October was a really amazing month, with a holiday in Cornwall, a lot of baking, as I’ve continued baking along the Bake Off. Do check the posts about the holiday in Cornwall if you are curious, there are a few more posts about it to come next month. As always, our holiday was fast-pace, packed with visits to museums and other attractions. Neither of us is the 2 hours by the pool kind a person.
One of the most exciting things that happened this month was that my husband came home with a butterfly. He found the little one on the tyre of our car, tried to gently push it, but it wouldn’t budge. So, he took the butterfly on the hand to move it, the butterfly was adamant it doesn’t want to stay there. So he placed the butterfly on the passenger’s seat and drove off. On his way home he phone me to tell me about it. How strange was that. Also, initially I though he is bringing home a kitten (he said: “I have a passenger”), Festus (our dog) would have been delighted with that I might add (maybe in a more “Yay! Takeaway” kind of style though).
Anyway, I fed the butterfly some banana, because this is what I saw butterflies eat when I visit the butterfly houses. It was a daft idea, obviously, as this is a peacock butterfly, native to Britain, where there isn’t quite the weather for banana trees. Next day it was still in the front of our house, so I moved it near the bushes and fed it some golden syrup. The following day he/she was not there anymore, but it came back for another day. I saw the butterfly near the bush. Now is not here anymore. Who knows if he/she will turn back again. It’s nice that we have a couple of pictures of the little one.
This little biscuits are Maamouls, from Bake Off, that I’ve made again, using my newly acquired mould. They were so good and I’m happy with the mould too. Even though it does involve bashing the mould on the worktop to get the biscuits out. It took less than 2 hours to make these.
GBBO is over. It finished yesterday in a quite interesting final. I think Rahul deserved to win, as his showstopper was the best, it had height, a lovely story behind it, nice decoration. Regarding this series, I can’t say I’ve enjoyed it as much. I wasn’t keen on the contestants, the jokes are mainly inappropriate or not funny. The show was so much better at BBC. One thing I really don’t like is that they are allowed to put the trays on the floor, same goes with the tea towels (that might touch the food afterwards), and, of course, if something drops, is put back on the tray. Would these people want to be served something like this in a restaurant? It bothers me a lot and it was the same at BBC. If they drop something, they should throw that thing away. Anyway, let’s go back to baking.
I baked along each week, like this:
Week 6 – Pastry – Cabbage Filled Individual Pies & Caravan Pie
Week 7 – Vegan – Vegan Pavlova
Week 8 – Danish – Apple Pinwheels & Smørrebrød
Week 9 – Patisserie – Madeleines
Week 10 – Final. It was yesterday, now I have to decide what I’m going to make
It was great to try the vegan Pavlova and the Smørrebrød. I’m going to make this often from now on.
Books I’ve read in October, 6 in total:
A Brief History of the Magna Carta by Geoffrey Hindley
Black Tudors: The Untold Story by Miranda Kaufmann
A Crime in the Family by Sacha Batthyany
An Armful of Animals by Malcolm D. Welshman
Great War Britain Liverpool: Remembering 1914-18 by Pamela Russell
In a Free Republic by Alison Plowden
I did enjoy all books. I’m very excited about the books I’m going to read this month too. As I have some pretty amazing books lined up in my to-read list.
