My Guilty Secret!

What happened to Britain "basking in weather hotter than Spain" this week? As far as I can tell from looking at the Met Office website, no one, no way, no how is anyone in Britain doing any basking! I was looking forward to doing some gardening this week and getting to grips with the devastation that this wet and windy winter has reduced my garden to, not to mention getting some seeds planted but, desperate as I am to begin this task, I am unashamedly a fair weather gardener and I refuse point blank to weed the garden with water dripping off the end of my nose ....... not an attractive look! 

And it not going to get any better any time soon! Tomorrow and the day after look just as bad, if not worse so, for now, I am going to try and fill my days with indoor activities. 

So ........ now for my guilty secret!

I love watching American TV shows. In particular I love American cop shows. I could watch them all day. NCIS, CSI, Blue Bloods, Rizzoli and Isles, The Glades, Bones ........ I could go on and on. I can't help it. I just love the escapism, the palm trees and the eternally sunny skies when it's horrible and grey here, not to mention some good old fashioned good v's evil fisticuffs and for some bizarre reason, I just love some of the American words. Yesterday, while watching NCIS Los Angeles, someone was making Snickerdoodles. Now I'm sorry but I absolutely love the word Snickerdoodle! It's a fabulous word. It's fun and cheerful and whatever Snickerdoodles are you just know they are going to be delicious. Turns out, they are butter cookies rolled in cinnamon sugar ....... So, of course, I just had to make some! 

I found this lovely recipe online. 

Snickerdoodles Recipe

Makes 28 to 30 cookies

You Will Need

For the Cookies:
2 1/2 cups (350 grams) all-purpose flour (we use Gold Medal unbleached all-purpose flour)
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
16 tablespoons (226 grams or 2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups (300 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature

For the Coating:

1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

Directions

Mix Dough: Sift or whisk flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and the salt together then set aside.

In a large bowl, using a handheld mixer on medium speed beat the butter, sugar and vanilla together until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. (Or, use a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment). Reduce speed to low. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl then add the flour mixture in three parts, just mixing until it disappears. Wrap with plastic wrap and chill dough at least 30 minutes or up to 3 days.

Make Coating: In a small bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon together.

Bake Cookies: Preheat your oven to 400º F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or use silicon baking mats.

Shape heaping-tablespoon-sized mounds of cookie dough into balls. Roll in the cinnamon-sugar mixture and place 2 inches apart onto baking sheets.

Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes, until the cookies have puffed a little and the tops look set. The cookies should be light golden. Cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. (The cookies will fall a little as they cool).

Storing the Cookies: Baked and cooled cookies will keep, stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. Also, keep in mind that you can freeze this cookie dough. 

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, scoop and roll individual dough balls and place onto the baking sheet (they can be close together), and then place in the freezer until hard, about 30 minutes. Transfer frozen dough balls to an airtight container or plastic bag.

And ...... Ta da 

Trouble is, as my portion control is not brilliant I made 28 dinner-plate sized cookies and I now have no idea what I'm going to do with them. I might have to distribute them amongst the neighbours because I am going to end up the size of a barrage balloon if I keep eating all the things I make for my blog :-) 

The Aftermath of the Rain

I was sitting on my sofa last night, snuggled up with a couple of cats on my knees and a dog sitting on my feet listening to the rain lashing the windows. The weather here in Cornwall, as in many places, has been truly horrible. It's rained and rained and rained and before that the wind was so strong that the top of one of my trees snapped off and a huge branch from another tree broke off and squashed part of the fence in my field. As soon as the weather improves, I will have to move the branch and repair the fence although how I'm going to move it my myself I haven't figured out yet. Never mind, I'm sure it will be ok.

Well, it's now Sunday morning, I have just been out to check on the llamas and to check the state of the field. The llamas are ok, I moved them into the small field further away from the river yesterday so they are fine. My field, however, is not so fine. The river burst it's banks and the resulting torrent of water that swept through my field has covered three quarters of it with leaves, logs and other debris and there is now also a thick layer of silt covering all the grass. In addition to all the debris, a very large tree was washed through the field and has demolished about 25 feet of fencing and the sheer volume of water has washed away a good two foot of river bank. The river, usually a nice gentle burble is now a raging torrent so I will have to wait until the water goes down before it's safe enough for me to fix any of the fencing.

My river went from this ........

To this .................................. in about 24 hours.

The clean-up from this is going to take a while, although, I am really very fortunate. My family is ok, my animals are ok and my house is ok and for that I am very thankful. It could have been a lot worse and I'm sure there are many people who have not been so fortunate. The forecast for today and tomorrow is still looking a bit grim but hopefully the weathermen will be right and there will be a some fine weather next week and I will be able to start clearing up the mess ....... fingers crossed!

Courtesy of the Met Office