Builders, Bread and a Bishop

A lazy Sunday alone. I had to stay in to make tea for some builders who were coming to take fix some stuff. At 8:00am I made aforementioned tea, still in my pyjamas. By 8:30am I was dressed and ready to remind them to have a look at the droopy pipe (don't ask!) but...they had disappeared. I decided that maybe they had gone to find some building materials/a bacon sandwich and I would await their return. In the meantime, housebound, I would bake some sesame bread from the W.I Bread book.

Baking bread makes me feel like I have nurtured something. I like how it grows, how it transforms. Yeast + time = fun. FACT

The builders never returned. Lesson learnt: don't be such a prude. You can give people instructions in your pyjamas. Demand respect at all times, whatever you are wearing. But hey, at least I had a fresh loaf of bread to show for my morning.

In the afternoon I finally got round to paying the Bishop's Gardens a visit. They are walled and only opened to the public on certain Sundays during the summer to raise money for charidee. The Bishop has the most enviable vegetable garden going: beetroot, rhubarb, soooo many types of lettuce. And, fig trees as in Eden. Take a look at these raspberries in this big old net so the birds don't get'em and the view of the Great Hospital in the background...I'm a bit jealous. Do you think if I asked nicely he'd share his produce?

Also, the other night I made these cookies. They aren't much to look at but they have chunks of white chocolate and dried fig and the combination is a winner. The recipe was from an article in the Times with extracts from The Popina Book of Baking which I think I will have to get my hands on some time soon.

Here is the recipe:

50g butter - 80g golden caster sugar (I used have white and half brown) - a dash of vanilla extract - an egg - 70g soft dried figs chopped - 50g white chocolate chopped - 130g plain flour - 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 160 C - Cream butter and sugar - Add vanilla and eggs - Mix in figs and chocolate - Fold in flour and baking powder - Spoon and flatten mixture onto greased baking trays spaced well apart - Bake for 25 minutes-ish until golden - Cool - Enjoy.