RICHMOND SOUP

I had a recurrence of a weird symptom this morning that hasn't been as bad for a few weeks. It's the weirdest thing...shedding mouth tissue?? I've had it every now and then when not pregnant but I'm talking maybe once or twice a year. Pretty much from the minute I found out that I was pregnant this time, I had it  a l l  t h e  t i m e. I can't really describe it without sounding gross so I'm going to go ahead and sound gross. So I'll feel something in my mouth and when I go to see what it is, it's like this gooey white stringy stuff, sometimes slightly still attached to my inner cheek or lip. I told you it was gross. I know they say you get increased saliva production when you're pregnant so maybe it's linked to that?? I've googled it and can't really find much about it. I suppose I should ask my dentist, but I forgot to last time I was there and he charges the price of a small house for a consultation so I'll probably just assume it's ok and not worry. Like I said, it hasn't been nearly as regular in the last couple of weeks so I definitely think it's pregnancy related.

Moving on...
Last Saturday we went to Richmond to see my younger brother Matt and his lovely girlfriend Larissa. They have a new flat up there and it's just so lovely. Richmond is a very nice part of the world and we all came away thinking we would quite like to live there too. I had a quick nosey at rental prices and it would cost us about an extra £1000 per month to rent a house the same size as ours up there...so that won't be happening anytime soon! It's nice to dream though. Matt showed us David Attenborough's house...it's beautiful. No wonder he said it's his favourite place on earth.

I didn't take many photos while we were there but here is Beau perusing the menu at lunch like an old pro. 

 

 It went something like this "Fish fingers, fish fingers, fish fingers. I'll have fish fingers please" They didn't have fish fingers on the menu. Doh!

Anyhoo, go to Richmond if you haven't been there before.

As a side note...the morning we went, I realised my legs needed shaving as I was getting dressed but I couldn't be bothered to get back in the shower so I did them at the bathroom sink. NEVER AGAIN! Lesson learnt. If your legs aren't dripping wet, it's as good as dry shaving them. Hello razor rash and itchy as hell legs for two days! You'd think by the age of 27 that I might have learnt this lesson? 

Anyway, for the last few weeks, I've seen my beloved Chrissie Teigen raving about Ina Garten's roasted tomato and basil soup. In the spirit of being a complete follower and believing that Chrissie knows best, I thought I'd better give it a try. I dutifully looked up the recipe and gathered my ingredients, then finally got round to making it on Monday. Well, the soup was some kind of wonderful, but holy sodium poisoning! It was so overly salty! I knew Ina was partial to a bit of salt and I did think when I was doing it that a tablespoon of salt seemed like a lot for any beast, but I followed the recipe accurately and immediately regretted not using my better judgement once I tasted it. I will definitely be making it again but I will use half the quantity of salt, maybe less. 

Despite the saltiness, I couldn't not eat it all. And I enjoyed every drop. If you love a fresh, summery soup and you love basil (who doesn't) then give it a whirl, but take Ina's seasoning advice with...you guessed it...a pinch of salt.

I'm here all week :o)

x

BLACK AND WHITE COOKIES

It's becoming something of a habit that I bake something on a Wednesday. Ok, so it's happened like 3 times but come on, humour me. Mum comes round on a Wednesday evening so it's nice to have something homemade to offer her. So far I have made Peanut Butter Cookies which were a failure because I overcooked them, ABC Muffins which were a failure because I only had gluten free buckwheat flour at home and they tasted like plastic, and Black and White Cookies, which tasted like heaven.

Black and White cookies are an NYC bakery staple, and loving lemon flavoured desserts as I do, they're so far up my street, they're jammed in my letter box. I found this recipe from Brown Eyed Baker and it appealed to me more than others, as the author mentions that she has tried and failed at other recipes for them until she landed on this perfected one.  

I actually halved the quantities the recipe states, just in case they didn't work out (my past track record wasn't in my favour) and that turned out to be a great plan, purely because I just wouldn't have had the oven space had I made the whole amount. These are BIG ASS cookies. I'm confident I made them the right size because the recipe states that you should get 20, and I halved the quantities and got a perfect 10. But next time I make them I will halve the quantity again but actually halve the size of the cookies too, to make 20 smaller ones. I am a self confessed greedy pig with a sweet tooth, and even I thought they were a little too big.

They were really incredibly simple to make, and as always I tweaked the recipe ever so slightly for my own taste and convenience. I added a little freshly grated lemon zest to the mix as well as the lemon extract the recipe calls for, and in all honestly , I would add even more next time. I know they're only supposed to have a whisper of lemon flavour, but whisper schwisper, I love me some lemon. I also used Green & Black's Lemon Dark Chocolate for the black half of the icing. This stuff is off the chain tasty, so if you can get your hands on it, I highly recommend it. Plus you only need a tiny bit for the icing, so you get to eat the rest of the bar as it is, win win! I got mine in Sainsbury's. Also, the recipe calls for corn syrup for the icing. Here in the UK, we don't do corn syrup, so I used agave nectar instead. No idea how similar that is to actual corn syrup, but it worked just fine. 

This little baking adventure also meant that I got to bust out my new apron for the first time. I'm not really an apron wearer, but I bought the cutest one ever while we were in Bruges. My mum LIVES in an apron, I'm not even kidding. It's a running joke in our family that she will sit down for Christmas Dinner wearing her trusty apron. She brings one to my house when she comes, just in case. Seriously. And I'm not gonna lie, now I have such a pretty one in my possession, I might be in danger of becoming my mother. Look...

This photo really doesn't do it justice, on my big, thick waisted body, it would be much better worn on a Betty from Madmen type, but until I get my act together and lose some weight, here it is. 

And without further ado, here are the cookies...

I forgot to put parchment paper down when I iced them, but look how pretty my work surface looked when I was done :o)

I also didn't wait for the first icing to set before doing the second half. I'm impatient like that. And hey, do you like my seasonally inappropriate cookie plate? This one was for my mum, and if you think about it, she pretty much is Santa, so....

xo