Showing posts with label baking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baking. Show all posts

Friday, September 12, 2008

Say it in French























...I really wanted to say that to this house owner who has been getting work done on her property for months now. The same person who would only know me at official neighbourhood watch meetings and always overlooks me otherwise (as I 'only' rent and do not own the house I live in).
Like all builders, no matter in which country or from which nationality, hers come in the early morning to make a lot of noise (jackhammer was the favorite tool this week), then have an extensive break and do something around midday again. The time when the rest of the population will either still sleep or have a lunch break (should they work from home). The builders' van/lorry/skip will block the street for hours - making deliveries to other houses in the street nearly impossible.
This afternoon they added a new sound effect: a high pitched screech, not unlike what you hear at the dentist. To this you add the noise of the planes (thanks to Heathrow Terminal 5) which sometimes sound like they are flying through the attic, especially at 5.45am and 11pm (thankfully not every day). Well, you get the picture.
When I saw this doodle in another blog, it expressed what I felt this morning when I was so tired I nearly fell off the bed. This sleep deprivation then made me forget to eat lunch and bake Banana bread for one hour before realising that the temperature was far too low to make anything happen to the dough... time for the weekend and some sleep!

Monday, December 3, 2007

Happy 1st of Advent!

The first of Advent (Advent Sundays = 4 Sundays before Christmas) has come around, and with it the real count down to Christmas. This weekend, apart from both J. and M. having a lot of pain in their necks (no, I am NOT their pain in the neck.... at least not this time), we welcomed the season by making some glitter stars and listening to Keith Jarrett. M. and I had to chase through London on the search for the right kind of glitter, glue, cardboard, paper cutter with self-healing mat, etc., but once we got going in the late afternoon on Saturday it was great fun. I managed to ram the butt of the knife so firmly into my thumb for such a prolonged period of time, that the tip of my thumb is still a little numb today, but have a look at the stars! The instructions can be found on the Martha Stewart website.

On Sunday, my friend H. and her son D. were visiting us for a session of Christmas cookie baking. Oh, the fascination of being allowed to sample the chocolate, cookie dough and cookies, as well as J's famous Brazilian cheese bread - I'm not sure whether D. had more fun or I did! Since neither M. nor I can have sugar in any quantities, we revised all the recipes and used some no-sugar-added-jam and made up the volume with some ground almonds and/or oatmeal. Also, we used lovely sugar free Rococo Chocolates. Here are a few (visual) samples of our achievements.




Almond & Pecan Sandwiches (German Recipe)


Classic Mürbeteig Biscuits (German Recipe)


To round off this Advent weekend, M. and I finally started knitting our Christmas Gnomes (Alan Dart). I have to say, the initial verdict is that they both still look a bit like Barbabelle at the moment... Barbabelle with one giant foot.... But I'm sure we'll get there in the end ;-)