In the kitchen

Although it's rained most of the day, I did manage to get a walk in early this morning.  First week in February, and look at these daffs blooming away:

Perhaps a sign that Spring is not so far away.

I took a quick detour down one of the sliproads onto the beach - really grey and dreary, and that was before all the wind and rain!

The pier to the right . . .

 . . . and more rain clouds to the left

The tide was out, and the sea was the same muddy brown colour of the sands; the low cloud reducing the visibility across the water.

So a few hours in the kitchen seemed like a good idea.  I was full of good intentions at the start of the year, planning to try a new recipe from my baking book each week but the distraction of buying a house temporarily got in the way.  Today, however, was just the day to mess about in the kitchen again.  I started with some ginger fairy cakes (using some of the stem ginger from the gingernuts I made before) - very tasty.  Then I tried my hand with some Somerset Easter biscuits.  I had fully intended to stick exactly with the recipe in the book but I discovered the biscuit meal we bought from Calbourne Mill was almost out-of-date so I used that instead of white flour.  It worked out really well, a lovely nutty texture.

Onion, chickpeas, carrots and celery

These burgers went in the freezer

Finally I made some chickpea burgers.  N had made some great burgers before Christmas using the burger press we 'acquired' from our last trip to Manchester and I had been keen to try out a veggie version.  I had two for my dinner tonight and they worked a treat.  Might try the next ones with a relish or sauce of some sort

And in between pottering in the kitchen, I'm back knitting N's jumper.  Things seem to be getting back to normal.