Current work: still en vacances (oh, all right, I’m doing the outline of the second book in the French duo – but I am also having the weekly shop delivered today, the entire upstairs measured for carpets, and panicking about my talk in Great Yarmouth tonight)
Listening to: Julian Lloyd Webber (I need calming cello music because of my talk)
Reading: next on TBR (home too late last night to start reading)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was excellent. Beforehand, son and DH had been a tad grumpy about it. ‘Why do we have to get dragged along to musicals?’ Because it's a family evening out. Involves dinner, too. Stop moaning and enjoy it.
So we had dinner at Tootsie’s (chicken breast with bacon, mushroom and blue cheese… ahhh – and a healthy rocket salad, and crushed Dijon potatoes – note that I managed to sneak in a French dish *g*). And then to the theatre. Great performances all round, and the car is just stunning. (Am still trying to work out how they did the flying bit. Hydraulics? Wires? Brilliant, anyway.) It got a standing ovation. Son and DH admitted they’d enjoyed it, but are adamant they don’t want to come to more musicals. Madam looked at me. ‘So we could go to London and see Grease, then, and they won’t insist on coming with us.’ LOL. I foresee girly evenings for musicals. Son, I think, might like more serious drama. He has been banging on about wanting to see Shakespeare, but it has to be the right play and the right production. (No more mistakes like the one I made taking DH to see a version of Coriolanus set in the 1930s. Verrrry self-conscious and it put him off Shakespeare for ever.)
Am doing a talk in Great Yarmouth tonight at Books Inside, on spooks and poisoners and anything else I’ve written about Yarmouth. Need to sort the Post-It notes on my pages in case I dry up and need to remind myself.
In the meantime, am distracted by carpet measuring, working on the outline for the second book in the French duo, and I think I promised to take the kids bowling today. That, or make more cookies (but this time we’re going back to MY recipe – the one in Madam’s book yesterday was not a success. Very bland and completely the wrong texture… I mean, since when do cookies contain eggs?).
6 comments:
Almost all my cookie recipes contain eggs! What else do you moisten them with? Curious minds want to know.
I like Madam already. Today I am taking my girly girls to historic houses. The dh is away and we save these trips for such an occasion. LOL
Hi Kate. I've never really been into Shakespere - until I was taken (read "dragged") to The Globe to see a play (not even on of his famous ones either). But when I got there the ambiance of it all and the quality of the play (even though I only understood about 20% of it) blew me away! It was out of this world. Your son might like that (not to mention you of course!) Take care. Caroline x
Sorry, Donna, I wasn't at all clear in my post. Of course cookies have eggs!! (The choc-chip ones are a huge fave here.)
What I mean are biscuits... not the scone-type baked goods you get in the US but (as I'm sure you know!) are flat sweet cookies. Think French galettes or gingerbread men - that sort of thing.
My recipe for this sort of biscuit doesn't use eggs - lovely plain biscuits that are even nicer if you paint them with melted chocolate and sprinkle flaked almonds on top.
Cream 225g butter with 125g vanilla sugar; mix in 325g plain white flour (best done with hands) until you get a dough similar in texture to shortcrust pastry. Roll to about 8mm thick, cut out shapes, and bake at 180 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until just beginning to colour (don't overbake or they're bitter).
These are nice and flat for littlies to decorate - the ones we made yesterday rose and cracked and didn't taste of anything.
I must go on the hunt for the South African biscuit recipe we used to have at school. It involved condensed milk and they were gorgeous.
Hi Caroline - poor you, being dragged to see something you thought you'd hate! I haven't been to the Globe, though it's on my list of things I want to do. You're right, son probably would enjoy it - that'll be something for next summer (and another thing where the children's godmother would join us and enjoy it).
You're making me feel hungry!!
Shakespeare? I fell in love with him in the sixth form while doing Othello for A-level. It's still my favourite - I just love the jealousy theme and all the raw emotion being bandied about. I learnt great chunks of it off by heart (we had to, in those days, didn't we!) and my kids are amazed that I can still quote from it (and whole John Donne poems) after all these years. But that's only because they're my faves! I love Shakespeare's wit and humour too. But maybe your son would prefer one of the historicals? Or Macbeth? Plenty of dramatic action there!
Olivia - mm, I was thinking Macbeth. Saw that with Derek Jacobi, and it was stunning!
My A level texts were the Roman plays. I can still quote large chunks of A&C. (Saw an amazing version of that at the uni of Essex - cast of six, all male. Really brought the themes home!)
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