Sweet things
A nice bit of slice and some other sweet things.
Once upon a time, I went to see a foot reader for a story I needed to write for a UK magazine. Foot reading, as far as I can remember, was said to be a bit like palm reading but with the benefit of getting a foot massage at the same time. Great result, right? I should have known better.
I can’t really remember how it happened but I remember the foot reader asked me a question about my parents being absent when I was a child, whereupon I started weeping. I continued crying as I left the swanky offices in Carnaby St, stumbled past Liberty (normally a place of solace) and all the way home on the Tube. By the time I got home and explained this tale of woe to my husband I was sobbing uncontrollably, to the surprise of us all.
The next day, I went to work and told one of my colleagues that the foot reader said there was lots of trauma stored in the feet and she’d unblocked it. She looked at me like I needed serious therapy, saying that she’d been to an aromatherapist for a story at the same time and nothing had happened except she’d had a lovely, fragrant nap.
Why am I telling you this? All week I have been going slowly insane with an ominously rumbling tooth. While I lay awake last night, ice pack clutched to the side of my face, I started thinking about when I was 11 or 12 and my parents went overseas for two or three months, leaving me in the care of my grown-up big sister in another city. Every day I’d get off the school bus and walk home to her house, past a dairy that sold long, luscious ropes of red liquorice. This was a huge luxury for a kid from the country and I savoured every sweet, illicit moment. I don’t know about my feet, but I’m sure there is a lot of stored trauma in my teeth.
This story has absolutely nothing to do with anything but thanks for coming to my dental trauma TED talk. Here’s a really good recipe for your trouble.
Christmas Mazurka
This is a slightly fiddled-with version of something torn from an advertising supplement many moons ago (sometime between the suppressed trauma unlocking and now). I’ve got no idea why it’s named after a Polish folk dance, but it does put a spring in your step.
If you’ve yet to get any festive baking underway, this could be your saviour. It’s sort of panforte-ish in flavour, but softer (the thought of biting into a piece of panforte is not a pleasant one for me right now).
One batch yields about 10-12 long bars, which you can wrap appropriately and give out as the mood strikes you. Or, you can cut it into lots of little pieces and eat at will instead.
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped dates
1/2 cup chopped crystallised ginger
1/2 cup mixed peel
1 cup chopped dried papaya or pineapple (or dried apricots)
1 1/2 cups roasted almonds, roughly chopped
200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup (125ml) runny honey (if you don’t have liquid honey, warm it over gentle heat)
Heat the oven to 150C. Grease and line a brownie tin with baking paper.
Put all the fruit, nuts and chocolate into a large bowl. Sift in the dry ingredients and stir well to combine.
Mix the eggs and honey together as best you can, then pour this mixture over the fruit and nuts. Mix well – it’s easiest to do this with clean hands – then press into the prepared tin.
Bake for 45 minutes, until the slice is firm in the middle. Let cool completely before turning out of the tin. Slice into bars or squares and store in an airtight tin. Keeps well.
Good Things
How to make a pre-Christmas cake
Today is ‘Stir-Up Sunday’ (which admittedly has a better ring to it than ‘trying to get an emergency dental appointment Sunday’). Here’s the spiced condensed milk Christmas cake I made last year (and we gobbled it up in less than a month).
My MIL’s strawberry storing hack
I must live a very sheltered life because I’ve been very excited to see strawberries back in the shops. I’ve just remembered my mother-in-law’s great strawberry storage hack, which is to store them in a sealed (with a lid) glass jar lined with a paper towel. She says they last ‘for weeks’ this way, which might be a useful trick to know if the inhabitants of your house don’t gobble up any strawberries as soon as they arrive.
The Confectionist toffee
A dinner guest bought us some of this toffee last week, telling a funny story about how he’d first ‘discovered’ it at The Food Show and how the stallholder was surprised when he actually bought some. (I haven’t been to The Food Show for years, after being traumatised by the stampedes of OAPs chasing free samples). Anyway… this Waihere Island-made toffee is incredibly moreish. I’ve had to use a publicity image of it because someone in my house with good, strong teeth smashed through it in days. Highly recommended for festive gifting (especially to yourself).
May your week be free of traumas of all kinds x
Reporting back to let you know that I've made your Mazurka, and it's very good Lucy :) I prefer it's texture to Panforte's. Hope your sore toothy-peg's better.
I adore friut cake, I'm going to bake, and no doubt devour(!) both.
There's nothing more painful than toothache (except going to the dentist unfortunately) I hope yours is sorted soon Lucy.