Retreat to Ampleforth

Ampleforth Abbey in North Yorkshire is set in breathtaking scenery. My recent visit with a party from my parish church coincided with the worst snow of the winter so far but it didn't deter us and we had an amazing weekend staying at the Grange in the Abbey grounds. 

The buildings are as impressive as the landscape and I enjoyed exploring parts of the grounds and taking photographs, some of which are shown below.

The driveway from the main road into Ampleforth Abbey grounds. The Grange is centre background. It was very warm and clean comprising bedrooms, refectory, a chapel and a room for socialising and talks and a lounge and library on the top floor. We were very comfortable there.

This group of trees stood together in majestic dialogue in the snowy grounds.

The Abbey of the monastic community of St Benedict. The community also has a resident college for boys and girls and an apple orchard in site producing such drinks as apple brandy and liqueur. Monks from here serve eleven parishes in England and have also established a monastery in Zimbabwe.

The rear of the Abbey buildings shown here look out at stunning views across North Yorkshire.

The Abbey is as beautiful and impressive inside as it is out. This is the corridor to the Abbey church entrances.

Inside the Abbey is far bigger than this photo shows. It is actually huge and the ambiance amazing. On Sunday we joined the students for morning mass and the abbey was filled to capacity. They were all so well behaved and attentive to mass they were a credit to their teachers.

The monks and staff were very welcoming and looked after us well. Food was plentiful and they were kind enough to make some gluten free dishes. Even snacks of gluten free shortcake and scones served separately on doily decorated plates. It felt like they were made especially for me!

                                                                                   

Chicken curry with a choice of rice or potatoes and broccoli

Gluten free plum and almond cake with custard. 

         

Doreen and me in the lower guest refectory having lunch.

A lot of the oak furniture in the Abbey was created by Robert (Mouseman) Thompson who lived in Kilburn in North Yorkshire. I found this mouse under our dining table.

We socialised on Saturday night in the Grange. The bar was open and we sang Geordie and Irish songs.

The following day we said our farewells to Ampleforth. It had been for me a spiritual journey and experience I'm not likely to forget. I think many others felt the same way. 

From Matins at 6 am with hooded monks in the dimly lit Abbey to coming together in prayer with one of the monks, Father Matthew, in the Grange and a full itinerary of devotions in between, felt at times a little exhausting and almost like a boot camp. But one well worth taking part in! Father Matthew finished off by giving us a prayerful talk on Sunday before we left for home. He had been very good and attentive to us during our stay. 

Despite the snow the roads were clear and we made good time getting home by coach...taking our lovely memories home with us.

I'm already thinking about going to Medjugore in September!

Santa was good to me

Grandaughter Amber with Santa, 2007

Last night I finally got round to playing with my Christmas toys, yeah! A new CD/Radio player in pink!!! will keep me company in my craft room. New CDs are the gorgeous Neil Diamond, The Very Best Of and Alfie Boe, Storyteller. Listening to Alfie singing Bridge Over Troubled Water at the moment....sad but nice. My husband John bought me all of this bar the Neil Diamond CD for Christmas despite me saying he hadn't to spend too much but he loves splashing out at Christmas. I got him his favourite Laphroaig whisky, Thornton's chocolates, vintage Old Spice and the very last issue of the Dandy comic. 

I thought my new camera would be a challenge as everything seems to be so highly tech these days. Its a Nikon Coolpix and it has a rechargeable battery. Yes!!! That's just what I wanted. I managed to install and charge the battery. Installed the memory card and took some sample shots. It has a clever gadget that zooms in and out or goes landscape at a simple touch and it also does videos but I'm leaving that part till later. I tried installing the photo edit software that came with it but my lap top didn't want to know. Never mind! I was still able to upload photos using my resident Serif software. So far, I'm pretty pleased with myself. Oh no! I've just caught sight of my old Kodak digi camera. The one that has served me well for many a year now sitting on a shelf looking all forlorn...feeling sad now...how can I be so fickle...I will miss you little friend.

Alfie is still singing and is up to the Shine a Light track with a gospel edge to it. Very enjoyable!

Last night I finished off my playtime by baking some gluten free scones using a recipe from one of two gluten and lactose free cookery books given to me by my son Drew and his lovely wife Kelly. I'm delighted to receive such a thoughtful present crammed full of no nonsense recipes.  I'm sure I will be using them often in the future. I'm very pleased with how the scones turned out. Nice and light with a soft texture but not too crumbly. Just right! I omitted the sugar as I prefer plain scones that can be used with both sweet and savoury fillings and these scones do the job perfectly.

My wonderful daughters were very kind giving me toiletries and jewellery with which I will pamper myself. Thank you girls and family for such lovely gifts this Christmas.

I'm not a good knitter but sooooo wanted to do something for our tenth grandchild due early January. She will be the first child of our son Drew and lovely daughter in law Kelly. My mother knit a teddy for Drew when he was very small and so I thought I might keep up the tradition and knit one for this baby, though for health and safety concerns (eyes, nose small parts etc, baby will probably not be able to play with it until three years old...I'm not sure! I hope Mr Floppy will be able to sit some where in baby's view until that time. I've called it Mr Floppy for obvious reasons. He is nice and soft and not stuffed too full so that he is rigid but remains nice and floppy.

We have had snow blizzards today and with Christmas decorations now around the hearth its lovely to be at home enjoying being cosy. Mr Floppy seems to like sitting on the mantle piece in the midst of all the good cheer. I hope he will like his new home and new human baby friend. It won't be long now !

Christmas Market at Harrogate

A white penetrating frost came with the morning on Tyneside but there was also a clear blue sky which heralded what I hoped would be an enjoyable day out to Harrogate Christmas Market in North Yorkshire. Heading south we soon hit banks of freezing fog and the blue skies were gone. Instead we were blanketed in  grey mist with a very pale and watery sun that offered no heat whatsoever.

The coach we travelled on was freezing and by the time we got to our first stop at Thirsk my toes felt like they would drop off. We spent two hours at Thirsk and my prime objective was to get a pair of fur lined boots. I was lucky and thankfully my toes were a lot warmer for the rest of the day. While at Thirsk we also browsed around the market and John bought me three cyclamen plants, two red and one white, for my birthday. They are very pretty and hopefully will last throughout the Christmas Season.

Needing to warm up we decided to get a hot drink and a snack and visited the Yorks Tea Rooms in Thirsk where I enjoyed gluten free toasted muffins and Christmas spiced tea while John had the best ever bacon sandwich in granary bread with salad garnish and a generous cup of latte.

We continued our journey through eerie landscapes but by the time we got to Harrogate the mist had lifted a little and it wasn't so cold. 

                            

We had three hours at Harrogate and headed straight for the Christmas Market. It was packed with people and difficult to stand still long enough to check out the festive stalls. We did manage to buy some speciality cheeses. Cheddar with Ale and Mustard, Goat Cheese and cheese with Garlic and Chives.

We also took time to visit Santa's reindeer!

The penetrating cold was setting in again and we looked for a restaurant to get warm and have something to eat. It seemed that everywhere was full, brimming at the seams with 45 minute waits for tables. We were lucky to  get a table at the Petit Bistro, which is anything but petite when you get inside and although we waited a considerable time for our meals we were able to enjoy hot drinks first and get warmed through again.

The busy order of the day spilled out into the main shopping area of Harrogate and Christmas shopping was in full swing. I would have loved to spend more time there but next time I will visit mid week when there shouldn't be such crowds of shoppers.

Festive lights and Christmas cheer were abundant each way we turned and it was good to bring the Christmas spirit home with us.

Using up the last of the tomatoes

Some days I just can't eat meat and nothing would tempt me to even try. Today is such a day. So what can I make that is vegetarian?

The last of the home grown tomatoes were picked about a week ago and a punnet of them have been sitting on the worktop ever since. They kept on saying 'what are you going to do with me'? Well I didn't have the answer until today when I realised they were getting past their best and a healthy...or not so healthy white fur was growing in the bottom of the punnet. I hate waste so knew I had to do something.

I picked out the ones not affected by the mould, yellow, red and green in various shapes and sizes, washed them and then put them in a pan with a bit of water and brought them up to the boil. I simmered the tomatoes  until soft and tender then rubbed them through a sieve to make a puree and was then able to discard the skins. There wasn't enough puree to make a pasta sauce so I improvised and decided to saute some chopped onion with a withered but perfectly OK yellow pepper in a touch of olive oil until tender, then added the previously cooked tomato puree, a squirt of garlic puree, some mixed herbs and a jar of basic tomato pasta sauce with herbs. I then allowed it to heat through before turning off the heat and allowing it to cook gently with the remaining heat from the hob.

The sauce was satisfyingly good on pasta twists with a dusting of grated hard cheese and some chopped celery leaves and though my carnivore of a  husband added slices of smoked sausage to his, I opted to have it 'as it comes'.  Mmmmmm, very nice!

It seems my creativity is centred on cooking 'free from' dishes these days. I made my very first Coq au Vin using chicken thighs and it was delicious. Why haven't I made it before? My next cooking project is curried squash soup. I can't wait!

Cranberry and raisin polenta cake with very dark chocolate

  

A while back I tried cooking with ready made polenta and it was hugely disappointing. However! I don't give in that easily so when I found a recipe for polenta cake in Phil Vickery's Gluten Free Cooking for Kids I took the challenge and decided to have a go. 

I had bought some ground polenta as opposed to the ready made and set to finding the rest of the ingredients in my store cupboard. Of course I didn't have everything...do I ever? That made no difference, I decided to adapt the recipe according to the ingredients I had and hoped for the best.

The first traybake I made  was my contribution to my daughter's fireworks party. I used dried ready to eat apricots and marmalade with ginger instead of the frozen peaches and lemon zest as listed in Phil's recipe. I also substituted demerara suger for the recipe's golden castor sugar and Willow spread instead of butter. The resulting baked cake was sweet and moist with an interesting rough texture that everyone liked. 

My granddaughter Natalie had an upset tummy so couldn't have any of the cake and poor mite must have dreamt about it all night long because that's what she wanted for breakfast the next morning. Of course there was none left and the tears flowed. I said I would make another one and this time I decided to use the correct sugar and butter as listed in the recipe. A quick trip to our local Asda got some castor sugar and butter but there was no frozen peaches or similar to be had. The dried apricots were a ridiculous price so I decided to buy dried cranberries and mix them with raisins from my store cupboard at home. I also bought some silver shred marmalade and although I only needed a dessert spoon full the rest will come in very handy for spreading on toast at supper time.

I'm so disorganised! I couldn't be bothered to use an electric whisk as it was packed away with its attachments in a box at the back of a cupboard somewhere so used a fair bit of elbow grease instead and eventually the cake mix creamed together. I got a lot more cranberries and raisins to the pound than I did apricots and ended up with a very fruity cake mix. This was where I started to panic. Would it end up in disaster?

The cake mix rose in the oven but left most of the fruit behind so when it had cooled I treated it as an upside down pudding, turning it over so that the layer of fruit sat on top of the traybake cake. Luckily I had lined the tray with baking paper otherwise I may have been scraping fruit off the tray and then the cake would have been ruined. I gently peeled back the baking paper to see a butter glistening jewel like layer of juicy fruit. Oh yes! This cake is to die for! The cake texture was different, more like a buttery Madeira. I thought all that sweet stickiness would marry well with a touch of bitter dark chocolate so melted some and dribbled it over the fruit layer. Yum Yum Well Done! 

Warning! The calorific value of this cake doesn't bear mentioning.