oh my god, they worked!

YES! FINALLY

I managed to make biscuits that actually worked. hurrah hurrah hurrah.

and i almost didn't make the deadline this month. the days were ticking away, and I'm supposed to be going away this weekend and I thought all was lost.

Of course, there's a story.....

this morning i had a fantastic breakfast at a new place in the city. Well - Pranzo's not new, I've just never been there before so it was new to me. for an upcoming work celebration staff were invited to suggest a venue and a time. Having recently been introduced to this menu by other means i suggested a staff breakfast there. everyone thought i was joking when i mentioned black pudding bruschetta and apple risotto.

Philistines.

needless to say my nomination was not successful (it'll be pies and pasties in the boardroom. how imaginative), so i went to pranzo for breakfast with a current colleague, the opera singer, and a former employee, housing girl. both firm food fans with a little bit a class.

i had the pudding (i LOVE black pudding), opera boy had the risotto and housing girl the poached pears with ricotta. all were a hit. the pudding was soft, as the Europeans do it, and the eggs perfectly poached with just a peppery hint of chili.

anyway, all was in fine form. opera boy is regularly hilarious (i have been known to cry and pee simultaneously when he's on a roll) and we hadn't seen housing girl for a while. so the three of us snorted and chuckled through breakfast before heading off to the office.

about an hour later opera boy mentioned that my voice had become decidedly sexier. twenty minutes after that it had gone completely and i was sent home.

after five hours sleep (oh yeah, sounds good, but how on earth will i nod off tonight???) i was at a loose end. having all the required ingredients in the house i set about baking. Here's a recipe:

Snickerdoodles (thanks to Kate at the Clean Plate Club. She rocks)

Ingredients

• 240gm butter
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 large eggs
• 2 3/4 cups plain flour
• 2 tspns cream of tartar
• 1 tspn baking soda
• 1/4 tspn salt
• 2 tblspn ground cinnamon mixed with 1/4 cup sugar

method
1. preheat oven to 180 degrees
2. cream butter and sugar until creamy and then combine eggs
3. sift in dry ingredients
4. roll into small balls in the palm of your hand and then roll them in the cinnamon sugar
5. bake 5cm apart on a lined tray for 10 minutes, turning once
6. when ready they should have spread and cracked down the centre. they should not brown.

sounds easy.

and for once it was. they took about 10 minutes to get together, and about that long again to cook.

I've learnt that they're much nicer once they've cooled and hardened (I'm useless at resisting hot food). The only thing I changed from the recipe (and it's minor change) is that my sugar had a vanilla bean in the jar, which was lovely for me as vanilla is one of my favourite flavours.

I'm just so pleased that after a long, long list of failures I've finally be able to complete a cookie carnival challenge successfully. actually, all this typing has made me tired. maybe i can go back to bed. it's nearly 6 after all.........

oh yes, a PS: Good luck to Turkey in the Euro 2008 Finals! They're playing Germany - they'll need it!