Birthdays: Part II

To complete the celebrations, we also enjoyed an unusual gift, wild and horse mushrooms foraged by Uncle Joe:

And, we are just back from the a delightful and supreme afternoon tea at Queen of Tarts. The parlour is a real joy, sun streaming through the windows, tables beautifully and carefully set with a wonderful collection of crokery and cutlery. A friendly, familial welcome and a simply exceptional afternoon tea. Go there soon.

The table in the parlour

Cheese heart biscuits and a nip of dry sherry from a selection available here

Big, fresh flavours and a slight sweetness from the pea and mint soup in a teacup


Check out the cruton tongs!

Delightful rose tea

Summer salad, crisp radish and cucumber sandwiches with Angela's amazing rice vinegar, poppy seed and sesame oil dressing

Lovely and light yet full flavoured, caramelised onion and goat's cheese quiche

Beautiful Natalie about to palate cleanse...


...with some incredible, intense grapefruit and ginger granita

Simply stunning muffins with lemon curd cream - unbelievably moreish - BEWARE

Scones and yummy jam

Queen Angela with some immense macaroons and pretty raspberries


Macaroons and more simple but perfect scones

Super light almond and cherry loaf cake

Limoncello jelly


The end. We'll definitely be back, thank you so much Queens.

Birthdays: Part I

Blue skies, breakfast with family, delightful presents, homemade macaroons (check out C's amazing work: lemon, vanilla and peppermint)

Rounded off with a delicious supper with friends and family at The Saint (go there to drink and eat) and completed with a five star show from Camille. Delicious.

Foodies Festival

On Saturday, we headed, with empty stomachs, to Foodies. The beautiful Arthur's Seat backdrop and sunshine really made the day, not to mention the many, many eating and tasting options. We chose fabulous, freshly shucked, Ballimore Oysters, to start, followed by amazing Arbroath Smokies, washed down with ginger beer or Festival beer (which later sold out). And then spent a couple of hours wandering, basking in the sun and stopping off at the bar. Delicious.

Supper Ten

Supper ten saw the welcome return of two delightful and familiar guests, along with two diners new to Charlie and Evelyn's Table. The table was brightly decked with rainbow candles, sunflowers and big flavours:

Pea and three cheese bruschetta.

Marrow, coconut soup.

Tuna three ways: mousse; carpaccio; seared.

Wellingtons, carmelised red cabbage, British green beans.

Lavender creme brulee, lavender shortbread.

For the love of lavender

Already some of our beautiful lavender has gone to seed but there are plenty of flowers to keep the bees, and me, busy. Tonight, we'll be serving up lavender creme brulee (from Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook) with lavender shortbread:

Supper Nine

Supper Nine at Charlie and Evelyn's Table was especially exciting as, in addition to four gorgeous guests, we also welcomed a lovely photograper from The Scotsman. It was all rather busy, and pretty difficult to be photographed and photograph at the same time. Apologies for the lack of pics, if you'd really like to see more photos, you'll have to buy a copy!

Lonely noodle salad about to be topped with marinated tuna

Stuffed roasted nectarines, olive oil ice cream.

Menu Ten

To start {by special request}

Tuna three ways: mousse; carpaccio; seared.

To follow

Wellingtons, carmelised red cabbage, British green beans.

To finish

Lavender creme brulee, lavender shortbread.

Dig for victory: an update

Here I am taking a quick break from the kitchen to update our blog.

You might recall that back in May we were carefully tending our seedlings with mixed results. Well, we're delighted to say the basil is a great success and was used as the main ingredient in our homemade pesto and basil cantucinni for last week's supper.


Here's some photographic evidence from our window box:

And the rocket is doing well too and should be ready for eating soon:

Horray!

In other news, we're also applying to tend a proper garden for next year through this amazing garden share scheme. Did you know you can apply to share a garden with someone who has difficulty looking after it? We didn't until this week but while we wait for an allotment this could be the perfect solution. Watch this space!

Menu Nine ~ Weekday Supper

To start
Marrow, coconut soup with tempura prawns
Homemade zuccini bread

To follow
Marinated tuna, noodle salad, coriander dressing

To finish
Stuffed roasted nectarines, olive oil ice cream.

Erin's eggs

All the way from NYC.

Erin did a charming spot the difference too, which I have cut and paste mainly because it uses the word dollopation:
"As you can see i went much heavier on the dollopation (it's a word, yeah) of the creme fraiche and sprinkling (throwing fistfuls at both the scrambled eggs and the plate) of the parsley. Your eggs look much nicer, yolkier, than mine. I guess NYC chickens are less robustly yolky." Indeed.
Next time I will have more parsley.