Baking and cooking

whirlywitchette's recovery from her head injury left her in flying form today, and a rather nice day it was too. We got up nd pottered about, eating breakfast and playing. About 11am we walked out to the shops where we had a good browse. First to Yorkshire Trading Company where we looked unsuccessfully for a rose for the watering can but bought a cheap set of watercolour paints and a packet of paintbrushes of varying sizes for the budding artist. Painting is the new big thing. Next we went to Wilkinson where we acquired a rose, £0.99 for a plastic one though I thought about getting a metal one at the princely sum of £1.29. We also bought some cheap and cheerful cookie cutters. They are only white plastic, so I have doubt about their potential longevity, but they serve their purpose if we get a year or so out of them.

Nxt up we went to Peacocks as I wanted to lok though their lingerie for some cheap underwear. Apparently they cater primarily for size 34B or 34C - yes, that's a great help to me. Before I could look very well, though, we had to dash to Sainsbury for Roisin to avail of the toilet. She wanted to go back to the clothes shop but I couldn't be bothered, so we did the grocery shopping instead. We stocked up again on baking goods as there was neither oats, dessicated coconut nor brown sugar in the cupboard. I knew there was plain flour, and wholemeal flour too, but we got some more self-raising flour. I never used to use self raising, but have used a lot of it lately. I need to buy bicarbonate of soda/baking soda next time I shop.

Roisin got her choice of a treat at the supermarket - she choose pitted black olives again :) Lunch was sandwiches, multigrain bread spread with hummous and filled with sliced gammon and tomatoes and olives for Roisin. Yummy.

We made two sets of biscuits and tuna pasta bake this afternoon. My Anzac/New Zealand biscuit uncooked mixture was divine, but the cooked biscuits aren't quite right. I think it may have been too wet. Next time I'll use buzzy_bee's recipe again but I was out of bicarb of soda this week so used a recipe with baking powder. They taste nice, just not perfect.

The other biscuits we made, so Roisin could use the new cookie cutters, were basically a spiced dough. I really need to stop baking in imperial measures, but I've been baking since I was Roisin's age and I think in imperial for baking. The spice recipe was rather good:

4oz (100g) butter or margarine
3oz (75g)m caster sugar
I egg, separated
7oz (200g) white flour ( I used self raising)
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2- 3 tbsp (30 - 45ml) milk

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolk. Sift in the flour and spices, then mix to a soft dough with the milk. You could use brandy but I used milk and it was good. Knead lightly and roll out on a lightly floured surface to a depth of 1/4 inch od 5mm. Cut into rounds of 2 inches or 5cm (or use cutters of your choice) then bake at Gas Mark 6, 200 degrees C, 400 degrees F. I baked for 10 minutes but you can brush with lightly beaten egg white and caster sugar and bake for a further 5 minutes if you like.

Now it' s time for Grey's Anatomy and David might dish out the dinner :)

I might post a picture of the biscuits later, and I need a cooking icon.