Baking and Making

With a ball of wool in my hand, I am at my happiest, and feel pretty confident to give anything a go. As far as my kitchen is concerned, I am a self-confessed 'fraidy cat. I love the idea of baking, of wonderful treats and healthy sustaining meals, and as much as I might have the skills to do these things (or so I'm told), I'm rather lacking in the confidence to see it through. So this past weekend I was helper, and chief taste-tester for my husband's wonderful creations. 

I wanted to share recipes, because everything that emerged from the oven was delicious and pretty healthy, mostly organic and almost completely vegan...

Buffalo Falafel - made with chickpeas, onions, garlic, cauliflower and breadcrumbs, and absolutely delicious! (Just a note - the Thug Kitchen blog is lovely but has a bit of choice language, just to warn you in advance...)

Potato Wedges - just cut up and thrown in some oil with some whole garlic and some crushed garlic

Rhubarb Cookies - Fresh Rhubarb from the garden, and coconut and cream cheese. Just lovely! 

Cauliflower Cous-Cous - Salad made with this Yotam Ottolenghi recipe as a starting point, there's grated carrot, courgette, garlic, cauliflower leaves, ginger, peppers... a bit of a "using stuff up" salad. 

We've both been having a look on Pinterest for recipes and hopefully we'll be trying out some other tasty bakes soon. 

A Little Bit of Baking

Today I did a little bit of baking. I am not by nature a baking sort of person, I get a little bit nervous of wasting ingredients and am always utterly convinced that everything will go horribly wrong, and I am most definitely not my positive self or as adventurous at baking as I am at craftiness. In a crafty project I can imagine how something will look and I can put my mind to making it, but no such bravery for baking. But today I put on my most brave face, pulled up my sleeves and made some little biscuits. 

 

They are not terribly fancy, it must be said, but I am terribly proud of my little attempt. They are a basic Easter Biscuit recipe, with a teensy bit of nutmeg and cinnamon on top.

The recipe looks a little bit like this...

4oz of Butter

4oz of sugar

1 egg

8oz of flour

It's nice and simple - mix up the butter and sugar, beat in the egg, add the flour. Once it was sort of a dough I popped it in the fridge for a bit, then rolled it out, cut out my shapes, painted on some milk, sprinkled on some sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon and put them in the oven for about 20mins.
They are pretty tasty, if I do say so myself. I might even put on my brave face for another batch some time soon.

My Week...

It has been a funny old week, one full of thinking, and quietly making things and spending time with family and friends. I've been thinking about how I spend my time, and who I spend it with, and about loyalty and making better choices - as I say, it's been a funny week. So I've been cocooned in our cosy little home, with my serious "thinking-about-things" hat on, and trying to come to useful conclusions. I'm not sure if I'm quite there yet... But aside from all the thoughts and the thinking, there have been some useful bits to my week... I spent Sunday with my lovely husband, and we baked a blackberry pie and spent time in the garden, picking apples and tidying up ready for the long winter ahead. We had a little bit of excitement on Monday, in the shape of a new arrival - a bunny called Clarence, who needed a forever home and has settled into our funny little family quite nicely indeed. He rather likes apples. 

I spent Thursday with a dear sweet friend, catching up, after months apart, over tea and cake, buying nail polish, swapping crafty ideas and swooning in vintage shops. It was a very splendid day, and a reminder to make the time to enjoy good company and be happy.