This month we decided to try a Degustabox, I do enjoy a subscription box of makeup or food and have tried a fair few over the last few years. Degustabox had kept popping up on my Facebook feed so having just cancelled a foodie box I had tired of I decided to give these people a go and to be honest so far so good.  A subscription cost of £12.99 and we received nearly £25.00 worth of goodies to try.  Have a look at what you get for February on you tube, there is always someone doing an unboxing and sometimes they even snack on the items so you get a realistic review.

Moving on, there was a box of cereal called Primrose’s Kitchen, Raw Beetroot and Ginger Muesli which sounded quite interesting, although I was a bit hesitant as I have a funny relationship with ginger. I love fresh ginger and ginger cake is yum, yum, yum, but ginger which is covered in chocolate or graces cake or stored in syrup is a definite no, no, no. But hubby loves ginger in all forms so I thought he would be okay.  Except hubby didn’t like it because he found it too hard to chew, he’s having a bit of a problem with a tooth at the moment.

So it sat on the counter this morning as I debated what to do with this £5.00 box of incredibly good ingredients, healthy as they come, muesli. And then I thought, well I do like ginger cake and so an idea was born.

I weighed out the muesli and added some hot milk to it to start the process of softening it, melted butter and sugar and black treacle together and added the juice of a lemon along with 2 extra teaspoons of dried ginger just to pep up the gingery notes a little. Beat the eggs, added the muesli and milk which then turned it into the most glorious pink which disappeared when I added the treacly buttery syrup and then added the self raising flour with a teaspoon of baking powder added just for good measure before popping it into a moderate oven of 170 C for 50 minutes.

When it had cooled I made a thin icing of icing sugar and lemon juice.

I don’t know whether I would go out of my way to buy a box of this muesli to make a cake, but it made an interesting interlude on a snowy day as we watched the “Beast from the East” creep across the country. 

My ingredients were, should you find yourself with a box of muesli that is not to your taste.

4 oz of muesli

1/4 cup of milk

8 oz of butter or other fat or oil

4 oz caster sugar

4 oz black treacle

2 teaspoons of dried ginger

4 medium eggs

the juice of 1 lemon

6 oz of self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

then enough icing sugar and lemon juice to make a thin glaze to finish the cake with, put the kettle on, cut a slice and watch the snowflakes swirl whilst enjoying the gingery cake with lemon icing high notes along with a small addition of a nutty texture, it was quite interesting.

My apologies for radio silence but things have been a little bit fraught in this neck of the woods.  Rupert during a reasonably slow run for a Whippet flopped to the ground and whimpered and we quickly realised that he had broken his leg!!!  A clean break across both bones just above the wrist, narrowly missing the growth plate meant a specialist surgeon and after three or so days although he was in incredible pain, with the advent of being bolted back together it looked like everything was going to plan. Until that is the sore from the bandages being too tight started to flair up and got worse and worse and worse, three different antibiotics were given, swaps were taken and a few days later he had to have surgery to remove all the tissue that had become damaged which gave him a huge hole in his leg. He stayed with the vets and the vet nurses who I believe fell deeply for his puppy eyes for a week before coming home.  Since then we have been nursing him. He still has a big wound, but it is beginning to heal.  As you can see not a very pleasant time for any of us.  Never have I been so pleased that I decided to crate train this dog, the first dog we’ve had in forty years that was ever crate trained, it made the experience of confining Rupert so much easier as he already viewed it as home.

In other news we have finally made it to the top of the list and were offered a plot at the allotments. It is on the same track as we were before I went to London and we have already had a nice chat to a few of the potholders,  it has a half brick, half wooden shed, which needs further investigation as to quite understand how it has been put together, very Heath Robinson, its a good size and its secure. There are many fruits bushes, I can see blackberries,  red currants, black currents, raspberries and strawberries, possibly gooseberries. There are three cordons, which I am not sure if they are apple or pear, so that will be interesting to see, apple and blackberry crumble, yum!  The plot was recently turned over so its not full of deep rooted weeds and brambles and it is right next to a communal water butt! It is the epitome of perfection in an allotment.  I’m just looking out for a greenhouse to grow my toms and cucumbers and alter the fencing slightly to make it Rupert safe so he can have a good sniff about and I’ll be back to happily sowing seeds in pots, listening to the birds sing and brewing a cup of tea in the shed. Happy Days indeed.

I’ll finish with a happy little Kingfisher diving for his supper.