Well dad came today and it was a "good Friday". Having dad here is always a good opportunity to battle my way through a few more cookery books. As he arrived I was busy adding maltesers to this cake.
Having already prepared a simnel cake for Easter Sunday - chocolate seemed the next best thing to bake with.
I tried to place the maltesers like Lorraine does in the book in lines - but shock/horror not all maltesers are the same size. I have had to live till 53 to discover this fact! Also my cake was not 100% round etc.
Dad and Mr P were busy studying this book - which is totally out of character them being interested in cooking books. Then I realised they were not studying the recipes but were dribbling at the pictures of Lorraine! She is rather beautiful. Don't think she could have been eating many slices of this cake.
Her cake seems to have come out taller - just shows you the difference a one inch cake tin makes when it comes to the final result.
Needless to say we didn't have this for lunch but had this yummy goats cheese recipe instead.
Not so good on the presentation - but that doesn't effect the yumminess.
Mmmmm looking at this cover reminds me I have not made French onion soup for ages, must do it soon.
Can recommend this for a rather special but very easy to prepare lunch.
Well believe it or not my life does not totally consist of living around food. I have been keeping my swimming up and getting more used to swimming with my head under the water. My ears are still ringing but am faithfully using ear plugs and the addition of the hat is keeping most of the water out of my ears. I decided the nose plug was just too much and couldn't breathe properly with it. All in all I think my swimming is improving and am managing to swim 26 lengths in 25 minutes. I know for a lot of you that would be slow but for me this is an achievement.
After lunch dad and I journeyed to Uppingham where we had a delightful time. If you haven't been there before it is certainly worth a trip. There is a wonderful array of second hand book shops, antique/bric a brac shops, good charity shop, art gallery and lovely cafes. The town has some lovely properties and makes for a pleasant walk to view them when the sun is shining and not a bitter wind and snow like yesterday. Dad likes to look for more Observer books to add to his collection and I'm always looking for a bargain. Well I had my fill of it this day. I got soooo excited when I found theses books for £2 each! Wow what a bargain - especially the Susan Briscoe book. I have been debating whether to buy this book for the last couple of years. I was so excited I could feel myself going all tingly, giggly and feeling like doing a little dance in the shop!
Then I saw another one which I already have but thought I could buy it for my chicken lady (well she's not actually a chicken but she looks after them when we go away).
Then in the charity shop I saw this cute crockery set - it's not a precious designer set or fine porcelain but just couldn't resist it. But before I could get my money out dad had paid the lady - so we had a friendly argument with people watching confusedly!
Then of course I've got to start my granny collection and found these cuties - trouble is I do not know how I am going to know which babies to give them to Nemo or Twin Blobs 1 and 2?
The booties are soooo cute.
Think I'm getting into owls - something so appealing about them.
Anyway revenge took place in the antique shop when dad spotted a collection of 3 bird books. So whilst he was busy looking at the observer books I sneaked them off the shelf and paid for them. Well he went back to get them and oh he was sooo disappointed. He was asking me where they had gone, did I see what happened to them, he was even asking an assistant - I had a job not to let on what I had done. But it was such fun to give them to him on our way out and see the pleasure on his face.
Back home for yet another meal this time from yet another Jamie Oliver book.
Dad and Mr P watched me whilst I made this recipe and they were very rude about my wellington - saying that it looked more like a sausage roll etc. To be honest I was pleasantly surprised that it turned out looking reasonable and not splitting at the joint. It did have a bit of a soggy bottom but not too bad.
There was a fear of cutting into the wellington and seeing it not cooked properly but I need not have worried.
Pudding was another recipe from Lorraine's book. So we shamelessly had two puds - some of the chocolate cake and this! The chocolate cake was and is as we still have lots left - death by chocolate. It's probably best served after one has been on a long walk or done something rather energetic.
This was our first pud have to say I added more white chocolate to the cakes than Lorraine has in her picture but I wasn't going to waste any of that melted chocolate.
Okay I need to deviate back to Thursday as I also managed to achieve another book. We had a great joint churches service in the evening but this meant we were much later coming home than anticipated. We stayed much longer to clear up and talk to many people. So dinner was not served till 10pm. So apologies for the crude interpretation of the dish but by that time I was beginning to lose it.
Yes this is actually a recipe in another of Jamie Olivers books - fish finger buttie. Can you believe it a great chef actually has published this recipe. Mr P says that Jamie has gone up in his expectations.
Our sandwich doesn't look that good but it was so late and we had chippies with it. I haven't eaten this late for many years.
Sorry Jamie - hope you are not too cross with our interpretation!
Oh also this night managed to finish a small project that I started to show you on the last blog. It came from another blog written by Bunny Mummy. You can click here to see a pictorial tutorial of how to make this cute owl.
Not sure he looks that cute - a bit ferocious. Think Bunny Mummy's look cuter.
Click here to see a list of all the books used so far.
32 books used. 95 books to go. 276 days to go to the end of the challenge.
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