Nina (but not Nicholas), A Recipe I Made Up with My Very Own Brain, and Various Thoughts on How Women Love

I'm in one of those bizarre positions where I've got such a lot to blog about and not enough time to SPEAK MY BRAINS in html format! So I'm going to try to cram a few bits and bobs in one single, and probably very disjointed, post. First, I came back from Spain determined to buy a book on Spanish food, particularly Spanish baking. However, funds are a little low ce moment and even though I am slightly enamored of this weighty tome, I have yet again vowed to go on a book-buying embargo (yes, I know you've heard this all before). So I politely asked my brain to come up with an Iberian-style tea-time treat and this is what my brain came up with. Not bad brain! In future I will look after you by keeping off the gin and doing more Suduku!

Dulce Domum's Orange and Almond Cake
3 oz butter
4 oz caster sugar
4 oz self-raising flour
4 oz ground almonds
2 large eggs
1/4 tsp almond extract
grated orange rind (from one medium orange)
juice from 1/2 a medium orange.

Cream together butter and sugar, add beaten eggs gradually. Add orange rind, almond extract and then fold in the ground almonds and the flour. At this point you will need to loosen the mixture with the orange juice (you may not need all of it, just loosen to dropping consistency). Grease a loaf tin (a 1 lb loaf tin is best but I had to use a bigger one), place mixture in tin (sprinkle on a few flaked almonds if you have them) and bake at 150 degrees for around half an hour, or until the cake is firm to the touch. Like all cakes with ground almonds in this cake is an excellent keeper. Oh, you could make an orange glaze or syrup to go on top of the cake, I didn't do this but I bet it would be delicious.

Well, Nina the Waldorf doll is finally finished. I didn't do any crafting at all whilst I was on my hols. So I finished her off this week. She's a bit of a labour of love actually. I've changed her clothes goodness knows how many times, and I think this is because I know the little girl the doll's going to and wanted it to be just right. Anyway, I really must stuff Saint Nicholas (and it's not everyday you get to type a sentence like that) and get cracking on the wool shop order (she wants as many as I can make ...that will be one then) and make a new doll for the girls (a little red-head I think). Also, my friend Zillah sent me a fabulous book on knitting historical figures, believe me, there are some doozies of dolls in this book, but I shall blog about it next week, I think.

Next up, I've been thinking about love, and how the way we love changes and adapts as we gain in maturity. When I was in my late teens I was pretty desperate for love and romance, to put it bluntly I wanted a man to love me. I'm not particularly embarrassed by this, I reckon it's usual for most girls. I was fortunate in the fact that I did fall in love with a man who loved me back, and reader, I married him. Of course, then most of us go on to have children, and our children love us. A small child's love is almost miraculous in the fact that it is purely unconditional, they seem to be hardwired to love their mothers. Oh and aren't these different types of love we women receive great gifts? The love of a good man and the love of children isn't really something we should take for granted, it's something to be nurtured and respected. To be honest with you, as a young woman I tended to define myself by who loved me; boyfriend, husband, babies. But now, as my children grow older and my marriage is more mature it seems as though I've gone through a subtle shift in thinking, I've come to believe that my womanhood will be defined not simply by who loves me but how I love them. That the nature and quality of the love I give serves to define my developing sense of womanhood, that the giving of love may be my reason for being. I don't want this to seem particularly morally grandiose, I get a great deal of pleasure from loving, my family and my husband are lovable, it's just that I've found that age has brought an increased pleasure in the performance of small acts of love, there's a joy in it, and I was just wondering if any of you feel the same way?