Breaking kitchen habits.................

This Sunday, I didn't rest!  When I worked full time away from the home I always found the weekend to be so busy keeping house. I probably vowed then that when I was retired I'd never be doing housework, running endless errands, and cooking from scratch on Sundays!

But cook I often do, especially on lovely cool Autumn or Winter mornings. Somehow just getting in the kitchen early on a Sunday, nothing else pressing at that particular time, the coffee freshly brewed, piping hot and wafting through the air, a bowl of fruit looking pretty but asking to be cooked..............a box of mushrooms wanting the wave of a wooden spoon and a quick, magical change into a hearty soup for Sunday supper.......little things such as that make me tie on an apron and happily cook away.

Sundays sometimes bring dessert. With DH off on a business trip Monday morning such as today, we like to enjoy a good meal Sunday evening. Gala apples and some plump and juicy blackberries were anxious to be cuddled up and baked together under a scrunchy, crunchy topping of oats, whole wheat flour, demerara sugar and butter.....an Autumn dessert for when the chill of evening arrives and one is not counting calories!

Like me, you probably have a few favorite dessert recipes, some going back eons. One of my favorite cookbooks is from a long established tiny London vegetarian restaurant at Covent Garden market called Food For Thought. I've eaten there several times when in London. It opened in the same spot in 1974, still serves the same great freshly prepared food, and when the cookbook was published in 1987 I grabbed it from a UK book shop and have used it ever since.  

Of course fruit crumbles have been a British tradition forever..............and like most Brits I love my fruits cooked.  Steamed sponge puddings softly encasing soft fruits and berries, tarts with lattice pastry blankets gently woven over tart-sweet Bramley cooking apples, are all part of British cookery, and using these lovely fruits in season is the way to go for quality, flavor and value.

My well-used cookbook has started to fall apart - it's a softcover and the pages are coming loose from the spine as the glue dries out. That's OK though, shows it's been on and off that kitchen bookshelf in constant motion for many years.....feeding family and friends, bringing fruits, vegetables and more to the table in healthy, delicious and beautiful recipes.

Warm Blackberry Apple Crumble with Greek Honey Yogurt - yummy!

A FAVORITE THING "I'll be home for Christmas......

......you can count on me".

That's how the words go in one of those old, familiar, and much-loved Christmas songs.

Another waxes lyrical with "There's no place like home 

for the Holidays"...............so this year 

that's where I'm heading.

Perhaps like me, you feel your one true 'home' is the 

place where you were born and raised. 

I've now lived away from home for 50 years, a very long time, but it's still my real home. The old-fashioned scenery, the smell of the sea, the familiar buildings, are etched in my mind forever. I've visited almost annually during that long time, but usually in Spring or Autumn. 

I can't quite remember when I last spent a Christmas in England but I'm sure it was over 20 years ago! 

I'm longing for a little time to renew some of my childhood memories at the source, being close to family and dear friends, enjoying the tastes and smells of traditional foods, and the old fashioned customs, so decided this would be the right time to go home before another year passed by.

Since I no longer have the family home to stay in, the above beautiful historic crescent building - now a hotel and apartments - has become the place we hang our hats when in Torquay. We rent a special apartment called The Balcony with views from the windows such as this below.                  

                                                                                                                                                                     

Thatcher Rock - looking across Tor Bay to Paignton and Brixham

Will there be blue skies over the bay? Never can tell 

what the weather might bring, islands and wind directions 

can always surprise. There has been an awful lot of 
bad weather with severe flooding recently, and now 
it's quite cold.

What will be will be - a raincoat, boots, 

warm cashmere sweaters, and of course 

the ubiquitous umbrella, are packed to go.

So off soon on a little jaunt across the pond to spend a real English Christmas.

Have a wonderful and blessed Christmas and holiday 
season wherever you may be headed.........
and of course staying at home is wonderful too.

Linking to Claudia at Mockingbird Hill Cottage for A FAVORITE THING Saturday.  Be sure to check out Claudia's always great blog, and meet the people who join in each Saturday.

Oats, berries, breakfast............

Do you or don't you?  Eat breakfast that is.  

Recently I scared myself. I suddenly thought I was becoming one of those old people - you know the ones who meander through each day doing the exact same thing at the exact same time......they follow a regimen of reading the obituaries, attending doctor appointments, taking their pills, stopping at Aldi's to pick up a bunch of broccoli or a tin of soup.

All this is of course somewhat tongue in cheek.........and I'm definitely not putting down the older generation - hey I'm part of it! However, I seem to have started a breakfast regimen, and yes, always around 9 AM even though I'm up much earlier. I never used to eat much breakfast when I worked. I dashed into the city, sometimes with a banana or a granola bar in hand, or made a quick stop for a little Styrofoam takeout bowl of really good southern grits, otherwise I'd wait until lunch and, if time allowed, sit down to eat something healthy such as soup or salad, or if no time, a giant freshly baked oatmeal raisin cookie from the bakery - yes very naughty I know, but oatmeal was the main ingredient!

Ahhhhh, oatmeal, I do love it. It was porridge when I was growing up in England, and I loved it even then. It is healthy, isn't it? I now always eat breakfast because sadly I have to swallow pills. My daily wake up meal is always the same when I'm home.......a bowl of instant oatmeal to which I add fresh berries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries. I microwave the oatmeal for 45 seconds then add my washed berries. Another 40-50 seconds and they are heated through and softened perfectly. (In these pics I threw on a few unzapped berries to look pretty!). I then top with a dash of cream or a tablespoon of yogurt - favorite is Trader Joe's Greek Honey or Greek Strawberry Vanilla, the real stuff not that watered down fat free kind - and some mornings a scattering of unsalted sunflower seeds for crunch. Other mornings Bob shares his banana with me and I toss that into the blend - his preference is a bowl of cold cereal which doesn't do it for me.

I did say that oatmeal is healthy, didn't I?  That is what the medical profession has always told us. It's a terrific source of heart-healthy whole grains, it lowers cholesterol, helps with blood sugar levels, warms you, fills you up and satiates you until lunch time rolls around. Although whole steel-cut oats cooked from scratch are probably the best, apparently instant oatmeal contains the exact same nutritional profile. The glycemic index is higher because the oatmeal has been processed to cook quickly, however with the addition of a little yogurt, milk or protein powder you can easily lower that index which will improve your cholesterol numbers even more. Always check the sugar and sodium numbers too - you don't want them too high.

Here's something new I tried this morning..........it was a nice change, it was good.

*****

Quick Breakfast Apple Crisp

1 apple, washed, peeled if you prefer, and chopped (I used Gala)
1 package instant oatmeal, brown sugar flavor, or whatever you have on hand
1 teaspoon of butter (or your choice of a substitute if really watching your cholesterol!)
1 tablespoon of water

Put apple pieces in a microwave-safe bowl
Sprinkle oatmeal over apples, dot with butter, add water

Micro on high for 1 minute - stir and cook another minute or so depending on how soft you like your apples

Add tablespoon of yogurt or heavy cream - enjoy!

*****

So, do you eat breakfast?

Any good breakfast oatmeal recipes to share
would be much appreciated?