Maria Runs - parkrunning and touring since 2013!

How to make the most of Autumn

Hi peeps, I have a post for you today from Cameron Richardson.

Recent discoveries by scientists have alleged that the season of autumn could be well on its way out if current climate trends continue.

Environmentalists have suggested that colours of leaves are changing days later than they were two decades ago thanks to rising temperatures across the globe. If the current trend continues, we could soon be saying goodbye to the golden hues of autumn that make this the prettiest season of all.

If you want to make the most of autumn while you still can, here are a few activities to try that will truly make you appreciate the broad spectrum of colours during this gorgeous season.

Watch the sunrise…from your bed!

On a typical October day in Britain, the sun will rise around 7am. As most of us are usually getting up this time for work, there’s no reason why you can’t enjoy the autumn sunrise from the comfort of your own bed. If you’re not brave enough to go walking the dog at this hour, why not invest in a nice sturdy bed frame and mountains of duvets to keep you warm? There’s nothing quite like the sight of a rising sun over dew-covered autumn leaves, so snuggle up and admire from afar.

Enjoy a Sunday walk

Early mornings might be restricted to weekdays, but after a lazy lie in on a Sunday, there’s no better family activity than taking a stroll through the great British countryside. Wherever you are on this tiny isle, you’re never too far from a walking route. The National Trails organisation can point you in the right direction of the best nature spots out there to get a glimpse of the changing colours, so don your wellies and jackets and head outdoors.

Warm your cockles with an autumn meal

The autumn is a great time for outdoor night time celebrations from Halloween to Bonfire Night, and these can also provide a great opportunity for you to cook up a storm for guests. Have a brew of pumpkin soup on the stove while you’re watching the autumn day turn into night – the sunsets are just as beautiful as the sunrises! This is a great time of year to experiment with warming recipes such as traditional British stews, so brush up on your knowledge of seasonal ingredients and get cooking. Your guests will be queuing out the door!

*Collaborative Post

What do you love most about Autumn? I love seeing the leaves change colour. On my drive home from work there is a long row of trees and it seems that every day they look more stunning, especially in the late evening sunlight. I also love having a walk outside in the cooler air, and coming home to warm up with some tea, or soup. Or making jam, or making Christmas cakes (my half term tradition)… I could keep on going!

Sourdough cinnamon rolls

So a while ago Sainsbury’s sent me some flour, and for a while I was thinking about what I fancied making with it.

It is ages since I have made bread. I did have a spate of making sourdough a while back, but then I ran out of time at the weekends, and we discovered M&S’s San-Fran style which is just amazing.

While perusing the internet I came across a few recipes for sourdough cinnamon rolls, and once the idea was in my head that was it, I wanted to make them. This was the recipe I went for in the end.

First up I had to make the sourdough starter, which although can take as little as a week, I ended up feeding it for two weeks. There are all sorts of weird recipes for sourdough starter out there, some involving yoghurt, or even apple cores, but actually all you need is flour and water. That is it. You want it to capture the natural yeast (bacteria? Something) that is in the air. I used half wholewheat and half white bread flour, mixed in a jar with warm water. Then each day add a tablespoon of flour, a tablespoon of water, and stir. I think you are meant to throw some away each day too, but I only do this every now and then. I have read I could keep it in the fridge, as then it does not need feeding, so I might do that now I have used some of it.

The recipe I found told you to put it all in the machine, so I kneaded it for probably 10 minutes. At first it was sticky, but it soon turned, as if by magic, into a lovely ball of smooth dough.

Here is where it went a big wrong. The recipe was massive- I printed off two pages, but missed off the filling. Never mind, I can make one with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Which was fine, but not quite right I don’t think!

I didn’t manage to roll them too tight either. I think next time I would roll it thinner to have a proper swirl in there. Half I have put in the freezer (as the recipe said you could) and half went in the fridge overnight.

In the morning I as heading off on a long run (I did 10.5 miles at a steady pace- felt strong even though my legs were sore after Body Pump)- then when I got home I put on the oven and baked them while I had a shower.

They didn’t rise a huge amount, but I left out the yeast in the recipe, as my opinion is that the sourdough should make them rise enough. They smelled amazing while baking, but the filling leaked all over the pan!

I did have a starter of fruit and soya yoghurt as I was too hungry to wait for them to cook.

Then they were enjoyed with a cup of tea. Such a good treat. Since going back and checking the recipe I saw that I could have made icing for them too, with icing sugar and vanilla, and I suppose that would make them more like a dessert, but I quite liked them with just the filling for breakfast.

The verdict? Not as good as Starbucks cinnamon rolls (but what is really?) but I love using sourdough for the gentle overnight rise- this was great to be baking (and smelling amazing) when I got out of the shower. I think using the sourdough means they have a denser feel, a bit chewier and perhaps more filling than a normal one too.

Favourite cinnamon roll recipe? I have made these ones before (often on Christmas Eve) as that recipe is really simple. I have also seen some amazing ones like apple caramel ones, or pumpkin ones. Not enough time in the week for all these goodies!

*Sainsbury’s sent me a voucher to cover the cost of additional ingredients, but all opinions are my own.

Autumn baking

So, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, I have rather a lot of apples from my apple tree. They are quite nice to eat on their own, but I prefer them baked.

On Sunday evening I had some time to myself so I decided to do some baking, although up first was something else:

After seeing Laura post this recipe I knew I had to have a go. Salted Almond Butter Fudge- so many good words in one recipe!

It was quick to make- I used the microwave to melt the coconut oil, and then left it to harden in the fridge while I had a run. When I got home I had a nibble, but it was not quite hard enough to properly slice. It is so good though.

A few pieces with some earl grey tea for a pre-evening-work boost. 2014-09-29 18.51.54

Next up, Caramel Apple bars. I had made these before, but copied the recipe down wrong so had to have a google before I could get started. The original is here– these are a bit of a sugar bomb, but the smell when they bake is gorgeous with the apples and cinnamon. I did use coconut sugar instead of brown sugar to make a token effort!

Instead of making the caramel sauce for the top, I used some from a jar as I bought some in the Lake District last Easter and have not used it yet!

These are so good. The oats make it a sort of gooey flapjack texture, and the cooked apple and spices are just delicious with the caramel.

Next up, I fancy something with blackberries. I saw a lovely cake in a tearoom which had blackberries smushed into the buttercream, and although I am not a huge fan of buttercream, it did look very pretty.

What’s next on your baking list?

A PSL kind of weekend

Not to be confused with PMSL, which I think of every time I walk past a Starbucks. I wish they would not use the abbreviation.

Anyway.

To re-wind a bit first. The last few weeks have been very busy- late meetings at work, evenings out (on a school night!)- including seeing Michael Palin, and going into London to see Ken Burns (he makes documentaries). Last weekend Andy promised me a trip out on Sunday if I got all my work done on Saturday, so I worked pretty late and we had a lovely day out. That is for another post though.

For a few weeks I have been wanting to visit my Nan, but I had a cold, then a cough, and then another cold, so I could not risk it. This week I was free from germs at last, so went to see her after work.

I got home to find Andy cooking dinner, and we had a lovely chilled out evening, watching Central Park Five (by Ken Burns- which is really worth a watch when you are in a serious mood) and then cheering ourselves up with Gogglebox! Hurrah!

Saturday I was out fairly early on my long run. I ended up doing 9.5 miles (I got home and my watch said 9.43, so I ran up and down the road until I got to the half!)- it was fairly slow, but I wasn’t worried about speed, I just wanted to do the miles as I don’t think I have run over 8 miles probably since doing the trail half back in the summer.

Yes, I have posted this already, but I love it. Great breakfast. Although I was a bit silly as when I got home I noticed that the kitchen floor needed sweeping, so I did that, and when getting the dustpan out I saw the dusting stuff, so dusted the living room and bedroom, and then realised how full the washing basket was, so put on a wash. Then I had a shower and suddenly after that the hunger hit. Silly me.

I got on with some work, and then popped over to see my parents. Then I had to go to the shops, and I was very excited as Starbucks had emailed an offer where if you bought a pumpkin latte you got a free slice of pumpkin bread. Free pumpkin bread? Yes please. I parked a little way from town and walked in as it was just gorgeous weather. By this point it was about 4pm, so pumpkin cake was going to be my late lunch.

Alas, when I got there they had sold out of the loaf cake. Boo.

I did look at the sandwiches, but nothing appealed so went for a cinnamon roll. (I had already ordered the drink- pumpkin latte minus the coffee, which is way sweeter than a chai latte, but I was having a bit of an energy crash so it was needed). It was so good to be sitting outside in late September without a coat on.

After getting home I did some more work and then got dinner ready (a rare occurrence now).

I roasted veggies (red and yellow pepper, courgette, red onion) with some oregano, then added some haloumi pieces, cooked some giant cous cous, and served with rocket.

On Sunday we went out for brunch with some friends. I was awake early so was trying to find coverage of the Berlin marathon on TV (according to their website, BBC2 and Eurosport had the rights) but it was not on at all. Grrrr. Shelly Woods won the wheelchair race, but I suppose she does not have a high enough profile to tempt the TV bosses….

Anyway, we went to a new place (The Bakehouse) which was really good- I had French toast with banana and maple syrup, but was tempted by home-made granola, fruit salad, or banana and raspberry loaf. After that I wanted to get a few bits in town so we walked around in the sunshine.

Fat Face were having a sale, so I picked up these two dressed that I had my eye on already- they didn’t photograph very well, but they both have short sleeves in a darker colour, so there is a sort of double neckline. Also some more shampoo from Lush as I was running low, and a new Essie nail polish. We decided to walk down into the park, so went to Starbucks to see if they had any of the loaf (the voucher ran out today)- luckily they did, so we got a drink to have whilst walking through the park.

On the way home we stopped to get some garden bits (a fence panel has come down, but our neighbours’ landlord has not replaced it, and so all their weeds are coming in our garden, so we picked up a roll of bamboo fencing to cover the gap), and also put up some pictures, and then it was time for a bit more work.

I wasn’t going to have another run, but the weather was so good, so I headed out for 5 miles around the fields before it got too gloomy.

For dinner I hadn’t planned anything, but had been flicking through the Oh She Glows book and saw this lentil oatmeal bowl. I had the ingredients, and it sounded good, so I gave it a go. Although I missed out the oats (it said you could) and just had lentils.

Lentils cooked with herbs and tomato, with tomatoes, avocado, sourdough topped with sundried tomato pesto, and some tomato and basil hummus.

Then I had half of the loaf (I saved the other half for Andy, as he had gone to Wembley to watch the NFL). It was tasty, but not particularly spicy. I had a chilled out evening catching up on TV and doing a spot of baking (again, for another post).

Did you have a good weekend? Any other annoying abbreviations or acronyms?

More coconut water!

As you guys know, I am a big coconut water fan. So when I was contacted by the folks at Naked, asking me if I would like to try some, of course I said yes. Naked are from the US and make a range of smoothies, and now they are branching out and adding coconut water.

I was sent a couple of large (500ml) bottles with screw caps which is great as I would not drink it all in one go.

On Thursday Body Pump was back, after a 3 week break, so I really needed something thirst quenching when I got home. The coconut water is lovely- although I have not found one I didn’t like. One thing I found strange was that it was 99% fresh and 1% from concentrate- I am not sure why that 1% is in there, and it doesn’t bother me, I just don’t understand why.

2014-09-27 12.11.00 A mountain of breakfast- French toast with maple butter and chocolate pb, strawberries and apples cooked with spices, plus coconut water and chocolate flake tea.

On Saturday morning I had a long run (9.5 miles- my longest for months I think)- and again I needed some re-hydration. I do often choose to have coconut water after a run. Generally as soon as I get home I will have water with a nuun tab, then drink coconut water while I get breakfast ready, and then have a cup of tea with breakfast (and any coconut water left over).

If you fancy trying some it is available in Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Wholefoods in the UK. The RRP is £2.39 for 500ml which I think is really reasonable. I could not find it on their UK site, but the US version has other varieties including one with mango and peach, which is my favourite combination of fruits.