For it was not into my ear you whispered..but into my heart...

It is Valentine's Day and all across the land women are putting on a brave face because the man in their life doesn't 'do' Valentine's Day. They say:- it is too commercial, I love you without having to prove it by giving you a card/chocolates/taking you out for dinner..... it is better to be spontaneous on another day, then it really means something.... but do you take your lady out for dinner? Are you spontaneous? When did you last bring home flowers? Make breakfast in bed for her? Go on tell me! If you can't remember then you're most definitely a charlatan!

Life is busy and your partner will spend her days smoothing it out for you in many very small ways.  She might get grumpy now and again, and shout but all she is asking for is a little recognition, so that she might know you really do care. So this weekend,look her in the eyes, kiss the back of her neck, pour her wine when she is cooking, dance with her in the kitchen, draw her a bath and light candles. This will make amends for the lack of card today, and next year don't forget her on Valentine's Day, she knows it's commercial, you know it's commercial but a little humility is needed, make a card, take her tea in bed, just remember.....

What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined together to strengthen each other in all labour, to minister to each other in all sorrow, to share with each other in all gladness, to be one with each other in the silent unspoken memories?
- George Eliot

Mary Berry, I love you......

Please do not be shocked by my admission, I am in no  doubt that there are many out there who feel as I do, and they too love Mary Berry....

 

I have slowly but surely over the past 27 years been teaching myself to cook, I am, although I say so myself, pretty good these days. It is a bit of a passion of mine, I have cook books stacked by my bed and shelves groaning with them. I watch many cookery programmes, have folders full of cuttings from newspapers and magazines, just a little bit of an addiction you might say. I can now put together a pretty tasty supper without need of a recipe, pasta, chicken, curries and soups, I am a throw it in the pot kind of girl. Baking, however, is a whole different thing. I have learnt, at personal cost, that baking  has a few rules you must adhere to, do so and you can't really go wrong...well not often!

 

Firstly:- make sure you have time, baking and speed really don't go together, if you rush then disaster may well follow.

 

Secondly:- use good ingredients, real butter, free-range eggs, proper vanilla essence. IT DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

 

Thirdly:- (thirdly?? is that a word?) Invest in digital scales. Baking really is alchemy, from all that I have read there is, I know, a right and wrong way to do things. Now  dear reader you will say "but my granny made a sponge by eye and it was always perfect". That is all well and good but remember, by the time you watched her bake she was your Granny....so most likely she had been baking for years and years and years, you were not around to see her early mistakes. My own darling  gran made a lovely sponge, 2 eggs, 4oz of Spry, 4oz of sugar etc. Her only method of measurement a very old and battered Tala cone, everything was put in a bowl and beaten together with a wooden spoon and always perfect. But believe me when I say accuracy is going to produce greater consistency.

Fourthly:-(I am saying nothing) Everything should be at room temperature.

 

Fifthly:-sift flour twice.

 

Sixthly:- (I am regretting this now)line pans with baking paper. There is nothing worse than half your cake sticking to the bottom of the tin...

 

Seventhly:-...(please God) Don't over beat the mixture once the flour is added...it makes for a tough cake!

 

Eighthly:- Weigh everything out before you start, I am really bad at doing this, and do not practise what I preach. When starting out it is a good idea, so you don't miss out any ingredient (yes I have missed out many things on many occasions) please learn from my mistakes..Because children come and talk to you, the phone goes, it starts to rain on your washing...(American readers...we dry, or mostly don't, our washing on lines in the garden, necessitating on much dashing in and out to stop it getting wetter, it is a quaint old fashioned quirky custom us Brits have)

 

Ninthly:- (just going with it now) always set a timer because any of the above can happen and you will forget what time you put it in the oven! I have burned many cakes due to chatting on the phone.

 

Tenthly:- For surefire success use a Mary Berry recipe!

 

She knows all there is to know about baking, she advises and guides and if you follow her recipe/advice they just work.

 

I don't know when I first became aware of her, she has just been there all my cooking life. She is like a beloved mother who is no nonsense but fun and you can trust her fully. Now I have not been lucky enough to have a mother who taught me to cook, and my memories of  school domestic science lessons and cooking leaks in a white sauce really put me off for a very long time...but to Mary I have turned again and again. As do many of my friends, a recent chocolate cake brought into work by a colleague, quite perfect..a Mary recipe...

 

I won't gush because somehow I don't think she would care for it...but having recently listened to her on Desert Island Discs and this week watched the BBC documentary on her life, all I hoped seems to be true. Not an easy life, pain and loss, but fun and love and many friendships, much cooking and passion, hard work but most of all a close family a mum and wife....So Mary, if I might be so bold, thank you for being there for me over the years and if you should ever think you would like another daughter, might I put myself forward....I promise always to do the washing up!

 

So here is the Mary's recipe for Victoria Sandwich, it has been one of those cakes that I have always had a lot of hits and misses with, but one afternoon this week after work I followed Mary step by step and perfection was achieved.... my only change to her recipe was apricot jam, it was all that I had, but somehow I don't think Mary would mind...and it has made me determined to make jam this summer....now what is Mary's recipe for that?????

 

How to make the perfect VICTORIA SANDWICH

 

For the sponge

225g unsalted butter softened (if your butter is cold cut into cubes and sit in a bowl of warm, not hot, water for a few minutes)

225g caster sugar

4 large free-range eggs at room temperature (see I told you..)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

225g self-raising flour sifted

1 tablespoon milk at room temperature

 

For the filling

6 rounded tablespoons of raspberry jam

 

To finish

caster or icing sugar

 

2 x 20.5cm sandwich tins buttered and lined

 

Preheat the oven to 180deg C/350deg F/Gas 4 Fan 160 deg C

 

1. Put the butter in a bowl and beat until smooth and creamy.

2. Gradually beat in the sugar, then keep on beating for 3/4 minutes until the mixture becomes very light and fluffy or until the mixture is almost white and very fluffy in texture, you will need to scrape down frequently.

3.Break the eggs into a bowl add the vanilla and lightly fork just to break them up. Slowly add to the creamed mixture a tablespoon at a time. Giving the mixture a good beating after each addition, scrape down the bowl. This will take about 5 minutes. If the mixture looks as though it is about to curdle add a spoonful of the sifted flour before adding the rest of the eggs.

5. Sift the flour again, this time onto the mixture, add the milk and gently fold the flour into the egg mixture using a large metal spoon. Do this as lightly as possible to make sure you keep in as much air as possible. Stop when there are no streaks of flour visible.

6. Divide the mixture equally between the two prepared tins, spreading evenly to the edges.

7. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and springy when gently pressed.

8. Remove the tins from the oven and leave for a few minutes. Run a blade around the inside of each tin t loosen the sponge, then turn our onto a wire rack.

9. Once cool put one cake onto a plate, spread over the jam, top with the second cake and lightly sprinkle with sugar. Store in an airtight container and eat withing 5 days (a guttural chuckle here because does anyone ever  think a cake would possibly be around for five days???? Not in THIS house!)

 

Happy baking......

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

“The snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches.”

My walk to work....

In the dark post Christmas days when Spring seems to not even be a whisper on Mother Nature's breath, occasionally a gift is sent to lighten the mood, add joy to the day and a rosy glow to the cheeks.  The promise was made, but it had been made before only for disappointment to be the order of the day. But last week the promise was fulfilled, the morning started with the tell tale glow from behind the curtains, a certain silence. A glimpse outside and there it was, the magic of snow, covering my garden, the roads and hills afar. I felt smug as for once, wisely,  I had stocked the kitchen with provisions enough to last for several days, so there would be no need to venture from the village for some time...


School opened for those who wished to come, and what a day was had, full of of snowball fights, and snowmen built, icy hands and wet toes. A day to be stashed away in young hearts to be   recounted many years hence.



Even better Saturday brought with it icy temperatures but a
bright and sparkling day, lunch in an old English pub, one with a real fire at it's heart and a welcome for all. Then off to  Badbury Rings for a walk and views across the county....



Families having fun, despite the National Trust warning against it, snow knee deep in places and still untrodden, the glorious white spreading as far as the eye could see, a glow across the horizon, childrens' laughter glittering all around. Home to a fire and mulled wine, time to defrost and think back on a day of wonder. A memory collected.......
 

“There is nothing in the world more beautiful than the forest clothed to its very hollows in snow. It is the still ecstasy of nature, wherein every spray, every blade of grass, every spire of reed, every intricacy of twig, is clad with radiance.”

William Sharp quotes ((pseud. Fiona MacLeod) Scottish Poet, 1855-1905





“There is nothing in the world more beautiful than the forest clothed to its very hollows in snow. It is the still ecstasy of nature, wherein every spray, every blade of grass, every spire of reed, every intricacy of twig, is clad with radiance.”

William Sharp quotes ((pseud. Fiona MacLeod) Scottish Poet, 1855-1905

Collect moments, not things.....

 

When my children were small we danced a lot, under sevens don't have inhibitions. Sometimes in the kitchen or we would push back the dining room table, crank up The Mavericks' Dance the Night Away and off we'd go. But that was over a decade ago these days, very rarely my, now big, daughters will indulge me but my son stands rod straight and just asks "what are you doing?"  Christmas wasn't great in this house because of, well many reasons,  but New Year was wonderful.  All my children home, my brother and family here and with him came my youngest niece,  under seven still and ripe for dancing!  So there we were on New Years Eve, me making margaritas with little one chatting away,  Pencil Full of Lead on the iPod, our feet started tapping and off we went...."again, again" she cried, so repeat, then next Spit at Stars and again until we collapsed,  laughing and exhausted, little one saying she needed to touch her toes because she had a stitch, my kitchen a dance floor once more.

My new year's resolution is to,collect moments, and there were many, many moments over the last few days to start my collection well. Moments to be recalled when the decorations have been packed away and visitors have left and we are in the dark days of February, I shall, with a smile, recall charades, chairs squeezed around the table, pots of tea, conversations, meals prepared and eaten together,laughter and love, oh and Spitting at Stars, a last dance maybe, but most certainly a moment collected.

Everyone is struggling and the news some days makes us want to weep but the things that matter, that give joy, and will be recalled time and again for many years to come are moments of fun, of laughter, and shared experiences. So why not join me in 2013 and you too do some collecting of moments, not things....

ps A thank you to Anne Thornton and her New Years Eve post for inspiration for my resolution.

Heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds."

 

When my eldest daughter was 5, I took her off to school as usual,  by lunchtime the news was full of the massacre at a school in Dunblane, Scotland. When I collected my daughter that afternoon, as she ran out across the playground, I gathered her in my arms and hugged her very tightly, thanking God that she was there for the hugging.  As we walked home the usual chatter from the day ensued but I, like every mother in the land, tucked my children in a little more tightly that night, kissed them more lovingly and lingered a little longer to watch them in their sleep. For a good while I made sure there were no cross words in the mornings and gave big hugs goodbye, but soon real life continued, normality of cross words and morning niggles.

It will be an extremely long time before any parent of a child from Sandy Hook School will have a day that is anything close to normal. It is out of the natural order of life for a child to die before the parent and is, most certainly, the hardest pain to bear. I watched President Obama's address yesterday, I saw his tears and felt the pain in his heart. He must have slept fitfully last night for he is a good man, caring and thoughtful and must, in some way, have felt a sense of responsibility at his and  Congress' failure to address the gun culture in the US. After the Dunblane massacre  the Snowdrop petition was started some 700,000 people signed it, all wanting the law changed so the ownership of handguns would be banned, the law was changed. It would be an extremely onerous task to outlaw handguns but the fact that per head of population the death rate, due to shooting,  is 50 times lower in the UK than the US must indicate that we did the only sane thing. The American's site the right of a free citizen to own a gun, is it not also the right for a child to be safe in their classroom? Wake up America, is now not the time to follow our lead?

“The true test of the American ideal is whether we’re able to recognise our failings and then rise together to meet the challenges of our time. Whether we allow ourselves to be shaped by events and history, or whether we act to shape them.” Barack Obama Feb 5th 2008

Let yours be the generation that said enough and now we must change, as President Obama said yesterday 'now is the time to heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds', help the healing by making their deaths be the catalyst for that change.

Be still....

 

It is that time of year, rush, rush, hustle and bustle. Feelings of panic...every day I am asked 'are you ready yet?'. I will not be rushed, I will not be forced into purchases that are pointless, a gift is a precious thing and should be bought with thought not just stuffed into a bag because no better alternative can be found. Don't be rushed I implore you. This festive season take time to 'be still'. Only stillness will allow you time for breath, to take stock and really see what is all around you. Go to a Carol Service and be still, watch The Snowman and be still, read a Christmas story to a child and be still. Take  time to meet with a friend and share a hot chocolate...really listen to what they have to say, be still....Walk on a frosty night, hopefully holding the hand of someone you  love,  look at the Christmas lights, or the stars, don't speak just be still. Sit by the fire with a book on your knee, watch the flames and be still. This modern life gives us little time for quiet and reflection. Turn off your phone, light a candle, embrace silence, be still, not for long, but for a while.....and hopefully the true spirit of Christmas will stealthily slide in beside you, a gift to yourself, that costs nothing and is worth more than I can say....so this weekend, do as I ask  and take time to just.... allow your soul to be still......

Oh Christmas Tree......

Over the past few years a new tradition has begun in our village church, the annual Christmas Tree Festival. I have no recall of such events as a child, and on searching they do indeed seem to be a modern phenomena started in America. Most often held in churches, each tree is decorated by an individual, family or organisation and dedicated to their charity of choice. Visitors are asked to vote for their favourite and to make a donation. Cakes are baked and the urn moved into the bell tower, festive music is played on a loop and the church buzzes with life for a couple of days. There were around twenty trees with various themes, some delightfully adorned with homemade decorations, the local school's tree had a contribution from each child. The winner was gloriously called 'Toilet Twinning' The tree sat resplendently in a beautiful old commode and was decorated with mini loos made by the local Cub pack, the charity supports the supply of toilet facilities to villages in the Third World. The weekend ended with story telling and music for children in the church gently lit by the festival of trees. If our churches wish to remain part of the community they must be inventive and engage with their neighbours, children should feel welcomed and have a memory of a warm place with an always open door. Our village church is trying hard, with weekday Messy Play sessions for toddlers. The local school walks down on the last day of term to listen to the Christmas story and sing the carols learnt over the previous weeks,and it holds an outrageously raucous Christingle service on Christmas Eve that sees the building bursting at the seams with noise and excitement.Much needed new traditions and new life into an ancient building at the heart of this little Dorset village....