Anyway, after the most stressful week we have experienced together, nothing as dramatic as could have been, but a very strange week anyway, I decided to bake! The original Pat's Kitchen was all about food and there has been none of that since I started blogging again, So you have Fat Rascals to look forward to now. And I must say, not only are they delicious, but really and truly easy to make!
So first, what happened to our family over the past 9 days? My mother in law fell and broke 3 or 4 ribs on the day our daughter was due to give birth but didn't! Mum went into hospital where she still is. She has also developed HypoDelirium and Pneumonia. One day she looks absolutely awful, the next day she is a bit brighter. Then back to awful, then a bit brighter than the previous brighter day. I am delighted they are keeping her in hospital until she seems to be more improved.
This impacts us on two fronts, visiting Mum since visiting hours are extended to all day now and she would notice if we did not come. And we can stay so much longer than when they were shorter and only twice a day. And we have to bring my father in law plus make sure he is ok in general , and also get him to come to our house to have a change of scenery and a good dinner.
Daughter.... still pregnant 9 days after due date! Last night, after watching the last episode of the current series of Call the Midwife, we truly thought this is the night. I even sleep in sweat suits now in order to jump out of bed immeidatiley.
There have been the most amazing named storms, and some not named here in Scotland. We are used to this and keep it in our stride. After living in Florida 10 years, I do laugh at how I thoroughly discount gale force winds, flooding and heavy rain here. We just do storms differently. And there is a difference between sustained winds like they get in a hurricane and wind gusts which we get here.
They both do damage though. And one took out a fence panel on Saturday that I did not notice....
They both do damage though. And one took out a fence panel on Saturday that I did not notice....
So our dog escaped! I do know her brain shuts off when she is excited, after all she is Boxer. So I had no hope she would find her way home. My husband was at the hospital when I saw she had disappeared so I phoned a friend up the street and she mobilised all the social media possible, There was so much she did I cannot even imagine. And she moved so fast! anyway, her posts were shared over 1000 times. Our nephew in the States shared about our dog being lost in our local Football Team's website. And people I will never meet were out and searching for her - for hours. 6 in fact! We eventually found her after a tip on one of the social media sights.
AND we lost all our tropical fish in the confusion and stress of this week. We did not notice symptoms that could easily have been taken care of (well, probably anyway). But we were distracted!
Lets hope this week is better!
When we do sit down together, we tend to watch tv and I stumbled upon the most interesting BBC series called Britain by Barge. We have never traveled by canal boat before but I would really love to try this. The first episodes got them through gorgeous landscapes and interesting villages in Yorkshire. History is alive and well in so many parts of the UK and it is a pleasure to see just what is still here from so many years ago. But the thing that grabbed me was when Anne Diamond visited a tea room in Yorkshire and tried a "Fat Rascal". Apparently, this delicacy has been mentioned by William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens, so living history yet again. And it looked divine. So I had to try my own. What else to do after such an eventful week? But true to form, I started these around 4pm on Sunday, then life got in the way. So we tried the finished product at 10:30 pm. Too late really, but they were amazingly delicious!
So here is the recipe I tried, a combination of two I found on websites. The BBC one and also the Lavender and Lovage blog.
Before beginning dinner, I measured out everything except the butter since it needed to be cold. That really helped save time when I finally got around to doing the Fat Rascals!
Dry Ingredients:
150g plain flour (flour), sifted or sieved
150g self raising flour (self rising) sifted or sieved
1 tsp baking powder
100g sugar
grated zests of one lemon and one orange
1tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
150g dried fruit mix
Wet ingredients:
125g unsalted cold butter, cubed
1 egg, lightly beaten
4 - 5 TBS milk
Glaze:
1 egg yolk
1TBS water
Glace cherries and blanched almonds
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 200C/400F or Gas Mark 6.
(I have a fan oven and found this temp a bit too high, so I would try again at 190C(
2. Sift both flours and baking powder together in one large bowl. Add the butter and cut it into the flour using two knives until the contents resemble bread crumbs.
(The traditional method calls for rubbing the flour but my hands got tired and cutting with two knives had the same result.)
3. Add sugar, lemon and orange zest, spices and dried fruit, mix well. Add the lightly beaten egg and milk. Mix to form a soft dough. Form large scone size rounds, about the size of a small saucer. I got 6 out of this.
4. Glaze the Fat Rascals with the egg yolk and water mixed together, using a brush.
5. Decorate with 2 glace cherries at the top of the rascal and 3 blanched almonds in a vertical row under the cherries. (my photo does not show this well, sorry!)
6. Using grease proof paper on a baking tray, place the Fat Rascals on the tray and bake for 15 - 20 minutes. (16 was perfect for mine). They should be golden brown at this point.
6. Remove from oven and let cool as much as you can. They are very fragile when fresh out of the oven, but so tempting to just grab one and eat it!
On the tv show, they were served with clotted cream, but most recipes just suggest lashings of butter. Alll we had in the house was butter and it seemed perfect to me.
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