Anyway, the reason for it this time has been a crazy work week and then a weekend of exhaustion which culminated in the getting of a bloody cold. Grr. I hate feeling poorly - unless it's a full-blown flu or properly debilitating chest infection or something, it just feels like such a waste of energy to feel less than great.
So, anyway, I finally finished all my immediate work requirements on Saturday night and yesterday (feeling that I had earned the right to be a sloth) I lay about the house in my track-pants, watching many episodes of Gilmore Girls, reading trashy novels (Charlaine Harris) and occasionally getting up to do a few things in the kitchen. Though nothing I made was terribly exciting, it did all turn out quite well. I made cream of chicken and corn soup with the stock I'd made on Friday night with the free-range chook which needed to be used (making stock was just what I felt like doing after teaching 6 hours in Newcastle and then doing several hours of annoying admin which meant I didn't get home until 7pm...I'd left home at 7am. This might be normal commuter practice, but I'm not used to it, so I don't enjoy!) I'd also made a batch of fresh white bread to go with the soup for lunch - I used the microwave to speed up the rising process so we had fresh bread in 2 hours from start to finish...not bad! Then I decided to bake. You remember a while back I made earl grey tea biscuits? That had been during the whole oven-saga, so the first attempt were nice but rather singed. I knew they had potential though, so I wanted to give them another shot. This time I went for a more shortbread styled approach and this is what I did:
Creamed 1/2 c butter with 1/4 c sugar and 1/4 c icing sugar. Then I added 2 teabags worth of earl grey, pinch of salt and some flour. Now, the recipe I'd found used 1 c of normal flour. I decided to try 3/4 c flour and 1/4 c cornflour...somewhere in the back of my mind I had a feeling that cornflour is often used in shortbread to give that characteristic crunch. Anyway, blended together, rolled into log, chilled and then sliced and baked at 175degC for about 13 mins. They've come out very nicely too, I think! Different to the last lot - sort of crumbly and crispy like shortbread but with a slight chew thing going on. Definitely a keeper.
After that I made chocolate chip cookies (which are ok, but for some reason the mixture was a lot softer than usual...they haven't held their shape very well. Doesn't matter - the lad will gobble them up I'm sure!) and a pie for dinner. The pie was a thing of beauty, and I have a feeling it tasted good, but by that point in the day my nose had become entirely blocked, so it tasted like very little to me. Sad.
So that was my Sunday. Nothing revolutionary, but quite a bit of time spent in the kitchen. Nice to have a chance to just potter about...I forget how much I enjoy doing that! And the upside is that, as I head off down to London this morning, I have leftover soup with fresh bread for my lunch and a baggie full of yummy biscuits to snack on.
Cough, cough, hack, splutter, sniff.
Glad the cookies turned out well. I"m determined to give them a go. Just to check, you actually put the tea leaves in, right? Not the infusion?
ReplyDeleteHope you're feeling better soon!
Yep, the tea leaves themselves. A friend who ate a couple was asking whether it was ok to eat tea leaves, and I'm not really sure. But, when you think about it, tea can't really be that different to dried herbs being in foods? The biscuits are definitely delish - and this recipe much more so than the first attempt :-)
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