Crumbs to Crunch

As previously discussed, the Crumbs to Crunch sisters suffer from a clotted cream addiction . However I recently discovered that this addiction also extends to the animal kingdom... Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a good picture of the cat. Oh the perils of being a feline resident of a tea room! I did see the tubby cat lolloping in the garden at the fabulous Orangery Café at  Ham House in Richmond. I sympathised as this is the fate that occurs to many the cake lover! Ham House is a grand Stuart house overlooking the river Thames. It has an extensive art collection that dates 400 years. However my favourite part of the estate were the delightful gardens, a mixture of formal gardens and wilderness. The kitchen garden is still well tended 400 years later and is home to the tea rooms and thus the podgy cat.  The Orangery Café looks straight out of a fairy tale with the creepers curling around the building. I tucked into my white chocolate and raspber...

Our kitchen has turned into an orchard. We have so many pears from the garden, we are literally tripping over them!  Here is a recipe for the ultimate comfort food to solve the pear overload - pear and blackberry pie. Ingredients - 1 pack of shortcrust pastry - 500g (or you could make your own) - a handful of blackberries - 4  ripe pears - 1 tbsp brown sugar - 1 tsp cinnamon - milk - 9 inch/23 cm pie dish Method 1. Cut the pears into bite-sized chunks. 2. Put the pears in a saucepan. Add the sugar and cinnamon. Stew on a low heat for 5 minutes or until the pears become softer. 3. Roll out half of the pastry and put onto the bottom of a greased pie dish. 4. Put the pear filling in the pie dish and then add the blackberries. 5. Roll out the other half of the pastry. Put the pastry on top of the fruit to make a lid for the pie. Neaten up the edges and add some slits in the pastry to let the steam escape during cooking. 6. Brush...