Flower Power and Exploits on the Home Front

Picked a bunch of these tree peonies for our breakfast table from outside our bedroom window. They are so beautiful the way they change colour over the days from white to dark pink.

Have had a domesticated weekend seeing the weather has been so changeable.Don't know how I have so much energy to make marmelade for us and the Bulgarian and Russian ladies I supply too. Mind you I make it in small quantities which makes for a quicker setting point and a faster job.

Made a Bavarian apple cake instead of my usual lattice-topped Dutch apple cake which has an easier streusel topping atop the apples which had been poached with cinnamon, sultanas and lemon zest. The sweet short pastry has an egg in it , then a layer of flaked almonds sprinkled over it followed by the apples,a layer of custard on top of that, then the streusel. I took it to the family gathering I went to with good friend Pamela in honour of her big sister, Robyn who is up from Christchurch.

Good friend Leny was in my thoughts as I made chicken schnitzel as she taught me many years ago and served it in a mushroom sauce, topped with parsley.