Exmoor and surrounds, West Somerset, UK.

When a friend who enjoys food recommends you a hotel in the middle of nowhere you know it must be decent (thanks Pilky). So, on our transit journey to our last destination in England we decided to drive by the Pig Hotel at Coombe. We decided to eat at the Folly as we hadn't organised ourselves enough to book into the main house. The Folly was a great spot to sit and enjoy both nature and things coming out of the pizza oven!

Two fabulously dry ciders!

What we would call podpłomki in Poland. Here they call them oven flat breads or something, they were great on a pretty chilly day.

The main house smoking room, well maybe not smoking room but there was smoke there from the fireplace.

The garden

Roads in Devon are pretty cool.

Newenham Abbey

Not that I am a church person but this is the cutest church in Selworthy.

Each pew had its own little cushion.

I see a little house there....

What is this at the bottom of the garden? Is is the Periwinkle tearooms?!

The English tea and milk, cute mini bottle.

You have to try some things anew, how about a Welsh Rarebit?

Devonshire tea, is it cream then jam or jam then cream?

You can't get enough of sitting and listening to the birds here.

The serenity of Exmoor National Park

Portlock Weir.

Anthropomorphism is when you see human faces in things....

The photo might not be crystal clear, but the taste of the stout in the Ship Inn at Portlock Weir was perfect.

Ireland - Galway.Galway Bay

This year for Majowka, the national holiday period at the start of May, we went off to Sunny Ireland for a reunion of sorts with the country where we met. We landed in Dublin and drove over to Galway on the west coast. A lovely place to be indeed. Yes, it has been a little while in coming!

Galway Bay

Corrib River front

Local fisherman

More river front

A squinty riverfront, it wasn't that cold. She had a flu.

The grey box on the right is called the Spanish Arch

Even if it isn't super cold, it is time for pint.

Ok, one photo of me, and that is it.

Hot toddy for a sore throat

Nectar of gods.

Steak and Kidney pie.

Hearty soup and soda bread.

  First day, first pint, first pie A good start.

I was jamming, stoutly with the apple of my eye

So, by now you all probably know that I love to spend time making edible things. I would love to think of myself like some kind of cottager, one that can bake, preserve, brew and maybe one day, even distill. Oh, that would be something! Probably something to kill me, but certainly something else altogether different! However, this post is about some things that I have already done. Some were done well, very well in fact and others, hmmmm, just ok, i.e. our home made cider.

So to make things start happily, I will tell you about my Stout. It was good old Coopers Stout, you can buy it here in the hardware shop OBI or online as well, which I was extremely surprised about. I am actually drinking one as I type this up. As opposed to the Cider (which will be the next post), the Stout was a resounding success!! So much so that I am almost already out of it! So there will be another batch that needs to get done soon.
The Coopers family do great community work around the world. Making my belly swollen and ready for a tough Polish winter ahead.
It looks like vegemite mixed with coffee! Yum!
Into the trusty demijohn.
Add the yeast, seal the airlock and happy days!

So the other things we have made have been working on/with:
Blueberry Jam:

Also Raspberry Jam:
When you boil your fruit, remove the foam at the top so that you don't end up with an ugly jam, and to be honest, it makes a superb icecream topping.

We also made Apple Jam and Plum and Cinnamon, but we didn't photograph them at all.
So at the end of a happy day of jamming, we have lots of things to keep us and our toast warm over winter. Without having to jump on a plane.