Terrace Tuesday too

Emma wants to help on the terrace

Creating the Summer Terrace is something we’ve never done before but it makes sense if you consider we now have hygge during the depths of winter.

Hygge transforms the house to something a lot more cosy and warm and welcoming. In summer, the welcome is for the sun and as much time as possible is spent outside, among the plants and greens of nature.

Eating takes on an al fresco feel as we move from dining to terrace table, moved to slightly under the tree in Clive’s Corner to save our heads from the worst excesses of the sun. It’s almost like we’re sitting with the birds amongst the leaves and branches.

That’s what we were doing today. I say ‘we’ but it was really me under supervision. After Skyping with mum, I set to high pressure spraying the side closest to the Crazies before moving the terrace furniture around to reflect a more outdoorsy feel.

Last night we ate outside and did the same tonight even though the rain was threatening to enguzzle everything. (In fact we had a horrendous storm later on. There was something phenomenal like 100,000 lightning strikes…not all on our garden, I hasten to add. One small village in Cornwall was almost swept away by the deluge.)

And I managed to create a lo-carb salmon and dill quiche. The fill is the standard fill I have used countless times (pre lo-carb) but the pastry has had me flummoxed. The quiche I made last week gave me an idea. I made a pastry with a mixture of almond flour and ground up walnuts. You can’t roll it. You have to pick bits off and press them into the quiche tin.

Lo-carb and delish

And it worked well though the walnut made the ‘pastry’ a bit crumbly. The thing is, the fill is very rich and needs something solid like walnut to cut through. Almond alone just won’t do it. Next time I might try Brazil or hazelnuts.

Anyway, apart from the crumbling, the quiche was pronounced pretty damned good and we ate it, with a salad, outside.

Oh, and I shot a little video of our Summer Terrace…