Thankfully, lockdown is slowly being lifted and we are now able to do more and go further. Mr McGregor and I have managed to do some walking and I’ve managed to swim in one of the local reservoirs and in the sea (indoor pools are still closed in Scotland).
My birthday was just after the start of lockdown and since the gig we were supposed to be at was cancelled, I thought that having a virtual visit to the pub with a group of friends would be a good way to spend it. Mr McGregor has kept in touch with some of his schoolfriends and they are now amongst my closest friends. We are scattered across the UK and one couple live in the USA and so we don’t all get to meet up very often. We set a meeting up on Zoom and it worked well – so much so that we thought we could repeat it every now and again.
We have ended up meeting up every week….. sometimes we have had a quiz, other times we have just chatted, one week Mr McGregor gave a seminar (although my IT support was deemed less than adequate……). Various children and animals have appeared to say hello along the way. It has been very special and as one of the group has just suggested the pub visits are a real tonic and a highlight of our week – in fact ‘the miles and years just melt away’.
The group was also on hand to help me identify this vegetable which arrived in our veg box this week (a crookneck squash, apparently). A bit like a courgette.
Anyway, here’s a cake for you……
Pistachio and lemon cake
100g pistachios, chopped up small
100g butter
90ml milk
3 eggs, beaten
120 plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
50g caster sugar
zest of 2 lemons
juice of half a lemon
- Preheat oven to 180/160 fan. Grease and line a loaf tin
- Cream together the butter and sugar. Mix together the dry ingredients and lemon zest.
- Gradually mix in the eggs, alternating with spoonfuls of the dry ingredients. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and the milk and mix in well. Finally mix in the lemon juice
- Spoon the mixture into the loaf tin and bake for around 50 minutes. Cover with foil after 40 minutes if browning too quickly. Cool for a few minutes on a rack and then leave to cool fully
sweet enough bakes 