New paintings and regular art updates.
Traditional hot cross buns, soft sweet fruited buns marked with a cross. Eaten generally at Easter to commemorate Jesus dying on the cross. I like the normal ones but they have started coming up with chocolate ones, or even ones with a creme egg in the middle. I’ve also heard of ones with cheddar cheese! Might as well have a cheese scone.
Bored with crumpets toasted the with added butter I just toasted some then added grated cheese. Microwaved it for 30 seconds to melt the cheese. Then added a smidgen of brown sauce on the top. I have to say it was very tasty. Beware overheating and making the cheese hard. Also let them cool down so you don’t burn your hands and mouth!
It’s not Summer, not even Spring, but Strawberries are out in the shops and are quite tasty. I had some tonight for tea with cream. I did sprinkle a bit of sweetner over the top of them.
I did think of adding a few blueberries to the fruit but there was enough with what I’d already prepared.
What I do like is the way cream fills in the little pores of the strawberries, it makes a nice pattern and could be cropped and put together as a collage. I might do that. Red is a favourite colour and this with the contrast of black and white makes a fresh looking image.
Today is pancake day in the UK. The chance to eat something nice before Lent starts. Lent is a Christian tradition where people give up a favorite food until Easter. I guess in some ways it’s comparable with the tradition of Ramadan in Islamic culture, where people do not eat between sunrise and sunset until the end of the period of time when they celebrate the end fasting. I don’t know much about either religion, but it’s interesting that both are movable feasts (related to the phases of the moon).
Going back to pancakes. UK ones are bigger but thinner than the ones in America. The crepe suzzette in France is even thinner and served on a more regular basis. We tend to mainly eat them on Shrove Tuesday. Served with sugar or sweetener and lemon juice. Some people add blueberries or other fillings.
Cat paw on my hand, he likes saying hello. Hello in the morning, when he comes up to me, assumes the “staring” position and waits to be fed! Then sometimes he will reach out with his paw to greet me. My other two don’t do that. One sharpens her claws on my leg, pulling holes in my leggings, the third likes to head butt my hand in greeting. Sweet.
This is what I wrote :
I’m having trouble with diabetes because of my love of that sweet stuff called sugar.
I was sad and upset because of a bereavement and found sweets and cakes became my comfort. Instead of the occasional cake I became obsessed with buying myself boxes of chocolates, or sweet pastries or cream cakes almost every day.
Meanwhile I stopped eating as many savory things. I’m not eating enough vegetables and this has impacted my blood chemistry. So the point I want to make is don’t eat sugary stuff to excess and try not to get addicted to it. I’m trying to be good now…
My Cat is staring at me, he’s been doing it for a while, I get the impression he wants something, maybe food or milk. I woke up from a nap and saw him just sitting there, so I took a quick shot of him. Cats have their own way of doing things, this cat is definitely unique.
Right, I’d better go and feed him and put the heating on it’s blooming cold!
What’s your favorite candy?
Couldn’t find a photo of chocolate brazils.
My favourite candy (we don’t call it that in England). Is whole Brazil nuts with their shells removed dipped in a thick layer of dark chocolate.
I don’t have them very often, but I really enjoyed them at Christmas when I was a child. I think they are still for sale. The taste combination between the two ingredients is sublime. If you don’t have a nut allergy maybe try them?
Last week I went to Trentham Gardens in Stoke-on-Trent. This cake was a bit blurry but nice. The cream calmed the sweetness of the carrot cake down. We had intended to have sandwiches and salad. But when we got to the cafe it was a bit too late to get anything savoury.
It was nice to get out of the house and go for afternoon tea with my sister a few days ago. I’ve been ill for a few weeks now, I’m OK one day, then I’m shattered the next, so I really enjoyed the trip out.
Carrot cake seems to have become a British classic along with fruit scones and banana bread. Others include black forest gateau and Victoria sponge. All of them are real treats.
I put a five man frame tent up once with my hubby. We’d borrowed it because ours was worn out. It was only when we had finished putting it up that we realised the curtains were on the outside! It took another hour to redo it. The thing was huge with complicated bedrooms to hang from the internal frame. It had taken an effort to get in the boot of the car it was so heavy.
We were on holiday for a week at Red wharf Bay in Anglesey, hubby also managed to back the car over my best saucepan, which was annoying because we only had a couple of small pots to cook in until we could buy a replacement. I think we went to the local pub down by the bay and had delicious fish and chips and a pint of beer for tea. (So there was an upside after a frustrating afternoon).
Mallaband-Brown