That Is Love!

When I received two photographs from the wonderful Di, the creator of pensitivity101, I showed Jack, and he and I ended up having a long discussion, which I will explain later on.

Many of you will know that as well as producing many fantastic posts of her own, Di also hosts THE THREE THINGS CHALLENGE and THE FRIDAY TAKE SEVEN COMPILATION CHALLENGE. She is one of the many great bloggers who help create a friendly blogging community where you will find inspiration and support as you create your own posts.

Di sent in a photograph of the Macaroni Cheese she had made for her husband alongside the pasta dish she made for herself, which contained chopped tomatoes, an onion and some green beans, garlic and italian herbs. This is Di’s post where she told us all about the two pasta dishes:

https://pensitivity101.wordpress.com/2020/07/12/my-contribution-to-the-great-bloggers-bake-off/

I was so touched that Di made two different pasta dishes for her and her husband. Di, Jack and I had a long conversation because he keeps on insisting that he is happy to eat vegetarian food. I am vegetarian you see. But I know that Jack loves eating meat. He particularly loves Greek style slow roasted lamb. He has spent a lot of time over in Greece. He also lived in France for some time and I know some of his favourite French dishes are very meaty.

I keep telling him that I would be more than happy to cook meat for him and have a meat-free dish alongside him. But he seems to think it would be too much trouble. Goldfinch was exactly the same by the way. But after showing Jack Di’s photos, I told him – that is love! We can work it out as we go along, but I want to be like Di…and make a dish he enjoys as well as making something suitable for myself. Aaaah! Sigh! Thanks so much Di for your wonderful photos and a beautiful lesson in love!

 

Beautiful Blogging And Baking

Throughout the summer months I live on salad and something on the side. Most of the time, that side is quiche! I love quiche. I love variety, so I am always experimenting and looking for different combinations of veggies to quiche-ify!

I was very pleased when I saw that  theresaly520, the creator of the beautiful website Culture Shocks, had sent in her photos of her Mushroom Quiche.

To me…quiche is iconically SUMMER, PICNIC and of course BAKING! Which makes it the perfect addition to THE GREAT BLOGGERS’ BAKE-OFF 2020 SUMMER PICNIC! This is Sa’s gorgeous post where she shares with us her fabulous baking and the great recipes she followed:

https://theresaly520.wordpress.com/2020/07/19/the-great-bloggers-bake-off-2020-summer-picnic-3-tempting-dishes/

I could have chosen the B-52s famous “Quiche Lorraine” song…but inspired by our the beautiful images that Sa uses on her site (her site really is one of the most beautiful on WordPress), I wanted to perpetuate more beauty, summer, nature, love and wonderful! We love you Sa! Your posts are so beautiful!

I should have warned Kristian this song was coming!

I Wouldn’t Touch It If I Were You!

I am sure you have been impressed by the BAKING of our very own Gary, aka bereavedandbeingasingleparent. Gary has certainly not shied away from taking on some serious BAKING challenges in his hard core training for THE GREAT BLOGGERS’ BAKE-OFF.

However, this BAKING creation from Gary, reaches a whole new realm of delectable digestives. We have here a record of his attempt at the classic Soufflé – only this one is a dairy and gluten free version – which left me speechless! Literally…no words!

Gary didn’t actually specify if was a chocolate Soufflé, I was just hoping that was the case!

https://bereavedsingledad.blog/2020/07/13/inevitable/

What do you say to that? I don’t think anyone can compete with baking like this. Gary you truly are in a category all of your own!!!

I should not tease our glorious Gary…I am sure it tasted delicious!

Brilliant Baker Benji

We now have some very awesome baking from the youngest baker in THE GREAT BLOGGERS’ BAKE-OFF 2020 SUMMER PICNIC!

Our next brilliant baker is Benji!!    benji1535 is the creator of Benji’s Very Big Blog. He also published this post to share with us his secret recipe:

https://benjisverybigblog.wordpress.com/2020/07/20/the-secret-of-my-shortbread/

Benji is not the only blogger in his family. His amazing mum Ingrid, is the creator Experiments in Fiction.  

What has Benji been BAKING? Brilliant biscuits! He has baked sensational Shortbread. I absolutely love that Benji made his name in shortbread! Golden delicious crumbly buttery shortbread! Could somebody put the kettle on please? These are the perfect accompaniment to a lovely cuppa tea!

Thank you Ingrid for these wonderful photos of Benji’s baking!

 

This whole weekend has been about fabulous family fun that everybody can be involved with. It’s great to see the whole family getting involved…even Benji’s brother Ollie got involved!

The key to awesome baking is often in the beat!!!

 

Inspired by our youngest, and perhaps smallest baker this year, I was longing to tag a link to my own favourite chef, who proves that no matter what your size or age…if you love creating kitchen masterpieces, you can go a long way!!!

 

She Has Conquered The Kitchen!!

I knew that our next blogger was going to make something delicious for THE GREAT BLOGGERS’ BAKE-OFF! Last year she made something delicious…though slightly overcome by the forces of gravity! But this year…gravity, gorgeousness and gloriousness are on her side!

Yes, that’s right…the fantastic  Amanda Cade has made not one, not two, not three…but four awesome Mini-Cheesecakes with a choice of topping for everyone! Caramel for me please Amanda!!!

And….wait for it…they are perfect!!! Yayyyyyyyyyyyyy! Go Amanda!!! This is called complete redemption for the chocolate landslide of 2019. Amanda has nailed perfect cheesecakes…with extremely naughty toppings. Surely a cheesecake should have a calorific topping!

Aaaah…the way to my heart is cheesecake…which I say with a tear in my eye, because I have a dairy intolerance. This is the post Amanda published chronicling how she conquered the kitchen this year to produce these beauties:

https://amandacade.com/2020/07/15/the-great-bloggers-bakeoff-2020/

Thank you so much Amanda!!! Loving the sweet cheesecakes in every way! You rock!!!

I Carried A Watermelon

I am sure you will agree that it is about time we stopped for another drink to wash down all of the delicious BAKING and PICNIC creations from WordPress bloggers.

How thrilled we are that some of the wonderful bloggers who took part in the 2019 GREAT BLOGGERS’ BAKE-OFF have been able to take part again this year. You may remember the perfectly petite NAKED CAKE created by Ribana, creator of Popsicle Society, from last year’s BAKE-OFF.

This year Ribana has supplied a superb Watermelon Cocktail. It certainly tempted Jack! Ribana, Jack wandered down to the organic supermarket, when I showed him your post yesterday, to buy a watermelon and a lime (I already had some booze in the back of the cupboard) so we could make your cocktail. Now you know what we have been drinking all afternoon!

This is Ribana’s post where you can find her cocktail recipe, and believe us, it is delicious!

https://popsiclesociety.com/2019/08/23/refreshing-watermelon-cocktail/

When I needed to think of another watermelon musical link…I relied on one of the most famous lines from one of the most iconic chick-flicks of all time…are you ready for that line?

Beautiful Banana Baking

I hope you are all enjoying the wonderful array of BAKING and PICNIC themed songs that bloggers have chosen as part of a special SONG-LYRIC-SUNDAY over on Jim Adam’s site A Unique Title For Me!

One of the loyal SLS participants is the fabulous  Felicia Denise, the creator of two fantastic blog sites, Nesie’s Place and Felicia Denise, Author, who has been baking banana treats!!! Who does not love Banana Bread? That gorgeous golden cake looks sooooo good! But we have a double helping of beautiful banana baking today. Felicia has also baked Brown Sugar Banana Muffins – yummmmmmy!!!

Check out Felicia’s brilliant choices for today’s SLS:

https://nesiesplace.com/2020/07/19/song-lyric-sunday-if-david-gates/

https://feliciadenise.com/2020/07/19/song-lyric-sunday-macarthur-park/

Aaaah! Sigh, as soon as we saw Felicia’s photographs, Jack reminded me that I used to make a banana cake every week when we were flatmates. He and I were both banana hoarders and we always ended up with too many bananas. So I used to use them to make cake, which all our other flatmates and their visitors would help themselves too. Happy memories!

I could have chosen a second song from a long list of annoying songs about bananas…but as Felicia often features hit soul tracks on SLS…I chose another song that has a foodie link…Lady Marmalade!

The Bake Sale – A poem

SPECIAL GUEST CONTRIBUTORS

For many blogging on WordPress is mainly about producing fantastic fiction and phenomenal poetry. Well, we invited two of WordPress’ most talented creative bloggers to get creative and we are thrilled to share with you their work!

Here is a fantastic poem from one of favourite WordPress bloggers (yes, we have favourites!!!)   Kristian, the creator of Tales from the mind of Kristian produced this gorgeous poem inspired by the BAKING theme!

Tales from the mind of Kristian

My blogging friend, Mel from the blog Caramel (learner at Love) is co-hosting a bake Sale event, click on the link below to find out more:

What Will Be In Our Picnic Basket?

To commemorate this event, I have written this poem. 🙂

We are having a giant bake sale, in our neighbourhood.

Auntie Gladys has made her carrot cake

Who knew carrots could taste so good?

And while it’s a Hot July and we’re in a summer sizzle,

What could be more fitting than a slice of Dave’s Lemon Drizzle?

While I enjoy the sunshine, the heat’s been a bit extreme,

So I’m enjoying a slice of cake smothered in Ice-Cream.

It’s great to get together and share what we’ve all been making,

In this sweltering summer heat, it’s us that have been baking!

I won’t moan too much though, it’s winter soon for goodness sake,

So my final…

View original post 12 more words

Did You Think He’d Crumble?

As many of you know, Gary, aka bereavedandbeingasingleparent, has been honing his skills in the kitchen ready for his live baking creation. I have to say, Gary has been getting better and better during the weeks that led up to THE GREAT BLOGGERS’ BAKE-OFF 2020 SUMMER PICNIC.

As someone who loves comfort food, when I saw Gary’s Apple Crumble I was longing to reach in to this photo with my dessert spoon to try his BAKING creation.

This was Gary’s post, charting his baking progress, that he published in the weeks leading up to THE BAKE-OFF:

https://bereavedsingledad.blog/2020/07/04/baking-3/

I never doubted you Gary! I never thought you would crumble at the BAKE-OFF challenge! You are an amazing survivor! And what a baker you have turned out to be!!!

On Our Way To India

I was very pleased to see photos in my inbox from one of the sweetest bloggers I know of! If you don’t already know her, I would like to introduce you to  Atara, the creator of Atara’s Ideas, is one of our fabulous bloggers over in India! (Hello India!!! We love you!!!)

Atara has used one of my favourite foods Paneer (a type of cheese that I can eat!), to make a Paneer Pizza. I am feeling so hungry at the thought of pizza!

Jack and I woke up later than planned this morning and had a late breakfast, so although it is 3pm over here in London, we’re thinking lunch! Atara…Jack is taking the cue from your photo to make his version of pizza – which I have a feeling will not be anything like perfect as yours! (He is going to us some garlic bread I had in the freezer to make us mini-pizzas with my vegan cheese.)