Saffie was going to a party and had asked to make her friend a giant muffin. This presented a bit of a problem on the giant muffin tin front. At £35 from Amazon I wasn't convinced this was the way forward until I remembered the stash of flowerpots abandonned after we'd tidied the garden. I found juts the right size and, with my daughter looking horrified over my shoulder, scrubbed it out with a wire brush, detergent and anti-bac. Sadly, after all these efforts, she found out her friend does not like muffins so she decided to make her Real Chocolate Chip Cookies instead. But the flowerpot was not yet redundant... More about that AFTER Monday!!! These are very easy too:
125g unsalted butter
65g soft brown sugar
50g caster sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
85g plain flour
15g good quality cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
150g good quality chocolate chips
Grease and flour baking sheets and set oven to 180C. (I use shallow patty pans to keep their shape!!)
Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
Lightly beat egg and vanilla extract in a cup and gradually beating this to the mixture.
Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa over the mixture and fold in with the chocolate chips.
Spoon heaped teaspoons of the mix onto the baking sheets - spread well apart!
Bake for 12 minutes in the centre of the oven.
Use a spatula to lift them onto a wire rack to cool.
They're delicious while still warm, but you need to let them cool before you do this:
As if that wasn't enough we needed soup for lunch too and ever the one with an eye for a bargain I'd picked up a cheap butternut squash when I bought the also reduced blueberries. There was a handful of carrots left in the salad drawer and I have humungous onions from the allotment too. Basically there's no recipe for my Carrot and Butternut Squash Soup here. It's simply this:
Peel and chop onion, squash and carrots. Fry onion gently in a knob of salted butter and then add the other veggies. Add half a litre of Kalloo organic vegetable stock, a handful of chopped parsley and season. Bring to the boil and then simmer to within an inch of its life (or when you suddenly remember it's still there) Leave it to cool and blitz it with one of those wands. Heat it up again and serve with a dollop of creme fraiche.
It was actually bloody gorgeous and I really hope I can recreate the magic again. We had it with still warm French bread and lots of different cheeses. Followed by more blueberry muffins and the choc chip cookies that didn't make it to the gift package - cos they weren't pretty enough. Still tasted good though!!!!
We dropped Saffie at the party, bought large paper bin liners from Tesco (I hate that place with an unrivalled passion - I only go there when I absolutely have to) and then went down to the allotment with as many feed buckets and baskets we could lay hands on intending to dig up as many spuds as we could manage before 5:00pm. Luckily the ground wasn't wet and they lifted easily so we actually did amazingly well and only have about two rows of Maris Peer and another half row of Pink Fir Apple to go now. The Desiree were lovely and I've earmarked all the really good looking ones for Christmas dinner. They all felt a little cold and damp so I spread them out on newspaper in the conservatory to dry out before I bag them up tonight.
There are a HUGE number of them (you can't see the other pile spread out to the left of the plant) and we only just had enough buckets and baskets to schlepp them home in, so maybe it's just as well we couldn't get them all dug up, but we do need to get them all in before half term because of the frosts.
I have to say, it was all very gratifying despite the hard work involved. Jerry and I sank into beer and wine respectively and then into hot baths. Dad phoned for a good long chat and then I dozed off in front of a DVD - the 1975 version of "Survivors". Obviously not quite as riveting as I remembered!! Bedtime at 10:30pm!! How sad we are in our old age! Jerry joked that we actually get quite excited when we HAVEN'T got to go out!! (I must admit there's a real appeal in not having to don tights, heels, magic knickers and warpaint!!)
Visiting Jerry's mum today and it's his birthday tomorrow so I'll report back on Tuesday!
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