a forgotten treasure

I was going through my food photography archive and found this image, taken long before I started my food blog but in a time when I loved recording the food that I made, just to remember it. (Don't know if I have ever admitted this but I take hardly any of the photos on this blog, they are taken by Dom. He is the artist in the family).

This picture was taken on my birthday weekend, almost 3 years ago. Dom and I were staying in a lovely apartment, set in the eaves of the old coast guard station at Robin Hood's Bay. This was way before we had a cottage of our own. I have always been drawn to this part of the coast, so many childhood memories and I still feel incredibly lucky that we now own our own little piece of north yorkshire heaven there (albeit without a sea view!)

One of the reasons that I love places like RHB, Staithes and Whitby is the whole smugglers thing. Ever since I was small, and reading famous fives avidly, I have been fascinated by smugglers. The whole of this area was riddled with them apparently in the 18th & 19th centuries and the best RHB smuggling fact is that the cottages, which are all higgeldy piggeldy and crowded on top of each other, have secret passage ways and links between them, so much so that a roll of silk could make it's way from the bottom of the village, all the way up the hill, without seeing daylight. Yorkshire had the BEST smugglers. Official.

Oh and the curd? I seem to remember that I used a Nigella recipe, but substituted seville oranges for the usual lemons. It was gorgeous, fruity, rich and resonant, sharp, but sweet.

Perfect to have on toast, with a sea view and the sound of the gulls all around. Just look at that view...

Comments

[Lucy]

Hello
oh you and me both, how I love those three places dearly. My hubby and I have also had some wonderful cosy wkends staying at RHB and Staithes in Autumn/winter months.
Your orange lemon curd looks delicious, as does you cosy cottage (Vanessa told me all about it), lucky you!
xx

[Periwinkle]

Is that cottage really yours--its gorgeous. Is there only 1 bedroom?

[Sarah]

Hi Periwinkle - yes it is ours! (well, and the bank's :-) )

There is just one bedroom as it's a romantic hideaway for couples. We hope to but another cottage soon with two bedrooms for families to use.

Thanks for commenting and stopping by!

Sarah x

[vanessa]

Aaaahhhhh, happy memories you've brought back with this post!
That toast looks scrumptious!

[Nonnie]

Oh Sarah, I feel all Yorkshire homesick now. I LOVE Robin Hoods Bay and like you have a lot of happy childhood memories of the place. We went up there on a School trip for four nights and stayed at a place called Thorpe Hall which was just outside RHB. I remember on our first evening our teacher took us on a walk after dinner down to a little cove and then along the cliff path to RHB. By the time we got there, the mist was starting to roll in off the sea and it was incredibly atmospheric. We stopped for a while for her to tell us a smuggling tale. I was 11 years old at the time but will never forget that evening. So magical. I do also remember being totally freezing cold on another day there, sitting on some steps in RHB doing work sheets! The lemon curd looks delicious. I love lemon curd, particularly the home made variety.