Vera's Shortbread

This shortbread is delicious - trust me!
Vera's Shortbread
8oz Plain flour
8oz Butter
4oz Sugar
2oz Cornflour
2oz Ground rice
Place all the ingredients in a large bowl. Rub in lightly until the mixture binds together. Roll into a large sausage shape. Cut into slices, a little less than 1/4 inch. Put on a buttered tin and bake until lightly golden, (moderate oven, about 20 minutes)

Knitting as Therapy

Well, it's cheaper than gin and better for you than valium. Isn't it strange and charming how knitting has changed from being corny and old-fashioned to cool?  Doing it is strongly relaxing and soothing - and you even get nice things to wear or give away at the end. Does anyone else think hand-knitted jumpers on men in all those 1940/50s telly programmes just look so darned manly!!  It's doing no harm to the UK wool industry either this revival in knitting, apparently, so win-win all round.

Porter Cake

16oz plain flour
16oz sultanas
8oz brown sugar
2oz cherries
8oz butter
2oz chopped mixed peel
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 cup of Guinness

Sieve the flour and spices & baking powder into a large bowl. Rub in the butter well. Add the sugar. Mix in the fruit. In another bowl mix the beaten egg and the Guinness. Mix this into the dry ingredients. Put the mixture into a buttered and lined 8" tin. Bake in a moderate at oven for about 1 hour & 30 minutes to 2 hours. 

The colours of handmade

Nothing better than a bit of bargain hunting, especially when you find somthing as lovely as these.  There's such a skill that goes into embroidery, not to mention all that time...it's beautifully sewn.  At first I was a bit confused over the range of flowers, until the penny dropped - I realised that they represent the UK and Eire.

Plus a little crocheted blanket I'll use as a throw on the arm of the sofa.  Again, someone has taken the trouble to make this by hand, probably from bits of left-over wool...what a good use, and so much better than buying mass produced.

Simple Pleasure

Our blog and book are very much about simple pleasures, how you can brighten your day in an easy way - for instance take someone a present like this, instead of chocolates or wine...one second thoughts those too!

Hot soup for cold weather

I've been making soup...having some straight away and freezing some for later.
A lump of stilton left over from Christmas makes a tasty ingredient - I'm not too fond of blue cheese on its own but combined with other flavours it's fine - and this is such an quick and easy soup.

All I did was chop a large onion and crush a clove of garlic.  In a large saucepan, fry gently in some olive oil for about 10 minutes.  Cut 2 heads of broccoli into florets. Add about 3 pints of chicken stock to the pan. Add the broccoli and simmer until tender.  Crumble in the stilton.  I used about 8 ounces.
Liquidise until smooth and add seasoning to taste.

All warm and toastie

It's lovely sitting in front of a roaring fire on these dark winter nights.  Just need to take down the decorations now. 

Hope you all had a very happy Christmas and we wish everyone a healthy and peaceful New Year.