this is where I want to be...

yep - I long to be in my bed all snuggled up under the duvet reading my book. It has been a very tiring week and it's not even Friday yet. So am I regretting taking on extra hours and responsibility? No, life is to short for regrets (oh, how easy it is to say that but how much harder to really mean it).

The problem lies in just not being able to sleep properly. This is now the second week of disturbed sleep with no apparent reason for it. Oh well, it means I can crawl into bed early and read my book.

I'm currently reading the Alice Sebold book "The Almost Moon" which is very cheery reading indeed. The blurb at the back, "when all is said and done, killing my mother came easily", gives a fairly good indication of just quite how cheery it is. Then after that I plan to read "Someone at a Distance" by Dorothy Whipple which is one of the Persephone range. Another rather cheery read me thinks - this time the breakdown of a marriage and its effects upon the family - "a brilliant account of fraility and folly".

And now that the nights are getting colder I am very grateful for the extra warmth provided by this quilt.I made it a couple of years ago from plain brushed cottons. It is gorgeously cosy.

Oh how I do love my bed. So goodnight, sleep tight watch the bugs don't bite and pleasant dreams to you all.

pannacotta and pastitsio ...

so I have now christened both 'Apples for Jam' and 'Falling Cloudberries' by Tessa Kiros.

We had a friend visiting for supper last night and for mains I opted to make the Pastitsio from 'FC'. It was a slightly bastardised version of the recipe in that I had to cut the amounts in half otherwise we would have had way too much for us to eat. I also opted to take some elements from the recipe for Pastitsio in the Waitrose magazine. So I added some chopped celery to melt down with the onions. And I added some grated pecorino to the breadcrumb topping.
It was very tasty and the recipe was written so clearly that I found no problems in making it. And more importantly it all got eaten hence no photos of the finished dish.

Then on to pudding and the chocolate pannacotta recipe came from 'A4J'. And again the recipe was clear and well written so that they were really easy to make. I was a little worried, because of the accuracy issue with the weighing of the leaf gelatine, that they may not set as I erred on the cautious side. But they turned out of their moulds easily and looked just like they do in the photo in the book. And they tasted gorgeous - very chocolately and really rather rich so the tartness of the raspberries helped to cut through beautifully.

So now I'm off to luxuriate in the bath and dream of which recipe I'm going to create next...

5 days ...

So here it is November 5th and 5 days into the nablopomo challenge that some of you have taken up. I read about it and thought what a good idea - the kick in the backside I need to getting me blogging regularly again. But the problem is with all this daily posting by some of my favourite blogs, I am reading rather than writing. So sorry but I will just be as sporadic as ever.

This weekend was the most amazing burnt golden weekend I have seen in a long time. The sun shone and the leaves in all theit autumnal hues glowed like a myriad of gems. Oh dear I seem to be slipping into Romantic Poetry territory but you get the drift. In fact this morning was glorious and I wanted to do a bunk and not turn up for work but rather go down to the park and kick and scuff through the piles of fallen leaves.

Another autumn gem to arrive this weekend was the Persephone catalogue and Biannual which has made for excellent perusing. I think this Christmas I will be adding several of the books to my wishlist - I would so love to have their entire catalogue in my posession as there is never a duff book published by them. And what can I say I covet books.

This evening after work I finally got around to making the Chocolate Pannacotta that I mentioned a little while ago. The recipe comes from the Tessa Kiros book 'Apples for Jam' and when we eat them tomorrow evening I'll let you know if they are as good as they look in the photograph in her book. Although I will state now that I am little concerned that I may have not added enough gelatine. I used the sheet variety and trying to measure 6 grammes of the stuff on my scales was nigh on impossible.
And being the fifth of November what would I be if I didn't leave you with at least one firework shot.