There are two exciting events on the horizon. One is the imminent launch of our sister website where you will be able to order all the fantastic produce from the Il Palagio estate in Tuscany – our wines, glorious olive oil and range of honeys. The other, of course, is the annual salute to Love and Lovers everywhere, Valentine’s day. To get you in the mood for romance, we are giving away a bottle of “When We Dance” for one lucky couple to celebrate with. “When We Dance”, like all the Palagio wines, is bio-dynamic, developed by world-class viticulturist Alan York in conjunction with Paolo Caciorgna, experienced oenologist and the team at Il Palagio led by Estate Manager, Paolo Rossi. “When We Dance” is our classic chianti, ruby red in colour, with fragrance of cherry and iris. Its a simple, fresh, everyday drinking wine with a balanced and smooth taste.

For your chance to win, just tell us why your Valentine makes you smile. Entries to hello@lakehousetable.co.uk by midnight on February 10th.

Australians now let us rejoice – not only is it Australia Day, but we are bringing you a recipe for that most loved of all Aussie confections, the lovely Lamington! Unique among cakes, it is quintessentially Antipodean, and seldom to be seen on other shores. Impress your Aussie friends and invite them round for tea – they are probably feeling homesick!

• Preheat the oven to 180/gas 4. Grease a 23 cm square cake tin.
• Beat 6 large eggs with 140g caster sugar until pale and thick.
• Fold in 200g self raising flour, 25g of melted butter and 5 tablespoons of hot water.
• Pour into the tin and cook until firm. So there’s your sponge part.

Now whip together 250g icing sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 50g of softened butter and 2 tablespoons of milk. until thick and creamy. Cut the cake into 16 cubes, slice each one horizontally and sandwich with this vanilla cream.

Finally, melt together 25g of butter and 4 fluid ounces of milk, and stir into 300g of icing sugar and 4 tablespoons of cocoa powder to make the chocolate icing. Spoon over each square, lifting with a fork so it can drizzle underneath as well. Sprinkle with dessicated coconut. Leave to set.

Ladies and Gentleman, please be upstanding, as we introduce you to a noble young beast, the one and only Sir Lancelot of the Lake.  Lancelot is the latest in our line of legendary White Parks, so named, because in Tenth Century Welsh folklore, the legned of Llyn Fan Fach saw the Lady of the Lake emerge from the water leading a White Park Bull.  His Father is mighty Pendragon.  

Still only two months old, international fame beckons for this young calf as he is soon to be featured in Tatler magazine as a Famous Pet.  He is preparing himself for his first photoshoot, bound to be the first of many.  In the meantime, he is enjoying his rich diet of organic whole unpasteurised milk, playing with his friend Faith, the little Brown Swiss cow, and pondering over the answers to the questions he has been posed by the good folk at Tatler.  For favourite song, he is thinking of choosing “Hey Diddle Diddle” as he loves the line where the cow jumps over the moon. 

Congratulations to Naomi and her lovely rosy-cheeked Nan who were the winners of the Lake House Christmas Cake. We hope everybody enjoyed the festivities and are looking forward to an exciting 2012.

Well, here they are, a big hand for the finalists in our “Perfect Christmas” competition. It was incredibly hard to choose from such a strong field, and so many pictures which made us smile and even bring on a little nostalgic tear or two – they certainly made us feel Christmassy. Now its over to you guys to be the judge. The one with the most votes will be munching on our magical cake this year. Vote on hello@lakehousetable.co.uk and we’ll get counting.

Adorable pomeranian.

It's snowing.

Christmas in the park.

Reflected lights.

More sherry for Nan?

TRUDIE STYLER is this week’s guest editor of The Big Issue magazine, on sale from today, Monday 5th December 2011.

Featuring Robert Downey Jr, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Zac Goldsmith MP and Janis Sharp, with photography by Bryan Adams.

The Big Issue helps homeless and vulnerably housed people support themselves.

Please get a copy every week coming up to Christmas!

We are! We love Christmas. It combines nearly all of our favourite things. Getting together round the table with family and friends for a fabulous feast is definitely the highlight. Not to mention the decorations, the excitement, the gift-giving, the music, the atmosphere, the roaring fires and the twinkling tree! We don’t mean to boast but our Christmas Cake is pretty out-of-this-world. With its secret ingredients of orange juice, coconut milk and amaretto, and its gluten-free, fruity texture, it is moist and delicious without being too heavy. This year, master-patissier Peggy Porschen is making a beautiful design for our icing. For a chance to win one of these scrumptious and spectacular cakes, why not send us your photo depicting “A Perfect Christmas” ? Entries to hello@lakehousetable.co.uk. Standard terms and conditions apply and entries will close at midnight on December 17th. As with our previous competition we will invite you to be the judge of the winner.

With Bonfire Night falling on a Saturday it gives us all a little more time to get organised this year. Why not try making your own Toffee Apples? Its dead easy, honest, but it helps if you do have a sugar thermometer.

Wash and dry 12 smallish apples. Macintosh are good. Insert a sharpened stick into each. In a deep heavy pot, dissolve 500 g of caster sugar, 175 ml of golden syrup and 4 tablespoons of light corn syrup. Brush down the sides of the pot with a wet pastry brush to catch all the sugar crystals. Cook, without stirring, until it starts to turn amber at 155 celsius, 310 fahrenheit. This takes about half an hour. Meanwhile line a baking tray with lightly greased foil.

When the toffee is ready, quickly dip and coat each apple, and leave to set on the tray.

This is especially for Anne, one of our Facebook followers, who has asked for a recipe. Soul cakes were originally made for All Saints and All Souls Says to commemorate and celebrate the departed. For that reason they would be marked with a cross. Soulers (usually children) would go from door to door to beg for the cakes, which they would receive in return for a prayer or a song. Its easy to see the origins of what we now know as Halloween!

Cream 2.5oz of butter with 2.5oz of sugar. Beat in three egg yolks. Sift 8oz of plain flour, 1 teaspoon of mixed spice and 1 teaspoon of allspice and stir. Add 3 tablespoons of currants, then milk to make a stiff dough. Roll out and pat into flat round cakes, and don’t forget to mark with an X. Bake until golden.

It was close, but by two votes, the Wedding photo is the winner! Thanks to everyone who took part. Here’s to a toast for a long and happy marriage with a lovely glass (or two) of Sister Moon.

Thanks to Mother Nature for giving us an extra dollop of September sunshine, but the competition, as they say, is now closed. After much deliberation we have selected four candidates whose pictures we think capture the spirit of a perfect British summer day, and/or the joys of eating al fresco.

Its now over to you guys to vote for your favourite, and the one with the most votes will be awarded two bottles of Sister Moon Tuscan wine. Send your vote to us at hello@lakehousetable.co.uk. Votes close midnight on October 7th.

We love the sense of a long languid day spent in the park, and now everyone is heading home to enjoy their evening in this shot.

Sunset

A special occasion all the more magical for taking place under perfect blue skies.

Wedding

The ubiquitous burnt banger! No barbecue is complete with out them! Love the humour here.

Banger

Whimsical and happy, this photo sums up the simple sweet pleasure of a summer day.

Flower

As its British Cheese Week we thought we’d give a special mention to Ruby, Dandelion and Ushi, our beautiful dairy cows who give us gallons of milk to make cheese. Cheddar is everyone’s favourite, but we also have Monterey Jack, Stilton, Cream cheese, and soft rind varieties like brie and camembert. They are all incredibly delicious.

We love experimenting with ancient grains, and have just been reading about beremeal, Britain’s oldest cereal in cultivation. Its grown on Orkney and was most likely brought there by the Vikings in the ninth century! Its a barley which loves the cool temperature and long daylight hours of the Far North. Think we will order some from Barony Mills (www.birsay.org.uk/baronymill.htm) and make some bannocks to have with a celebratory platter of British Cheese.

Never quite sure what to do with beetroot? Why not make a delicious soup? They’re easy to handle if you just scrub and then roast them in tin foil, with a drizzle of oil and a scattering of thyme. When cooled, the skins will simply peel off. Whizz up in a blender with some sauteed onion, then add to stock and simmer. A nourishing lunch now the days are getting nippier.

Check out our lovely crop of organic oats come up through our grass and clover!

Did you know that the word coleslaw comes from the Dutch word koolsa, meaning cabbage salad? With so many varieties of cabbage available, there are as many different ways to create these super-healthy, raw and crunchy side-dishes.

The traditional recipe, shredded cabbage, onion and carrot in a mayonnaise or vinaigrette of choice is always a winner, especially if homemade. Try adding caraway or poppy seeds as well. You could also mix red cabbage, with apples and dried cranberries? Delicious with a baked potato and a slice of ham. Or peel and slice celeriac with green apples and walnuts.

The British Larder has an innovative suggestion of curly kale, with bean shoots, mung beans and peanuts in a lime and soy dressing. Or make your slaw Asian with a dressing made from rice vinegar, peanut oil, fresh ginger, a tisp of sugar and some sesame seeds. Cabbage does not just have to be steamed! (Though we rather like that too).

For all of you who have too many apples here is a great recipe from Charlotte who lives nearby in Homington. A subtle variation on a traditional crumble.

Butter a medium pie dish. Soften your peeled and sliced apples in a pan with 50g soft brown sugar and a tablespoon of water. Arrange in the bottom of the dish. Cream together 110g butter and 110g caster sugar, adding 2 beaten eggs, one at a time. Fold in 110g ground almonds. Spread almond mixture over the apples and bake at 180 for 40 minutes or until golden brown. Serve lukewarm with cream or creme fraiche.

If the old soothsayers are right and the gluts of berries everywhere this autumn forecast another harsh winter, then it’s probably not too soon to start thinking about getting your bulbs in, or at least ordering them. They have to go in before the first frost. We love to plant bulbs in pots, not only do they look lovely but they are much better protected from rabbits and pheasants who love to dig them up and damage them. We always make a point of making sure the pots are really clean and also to choose bulbs that are good and firm. You wouldn’t buy a soft onion so don’t go for a squishy tulip, they’re likely to be diseased and not to grow or flower well. Another good tip is to plant straight onto grit. They really thrive in well-drained pots. We use the “lasagne” method. The bottom layer is tulips, then narcissi, and then crocii – waves of spring colour to look forward to. Meantime, we need to get back to gathering those berries!

Michelle from West Berkshire has entered two such fantastic photos that we think they are both in the running for the prize. Remember that our lovely band of Lake House Table followers will be the ultimate judges from our final selection. You now have until the end of September to enter for the money-can’t-buy chance to win Sister Moon wine.

Whilst the combines are working overtime all over the country collecting in the crops, there are rich pickings to be had for all of us with a bit of time to spare, fingers that don’t mind a few scratches and something to use as a collecting bag.

One of our favourite freebies at this particular time of year is the cobnut. They are just turning ripe now in their creamy greeny clusters of three, and as the season turns, they will turn more and more golden. They are basically just young hazelnuts, and can be used in every which way. Simple and scrumptious is to roast them for about six minutes, it really brings out their flavour. Raw they are crispy and almost coconutty, excellent chopped into salads.

John Constable painted more images of Salisbury and its surrounding countryside than any other place and it is remarkable how little unchanged many of our closest city’s aspects remain. His celebration of the clouds and skies, the wheat and corn fields, the water meadows and the cathedral are still to be seen around us as he captured them, constantly changing and yet constant.

For the first time Salisbury has put together a major exhibition and its to be seen at the South Wiltshire Museum in the cathedral close. The highlight of the collection is a huge six foot oil painting which is on loan and not previously exhibited. With haystacks all around us and harvest in full swing, we feel like we are living in a Constable landscape! The Exhibition is on until September 25th.

We have harvested more plums than we can ever remember. What’s more they are really sweet and juicy. It must be all that hot weather we had back at Eastertime. The only trouble is coming up with enough ideas to use them all up, although several bags are tucked away in the freezer.

This recipe is a classic, deriving from the genius of Elizabeth David who did so much to rescue British food from the doldrums. It is also fiendishly quick and easy for nights when you really fancy a treat after your meal, but something a bit more exciting than a yoghourt. All you do is take a slice of bread per person. Butter it generously. Pit a couple of plums and squish them down. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and then bake for 10 minutes. A dollop of creme fraiche would be nice too.

We’ve got a wonderful bunch of children camping this week.* Thanks to the glorious weather they’ll be having a barbecue and as part of our annual ritual, everyone makes their own bread roll first to put their burger in. With the fans going full blast in the kitchen, there’s an amazing amount of creativity goes on amongst all the kneading and pounding. Initials are a popular choice, but we also have all sorts of knots and twists, the occasional hedgehog and the odd battleship or skateboard. The kids have a very accurate memory for whose is whose, and not all end up being successful burger-holders, but they definitely all end up being eaten!

If you’d like to have a bash at bread making, drop us an email on hello@lakehousetable.co.uk and we’ll send you a recipe.

Whilst the weather holds so fair, don’t forget about our summer competition. We’re looking for pictures which capture the quintessential British summer’s day and there’s been a few of those lately. The prize is the money-can’t buy chance to sample two bottles of the delectable Sister Moon Tuscan red wine, from Sting and Trudie’s organic estate in Italy. Keep those entries coming! We’ll be posting the best and inviting you all to judge the winner. Apply on hello@lakehousetable.co.uk.

* Please support the work of the Kids Company. They are a brilliant organisation. www.kidsco.org.uk

Do you live in London?

HELP (Healthy Eating and Lifestyle Programme) is a weight management programme run by the Institute of Child Health, University College London.

The Programme is FREE and run in your LOCAL area! We are looking for 200 volunteers to trial this new programme for us.

If you are interested contact us at helptrial@ich.ucl.ac.uk
For more information please visit our website at www.helptrial.org.uk

We have now finished our experiments with adding lavender to biscuits, and licked all the bowls, and the champion recipe is Lavender and Ginger Cookies. The ginger has enough heat to cut across the scented oil of the blossom petals, and the result is tingly and very tasty! If you’d like to knock up a batch yourself here’s how. These would be perfect for picnics with fizzy cold ginger beer and makes about 15:

Cream 115 grams of butter with 25 grams of sugar. Add 1 egg. Stir in with a wooden spoon 225 grams of plain flour, 1/4 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda, half a teasponn of baking powder, one teaspooon of vanilla essense, 1 tablespoon of ground ginger, 2 fluid ounces of sour cream and last but not least, 1 and a half tablespoons of lavender flowers, finely chopped. Rolll into a cylinder and chill. Cut into rounds and bake at 170 for 10 minutes.

Its easy when you have a solar-powered basin with hot running water to fascinate them with! The kids who come to visit us on the farm often send us lovely thank you letters and in those the solar sink gets a lot of mentions. They all have a thorough wash-up before enjoying a home-cooked lunch with sausages, cheese, milk and apples, all produce from the estate. Most of all though, they love seeing all the animals, especially if we have babies to show them.

We love our food, but what is a special meal without a beautiful glass of wine?

Celebrating summer pleasures, we are offering the “money can’t buy” opportunity to WIN two bottles of Sister Moon, the new wine from Sting and Trudie’s Tuscan estate. The Wine Spectator gave Sister Moon a score of 93 and said “This is a polished and beautiful wine, delivery blueberry, light toasty oak and currant character that turns lightly smoky and spicy. Full and very silky, with a long, long, finish. Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Aged for 24 months in new French barriques”.

Is your mouth-watering? To compete, send us a picture which best evokes a beautiful British summer’s day and the joys of eating and drinking “al fresco”. Upload and email us at hello@lakehousetable.co.uk. We’ll be running this competition until the end of August.

This weekend, its all about Fathers Day so we thought we’d dedicate the blog to our extremely handsome, muscular and big brown-eyed Hero, Pendragon, the White Park Bull.

Pendragon would be the first to confess he has no idea how many offspring he has sired. He just knows its a lot. He’s not the most hoofs-on of fathers, but the heifers in the White Park clan do a great job of raising his young. They even take it in turns to baby-sit for each other. Pendragon is proud to be the patriarch of a fine British breed and we salute him.

We admit it. We are unashamedly proud of the beautiful county we live, farm and cook in and some of the reasons why are summed up by Trudie in a recent article in Wiltshire Life. Have a look in the Media centre to read what she says.

Here’s a fail-safe and FREE recipe to really bring on your home-grown tomatoes. Gather up a big armful of comfrey, which is usually found growing near river banks and in ditches. Stuff the comfrey into a hessian sack and tie it at the neck.

Drop the sack into a butt of rain water – it has to have dark sides as you don’t want any light to get in. In a week or so you will have a wonderful liquid feed, really high in potash, which the young fruits will thrive on. Comfrey has very long roots which go deep down to draw up the goodness from the ground. Its also known as “knitbone” and is an old fashioned remedy to mend broken bones.

We have been watching this little flock for many days now and still cannot decide who belongs to who.The pair of young swans and the pair of Canada geese both seem pretty sure that they are the parents and protectors of these four chicks! Only time will tell whether they turn out to be goslings or cygnets. Then we’ll just have to hope there isn’t a long-drawn out custody battle on the lake.

We were thrilled when our founder was prominent amongst those pushing for a “hands off our allotments” campaign spearheaded by the Independent on Sunday.

Allotments are a wonderful means for families and friends to collaborate and grow their own vegetables and fruits, and can satisfy your artistic side as well, as the late great gardening writer Elspeth Thompson noted when she compared the composition of her London allotment in blocks of colours to making a patchwork quilt.

Read all about the successful result in our Media Centre.

One of the most delicious and nourishing treats here on the farm is to be able to collect fresh eggs every day. Its fifty years since the Nation was cajoled to “Go to Work on an Egg” but its still great advice. They are a perfect portion size, packed with protein, and keep you full. Plus they are an excuse to have soldiers!

As an alternative to toasty soldiers, a few spears of lightly steamed asparagus make a sophisticated and healthy change.

Summertime smiles to Eleanor from North London who has written to us:

“I followed the Elderflower Cordial recipe and it has turned out most deliciously. Many thanks to Lake House Table for bringing a taste of early summer to my terraced house table”

We smiled at columnist Suzanne Moore’s culinary expertise this weekend. She invented a new dish: Baileys poured into an Aero mousse. Sometimes the simplest ideas are pure genius.

The Italian dessert affogato is a great example. Make some good strong hot espresso and pour over a dollop of top quality vanilla ice cream. Perfecto! Meanwhile here at the Mill Cottage kitchens we are working on our up-coming puddings range. All the recipes have to be tasted. As they say, it’s a tough job but somebody has to do it….

Come and join us on our Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/LakeHouseTable

20% off our Kitchen Suppers at Ocado this week. Make more time for real pleasures this Bank Holiday weekend.

The last of the blossom is blown away and the bluebells faded, but Mother Nature’s next reward is the creamy froth of the elderberry trees. We are crazy about elderflower cordial and we make as much as possible. Its such a quintessential English taste, and so refreshing on a summer’s day. Here’s our recipe. (Tartaric acid can be tricky to get hold of, we get ours from the local beer and wine making supplier).

Boil 1.75 litres of water with 1.1 kg of granulated sugar to make a syrup. Add fifty heads of elderflowers – picked over and shaken to get rid of any tiny bugs – the zest and sliced fruit of 2 oranges and 1 lemon and 60 g of tartaric acid. Stand overnight. Next day strain through a colander and then through muslin, and pour into sterilised bottles.

We love eating in tune with the seasons. This month sees the first of the spring cabbage, gorgeously fresh and crunchy, the beautifully coloured and well-named rainbow chard, and the first precious crops of British asparagus. All of these are great teamed with one of our Kitchen Suppers. Why not try lightly wilted rainbow chard scattered with toasted pinenuts, a drizzle of good olive oil and a few cubes of feta? We’d like to hear your ideas and suggestions too.

The jury is still out, after some three hundred years, on what the old English proverb is referring to. Do they mean the month, or is it “may” blossom the old name for hawthorn? The earliest citation is in Dr.Thomas Fuller’s Gnomologia in 1732, though folk were no doubt going about saying it long before that. With a classic mix of sunshine and showers lately, it still seems true either way.