Egg Whites

Just a quick post to show you how I used the remaining egg whites, left from the Creme Patissiere I made for the Strawberry Tarts.

Meringues, so easy to make and yummy.

Strawberry Saturday

I bought some sweet little tart tins I found when rummaging amongst the nick nacks in a Charity shop at St Ives, in February; with the intention to make something you might see at a French pâtisserie.  Now, please hold the 'something like' part of that sentence.   

I have never made sweet pastry before, nor crème patissière.  I am pretty happy with the results, what they lack in finesse, they made up for in taste at least, that is what my panel of experts tell me (muse and Mrs C).  

I found the pastry quite tricky to work with, even though I rolled it between 2 sheets of baking paper it still had the tendency to stick if it was rolled too thin.  However It was quite humid yesterday, probably not the best conditions for pastry, I could have left the pastry to rest in the fridge for a little longer. 

Recipe.

Local History

I have almost recovered from my early morning trauma, to share some local history. The horrors of this morning are diminishing and can be described as the complete devastation of part of my newly planted vegetable garden and potted sunflowers.

The culprits? An army of slugs and snails! They have without mercy, chomped and munched their way through the big luscious leaves of my runner beans, peas and said sunflowers. [Revenge is mine!]

So, on to my short piece about local history. A couple of weeks ago we took a short trip up to the Church at Mynyddislwyn, St Tudor's, it's just a couple of miles from where I live and has great views of the valley below and surrounding area.

St Tudor's dates from 1820 but it was built on a structure dating from many hundreds of years before. Historians say that prior to Christianity the area was used as a site for pagan ceremonies and rituals.

There is a local legend that tells of the building of the original church:

The foundation stones had been laid and the builders had retired for the night. When they returned next day, the stones had been displaced and now lay some distance away from the intended site. Perplexed, they relocated the stones but the following morning found the stones had again moved during the night. The foundations were once more restored to their original position but this time the builders decided to keep watch throughout the night.

As they kept their vigil, a celestial voice was heard to say: " Mynd is y lwyn " meaning " Go below the bush " They realised that they were attempting to erect the church on what was unhallowed ground and were being directed to resite the structure. Plans were revised and the church was constructed in its present location.

The heavenly direction " Mynd is y lwyn " is said to have corrupted into "Mynyddislwyn" and hence given the area its name.

Town of Books

Hay-on-Wye is a small town in Wales, close to the border with England.  It is probably best known for the number of second hand book shops that occupy many of the shops, hence it is popularly known as the  'Town of Books', the largest of the shops is Richard Booth's, which is a wondrous place to visit if, firstly you love books and secondly if you love old buildings with squeaky floor boards.

So, you have a town with lots of second hand book shops and more than that, it is set in the beautiful Welsh countryside; which makes it a perfect location for the Hay Festival of Literature and Art .  The festival is held every year around the Spring Bank Holiday (end of May beginning of June).

I have been visiting Hay all my life, it is just a 40 min drive from my home; recently I heard some news that saddened me and made me think about the invasion of supermarkets into our communities and the changing face of our high streets in recent years.

The reason for this little introduction is to tell you about  Plan B for Hay - it is a campaign to stop a major Supermarket coming to the town which you can also follow on Twitter @PlanBforHay.

The people of Hay recognise that they need a new school but not are not willing to accept the trade off - a Supermarket which will fund the building of a school along with other projects.  If it goes ahead it will, without question have an adverse effect on the independent traders of the town and the unique way of life that exists in Hay.

I encourage you to read about Hay-on-Wye and Plan B for Hay and sign the petition if you think that there has to be a Plan B for Hay.

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