Winter and food which warms the heart
The weather has turned truly wintery here over the last week or so. Days seem to end in sudden darkness by 5:30pm, but are often so overcast that the outside lights automatically turn on before 4pm. It gets harder and harder to get out of bed in the morning, to get ready and make it to class on time - or at least not very late! Only two weeks of classes to go, and I think lecturers and students alike are ready for a change in pace. Unfortunately for them, the lecturers will need to mark all the assignments which we have to submit in the next two weeks before they get to relax. And then some of them will need to begin getting ready for next semester!
But not all has been dark and dreary and difficult. With another birthday comes another opportunity to do some baking! And today we had a baby shower - another opportunity for sharing fun food! And tea!
Honey biscuits are a favourite of mine. They are permanently connected to Christmas for me, which is in the middle of summer here in Australia but is the middle of winter in Germany, where this family recipe comes from originally. So I thought I'd have a go at making some in winter - and what better reason than the birthday of one of our lecturers, who happens to be from Europe! I only made half a batch, but it still made over 50 biscuits!
I wonder how many of you have had honey biscuits before. If you have not, think of something like gingerbread, but with a strong honey smell and taste combined with the ginger, cinnamon and cloves. I have yet to master the skill of having soft honey biscuits, which is how I personally prefer them, but they make excellent biscuits for dunking in tea or hot chocolate when they turn out firm, so it's a win either way!
We wrote 'happy birthday' in as many languages as we could on the whiteboard in the morning tea room: Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese, Korean and a few more that I can't remember! It was a great opportunity to talk about different traditions around celebrating birthdays. We were told that in the Netherlands everyone in the family is congratulated or wished happy birthday when it is the birthday of one of the members of the family - unless I have managed to misremember what was said on Thursday! What are your birthday traditions? In my family, we usually go out for dinner for a person's birthday - the venue is selected by the person having their birthday - and we give them gifts.
I have written about my first attempt at making a cheesecake, and today's baby shower offered the perfect opportunity to try again. I still had some frozen raspberries left over, so I used them instead of blackberries in a new recipe which is much simpler than the other one! Everything went very smoothly this time around, and the cheesecake turned out great - so much so that I have none left!
So, even with the cold weather and frequent rain and lack of sunshine, there has been much to enjoy! And plenty of tea, too! We had a lovely pot of Lady Grey, served in some lovely tea cups!
I hope you have had some pleasant food moments this week! Or that you will have some over the weekend if you have not.
But not all has been dark and dreary and difficult. With another birthday comes another opportunity to do some baking! And today we had a baby shower - another opportunity for sharing fun food! And tea!
Honey biscuits are a favourite of mine. They are permanently connected to Christmas for me, which is in the middle of summer here in Australia but is the middle of winter in Germany, where this family recipe comes from originally. So I thought I'd have a go at making some in winter - and what better reason than the birthday of one of our lecturers, who happens to be from Europe! I only made half a batch, but it still made over 50 biscuits!
I wonder how many of you have had honey biscuits before. If you have not, think of something like gingerbread, but with a strong honey smell and taste combined with the ginger, cinnamon and cloves. I have yet to master the skill of having soft honey biscuits, which is how I personally prefer them, but they make excellent biscuits for dunking in tea or hot chocolate when they turn out firm, so it's a win either way!
We wrote 'happy birthday' in as many languages as we could on the whiteboard in the morning tea room: Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese, Korean and a few more that I can't remember! It was a great opportunity to talk about different traditions around celebrating birthdays. We were told that in the Netherlands everyone in the family is congratulated or wished happy birthday when it is the birthday of one of the members of the family - unless I have managed to misremember what was said on Thursday! What are your birthday traditions? In my family, we usually go out for dinner for a person's birthday - the venue is selected by the person having their birthday - and we give them gifts.
I have written about my first attempt at making a cheesecake, and today's baby shower offered the perfect opportunity to try again. I still had some frozen raspberries left over, so I used them instead of blackberries in a new recipe which is much simpler than the other one! Everything went very smoothly this time around, and the cheesecake turned out great - so much so that I have none left!
So, even with the cold weather and frequent rain and lack of sunshine, there has been much to enjoy! And plenty of tea, too! We had a lovely pot of Lady Grey, served in some lovely tea cups!
I hope you have had some pleasant food moments this week! Or that you will have some over the weekend if you have not.
That cheesecake looks delicious!!
ReplyDeleteWhy, yes, it was! Not too sweet, which was great. Will have to make it for you sometime!
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