2 June pancakes with baked apples on the side

In the name of Allah most gracious most merciful

 

 

 My body feels like after a workout- bushed, sore, strained. In the last few days I have been picking up weights – 2 kg grow bags filled with soil; stretched my back and back legs to the limit – straddling in between plants to tie pea creepers to wigwams; good cardio – spades and spades of soil and compost hoisted into wheel barrow and trotting off to different parts of the garden. And then the washing in between – stretches and bending and running to take it off before the rain and so and so forth. I am quite chaffed with our efforts (Abu more than me) that there are now rows and rows of lavender and granadilla and mulberries trees and lemon trees and chives (both kitchen and wild). We have also divided and replanted an array of grasses.

The methi seeds have popped and so has the cumin. But somehow the fennel is not making an appearance. So who says gardening is for people who don’t like sport? The thing about gardening is the reward of one’s labour. I used to look at skits where farmers pop raw peas in their mouths with a lifted brow. Now I can’t wait to get to the garden to crack open a pod and taste the sweet, sweet fresh peas, encouraging everyone else nogal to try some too.

 

Somehow mushrooms are popping up everywhere, in between the flowers and veggies. I’m not too sure if they are the brown mushroom type or the hallucinatory type, so I just look on from the distance and wonder at the speed that they make their appearance. I found some plump ginger to soak in tonight and plant tomorrow inshaAllah. The sweet potato in jars are rooting well but not a sign of a slip yet. The potatoes continue to grow like weeds and I become impatient to fill in the baths with more soil so their necks can reach up further and more potatoes will be able to form.

The last of the tomatoes are being picked and I can’t decide what to grow in their beds when I clear them out. The red sunflower seedlings are a bit bigger but no sign yet of the artichoke seedlings. The small onions bulbs swell with the rain and their leaves are taller now, red and brown ones as are all the leeks, and spring onions. All aliums (onions plants) assist in keeping pests at bay and are magnificent in spring.

So when the gardening is done and Magrib approaches that feeling of contentment a lot of work done. After supper everyone will feel peckish for something sweet so I have to make a stash of biscuits and putt it in different places. Saturday morning I made some pancakes and Abu tried his hand at baked apples. He took out the cores of 4 apples and stuffed them with soft dates. He made a shallow horizontal slice in the centre around the outside skin to prevent it from bursting. Dotted them with butter and sprinkled it with fine cinnamon. Then he baked it at 220 for about 15 minutes. They were really yummy with pancakes and cream.

I thought to make some fridge butter biscuits in a variety of different tastes (dark choc chunk and cherries); ginger snaps with diced pieces of glazed ginger and honey, some traditional hertsoggies or twee gevreetjies and some expresso choc chunk cookies.

And then I remember my convection oven is tiny maybe 18 biscuits at a time? So for now fridge butter biscuits will have to do:

Fridge butter biscuits

 Ingredients

3 cups of flour

1 cup of icing sugar

300 g butter

 

Method

Cream icing sugar with butter until fluffy.

Add flour one cup at a time.

Work dough into one mass with your fingers.

Divide dough into sections and roll into sausages about 3cm in diameter and about 10 cm long.

Roll in sugar and refrigerate for few hrs or until the next day.

When hardened, cut into one cm slices and bake at 350^o .F until golden brown. Allow to cool in tray.

 

Cook’s note:

This is a basic dough with which you can add chopped nuts, cherries or choc chunks for variation. Or dip a side of the biscuits into melted dark chocolate and almonds

Should the sausages break when you cut them, wait a bit for it to thaw and try again

To heck with butter biscuits, I ended up making bollas with currants, light and fluffy and drenched in cinamony syrup.

Plant food and make bollas instead.

yasmine