A very easy Digestive Biscuit Recipe

Ingredients:              (These amounts make about 24 biscuits)

1. 4oz / 100g  wholemeal self-raising flour
2. 4oz / 100g  self-raising flour
3. A pinch of salt
4. 5oz / 150g  spread    
5. 4oz / 100g  caster sugar  
6. Flour for dusting

Method:

    1. Mix the flours and salt in a bowl.  
 
    2. Add the spread and sugar and work together to form a dough.
                
    3. Knead into a ball and wrap in cling film. Chill for 30 minutes.

    4. Roll out thinly on a lightly floured board and cut into rounds using a 3in ./ 7.5cm cutter.

    5. Place on lightly greased baking sheets and prick with a fork.

    6, Bake in a preheated oven at 180*C (160* Fan oven) / 350*F / gas mark 4 for 20 minutes until golden.

    7. Leave to cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
        Store in an airtight container.

To turn these into the 'ultimate treat!, try this:

    8. Melt 100g chocolate and spread over the biscuits and leave to cool and set.
       (I break the chocolate into pieces and place on an enamel plate over a pan of boiling water.)

PS  I use 'Pure' olive or sunflower spread, available from Tesco or Asda, which is very nice tasting, easy to use and dairy-free (good for me).

PPS  I'd really like to encourage everyone to try using the old measurements, ozs etc. The numbers (and ratios, if you wish to change amounts) are so much easier (because they are smaller and easier to remember) and if more people use them, there'll be more chance of these far more sensible units surviving, or at least still being given on recipes together with the metric units.

If you try them, I do hope you like them as much as I do, and find them as easy to make.                              
Acknowledgement:
This recipe is taken from DAIRY-FREE LACTOSE-FREE DIET PLAN FOR CHILDREN AND ADULTS'
                                    by Carolyn Humphries            
This is an excellent book which I can highly recommend.

About making 'Chocolate Digestives' for the first time! / Plus some hints on fighting binge-eating.

I can't tell you the excitement I felt when, one Sunday morning a few weeks ago, I melted my dairy-free (that meant I could eat it) chocolate and successfully coated the biscuits I'd made the day before. Half a bar (100 g) covered 24 of them; WHAT JOY!

In my days of binge-eating (more on that another day, perhaps) I could eat a whole packet of the 'proper' ones, so to have these as my home-made Sunday treat was more than a bonus.

(The biscuit recipe is a doddle so I'll add it on another post, in case anyone wants to try it.)

The extra bonus is that I've extended my Sunday treat rule to include Bank Holidays and added two pieces of chocolate after lunch and in the evening. For recovering binge-eaters like myself, what seems to work for me is that if I give myself 'permission' to have something, I'm not then tempted to go into the "I've done something wrong" (eating-wise) mode so the 'in for a penny, in for a pound' self-destructive mode has not been going into operation.

I never say never again but this latest phase has been the most successful of my entire life and has lasted about 6 years or longer. I'm as near to being a 'sylph' (and that's a long way off) as I'm ever likely to be!

So home-made chocolate digestives have become a regular, and, I'm pleased to say, very popular Sunday treat with us all (but most especially with me - Sunday treat heaven!!)!

A postscript on 'The Messiness of Life'

I was checking what I'd written on this when the phrase, 'most of us are muddling our way through', struck me. How can I write this? I don't know how others feel. I'm just surmising, assuming - and hoping - that others feel as I do. Wrong; I can't do that, can I.

So I decided to consult the oracle, ie husband!
"Do you feel muddled?" "No!" "Well why didn't you say?" (I had read it to him first on this occasion.) "I didn't like to". (Well that's a turn up for the books; he's usually more than ready, tactfully, of course (I don't think) to point out where I'm going wrong!)
Anyway, don't tell him, but he wouldn't know if he was muddled; and if he did, it wouldn't bother him!

However, I do feel that I need to re-phrase my comments.
Should it be 'many of us' or 'some of us'? Is it a female tendency?

Whatever the answer, I'm still really hoping that it's not just me.
If it is, I'm in trouble!

About reprogramming the brain (i.e. learning to stop rinsing my teeth!!)

On a recent visit to the dentist, I learned, by the by, that rinsing after brushing my teeth with fluoride toothpaste (which is, apparently, ALL toothpaste) is a 'bad thing'. It washes off the fluoride which is supposed to protect them!
But how to stop doing it?! A twice-a-day (tooth)life habit is hard to break, I've found. After three or four days, I was managing to remember about half the time. Even though I might have thought about not doing it beforehand, I'd still find I'd done the deed before I'd realised.

How much of our lives is operated on 'automatic pilot'? How many journeys to work have we made and then thought, "how on earth have I got here!?"

Maybe the present interest in 'Mindfulness' is good but I reckon I should be aiming for some 'mindlessness'. I'm sure my mind is so overfull of 'all-sorts', that there's no room left for being aware of what I'm actually doing. If I manage to work on that, it should, if nothing else, help to make my teeth last longer!

PS This is in appreciation of my very nice dentist and his assistants, for all they've done over the years to keep my teeth on the dental straight and narrow.

An attempt at a poem on Time.

Many years ago, while sitting in the college library,
trying to work but mostly looking through the window,
this fragment of a poem came to me.
I've never been able to complete it satisfactorily, but maybe, that is the poem, just as it is.

Because I still like it, I suppose, (and remember it), I would like to add it as a PS to the post on the passing of time.

                            TIME

       Time, for me, is measured in clouds,
                   Leaves on trees,
        Waiting for the telephone to ring.

        Coffee time, break time, tea time;
  Letting down hems on the children's clothes.

About housework (1) Jan's two golden rules

1. DO THE BITS THAT SHOW FIRST!

2. TIDYING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN CLEANING!

Now you might be thinking, why is she writing about something so basic.
If so, this isn't for you.
However, if, like me, housework doesn't come naturally to you, these basic guidelines might be a help.

For those of you who, along with me, struggle to keep on top of all the things which conspire to make our homes messy, untidy and (perish the thought and don't look too carefully, and whisper the words) dirty and dusty, I d love to share the tips that help me to stay afloat and will expand on them another time for anyone who may be interested.

About the passing of time

I scribbled this thought on a scrap of paper while on a train journey,
looking through the window.

FROM THE PRESENT TO THE PAST VIA THE FUTURE

It is sometimes said that 'time marches on',
but does it actually march
or does it rather slide, unnoticed, past the events of our daily lives.

All of a sudden, seemingly,
what was huge and all-consuming 
in the present moment
is in the past.

Was that 
a year,
two years,
ten years ago,
we say?

Yes, it was;
and here we are now, in today.