Soop's Kitchen Extension

I've made a silly mistake We still have plenty of time to meet right here. So sorry. What a twerp I am. We'll keep the new extension on hold...I'm retrieving the date slices and moving Rory back to his favourite rug.

Galen Yes it's very warm in Oz. Coming? Trouble is returning to freezing climes after being in the heat; perhaps I'll stay for longer.......

Don't tempt me!
How long can it take to get a new boiler?

Gally, I do admire how you cope and carry on, although I'm sure you will say there is no alternative.

Galen - keep warm - imagine how lovely it will be when it's all sorted out.

Thank you soop for your kind words - I don't know whether Icyalittle feels the same but I feel that things my brother and I say could definitely be misconstrued but its how we cope.

Now, i could do with a nice before we brave the cold and win to go to the Royal Festival Hall for a meal and a Marcus Miller concert.

What a nice place this is.

Rats. I am knitting and reading Gransnet at the same time. Very silly. I now have to unpick 3 rows and work out what I did wrong. Sigh. Please could someone put the kettle on? I made apple cake earlier, it is still warm (I have been hurtling around this week -earning actual money- so having a homey day today).

kittylester yes! I quite agree. You have to go with the flow sometimes and it can sound heartless to others. Not at all true really. to you and both our mums as well.

kitty and icyalittle Not heartless, we all deal with stuff differently.

I really fancy some apple cake.......I've brought some cream and some custard, help yourselves.

Is it warm?

And I would love some warm apple cake with the merest drizzle of honey and a huge dollop of clotted cream.
Lona dear, and a wee spoonful of custard...Oh yes!

There is another beautiful sunset. I seem to be constantly leaping out of my chair and charging around with the camera. Every time I do so, Rory thinks that I'm about to feed him. It's Saturday. He has chicken on Saturday. He likes Saturday. He doesn't know how to tell the time. If he did, he'd realise that he could easily fit in a long sleep twixt now and the chicken supper.

Here's a sultana cake, almost like the ones my mum used to make! Anyone want a slice? Help yourselves.

Ooh! Apple cake. Has anybody an easy recipe for it? Bet DGD would love it and this gran is fed up of making banana cake week after week.

My lovely neighbour has just given me a HUGE block of chocolate !! A 500gm bar of Hotel Chocolat Triple Chocolate Wham Bam.
Please will you all come and save me from myself and help eat it.

Apple Shortcake

Ingredients

Serves: 6

100g butter
100g caster sugar
1 medium egg
185g plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
4 sliced apples (or stewed apples, very well drained)
100g caster sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon mixed spice
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Icing sugar to dust over top

Method

Prep:30min › Cook:20min › Ready in:50min

Preheat oven to 180 C / Gas 4.
Melt butter, in either the microwave for 1 minute, or on the hob in a pan (remove from heat after melting). Beat in sugar. Add egg, beat, add flour and baking powder and mix well. The consistency should be similar to "playdough" - add more flour or a dash of milk if necessary.
Push half the mixture into a pie tin - preferably Pyrex or ceramic. If metal, please grease with cooking oil first.
Lay your sliced apple (or other fruits - pears, peaches, strawberries, etc. - they all work well) or stewed fruit (well drained) over the cake mixture. Sprinkle with sugar, spices and lemon juice.
Add the rest of the mixture - you can either roll it out and lay it over like a pie crust, pull pieces off and flatten them and lay over the fruit (they spread out and join as they bake), or rub it between your hands to make a crumble over the fruit.
Bake approximately 20 minutes. Check it - the cake should be risen, and the top golden.
Rest the dessert for 10 minutes, then dust with the icing sugar. Delicious served straight away with ice cream, cream, or yoghurt. Equally delicious cold for breakfast with milk, or take a slice for a cake-like treat in a packed lunch

Galen I always make 50% more of the dough mixture than recommended as I find it works better. Very tasty and easy.

PS I make this with the GC.

That sounds delicious Aka.

Perhaps it would make the perfect companion to the Hot Cider Punch I've just made for some internal warmth. A bit of an experiment with just chucking all sorts in. It's provided for the old bod.....#brandysunshine

Pot and ladle at the ready for all......

That sounds good! Thanks.

Kitty when they've finished I've got to get the whole downstairs redecorated. If you know that the house is 54' wide by 20' wide ,dived with a full length kitchen and lounge, with a hall and dining room inbetween. And the ceilings are over 10' high, you'll see it's not a weekend job

20' deep, divided into !

Phew..... feet up on the sofa for 5 minutes before continuing. Have had visitors, now why does it take as much time sorting out afterwards as it does before they arrive?
We've had a great time tho' and have packed a lot into 3 days.

Gally hugs (tried to pm you but I wasn't allowed hrmph! must be something to do with the levels of security on this computer as it frequently fails to allow me to access things!)

Had she lived my lovely Mum would have been 100 today, I would have liked to have done something special to celebrate but could only come up with planting bulbs. Then I glanced around the garden to find that the winter flowering jasmine, which always flowers around her birthday, had stunningly beautiful bright yellow blossom. (I actually bought it on her last birthday, 91)

Back to work....thanks for 'listening'.

soop; we had a lovely sunset here as well. I decided to do a 'power walk' down the lane [even took my walking poles] and the sky was a beautiful orange; as it got darker I could hear a dog barking in the distance and the geese were flying back en masse to wherever they came from [or were migrating somewhere; thinking about it I thought they'd've all gone somewhere else by now]. In the distance were lots of bright lights which I can only assume were from the fair in the nearby town. Just watched a terribly sad documentary about Orcas in captivity [missed it at the cinema then spotted it on iplayer] and now going to watch Dr Who.[OGM; did you see Cue Card win and, what's more did you see Colin crying on the telly; all embarrassed he was but I was crying too. I just wanted to give him a hug] It's been a good day .

Ooh I like the sound of your shortcake Aka Mine is really easy and I use whatever fruit I've got lots of. Plums, apples, whatever. The hot cider punch would be wonderful with it ffinnochio - but I think I'd better join you on your power walks please Tegan. I eat too much in Soop's lovely kitchen.
Apple cake Ingredients:
12 oz SR flour
8 oz butter, softened
6 oz Caster sugar
4 oz Sultanas
1 lb Cooking apples, diced
3 Eggs

Directions: Sift flour with a pinch of salt and rub in the butter.
Stir in the sugar and sultanas.
Mix in the apples, stir in the eggs with a metal spoon. The mixture should be very stiff.
Bake at 165 deg C for an hour (single round 8'' cake tin) or 15-20 minutes for individual bun tin cakes. Freezes too.

I'll have to take refuge here for a while - my small house stinks of garlic because I forgot to use the cooker hood when I made garlic mushrooms on toast for my evening meal. It's going to take days to get rid of the far from delicate aroma.

Going to try to cook slow cooker lamb with garlic tomorrow while I'm out shooting arrows!
(That's if I remember to put in on. See 'have I lost my marbles thread)!

Smell of garlic? Gorgeous!

I cooked garlic lamb last week and only realised I had lost my sense of smell when I had to ask DD3 if she could smell it; she thought I was 'barking'. Had sinus probs for about 3 weeks - hope it hasn't gone for good
OGM thanks for trying