Baking day

Yesterday was a day off, and I had nothing planned so I decides to cook. It has been a very long time since I last made bread, I think it might have been whilst at school. Everyone else seems to make bread these days, so I quizzed my Dad for tips and he recommended a recipe. Apparently it's easy to make!, the tips included kneading for the specified time, not to decided that it was long enough and give up, and to not add all the fluid at once, as you can't take it out once it has been added. The recipe is from a Women's Institute cookbook.

Here's how it turned out.

As I work so close to a Tesco, for a while now I have had this cunning plan of being slightly more environmental aware, and so decided that I would only go food shopping in my car after work. To get to Tesco I do not even have to go a different route, I drive straight past it, all the time. You see after work you just want to go home, or at least I do. So this plan has not been working, but I am stubborn, so I have been getting my groceries from the Tesco express I live opposite, or the market in Portsmouth which my sister kindly drove me to (there was three of us in the car so it's ok, it didn't break the rules). But to make bread I needed yeast and strong white bread flour, of which the Tesco express does not stock (I know, shocking isn't it). So I had to cycle to the Co-op, which in combination with beating violently bread dough for 10 minutes was very tiring, and I hadn't even started making my planned tea of Asparagus flan with ricotta.  My bread is yummy though, and it was easy to make Dad you were right. Though when I told my work colleague about my bread (yes the same one I spoke to about the peanut butter bread) she asked where it was, and said she loved homemade bread. Humm can't seem to win (half of it has already gone though, I had some whilst it was still warm and today I made cheese savory sandwiches with it).

My second endeavor on my baking day was Asparagus Flan with Ricotta from the book Complete Vegetarian by Nicola Graimes. Pastry is another thing that I have made very little of in the past and I have never made a flan before. But I was up for the challenge and needed to use up my asparagus I brought from the Market. The recipe requested white plain flour, but I had loads of wholemeal, so the pastry does look darker. But over all it was a great success, I made little ones to take to work for my dinner and to snack on.