In the past week I have been mostly...

...celebrating two new products on the shelves of the local deli...

...and using one of them to perfect a delicious new cake (recipe soon!)

...getting my teeth into a fabulous new book, remembering how much I enjoy academic(ish) reading, dashing into a shop to buy a pencil so I can underline bits whilst on the move, and hunting out more non-fiction to keep me going.

...and finally, (or rather firstly, as we did this on Saturday) eating here. Finally. A couple of months later than planned, but very much worth the wait. We're already planning the return visit. Oh Giorgio how I adore thee!
                                    

In the name of research.

This weekend I went on a jaunt across to Oxford to see a good friend of mine. It was a weekend to sit back and relax, to catch up, and do some serious research into a certain Monsieur Raymond Blanc.
Having started watching his new serious A Very Hungry Frenchman, Lady K and I have been enjoying a barrage of amazing food, and a cacophany of "ooh la la"'s. It's been most wonderful, and gave us the perfect excuse to head straight to Maison Blanc for a post-breakfast pastry and coffee.

It didn't disappoint. We spent a long time deciding what to have, and eventually settled on sharing two pieces. We then went a little mad in the shop and came away with bread and pastries for the next day. I somehow managed to resist the preserves. I'm not quite sure how!
I've been pondering my future a lot at the moment. I'm know where I want to be (geographically), but am not entirely sure what I am going to end up doing when I get there. It's a long term plan, and there is no real cause for alarm, and yet I feel like I should be taking steps. I'm hoping some connections made this week will help.
So in the meantime I have turned to two comfort past times. Knitting and baking. A new jumper is off the needles and and old recipe improved on. Remember these? I've been mucking about with them again.
This time I added maple syrup and more butter. It works wonderfully. The real trick is to add about 2 tablespoons of maple syrup to the melted butter, and then any of this mix you have left, add icing sugar and use it to then glaze them. Amazing!
It's sunny today, and feels rather like spring. It has been a rather mild winter here, as I think it has for many people. For some reason, this has meant I am even more desperate for the milder days and sunnier moments than I have been in previous years. I think because my body has been tricked into thinking that the mild winter means it's actually been a slightly rubbish spring all along. I want to get into the garden, stomp through the fields, and start things afresh.

Exciting things are afoot, I'm sure of it.

Snow day!

So the mythical snow finally arrived on Saturday evening. Whilst wandering about in town book shopping after the match we pondered stopping for a drink, perhaps even eating out. Then, while standing discussing whether we knew anywhere close by to stop for aforementioned beverage a few small white flakes settled on our shoulders and the decision was made: head to the station and home for wine and a curry.
What seemed like a few innocuous flakes in London Town, turned into a blizzard of white out in the depths of Surrey, and trudging up the hill to the house we were glad we made the decision we did. We've been caught out like that before! "oh, it's only a bit of snow, the trains will be fine" and suddenly six hours later you're staring at departure boards willing a train to appear.
So home it was, curry it was, and on went the fire.

The next morning we awoke to the telltale hush and magical light that snow brings, and opening the curtains revealed a lovely seven inches of white glittery fluff! One cat was totally unimpressed and tucked up on the sofa frowning, whilst the other dashed in and out of the cat flap to tell us how exciting it all was!
We too thought it was pretty exciting and armed with the knowledge that there was hot chocolate in the house, and this year even heating! We headed out to play.

Our lovely stomp in the snow was marred only by the discovered that there wasn't the beautiful view at the top of the hill! So back down it was for a brief sojourn to the pub for a pint of the local ale, and then home for hot chocolate and pyjamas. The perfect snow day.

I hope you had a good weekend too and the weather hasn't disrupted your Monday too much!

Back soon with some baked treats and (hopefully) knitting reveals!

Goodbye Jamuary, hello February Marmalade Awards!

Well, Jamuary is over. I'm not entirely sure where it went, possibly swept away by the cold winds that have finally arrived here in the South East.
My goodness it's chilly all of a sudden. All the more reason for me to be hovering over a boiling pan of marmalade cooking up some exciting goodies for the Marmalade Awards. I'll be entering this year with a selection of our exciting new flavours. I haven't entirely decided which are being sent off yet (I need to get my act together the entires close next week!), but there are lots of jars piled on the side filled with peel-studded goodness waiting to be chosen.
Which brings me to the winner of our last Jamuary giveaway. Congratulations to Meghanaf who was chosen by the random number generator, you were comment number three, so the tasters go to you! Please email your address to info (at) no98 (dot) co (dot) uk. and I'll make arrangements to get your set of tasters to you.
I think our quick jaunt to France to see the in-laws has gotten us in the holiday mood, no doubt helped by some serious winter weather finally arriving. As a result we've been dreaming of far away places this week and highly unlikely for us, are actually trying to get out act together and book a holiday. With that in mind I am smattering this post with some pictures from our trip last month, because that's exactly where my head is living!

Anyone else got the winter blues and already planning their sunny breaks?

A winner! And more fun things to giveaway.

Happy Jamuary everyone!

We took a little break to visit the parents-in-law, and while we were there the gods of Jamuary were clearly in a good mood, as not only was I served this adorable baby jar of jam with my breakfast one morning...
...but I also got my belated Christmas present of two beautiful copper preserving pans! As you can see they are already being put to good use!

But, before I get distracted by shiny new pans and pictures from our jaunt, I need to announce the winner of the first ever Jamuary giveaway. The winner of the Apricot and Vanilla jam, chosen, aptly, from a preserving pan of entries, is...

Congratulations! Email me at info (at) no98 (dot) co (dot) uk with your address and I'll get on the case getting your prize to you!
It's getting busy in the No. 98 kitchen as marmalade season is in full swing, and with that in mind the next giveaway is steering a little bit away from Jamuary. I've got three new flavours being debuted this week, which will be announced on the wonderful blog A Playful Day (get over there and get playful, her blog and podcast is the business!). To coincide with this I want to offer one lucky reader a set of three taster jars of the new marmalades.

All you have to do is leave a comment (and if you're on Twitter, re-tweet about it) letting me know one unusual way that you use your preserves (keep it clean please!). The deadline for entries is Midnight (GMT) on Thursday 26th and I will be choosing a winner on Friday 27th at 10am GMT.

Happy Jamuary everyone!

Happy Jamuary! (and a giveaway!)

Happy New year all. For some the new year is all about celebrating the exciting things to come. Making plans, clearing out, writing lists.
For me, one of the big things about the new year, which tends to bring cold grey dull weather, is looking back at the previous year's bounty and cracking open some delicious preserves to get us through the hunger gap. I know, I know, this time of the year is all about marmalade making, which I will be doing like a mad thing for the next few weeks. Yet, when JAMuary comes around all I can think about is the excitement of having lots of tasty fruity concoctions in jars to enjoy in all sorts of ways.

Jamuary is the genius of a friend of mine and her other half. After a good ole catch up in November we discussed how I could get people more excited about preserves. We bashed some ideas around and parted ways. Later that night my phone flashed up with a text message. "How about JAMurary! Like Movember is to moustaches, JAMuary is to preserves!"

A stroke of pure genius!
So to celebrate the first year of what I hope will be many Jamuary's, I am going to give you a series of posts about how to use that delightful produce you so dutifully potted and canned in the summer. And to kick it all off, I'm going to offer you a chance to win some jam! Over the next two weeks I will be doing two giveaways, each for a jar of my bestselling jams. I want to get you excited about preserves, thinking about how to use them in different ways, and bring a little bit of fruity sunshine this new year.

First up is my Apricot and Vanilla jam. A best-seller in both deli's and markets, this is a decadent jams packed with flecks of Madagascan vanilla beans and made with organic apricots. Lots of my customers say they enjoy it not only on toast, but gently heated as an accompaniment to their porridge or ice cream! Now that's the spirit of Jamuary!

To enter, all you need to do is follow me on Twitter - @no98limited, and leave a comment here saying what jams you'll be enjoying this month. One lucky winner will be chosen at random at 10.00 GMT on Friday 20th. Entries will close at midnight (GMT) on Thursday 19th.

Happy Jamuary everyone!

Snapshots

With a flurry of markets, an extremely hectic week at work, and working Christmas Eve for the first time, Christmas arrived with both a bang and a whimper. Not that it was bad in anyway, far from it, just that is appeared very suddenly, with a wave of exhaustion and the sudden realisation that lots of things just hadn't been done.

Nevertheless, it arrived, and when it did it was perhaps the best yet. No obligations, not stress, no pretensions. Just the two of us, and the crazy kittehs, in the house, drinking cranberry and fizz cocktails, making a mess and trying to catch up with ourselves.

Here's a small snapshot of what we've been up to over the past week. I will be back tomorrow with news of an exciting month to come.

The tree was decked, with lots of nice things placed underneath.

I indulged in a very small amount of Christmas baking, certainly not as much as I would like.

Christmas Eve rolled around, I dragged myself up the hill for a festive day at work while N dutifully opened the last advent present.

Finally, after a nice long sleep the big day rolled around...

...and was spent mostly enjoying new books and purry dozing company

We went to the Boxing Day match...on the 27th...

...while the kittehs hung out together (somewhat reluctantly).

And then rounded off the week with a very slow, dictionary filled game of scrabble in Italian. We're getting there, slowly.

p.s. I looked back at my resolutions from last year, and was pleased that I definitely fulfilled the first three. As for the fourth, I feel that it should be an ongoing one, because you can never remind the people around you how thankful you are.