A breath of fresh air, and a birthday

Some weekends disappear so quickly that it's like they were never there: Friday to Monday is almost an overnight experience. Thankfully, other weekends are slower, calmer. Like a lifeboat, they rescue you on Friday evening and allow you to catch your breath before you return for a new working week.

This weekend was of the lifeboat variety. I finished work on Friday having done the things I needed to do, and we had few weekend commitments, no real errands.

On Saturday, we went for a long bike ride, something I always enjoy. Cobwebs disappear from my mind when I'm outdoors and active, and I find lower intensity casual (non-ball!) exercise to be perfect for unwinding. Running wakes me up but cycling calms me down.

We also finished watching these two episodes of Dr Who, the conclusion to Rose Tyler's time as the Doctor's companion and an explanation of Torchwood. As someone who came to Dr Who late in life, these episodes were before my time...but they may have been the best of the ones I've seen (I started watching about half way through Season 3, I think).

I also finished Zeitoun, by far the best book I've yet to read this year. And I finally updated my 2012 books spreadsheet.

On Sunday, I bought fig and fennel sourdough bread. An indulgence (especially as some people would make their own ;) ) but a worthy one I think.

And last but definitely not least, it was my brother's birthday. An opportunity for dinner, presents, and celebrating his 25 years.

I truly don't know how he went how he looks in the above picture, to, well, an extra 20-odd years and a considerable amount of height.

My Mum was responsible for making my brother's cake, but I wanted to make him something edible to complement the more standard, gift-wrapped gift. And so, his birthday was also an opportunity for baking.

Vanilla biscuits with a drizzle of lemon icing, to be specific.

Vanilla Biscuits with Lemon Icing, to say Happy Birthday

Makes about 30-40 biscuits, depending on size

Adapted from these two recipes on Taste.com.au 

Print recipe

Ingredients

For the biscuits

185g butter, margarine or non-dairy spread (I used Nuttelex)

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1.5 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

For the icing

1 cup icing sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

Method

For the biscuits

Preheat oven to 180'C and line 2 baking sheets with baking paper.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter / non-dairy spread and sugar, until white and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat to combine. Stir in the flour. Mix well.  

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for ~30 minutes. Then roll out the dough between 2 pieces of non-stick baking paper, to about 1cm thick. Cut shapes or roll into balls.

Bake for 10 minutes, until just starting to go golden. Allow to cool on the baking trays and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the icing

Mix together the icing sugar and lemon juice. Drizzle onto the biscuits, or pipe on using a piping bag.

As it turns out, my Mum make a lemon cake, so these were a surprisingly complementary choice :-)

What did you get up to this weekend?

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