Wednesday 4 May 2016

Catching up with friends, and other bank holiday weekend activities

This weekend I had the pleasure of catching up with friends - J, her husband J and their nearly-new child (13 months old) came down for the weekend.

It been just over 6 months since I last saw them, so it was wonderful to catch up.



We had a quiet, low key time - catching up, playing with the sproglet, cooking, eating, and a short walk (more of an amble, really) in the village, including some mild foraging for ransoms (wild garlic).



We didn't actually see a wood full of bluebells, but there were lots in the hedge bottoms, and this seemed like a good opportunity to share the picture I took on Tuesday, instead!

There was also a certain amount of cooking, some parts of it more successful than others .. I tried out a recipe for an upside-down aubergine and courgette savoury cake, which tasted great but collapsed on coming out of the tin, so was less impressive visually than the recipe promised!

I also tried, for the first time, to make baklava, as it's nice, and hard to get hold of the good stuff here. 

I went for the Turkish style (made with sugar syrup rather than honey) and it turned out pretty well, I think. Lots and lots of pistachios, not too much sugar, and a smidgeon of lemon juice - so it tasted good without being cloyingly sweet.




Next tie I make it I think I shall cook it for a slightly shorter time, and perhaps not reduce the sugar syrup so much, as it was slightly dry round the edges, but on the whole, it worked. And I still have 2 packs of filo pastry, so it won't be hard to try again..

My friends had to go home on Sunday, so I had Monday free, which I used for a little house work, a lot of snoozing (Small Person wakes very early, and I'm not as good as he is at napping during the day to make up!) 

Then, as it was wet and unappealing outside, I went to the cinema and saw Captain America:Civil War . Which was good fun. Which was good fun. 

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