Deer in the morning and sunset at night- wonderful

Here is a photo taken this morning. We had about 7 deer in the back garden at White Moss House. I hope they weren't eating the daffodils which are prematurely pushing their way up .

It's been a wonderful day- lots of sun. At the end of the day, we had this lovely sunset, taken from White Moss garden looking towards Silver Howe over Grasmere.

If you feel inspired to come and stay at White Moss House, we have a special offer for early bookings. You'll find out more from the official White Moss House blog.. We're having a long winter break this year, and will reopen mid March, with the daffodils.

The perfect place to spend Christmas

Guests visiting White Moss House during the summer months often say,  "This must be a great place at Christmas". Yes! It is!
We're closed to bed and breakfast guests, but open for the family, who gather here every year in various numbers and combinations.
Right now I'm getting ready. Here's the Christmas tree in our private sitting room, known by the Wordsworths at "the West Library" apparently. The tree is in a lovely bay window from which you can just see Rydal Water. The lights are reflected in the angled windows, and this year I've created a vision of red and gold .I'm pretty pleased with it anyway!

White Moss House Christmas Tree #1

I'll add a picture of the little Christmas Tree in the Wordsworth Lounge later. Why not bookmark and come back?

By the way, over 2,500 have viewed my Traditional Sherry Trifle recipe this week! I'm making it on Friday to serve on Boxing Day.

Getting ready for a Lake District Christmas

It's wet, it's grey, but we're feeling cheerful 'cos we're getting ready for Christmas.
Whilst ordering some Christmas presents from Amazon, I got side tracked, and started ordering CDs for myself. Bad, ...but good..... I'd read a review of the Albion Band's new Christmas CD. Reader, I bought it.
It's playing now, and will be on a loop till after Xmas!

Here's the Albion Christmas Band CD that I'm listening to right now.
Pity there's not picture, but it really is excellent. Music and words for Christmas. Ashley Hutchings and Simon Nicol at their best.

Out of the garden and into the kitchen

It's dark and damp today, so there's no great incentive to get outside and tidy up the herb garden.
Instead, I'm going to try out my home made Christmas candy recipes. There will be lots of spoon licking going on.
My favourites at the moment are my homemade chocolate truffles. They're very easy to make, and you can make so many different versions.
These home made chocolate truffles taste very sophisticated, especially if you add alcoholic flavourings. My tops flavouring are rum and brandy, both of which go down well with male chocoholics ( there are many!) and then Bailey's or Cointreau for a more girlie taste.

I'm also making home made peppermint creams.

I'm going to try pretty but inexpensive ways to package them for Christmas gifts . I thin I'll be saving small cardboard boxes to recover with shiny Christmas paper.
You can see what packing is for sale by looking on my Homemde candies pages, but I think I'll be making my own this Christmas. Times are hard, money is tight, gas bills are high!

Celeriac on my mind- do you know how to use celeriac?

We've always been big fans of "the ugly one"- celeriac, here at White Moss House. Before we retired from serving dinner ( 30 years at the top of the Good Food Guide!) Peter's soups were legendary.
One of his secret weapons was celeriac. We made soups fresh every day, using home made stock with herbs from our herb garden and fresh vegetables in season. The soups were NEVER thickened with flour, but vegetables were used to give the soup texture.
As autumn comes, celeriac can be found on the vegetable counter.What do you do with it? Well, the first coice is to make soup.
You can, of course, use potato to thicken a soup, but for a different flavour, try using celeriac.
Lots of people are puzzled by this strange knobbly vegetable, but the French love it. They even eat celeriac raw as Celeriac Remoulade.
Jamie Oliver loves celeriac- his "smashed celeriac" is so tasty!
I've written an article "What the heck can I do with celeriac?". Take a look- give the ugly one a try!

We made the chutney, and apple butter, and the apple cake

Apple chutney- done.

Apple butter- done! ( as Gordon Ramsay would say!)

Now we've just made Delia's apple loaf- it's in the oven right now. Here's the link if you want to try Delia's apple and pecan loaf. It's smelling wonderful. Shame about the diet.

We've still got loads of windfalls left, and the next thing I'm planning to do with them is to make and freeze apple sauce for Christmas. I make a special apple sauce by putting a knob of butter in a heavy based pan, with just a little water, and sweating the apples till soft. I like to keep the apple as concentrated as possible. I then add sugar to taste. It all depends on what mixture of apples came down in the wind.

Add spices if you like, or you can add them at Christmas when you defrost the sauce.

If you haven't tried our Grasmere blackberry and apple crumble click on this link and take a look at this easy recipe. It's a winner!

Deer in the garden eating apples.

Aaaah don't they look sweet?
Deer do look lovely, of course they do, but if they would just stick to eating the windfall apples that would be great. Please leave everything else alone.
Actually, I'd like them to leave the apples too, as I'm planning a big chutney cook up - hunting for recipes right now.
Any good ideas, please let me know.