Girl Friday’s Cookies

Today I made some cookies using a recipe given to me by Girl Friday, a Canadian friend, which set me thinking about the power of the internet. 18 months ago, I didn’t know Girl Friday existed and then, because there is actually a “Secret Sequinned Sarah” hiding in me, I “met” her (and many other wonderful people) across the internet through following Brian Fortuna and Kristina Rihanoff on Strictly Come Dancing. This electronic connection has actually been a life changing experience as Andy and I have taken up dancing, I’ve learnt how to use Facebook and cook Canadian. That’s Awesome

Girl Friday's cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 egg
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
1 1/2 cups chopped dried apricots
4 slices of candied ginger, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 F, make sure one rack is in the middle position. Grease two baking sheets. Chop apricots and ginger and combine together in a separate bowl. Set aside.

Beat together brown & white sugar and butter with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until fluffy. Add vanilla and egg and beat until combined well.

In a separate bowl, mix together with a fork flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add to the wet dough in thirds, mixing well on low speed. Fold in rolled oats until combined. Fold in chopped apricots and candied ginger until evenly combined. I like to make sure to get a good bit of apricot and ginger in each cookie.

Spoon rounded teaspoons of dough, evenly spaced, on one of your baking sheets. Place in oven and bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. While the first sheet is baking, start spooning out the dough on your second cookie sheet. When the first batch is done, transfer them to cooling racks with a spatula. Pop in the second sheet and keep the cookie assembly line going! :)

Girl Friday and I both made about 3 dozen cookies with this recipe. They are sweet, chewy, spicy, and very yummy!

Rice, again

Recently, I nearly ruined the risotto, according to Andy. The recipe required the onion to be softened and the rice coated in butter before the chopped celery went in. I got it wrong. As it was, it made absolutely no difference to the flavour but apparently, that was purely good fortune. I thought the old age wisdom was that 2 women couldn’t be in the same kitchen but in our house, it seems as if it’s husband and wife. So, it appears that I’ll have to relinquish my control over this empire for the duration. It will not be easy

Eating Cardboard

Today I’ve been eating Ryvita. For one who relishes all aspects of food; choosing, cooking and eating, this is a major feat of self endurance. I could substitute cardboard and notice little difference. They are uninspiring, tasteless and shouldn’t be labelled as edible! I have been forced down this route as I’m unable to get as much exercise as normal. Since breaking my wrist, I have stopped cycling and can’t afford to add any more pounds to those accrued over the festive period. I’m even considering running to work instead of walking if it means I can adios the Ryvitas

RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS

I have a very fetching purple plaster-cast on my left wrist as I broke it recently. Thankfully, it’s a straightforward break so I haven’t had too much discomfort. But it’s definitely inconvenient. I can’t ride my bike, drive or eat normally with cutlery. However, these little nuisances have tangibly reminded me of the intrinsic kindness of others. As many people have offered help when I’ve been struggling to do something one-handed, I’m heartened by their thoughtfulness in today’s world of self gratification. Random acts of kindness have more than compensated for the inconvenience and occasional lack of consideration from some.

Climate Change

At last the snow is melting here in Carlisle, the thaw bringing the damp coldness that penetrates into your very bones. Here, dull, dank, grey days typify our dreary winter so I long for a return of the bright crispness of drier, wintry days where snow squeaks underfoot and my nose drips with cold rather than rain run off! But ironically, global warming may makes my dream a reality. Continuing disruption to the North Atlantic Drift could see winter temperatures plummet in Britain, possibly bringing about the colder drier winters I crave. Is this a price I’m prepared to pay?

Strictly

I admit it. I am missing Strictly.
Before iplayer, TV didn’t feature in my life. Indeed I must confess to a degree of smug “alternative, TV less” snobbishnessl. Then thanks to iplayer and the appearances of Heather Small and John Sergeant on Strictly last year, amazingly, I became totally addicted; Message Boards, ITT, Brian and Kristina’s live cabaret, Websites, Facebook …….. I even bought Hello magazine. But, good has also resulted from my addiction; Andy and I are learning to dance. I have “met” some wonderful people and a visit to Blackpool can’t come too soon. What’s happened to me?

Hair trouble

I despair of my hair. Unlike most of my family, I have not been blessed with a thick, cascade of tumbling tresses; just a few strands of fine, wispy hair that is slowly turning grey. I have tried many styles: bobs, short and spiky, and once, a disastrous curly perm. Anything that requires effort is out; I am absolutely not the sort of person who irons her hair each morning. As middle age looms, I am increasingly despondent that my hair never looks good for longer than a few minutes after I leave the hairdressers. What is to be done?

A Culinary Science?

I never cook rice successfully despite the ancient Chinese proverb that says “Everyone can cook rice” or similar!
Unsurprisingly, I am something of a creative cook, untroubled by recipe precision, which accounts for my inability to ever recreate a tasty dish! I suspect that cooking rice is an exact science totally unsuited to my slapdash ways, with mysterious rituals necessary to create perfectly cooked, individual grains that dissolve effortlessly in the mouth. On that basis, I am relinquishing this burden and passing it onto my husband. His rice rocks but then his approach to cooking is sooooo different to mine!

The best time of my day

I’m fortunate to live and work in an interesting, beautiful place. Carlisle is an historic city dating back to Roman times with an impressive ancient cathedral and red sandstone castle where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned.

Each day, my cycle to work provides lovely views across the river Eden to Bitts Park and the castle. But the best part of my day is when my husband walks our dog Molly to meet me on my way home. I love catching sight of them in the distance, meeting up and feeling deeply satisfied to be part of an historic landscape.

Vegetable Soup is good for the soul

I love making soup as I’m reminded so much of my childhood;

Rushing into the warm, fragrant kitchen with its steamed up windows on a cold, wintery afternoon.

Hand knitted mittens, soggy from making snowballs

Red noses, dripping from the cold.

Holding our hands to the fire to warm them, squealing with pain as the circulation returned to our cold fingers

Thick, uneven slices of hot, buttery toast from an un-cut loaf bought that day from the bakery.

And then the soup; thick, tasty and served piping hot with whispers of steam rising from the surface. Pure, indulgent, childhood bliss

You can use any combination of vegetables but these are a good starter. This soup is really cheap and can be a way of using up limp or old vegetables. Adding the lentils makes the soup thicker.

6oz or 160g red or green lentils (if using green, soak overnight)

4 carrots – peeled and chopped

half a butternut squash - peeled and chopped

small sweet potato – peeled and chopped

2 onions – peeled and chopped

3 celery sticks – washed and chopped

1 leek – washed and chopped

about 2 table spoons of olive oil

salt, pepper, herbs or other seasoning to taste

1 vegetable stock cube

2 pints or 1 litre of water

Wash, peel and chop the veggies. They should be smaller than an oxo cube.

Fry the onion, celery and leek in the olive oil in a pan, stirring with a wooden spoon. The onion can burn so keep an eye on it. You will only need to do this for about 3 or 4 minutes.

Add the chopped carrots, butternut squash, sweet potato and lentils.

Then, add in the water and the stock cube.

Stir, put the lid on and cook for about 45 minutes. Don’t leave the heat on high once it is boiling; the liquid should just gently bubble.

Taste the soup and add the seasonings. If the veggies are still a bit hard, cook for longer. Then using a blender or a sieve or just a potato masher, pulp some of the veggies to thicken up

Serve hot with toast or bread rolls

Independent Icy Pavement Protection

It’s been a cracking start to 2010. A slip on ice when walking our dog and joy, an evening spent in Casualty, a wrist in plaster and an enforced exile from winter hill walking. But, every cloud has a silver lining and no immediate change predicted for the weather means there will still be opportunities to get in the hills once the wrist heals.

I seem to remember that in the past, pavements used to be gritted. It seems progress has relieved local councils of this responsibility. Note to self – buy some cleats and declare UDI on those icy pavements

Pasta Bradaburia

What is it about men and gadgets? If I asked my husband to make pastry using a plain old rolling pin and mixing bowl, he would do it but with a degree of reluctance. But buy a pasta maker (albeit a hand roller one) and his enthusiasm for rolling and folding knows no bounds. “A chemical reaction takes place, you know!” The kitchen has since been festooned with authentic looking strips of egg pasta, drying out before further cutting and shaping takes place. We now have enough to feed most of Milan, if not the whole of Italy. Fettuccine anyone?

Drabbles

Drabbling or Blogging

So it is 2010 and I have decided to Blog. Why is this? Well, having been inspired by the infamous Monty Python Drabbles, (a short story of EXACTLY 100 words, [not including the title of no more than fifteen words]. Hyphenated-words-are-argued-about!), I intend to embrace the Drabble spirit, if not the letter, of making short, erudite, pithy entries about my ordinary life. No doubt people will be bored by the mundane domesticity of it, only enlivened by occasional excursions into the shallow world of glamour (Strictly Come Dancing IS glamorous - Discuss) but who cares? I don’t. Neither should you!