Image by Pikaluk via Flickr
When I’m getting Dylan ready for his next adventure, I love all the prep – checking the tea and coffee supplies, cleaning all the windows inside and out and giving him a really good spruce up. Then I set about getting all the provisions for his hamper…. well ok it’s actually a wicker basket, but with all the goodies I put together it could all easily fill a hamper!
Now for me one of the lovely things when I’ve had a break anywhere (not necessarily in Dylan but maybe in a holiday cottage or something like that), I absolutely love it if there are some personal touches and that is what I aim to give each of my customers – something to help make their adventure even more memorable.
So, what’s included then? Well in the fridge I get fresh, locally produced bacon, sausages and free range eggs, as well as local butter and when I can local milk too. On the morning of hire, I pop out nice and early and get fresh croissants and bread rolls too – if I can get them while they’re still warm, all the better!! Together with strawberry and raspberry jams, well there’s definitely enough to get your day off to a cracking start.
Ah and then there’s the sweetie bag – remember pink shrimps? aniseed balls? flying saucers? drumsticks?? fizzers and parma violets? Oh lovely! Mind you the temptation not eat them myself is hard at times and I’m sure that they do disappear mysteriously when my kids find my hiding places! J I’ve even had requests before now – Black Jacks and gobstoppers to name but two… Not forgetting the fabulous Space Dust… you know, the stuff that zings and pops on your tongue, lol!
But my piece de resistance is fast becoming my home-made cakes. I started off doing these for special occasions – birthdays mainly – with the choice of marble cake or chocolate fudge cake, no one has taken up the option of banana cake yet, but I can assure you it’s good! Well, my most recent customer booked a weekend away with Dylan as a surprise for his wife so naturally I offered to bake, but he confessed that neither of them were really “cake-people” but they were partial to a macaroon…. oh this was like words from heaven to me. I had been given a book of macaron (the French spelling!) recipes for my birthday earlier in the summer so this would be the perfect opportunity to really test it out. Now these little mouthfuls of almond meringue may look like a simple little delight, but believe me they are more tricky than you think – leaving the egg whites overnight, bringing them up to room temperature, grinding the already ground almonds to make it really fine… but I loved the challenge and the outcome was a bag of almond and vanilla macaroons – or as Freddie very kindly described them (my customer) “Mary’s Magnificent Mouth-watering Macaroons?? Once bitten .. forever smitten ♥♥♥” So, that’s something else to add to the hamper then I guess!
