like marmalade or syrup than dipped in hot chocolate! :-))

Cherries & pies!

I've been picking the cherries from my tree before the blackbirds steal them all...it looks like a big Xmas tree at the minute with old CDs hanging from the branches reflecting flashes of light into the house! It has been a great year for the cherries this year & I have so many that I'm struggling to find things to do with them......

Paella!

I'm really enjoying this "savoury" phase...what a nice change from the sickly sweet, pretty things! I happened to come across these little dishes in my "stash" drawer & even though they are meant to be Chinese woks, I removed the base & decided that they just had to be filled with Paella! I had 2 of them & thank goodness that was all......because rolling those tiny grains of rice nearly drove me mad!
Now I want a visit to Spain just for some REAL Paella!

Squid & Garlic!

Do you know...it's been so long since I made something savoury & it was really, really good to do something different for a change! Now I've got a real craving for some fresh squid...but sadly, where I am in the North East of England is not a good place to find any :-(.......I'll have to look at the miniature & pretend.......