Well, winter has returned with a vengeance! We haven’t seen snow like this for years and as usual, everyone is totally unprepared and the country has shut down…. Although the garden looks very pretty,
the Scottish weather may finally have got the better of our little olive tree
The sprouts still look OK though….
One of my #50in50 challenges is to knit myself a jumper. I love the idea of creating something nice to wear – when I was a teenager I used to make skirts (although they were little more than tubes really) on my mum’s sewing machine and I regularly used to dye t-shirts, but I haven’t made anything for ages. I am an avid follower of Kate Davies Designs and she recently published this beautiful Carbeth jumper pattern which she assured me I would be able to knit, even as a beginner. Kate also sells gorgeous wool and I’m using her Macallum to knit my jumper – so far I’ve managed some of the body and a sleeve. Once I’ve knitted the second sleeve I somehow have join it all together and knit it some more (all I can say is thank goodness for all the very helpful YouTube videos). Then there is the mysterious process of ‘blocking’ which somehow turns the jumper into the shape it is supposed to be.
We will see how it turns out, but I’m really enjoying the process, even if I am very slow. Kate also writes a beautiful blog about her life on the West Highland Way and lots of stuff other than knitting….
I ventured out into the snow yesterday for cake ingredients and came back with pistachios. This is the result.
Pistachio and almond cake (pdf Pistachio and almond cake)
250g butter, softened
50g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
120g ground almonds
100g ground pistachios
50g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
zest of 2 lemons
- Preheat oven to 180/160 fan/gas 4
- Beat eggs and sugar until pale in colour
- Add eggs slowly and mix thoroughly
- Add almonds, ground nuts, flour, baking powder and lemon zest and mix in
- Bake for 40-45 mins until skewer comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the tin and then turn out to cool fully
sweet enough bakes 