Day 14 - Maldon & Mulled Cider

Today was the "Maldon & Beyond Food and Wine Festival" and since we are still up at Castlemaine (which is only about 15mins from Maldon) we thought that sounded fun! We woke to rain. Not a good start to a day we were planning to go to an outdoor festival... But we braved the elements and went anyway. I must say it was a huge disappointment. We weren't even tempted to taste any of the tiny range of wine, and found it pretty much a yawn the first time around, so we went to a local cafe and had a scrumtious Devonshire Tea. We did one more lap of the little festival before we headed off and actually were suprised to find some interesting produce! We got a couple of vegetarian tarts for dinner (that were very yummy!), some relish and other bits and pieces... So it wasn't a loss after all.

On the way back to Castlemaine we went via Harcourt, which isn't actually on the way to Castlemaine from Maldon, but let's not get into a geography lesson... Anyway, we went via Harcourt because we wanted some more wine and produce from the fabulous Bress, and some of Henry fof Harcourt's Perry (aka pear cider - but I wouldn't dare say that to Henry's wife!) and premium apple cider so I could make some mulled cider, which I did as soon as we got back to my folks.

I took Henry's premium apple cider...

And Henry's Mulled Cider recipe...

And some spices...

And bunged it all in a pot (in the proportions and methods as described by the recipe)...

Trust me - it tasted WAY better than it looks!!!

After about 10mins or so it was ready to drink. Yummy! A nice, warm mulled cider to take the chill off a cold winter's day :-) The bottle of cider was 750mls, and when you mull a bottle of cider (or wine or whatever you can mull) you do the lot... So everyone had a little try, said their niceties and then left the rest to me... Hmmm... 650mls of lovely warm mulled cider went down very nicely, but I must admit I felt a bit sickly after the last glass!

All in all, a wonderful, relaxing Sunday with hubby topped by dinner with my parents. Back to the "real world" tomorrow...

Hope you all had a great weekend!

x