Spring Sunset

Peanut Butter Cookies

There was one main recipe book used in our household as I was growing up – an edition of The Fannie Farmer Cookbook which, if I remember correctly was given to my Mum as a wedding present and which I eagerly accepted when she offered it to me – now tattered and stained with evidence of much use – a couple of years ago. That cookbook, along with my Mum’s never-fail, go-to sponge recipe, introduced me to a love of measuring ingredients by volume, in cups, rather than by weight – a love that has been unfailing for my lazy self, despite the fact that weight measurements are more accurate and yield more consistent results. In the pages of that Fannie Farmer Cookbook are three biscuit recipes which I would say were the defining biscuits of my childhood – recipes for Sugar Cookies and Rich Cookies, which I and my siblings made regularly right from when we could measure ingredients by ourselves and be trusted to man the oven alone, and a recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies, which my Mum made frequently. This recipe is an adaption of Peanut Butter Cookie recipe (the original recipe is on page 437 of the 1965 edition of The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, if you’re interested). The cup measurements below are all based on a 250 ml mug equalling one cup, and, depending on the size of your cookies, this makes about 20 to 25 cookies.

What you’ll need:

1/3 cup butter or margarine (use butter for richer cookies)

1/2 cup peanut butter (I used crunchy peanut butter for these but either crunchy or smooth will work)

2/3 cup light brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 cup self-raising flour

Pinch salt

What to do:

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4 (180º C or 350º F).

2. Cream together the butter or margarine, peanut butter and sugar in a mixing bowl.

3. Beat the egg and vanilla extract, into the butter/peanut butter and sugar mixture.

4. Sift the flour and salt into the mixing bowl and then fold  the flour and salt into the butter/peanut butter/sugar/egg mixture.

5. Place teaspoonfuls of the mixture on a greased or lined baking tray, about an inch apart and then flatten each spoonful with the back of a floured fork.

6. Bake the cookies in the middle of the pre-heated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and place each cookies on a cooling rack to cool before eating (sorry – I have no photos of this final bit as J whisked away the camera to take photos of baby S before I had a chance to stop him…).

Raspberry Curd

As I’ve mentioned previously on this blog (here), I love lemon curd. I also love raspberries and it was therefore only a small step to bring together these two loves in the form of raspberry curd. Unfortunately, I ended up needing to use twice as many raspberries in this recipe as I initially anticipated and it is therefore not the cheapest spread for your morning toast. However, this is tasty for mornings when you fancy something a bit special. This raspberry curd would also be fantastic with cream on fresh scones for a weekend afternoon tea treat and is particularly yummy when eaten by the spoonful straight from the jar (the most common mode of raspberry curd consumption in our house!). This recipe makes about three small jars of curd and, as usual, the cup measurements are based on a 250 ml mug as equal to one cup. I’m very lazy when making preserves such as lemon (and now raspberry) curd and just throw in the butter as one big lump - ideally you should cut it into small cubes and then add it to the other ingredients. In line with that laziness, I also did not defrost the raspberries before using them. I like the texture that the raspberry seeds gave the curd, but, if you prefer, you could strain out the seeds before putting the curd into jars.

What you’ll need:

800 grams frozen raspberries

5 dessertspoons lemon juice

2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup butter

4 eggs

What to do:

1. Put all the ingredients into a glass or metal bowl suitable for putting above a pan of boiling water (or the top of a double boiler) and then place the bowl above a pan of boiling water.

2. Gently melt together all the ingredients for the raspberry curd over the boiling water, stirring continuously to combine all the ingredients together fully. Continue stirring the mixture frequently once the butter has melted and the ingredients are combined fully until the mixture begins to thicken (about 20 to 30 minutes).

3. Once the mixture begins to thicken, remove the bowl from the heat, pour the curd into clean, sterilised jars and then leave to cool before eating or storing in the fridge.

4. Enjoy the fruits of your labour!

Parenting a Newborn: What I Would Have Told My Ten-Week Ago Self…

I have now been a Mummy for just over nine weeks and was recently reflecting on what I would have told myself ten weeks ago, if I’d known what I know now. This is just my experience – I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments (including if you disagree with any of mine!)…

1. You cannot even begin to imagine the kind and strength of love you will have for your child.

2. You will learn that you really can function relatively well on much less sleep than you ever thought possible.

3. And speaking of sleep…everyone will tell you to sleep when the baby sleeps, particularly during the day. No one will tell you that every time the baby sleeps during the day you will suddenly have to prioritise which of the things involving two hands you will do whilst the baby sleeps – think dressing yourself, cooking, dishes, laundry or the luxury of holding a hot drink in one hand and a book in the other without worrying about spilling the hot drink on the baby. Sleeping does not require two hands and so may not even cross your mind, except when you think, “I’m supposed to sleep right now, but for my sanity’s sake I need to (insert two-handed task here)…

4. For the first few days, you will appreciate your shower time and the few minutes it gives you to just be you on your own more than you ever anticipated.

5. Some days getting dressed by lunchtime will feel like an achievement. Other days, getting dressed at all will be a victory.

6. No matter how much you do not want to become one of those women who only talk about the baby, on some days you will need to make a real effort to cover non-baby topics at the dinner table.

7. And speaking of dinner-time conversation…you may not have spoken to another adult all day and so may be tempted to talk non-stop but the others present would probably prefer to participate in the conversation instead of just listening to your monologue.

6. It is possible to watch everything that interests you on BBC iPlayer*. You may find other viewing delights through your Lovefilm* subscription but by the time you have decided which film to watch, the feed during which you were deciding will be over, the baby will be asleep and it will be time to move on to other tasks (see point 3 above).

7. Watching something on a screen is a much better option than reading a book for keeping you awake during midnight feeds – sound can’t be turned off without you actually touching the laptop but the words on a page can easily be ignored once your eyelids close.

8. And speaking of midnight feeds…you will discover that, despite what you previously thought, it is possible to doze off with your head flopped awkwardly forward into mid-air.

9. You will become obsessed by how much your baby sleeps and wonder why the number of hours your baby sleeps is significantly lower than the averages mentioned for babies the age of your baby on just about every baby or parenting website. After days of wondering why your baby is sleeping so many hours fewer than the averages you see all over the web, you will realise that the average sleep hours mentioned are not realistic as there aren’t enough hours in the day for your baby to sleep for that average number of hours and also manage to be awake for all those hour to hour and a half long feeds, the numerous daily nappy changes and more than about 15 minutes of the ‘playtime’ equivalent for a 6-week old.

10. Keeping a record of feeds and sleeps may provide you with much-needed intellectual stimulation at a level commensurate with your sleep-deprived mental state, but it will not provide you with the formula of daytime feeds and sleeps that lead to good night sleep that you are so desperately seeking – that formula does not exist.

11. You will want and search for pattern and predictability. Pattern and predictability are not concepts familiar to your newborn baby.

12. You will feel like every other parent has got it more together than you. This is not true – bear in mind the fact that you made it out the house with a clean, fed child, clean, brushed hair and having changed out of the ‘home clothes’ that are your staple on bad days probably makes it look like you’ve got this parenting thing sussed to others as much as them doing the same makes it look to you like they’ve got it sussed.

13. It will all be worth it the first time your baby smiles at you, and you will fall ever more in love with them every day.

*I have chosen to mention BBC iPlayer and Lovefilm based on my own experience. Neither of these have sponsored or endorsed this blog post, and, as far as I am aware, neither of them are even aware of this blog.

Plum and Apple Crumble Cake

I have wanted to try making a cake with a crumble topping for quite a while. Then little S was born and time to do things like baking seemed to disappear into the far recesses of my mind. And then one day, quite unexpectedly, S slept for just about the entire day, waking up just to feed – suddenly I had time – although I didn’t know until the end of the day that it would be a whole day and no plans for that time. And so I seized the moment and started making this cake, expecting to be interrupted at any moment. Although I like the idea of plums in a crumble topped cake anyway, we also happened to have a punnet that needed eating on that magic day when I had time to bake this. I’ve given the fruit quantities as I used them in this cake when I made it; however, I would recommend doubling the quantity of fruit and having two layers of it if you try making this. This would also be good with other fruit, such as rhubarb, instead of the plums and apples that I used. I made this in an 8 inch round cake tin and, as usual, the ‘cup’ quantities below are based on a 250 ml mug as equal to one cup.

What you’ll need:

For the fruit layer:

5 to 6 plums

2 sweetish eating apples

2 tablespoons of light brown sugar

For the cake:

2/3 cup margarine or butter

1 1/4 cups light brown sugar

1 dessertspoon vanilla essence

3 eggs

2 cups self-raising flour

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup ground almonds

For the crumble topping:

3/4 cup flour (I used self-raising because it is what I had, but plain flour would be fine too)

Pinch salt

1/2 cup ground almonds

1/4 to 1/3 cup light brown sugar (adjust to taste)

2 dessertspoons margarine or butter

What to do:

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4 (180º C or 350º F) and grease the cake tin.

2. For the fruit layer, cut the plums into quarters and the apples into eighths. Line the bottom of the cake tin with the cut fruit and then sprinkle the brown sugar over the top of the fruit.

3. For the cake layer, cream together the margarine or butter and sugar in a mixing bowl, and then beat in the vanilla essence and the eggs, mixing in one egg at a time. Sift the flour and salt into the bowl, add the ground almonds and then fold the flour, salt and ground almonds into the margarine, sugar and egg mixture. Once all the ingredients for the cake batter are thoroughly combined, spread the batter evenly across the top of the fruit in the cake tin.

4. For the crumble topping, sift the flour and salt into a clean bowl. Add the ground almonds, sugar and margarine or butter to the bowl and then rub the margarine or butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Scatter the crumble topping evenly over the cake mixture in the cake tin – there is no need to press the crumble topping into the cake mixture – scattering it loosely and then evening the top will be fine.

5. Once the topping is on the cake, bake it in the middle of the pre-heated oven for about an hour or until done. You will need to cover the cake tin with foil about half way through the baking process, once the crumble topping has cooked, to prevent the top from burning.

6. Once the cake has cooked, remove it from the oven and cool on a baking tray. This would be good served warm or cold with custard or cream, although, it is also good plain and unadorned if, like me on the day I made this, you don’t have either of those to hand.

Green Salad

Of all food dislikes, the one that seems to be most prevalent amongst the people I know is for raw tomato. And in just about every case, the individuals involved answer the dinner invitation question about whether there is anything they don’t eat with a sheepish answer, assuming that I’ve never come across their particular dislike before. This salad was first made to serve to someone who didn’t like raw tomato and it has been a handy standby since then, both for when we want a bit of variety from the standard iceberg lettuce, cucumber and tomato salad that I usually make and when we’ve had over people who don’t like raw tomato. It is very much an add some of this and some of that recipe – the main thing is to get a good mix of greens, including sweetish, bland and sharp leaves, and to be very generous with the lemon juice. Adjust the amounts of each ingredient according to your preferences and the number of people you’ll be cooking for.

What you’ll need:

Mixed green salad leaves – for this particular salad, I used a round lettuce, spinach, rocket and lambs lettuce

Cucumber, diced

Few spring onions, finely chopped

Extra virgin olive oil

Fresh lemon juice

Pepper

What to do:

1. Wash and then roughly chop the salad leaves.

2. Add the leaves to a serving bowl with the cucumber and spring onions.

3. Sprinkle over the leaves, cucumber and spring onions a generous glug of olive oil, lots of lemon juice and a dash of pepper. Mix together thoroughly. Add more oil, lemon juice or pepper according to taste and then serve.