A few of our favourite things...

Apples from the tree to the table....
Miriam: I spent the weekend at a friends beach house at Papamoa. Their apple tree needed harvesting, and so we put in a team effort of peeling and slicing, and I whipped up a crumble topping. I didn't have a recipe, so just freestyled it, with approx 1 cup of rolled oats, 1 cup flour, 1tsp cinnamon, 1tsp baking powder, 3/4 cup brown sugar and 150g butter. I melt the butter and add it to the dry ingredients, so no need to get my hands dirty rubbing the butter into the flour. Normally I'd add nuts to the topping too, but we were in a nut free zone. I think of crumbles as autumnal treats, but this was delicious as a summer desert too. It seems extra special (and delicious) when you can see the tree the apples come from!

Becs: I love coffee and love the Rocket espresso machine Mike and I received as a wedding gift. I just have one coffee a day and it needs to be good. This pink mug is another of my favourite things; I collect Crown Lynn colour glaze china and a recent acquisition was a set of 5 dainty mugs like that pictured above. They are lovely to hold and drink out of.

Libby: Lately I've been helping myself to these huge blue hydrangeas growing alongside the steps down to our flat. You don't need many stems to fill a vase, some are so enormous that just one will do! It's lovely to have fresh flowers on the table and even better that they're free!