It's been mad, mad, mad this week. I have been chicken sitting for my neighbours, one of my llamas has been giving me sleepless nights because of a cut on his leg, my youngest daughter is still home from uni for the Easter Hols and to top it all off I had to call out the RAC when the wheel on my car started to smoke on the way to the shops on Friday!! I'm shattered from all the running around and sorting and worrying but hopefully, things will now get back to some sort of normality because I'm rapidly running out of steam. I haven't had time to do any sewing for my Etsy-shop-in-the-making, the garden is looking like a jungle again and the dreaded tussocks are back (you can read about the saga of the tussocks here and here) so, as soon as my daughter goes back to uni, I am going to have to crack-on and get things under control again ..... I hate it when the house gets out of control. On the plus side, we did nip off to Looe to visit our favourite cafe for a cream tea which, although it has changed hands, was just as nice as ever, despite it now being a cash only establishment. I'm not very good at carrying cash in my purse, I always forget to go to the bank so tend to rely on my debit card. We spotted these lovely daffodil hearts on the hill behind the cafe .... someone has obviously been busy and I think they look lovely.
I also whipped up a batch of shortbread. I had a craving for something sweet and as I usually always have butter sugar and plain flour in the house, it's my go-to-sweet-craving-quick-fix recipe. Simple as can be and you can be eating delicious shortbread in half an hour ..... less if you don't let it cool first ..... I have to say I do like shortbread that is still a little warm :-)
Ingredients
125g/5oz butter
55g/2oz caster sugar, plus extra to finish
180g/6oz plain flour
Preparation method
Heat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
Beat the butter and the sugar together until smooth.
Stir in the flour to get a smooth paste. Turn on to a work surface and gently roll out until the paste is 1cm/½in thick.
Cut into rounds or fingers and place onto a baking tray. Sprinkle with caster sugar and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Pop in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until pale golden-brown. Set aside to cool on a wire rack.
I know it says beat butter and sugar but I don't do it that way. I rub the butter into the flour then stir in the sugar and press it into the cake tin but either way works just fine. It's just that I'm a bit lazy and I usually can't be bothered to unearth the hand mixer.
