Learning

Faces

Unfold

I love the way the petals of peonies unfold like tissue paper.

© 2009 nicky linzey for Illustration Friday

First taste of Summer

We walked over to the harbour for the first time in ages and picked the first of the season's samphire. Took it home and steamed it, to make my version of Salad Nicoise. Yummy it was delicious.

Craving

I don't have a particularly sweet tooth but occasionally I find myself craving a piece of my Grandmother's Lardy Cake. Luckily I have her original recipe and as Gra is such a good baker he now makes it for me. It's very unhealthy but delicious and anyway who cares!
Recipe below if you want to try it.

© 2009 nicky linzey for Illustration Friday

Ingredients

450g white unbleached bread flour

1 tsp salt

100g vegetable lard

7g sachet of dried yeast

300mls/half pint warm milk

2 tsp clear honey

150g currants (soak in warm water & drain)

100g sultanas (soak in warm water & drain)

50g soft brown sugar

1 tsp mixed spice

Method

Into the bowl sift the flour, add the salt and rub in 25g of lard. Cream the honey, milk and yeast and mix vigorously with the flour to make a smooth dough (adding more milk if necessary). Shape into ball, cover the bowl with film and leave to rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes. Drain off water from the currants and sultanas, mix together and knead into dough until the fruit is evenly distributed and leave to rest for 10 minutes.On a floured top roll out into a rectangle about 150mm (6 inches) wide by 300mm (12 inches) long. Soften the lard and spread over the bottom two thirds. Mix the soft brown sugar and mixed spice and sprinkle on the larded area. Fold the top unlarded third down and the bottom third up to make 3 layers. Roll out to the original size rectangle again, roll up from the bottom like a Swiss roll. Cut in half to make 2 thinner rolls. Place each roll cut side up onto a greased baking tray and leave to rise in a warm place covered with clean tea towel for about 1 hour. Before baking, lard the ends to stop the rolls from coming apart then bake in a pre-heated oven 200°C / Gas 6. When cool, glaze.

Glaze

To make the glaze topping place 3 tablespoons of golden caster sugar in 200ml water. Boil to dissolve and thicken - when you have the consistency of a heavy syrup take off heat and drizzle over the top of each cake.

Life

How lucky am I to have a family that pulls out all the stops in a crisis? Love to you all x

Adapt

I suppose all plants, animals, birds and even humans have to adapt to their environment. Plants like these succulents adapt to arrid conditions by storing water in their leaves, they are called Xerophytes.

© 2009 nicky linzey for illustration friday