gingerbreadmam.comhome baked ginger cake, wine, toffee, shortbread

Thank you to all the lovely people who came to both Bishop Auckland & Leyburn food festivals! Both were great events, we met lots of new food lovers some of whom we swopped recipes with, made new friends, and discovered new tastes! It was the Ostridge outdoor burger/bacon sarnie bar where I tasted 2 new meats….wait for it…..Camel & Zebra burgers! I’ve got to say both were delicious. We bought rare breed Dexter beef, smoked salmon, strawberries, blue ice creams, whisky honey & popcorn! All fabulous! Looking forward to trying out some new ginger recipes next week…will update when ready!In the meantime here’s some of the lovely pictures I took over the bank holiday weekend at Leyburn…

I can’t believe it’s time again for the local food festivals, a huge gathering of  like minded people, passionate about food & drink! We’re again attending the Bishop Auckland Food Festival on Saturday 21st April-with over 30,000 people expected to attend this fantastic FREE to enter event and also the 3 day Leyburn Food Festival 5th, 6th & 7th May-if you’re a food lover then you must diary date these 2 top North East events! Keith and I can’t wait to be there as traders but we’ll be making sure we get to sneak off and sample some of the best home made food in the UK!

One of the things I enjoy most about baking, cooking and eating is preparing dishes made from locally sourced produce, preferably as much as I can grow in my own garden. With only a relatively small garden it’s still amazing how much you can squeeze in including, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, courgettes, runner beans, broad beans, potatoes, peppers, beetroot, onions, radishes, ginger, apples, plums, strawberries, blackcurrants, with a few other guest appearances along the way.

There’s nothing better than unwinding outside on a summer’s evening with a glass of wine whilst nibbling on the fruits of one’s labor. Keith (my husband) and I hold many fond memories of broad bean suppers, cherry tomato lunches & bbq’d courgette dinners. However, it always saddens when the evenings begin to draw in and eating alfresco becomes just a distant memory never to happen again. Eager to capture those delicious summer foods I turn to bottling, pickling & preserving as much of as I can.

The shelves in my larder become filled with, pickled beetroot, red cabbage, onions even carrots! Jars of precious strawberry jam, roasted cherry tomatoes preserved in olive oil. While wrapped snug, and tightly packed in newspaper back of the shelf are a box of eating apples! So when we’re feeling low and craving some warm sunshiny weather we’re never far from a little gem of summer to put a smile on our face.

This weekend I decided to unwrap the huge cooking apples I packed nearly 6 months ago. They’re absolutely perfect. As it’s still winter, I’ve decided to continue with my comfort eating foods and for this week’s market I’ll be making the most delicious apple filling beneath a ginger crumble. Very satisfying

Just when you thought it had gone for ever, never to return, comes a creaking of a door and the sound of slow moving footsteps…Yes, the Gingerbread Mam has opened the oven doors and is packing the seasonal return of the Gingerbread Mam’s infamous and very naughty ‘ginger spotted dick’. A real old fashioned pudding, which reminds me of school dinners served with lots of creamy yellow custard. It’s comfort food at its best and perfect for these long January nights when I think everyone feels a little low needing a naughty treat! Don’t be scared by those calories either, each portion has only half the calories if you share the monster size ‘ginger spotted dick’ with a friend!

And don’t you just love the retro packaging? All down to @MediaManNE thank you Mr Mediaman for creating such a fantastic brand for The Gingerbread Mam

The gingerbread gang are back from their break as bright as buttons and twice as shiney! A week in Edinburgh was absolutely fantastic what a super place to spend New Year’s Eve, what with the ice rink, the old fashioned fairground rides,  steaming mugs of licquer coffees, hot roasted chestnuts, live music, streets of scottish bagpipers and unusually mild weather! It doesn’t get much better, well apart from a midnight dip in the hottub with fire works lighting the Scottish skyline!

I have to say we were ready for a bit of relaxation, especially our two little gingerbread boys, who’ve both worked equally hard on markets every weekend with either myself or Keith it was lovely to spend sometime out as a family together.

Ice rink, Edinburgh New Year’s Eve-click to have a peep

One of my favourite summer recipes has to be my Limoncello & Ginger trifle, it’s a birthday party must for the ginger house and I always serve it in my nana’s pretty china trifle bowl and serving dishes. It’s a really luxurious velvety custardy lemony gingery trifle and this year I thought I’d take it along to some of my summer food festivals.

It was whilst at The Bowes Museum food festival that I was lucky enough to meet Mr & Mrs Halfhide from Teesdale, both ginger lovers and avid home cooks themselves were tempted by my trifle, but asked me had I made the Limoncello? After admitting that my trifle was indeed laced with a good glug of rather expensive Italian Limoncello bought for me as a present, they kindly let me have an old family recipe of theirs to make my very own Limoncello Liqueur!

Since receiving the recipe I’ve made several bottles of this beautiful stunning drink, mine of course has root ginger added to it giving it a subtle heat that only ginger can add. I’m currently applying for a liqueur licence from Stockton Borough Council and if granted you will soon see my homemade Limoncello Liqueur appearing around the North East farmers’ markets-makes a great Xmas present!

Incase you missed our feature in the Evening Gazette….a little story about how my nana’s cooking influenced me and how her secret recipe’s are cooking up a storm in the North East!

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/n​ews/teesside-news/2011/07/20/n​ana-s-secrets-are-a-huge-hit-w​ith-shoppers-84229-29083201/

If I have to say the one  thing that gives me the most pleasure every single day is eating and drinking. It’s true to say i love my food, more than… my husband, as much as my dog and nearly as much as my children!

That’s why I won’t compromise when it comes to shopping, I only use the finest ingredients I can get my hands on…In my shopping basket you won’t find half fat milk, yogurt or cheese, you won’t find 30 economy anemic chicken breasts or chicken nugget mushed up guts and garters, you won’t find a whole mountain of ready made meals destined for 6 months in the freezer-the fact I don’t own a freezer doesn’t actually come into it…

I think you’ve got an idea of what kind of food I like to buy, for those of you who ready my tweets you’ll know I buy all of my meat, cheese and vegetables from my like minded pals at the weekly farmers’ markets, it’s a ritual now that I trade ginger sponge pudding for Jeremey’s homemade blue cheese, I trade ginger parkin for Dexter beef pot roast, ginger wine for venison liver, ginger shortbread for homemade organic rose petal soap…..

We all know that if one puts half fat milk, margarine and caged hens eggs into a parkin and the other puts full fat milk, best local butter and free range local hens eggs whose is going to taste the best!

My eggs are bought from the ‘Potting Shed’ Frances’ farm in Middleton in Teesdale, they’re all shapes, sizes and colours some decorated with colourful hens feathers, when you crack one, out pops a yolk the colour of the sun often a doubler, mixed with milk it becomes the wonderful colour of custard, I often fancy at this fancy point turning my mixture into ‘egg nog’ I bet it would be beautiful.

Come and see me at the farmers’ markets and have a taste of my ginger parkin, I bet you too can taste the difference! :-)

I was lucky enough to get a fabulous feature in our local paper recently, just in time for the Durham Dales food festival at Leyburn. It’s the first 3 day event I’ve done so far and it was a fantastic experience. The Gingerbread Mam was among 80 other stalls in a huge food marquee and we were blessed with scorching hot weather in the high 70′s despite it being held in April/May.

The beer tent otherwise known as “dad’s cresh”which held several local mini micro breweries was also a big hit, familes came from all over the North East to experience  and taste some of the best home produced edibles in the area, with an old fashioned Victorican fayre for the children, shuggy boats, coconut shy, hit the bell with a hammer and much more…

Ginger pokey demand was so high, I was sold out every day by mid afternoon meaning production started each evening until the late hours to ensure everyone had a chance to become a pokey addict!

After the 3 days I can say that I was truly exhausted, in the same way you are when you experience jet lag after a long haul flight, but well worth it for the people i’ve met of all ages and walks of life, the stories I’ve heard and the all day buzz of being part of a food and drink festival-even if it did cost me £8 for a coconut!

A link to my feature: http://bit.ly/ljEZmX

I’m so pleased to say we’ve been given a stall at the Bishop Auckland Food Festival, it’s the largest food event in the North East held in the grounds of Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland with around 30,000 people expected, and admission is completely free of charge for the day!

As well as lots of  fine food stalls offering everything your palette could ever desire from sweet to savoury,  there’s also lots of  cooking demonstrations, food tastings, music, drama and childrens’ entertainment for you and your family making this a truly great day out.

http://www.bishopaucklandfoodfestival.co.uk

Make sure you put it in your diary and pop along, I’ll be there from 10am-4pm with pokey tasting, wine tasting and ginger syrup sponge tasting throughout the day!