love those cupcakes

An ill wind

This week we've experienced sunshine, pouring rain and heavy hail showers.  Today it's blowing a gale.  The garden took a bit of a battering overnight and this Fatsia japonica near the kitchen door was one casualty.  I'd realised a while ago that it was top heavy and had intended to transfer it to a larger pot or a border but, finding it was literally rooted to the spot, decided to leave well alone. 

So I made a batch of chunky oat and raisin (with added nutmeg, coconut and choc chips) cookies to munch on whilst I ponder its future.

Recipe from here.

 

Bilingual

I'm now fluent in Spanielese.

Translation:

Get off your backside and take me for a walk.  Pretty please?

 

No such thing as a free lunch

But there is such a thing as a free tea.  Four of us (the mister, the now rent arrears free Aunty M, a family friend and yours truly) had ours yesterday, courtesy of the Boy's Christmas present to us all. 

If you've been visiting here a while, you'll know that I'm rather partial to a proper afternoon tea, preferably one I haven't had any part in preparing or serving.   This one at Crathorne Hall was as delicious as when we last visited, from the welcoming glass of champagne to the warm fruit scones with buttery clotted cream via plates of assorted finger sandwiches, perfectly teeny tangy lemon meringue tartlets and other sweet treats.  All savoured under the watchful eye of the delightful Lady Somebodyorother.

'Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea'. 

(Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady)

 

Something for the weekend

Plans to plough on with the list of jobs outdoors went completely out of the rain spattered window today.  Even the cats have done nothing more energetic than seeking shelter under the garden table on what I like to think of as 'the terrace' but which in reality is nothing more than a little paved area the other side of the living room french doors.  At least from that spot they get an uninterrupted view of the pigeons filling their boots on the bird feeder.

So instead there's been a spot of baking - a carrot and orange cake (made up as I went along) and a batch of the mister's favourite, cheese scones (Mary Berry's 'Very Best' minus the sugar and with the addition of a teaspoon of mustard powder and a small mountain of grated cheddar).

 Despite a flurry of online ordering, I'm still lacking a more appropriate summer wardrobe so the change in the weather is providing something of a reprieve.  And it turns out I'm a size 10, slimmer than I thought.  No wonder it looked like I'd been raiding the dressing up box.

Later today there's the weekly visit to 83 year old Aunty M.  After a phone call from her (very understanding, I'd have to say) housing provider yesterday, I need to broach a rather delicate subject with her. Let's just say that her, ahem, avant-garde approach to household expenses management has included failure to pay rent.  Over a long period.  Tricky.

Afterwards, there'll be a long walk with Boo followed by a home cooked curry and a film.  Unfortunately, I ordered this one before reading the reviews.  I never learn.

Odd-jobbing outdoors

The past week has mostly been about tackling the long list of garden jobs.  Not everything has been ticked off but borders have been cleared of weeds, shrubs have been brought under control, grass has been cut, garden furniture has been power washed and oiled, green recycling bags have been filled.  

One particular eyesore requiring attention was a little sloping border at the front of the house, adjacent to the drive.  Originally planted with a conifer and shrubs when we moved here 20 or so years ago,  it was all looking horribly overgrown so the mister was in charge of cutting the conifer back and digging out all of the existing plants before replanting with alpines (we need to buy more) interspersed with slabs of slate (we need to buy more of these, too).   

I was in charge of the sweeping brush, snacks (recipe for chocolate digestives from here)

and the camera, noting that the anemones have finally flowered

and the tulips, especially these orange ones, are continuing to provide some welcome colour at the back of the house.

Boo was in charge of gathering up the empty plant pots.

Well, why have a dog and bark yourself?

 

Today

About a week ago, I read somewhere that if your tulips hadn't already flowered, they wouldn't flower at all.  Happily, the ones in pots here have put in an appearance at long last.  Better late than never.

In the front garden, the better weather has coaxed the weeping cherry tree to blossom, though maybe not quite as spectacularly as in previous years.

New arrivals have popped up in the field at the end of our road.  This is the field which is part of one of several  farms hereabouts, was recently sold, along with the rest of the farmland, to developers who have been given the green light to build 290 houses starting next month, but which was being rented by a local company for animal grazing.  You know the sort of company, the ones that turn live animals into joints of meat.  Now I'm dreading the day we notice the empty field.  Maybe I should just copy Babs and pretend the sheep have gone on a lovely holiday. 

Tonight we're meeting the Boy at Sunderland Empire to see this.  I'm more than a little anxious after reading Derren's tweet.  Well, you know what happened last time........

A few treats

It seems I was in spend mode this week (not, you understand, that I've ever found it difficult to part with whatever funds happen to be at my disposal).  Nothing particularly significant, just odds and sods that I could probably do without. 

1. The change in the weather has had me thinking about clothes.  I'm sure that my extreme discomfort in warmer weather (you've more than likely picked up by now that I  much prefer the autumn and winter months, being cold and well wrapped up, with the dream holiday destination of Antarctica) is in part to do with never really knowing what to wear.  Each year finds me requiring surgical removal from my coats and polo necks and I've yet to experience a summer without the comfort blanket of opaque black tights.  But, in the spirit of 'I need to wear something', a few linen items have been popped into the virtual shopping basket. I know linen creases badly but that should link in very well with the grooves and wrinkles which are increasingly popping up elsewhere.

2. Cake cases.  I definitely didn't need these as there's a big tub full of them, in all colours, in various sizes, for multiple occasions, in a kitchen cupboard. But I couldn't resist these from the supermarket.





3.  New book.  Despite several to-be-reads on the Kindle, I need to see that reassuring pile of the real thing.  Plus, I can't park my coffee cup on top of the Kindle.

4.  This week was National Stationery Week so what better excuse for treats of a new pad and pen.  I love fountain pens, have done ever since I acquired inky fingers from using that first Osmiroid when I was in junior school, and have a modest little collection which includes the last one my brother (who always wrote with a fountain pen and always with turquoise ink) treated himself to and a treasured Montblanc which only sees the light of day every now and again.  This new one is more of an everyday pen and uses cartridges.  Though having come across this website, and seeing those lovely bottles and colours, buying a converter may be on the cards.

5.  A print destined for the soon to be decorated dining room or maybe somewhere upstairs.  We took it to the local picture framers the other day only to find they've closed down.  Sign of the times, sadly.


6.  This weekend treat of a fruit cake didn't involve any spending and was more about using up leftovers from Christmas baking and the dregs from a bottle of brandy.  Very tasty it was, too.

A quiet weekend

* Starting with coffee (two spoons identifying the one made with soya milk) and cake (him) in the nearby market town whilst the Boy, home for the weekend, had an appointment with the dentist.  Just for a check up.  Fortunately, neither of my children, both now in their twenties, have experienced dental problems or treatment and have perfectly healthy tussies.  *  Grocery shopping at Sainsburys. No list but at least we remembered the wine. * The weekly visit to my elderly aunt. She has a habit of getting rid of ('filing') unpaid bills (she refuses to have direct debits set up, suspicious of any automatic withdrawals from her account) and, on a couple of occasions, her complaints of the phone being out of order have turned out to be as a result of being cut off.  * Watching an Arena programme about photographer Norman ('Oh, I just take snaps') Parkinson. His pictures of Wenda, his wife, are especially stunning. Maybe you spotted the Google Doodle as you searched online yesterday, the day which would have been his 100th birthday.  * Another batch of oatie peanut butter and chocolate chip biscuits, after tinkering with the original recipe from here to produce much less sweet and much more chocolatey results.  Recipe below, if you fancy making them. * Vegetable, lentil and coconut curry with homemade chapatis for supper. * Evening walks with the dog, interspersed with bouts of jogging.  Boo wonders what that's all about.  So do I.  * Ending with a very scary, watch from behind a blanket film.  It didn't give me nightmares.  Only because I didn't dare sleep.

Oatie peanut butter and choc chip biscuits

Makes 12 biscuits

 

4 ozs plain flour

3 ozs porridge oats

1 level tsp baking powder

Pinch salt

3 fl ozs sunflower oil

3 ozs (approx 6 tbsps) peanut butter (crunchy or smooth)

2.5 ozs caster sugar

2.5 ozs soft brown sugar

2 fl ozs milk/soy milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 ozs dark chocolate chips

 

Preheat oven to 180C/160C fan assisted/gas mark 4.

Line 2 baking trays with baking parchment.

Mix together the flour, oats, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.  You should end up with a fairly stiff mixture.

Uisng your hands/spoon/ice cream scoop, form 12 evenly sized balls of dough and place 6 on each baking tray, spacing well apart.

Bake  for 12-15 mins until lightly browned.  Halfway through cooking, lightly flatten each cookie, which will have puffed up, using a metal slice or a palette knife.

Remove from the oven and leave the biscuits to firm for a couple of mins before placing on a rack to cool.

Eat and enjoy.

 

Last night

An evening at the ballet.  Up the road in Newcastle.  Courtesy of lovely friends.

So, Matthew Bourne's take on an old favourite.

This is far removed from a traditional tutu and pointe offering.  For starters, the well-known fairy story has been tinkered with.  Carabosse snuffs it early on and it's her son who is hell-bent on wreaking revenge on her behalf.  Unsurprisingly, Aurora first appears as a baby, but in this version she's a brilliantly manoeuvred, curtain climbing, show stealing puppet.  Celebrating her 21st birthday, the Beauty still pricks her finger and sleeps for 100 years.  But our hero and her rescuer is a gamekeeper.  And a vampire. 

We begin in 1890, progress to 1911,  2011 and 'Last night'.  There are bare feet, bare chests, conveyer belts, Helena Bonham-Carter lookalikes, wings and heavily kohled eyes aplenty.  It's at times dark, at others funny, occasionally Downtonesque with a dash of panto, sometimes intimate, always visually stunning and thoroughly entertaining. All in all, a sharp contrast to that first experience.

Yet I did find myself a tad wistful for that unmistakeable clattering of block ballet shoes across the stage. 

And wishing for a more palatable Pinot Grigio in the interval.

 

Hitting the spot

Sunday had me craving pretzels for some reason.

Soft, buttery, bread pretzels.

So I set to and baked a batch, using this recipe.

The method is very similar to bagels, which I've only made once, starting off with a yeasty dough and then a dunk in a boiling hot bath before finally baking. 

As there are only two of us here, I halved the recipe which produced half a dozen decent sized pretzels.  We were out of coarse salt so I sprinkled the tops with sea salt and caraway seeds.

They baked in no time and were delicious eaten straight from the oven.  (I did eat a cold one later and recommend eating them hot.)

Next time I'll line the baking trays with parchment as most of the pretzels stuck and needed a fair bit of chiselling to free them.  

And, as you can see, I definitely need more practice with the shaping.