I think I might have had one of the most pleasant couple of weeks in a very long time, if you totally discount any time I had to spend at work, earning a living (ugh, where is my winning lottery ticket?). I had my birthday, which bough a raft of lovely gifts such as a gloriously verdant new iPod which I just love love love. I had a lovely new tea cosy, handmade by my sister, along with a great corsage (which will perfectly match an outfit I have for wedding in August) and a nice hangy heart thingy, which is just, y'know pretty.
I received two mugs, one with a picture of an aged and grumpy looking Einstein (to complement my current obsession with physics) and one with an illustration from Roald Dahl's Matilda which I read eighteen times over one summer holiday, until my mother took it off me and made me read something else. What she made me read was The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, which is wonderful but did frankly, scare the bejeesus out of me. She claims it was because Penelope Lively is a good writer, but I think it's another case of her silent war against her children's misbehaviour. Like the time I asked, aged about seven or eight (it might even have been the same summer), what the little tiny bottle of red sauce on the table of the pizza restaurant was. My mother said 'Try it' so I did. The little red bottle was Tabasco. See? Wily and cunning woman my mother.
Anyway, I digress. I also received a tea towel with Bodiam Castle on it, and I do like a drop of castles, I think I forced my mother and sister to visit every single one I saw one wet holiday in Wales (ha ha, payback!), and this also has a picture of a knight at joust. Very fitting. My lovely colleagues bought me a really lovely bag from Accessorize, which is one of my vices! One of my many brothers (okay, I have two, but they're a lot of work!) gave me an Amazon voucher which I gleefully spent on books some of which are in this picture along with others that I bought with birthday money from my grandmother-in-law. I stand by my right to spend my birthday money on physics books.
AND, in the last two weeks I have had two delicious meals out. The first for my birthday at a lovely restaurant called The Thatch, which I think was on that Raymond Blanc program that I hated. The other meal was for my friend's birthday, at a Turkish restaurant where we all stuffed ourselves with grilled meat, Turkish mezze, dolma (my favourite) and the birthday girl chose something the name of which closely resemble Hunka Babunka, and shall be forever immortalised that way. I, of course, was deeply excited about the pudding in which I got to indulge my passion for sticky, nutty, pastry things with ice-cream. That's right, after weeks of begging from certain people, Here are Baklava Muffins, with big thanks to the 'Goddess of Everything I Hold Dear' Nigella.
Ingredients for filling
100g chopped walnuts or pistachios
75g demerara sugar
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
45g butter, melted.
Ingredients for muffins
210g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
75g caster sugar
1 large egg
45g butter, melted
250ml buttermilk (or 175g natural yoghurt and 75g semi skimmed milk)
runny honey for the topping
12 hole muffin pan, lined with cases.
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6
Mix all the filling ingredients together into a small bowl and set aside.
In a large owl, mix together your flour, baking powder, bicarb and sugar and mix your egg, butter and buttermilk/yoghurt-milk mix in a large jug. Make a well in the dry ingredients then pour in the liquid and stir minimally, just enough to pretty much mix it. With muffins, you can be as lazy as you like remembering that the less you mix, the lighter they'll be.
Fill each paper case one third full, then put a teaspoon of filling on top. Cover filling with remaing muffin mixture. Any remaning filling can be sprinkled on top.
Bake for 15 minutes, by which time they'll be golden brown and gorgeous. Take them out and place on a cooling rack, then whilst they are still warm drizzle with honey. You can warm the honey a little first to make it easier. Eat and be eternally grateful.
I received two mugs, one with a picture of an aged and grumpy looking Einstein (to complement my current obsession with physics) and one with an illustration from Roald Dahl's Matilda which I read eighteen times over one summer holiday, until my mother took it off me and made me read something else. What she made me read was The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, which is wonderful but did frankly, scare the bejeesus out of me. She claims it was because Penelope Lively is a good writer, but I think it's another case of her silent war against her children's misbehaviour. Like the time I asked, aged about seven or eight (it might even have been the same summer), what the little tiny bottle of red sauce on the table of the pizza restaurant was. My mother said 'Try it' so I did. The little red bottle was Tabasco. See? Wily and cunning woman my mother.
Anyway, I digress. I also received a tea towel with Bodiam Castle on it, and I do like a drop of castles, I think I forced my mother and sister to visit every single one I saw one wet holiday in Wales (ha ha, payback!), and this also has a picture of a knight at joust. Very fitting. My lovely colleagues bought me a really lovely bag from Accessorize, which is one of my vices! One of my many brothers (okay, I have two, but they're a lot of work!) gave me an Amazon voucher which I gleefully spent on books some of which are in this picture along with others that I bought with birthday money from my grandmother-in-law. I stand by my right to spend my birthday money on physics books.
AND, in the last two weeks I have had two delicious meals out. The first for my birthday at a lovely restaurant called The Thatch, which I think was on that Raymond Blanc program that I hated. The other meal was for my friend's birthday, at a Turkish restaurant where we all stuffed ourselves with grilled meat, Turkish mezze, dolma (my favourite) and the birthday girl chose something the name of which closely resemble Hunka Babunka, and shall be forever immortalised that way. I, of course, was deeply excited about the pudding in which I got to indulge my passion for sticky, nutty, pastry things with ice-cream. That's right, after weeks of begging from certain people, Here are Baklava Muffins, with big thanks to the 'Goddess of Everything I Hold Dear' Nigella.
Ingredients for filling
100g chopped walnuts or pistachios
75g demerara sugar
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
45g butter, melted.
Ingredients for muffins
210g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
75g caster sugar
1 large egg
45g butter, melted
250ml buttermilk (or 175g natural yoghurt and 75g semi skimmed milk)
runny honey for the topping
12 hole muffin pan, lined with cases.
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6
Mix all the filling ingredients together into a small bowl and set aside.
In a large owl, mix together your flour, baking powder, bicarb and sugar and mix your egg, butter and buttermilk/yoghurt-milk mix in a large jug. Make a well in the dry ingredients then pour in the liquid and stir minimally, just enough to pretty much mix it. With muffins, you can be as lazy as you like remembering that the less you mix, the lighter they'll be.
Fill each paper case one third full, then put a teaspoon of filling on top. Cover filling with remaing muffin mixture. Any remaning filling can be sprinkled on top.
Bake for 15 minutes, by which time they'll be golden brown and gorgeous. Take them out and place on a cooling rack, then whilst they are still warm drizzle with honey. You can warm the honey a little first to make it easier. Eat and be eternally grateful.
