Imaging Essence Blog

Growing our own

admin — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 13:29:37 +0000

For those of you following me on Twitter, you may be familiar with the occasional excitement I’ve been tweeting through my discoveries in growing our own vegetables this year. The idea to “grown our own” was first met with severe cynicism from my other half @spurssimon (twitter name, I don’t generally call him that) as he thought it would be another casualty of the infamous Debbie “enthusiasm curve” (go out, buy everything, spend a day going mad gardening then lose interest and leave him to keep everything alive). This “fad” however is a tad different for a number of reasons:

I’ve discovered container gardening which means I don’t have to do any weeding
Rather than just pretty flowers these growing things have an end purpose, I’m already thinking about recipes where I can use them
This year is the first year when I have been working locally so I can really take the time to appreciate the garden, the morning daily inspection of the garden is a great way to start the day
I can even calculate an actual “return on investment” with herbs, vegetable and fruits rather than an intangible it makes the garden look pretty
I have discovered an intense appreciation of old episodes of “The Good Life” and scarily could actually empathise with the “talking to seeds to see which grows first” episode (we are currently having a ‘which sunflower is the tallest competition’ going on), and our future aspirations are now frequently alluded to as “when I’ve got chickens, and you’ve got bees”

The biggest thing however I really really didn’t reckon on happening was how possessive and proud I would be of the produce, I can honestly now see why competitions can become so fierce at local country shows, I’ve even scared myself by discovering maternal instincts for baby cucumbers and the excitement as the first baby beet pushed it’s way through the earth from seed – really, I need to know, I am certifiable is it just I’ve finally succumbed to the (late) 30ish something way of life???

Anyways, as is my mantra of a picture can speak a thousand words, I thought I’d share some of the latest additions to the imaging essence container garden, and I warn you, the baby cucumbers are seriously cute!!

Enjoy!

Monster Mushroom Breakfast

admin — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 11:46:37 +0000

So I blink and it’s Easter – seriously where is this year going?!

Anyways we went out to shop at PE Meads Farm shop near Tring yesterday in order to stock up for the Easter weekend, main shopping purpose was for their home reared meat and fantastic chiltern rapeseed oil. Whilst there I picked up some black pudding as a cooked breakfast bank holiday weekend treat, when I came across these monster mushrooms in the veg section – bloomin’ MASSIVE, one of them actually weighed in at 0.25kg, probably not a world record, but certainly biggest ‘shroom that’s seen the inside of my kitchen! So the monster mushroom breakfast plan took hold, picked up some lovely free range and eggs to create a breakfast with the mushroom as the hero, it would have been rude to do anything else!

Me being me just had to capture it on camera – so here’s a few shots of the Monster Mushroom Breakfast – hope you enjoy looking as much as we did eating!!

Monster Mushroom weighing 0.25kg

Not one but two monster mushrooms

You don't get texture on eggs like that from a supermarket!

Okay, so maybe getting overly arty - but I love this job!!

About to cut into the stack, huge mushroom baked with butter and a balsamic & wholegrain mustard dressing, black pudding and poached eggs

If I'm being critical then the egg is slightly over cooked

and the overall feedback from mr imagingessence was lots of oohs & ahhs (have to confess I thought it tasted rather good as well)

So what is the perfect end to a valentine’s dinner?

admin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:47:25 +0000

So you’ve made the effort, cooked a delicious valentine’s meal just for two, and want to wow with a great cheese course, you won’t get far wrong with one of these beauties from our friends at the West Country Cheese Co

Perfect valentines cheese course

Valentine cheeses

Who says valentines shouldn't be cheesey....

After I took the pictures I managed to bagsy myself one of these, but don’t tell the other half, it’s supposed to be a surprise!!

Entering the blog world…

admin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 10:49:39 +0000

Starting out today, new imaging essence blog, all new food photography, published web sites and general foodie banter will be published here

Butternut Squash

A Chocolate Brownie Experience…

admin — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 09:07:08 +0000

So, on Monday this week I was lucky enough to win a box of brownies from @gowercottage on Twitter. Firstly, I was shocked as I never generally win anything, secondly I was delighted as I happen to have the sweetest tooth, thirdly it was a really good reason to fall off the January Weight Watchers band wagon.

Today, my box of Brownies arrived as promised, and I have to say I was altogether so impressed with the packaging of them, that I was prompted to share with the world my chocolate brownie “Out of Box Experience”.

Sooo…here goes my photo account of the steps leading to sticky chocolate heaven – hope you like!

Today's arrival of Gower Cottage Brownies

The front view of the box

Useful info on the back

First glimpse in the box

The Gower Cottage Brownie story

First glimpse insided the wrapping

Beautifully tied package appears

At last, the Brownies themselves

What's in the middle?

On closer inspection...

Who me? Take a bite?