The second week of the school Easter Break has been as busy as the first, only this week I also had to fit in going to work for 2 days as well, but the time I wasn't at work was enjoyably spent with my 2 girls.
On Friday we went to Harewood House, it is only a short 10 mile journey from where we live and well worth the visit. It has lovely grounds, an amazing adventure play area for the kids of all ages and places to eat, drink and generally saunter round. The Bird Garden also had the girls full attention and at 2pm they even fed their resident penguins.
It was so very lovely to just let the girls have their freedom and allow them to run about within sight, enjoying whatever they wanted to do. They coloured in badges, talked to the birds, ate ice cream and spent sooooo long at the play park that their legs must surely be ready for dropping off
The hours flew by and we had hardly explored all the grounds had to offer and we didn't even visit the house, I figured we could do that another day when the weather was not as nice and it didn't seem fair to drag the girls away from the park to make them walk calmly round the house, they had serious energy to burn!
When we did eventually get home, youngest daughter had fallen asleep in the car and I managed to successfully move her from the car into her bed - result! Then eldest daughter asked if we could use the time to make some biscuits - well, this at least meant I could try out my latest purchase, my biscuit stamp!
Using a simple plain biscuit recipe:
250g softened butter
140g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
300g plain flour
2 tsp vanilla extract
Daughter No1 quickly mixed together the butter and sugar, added the egg yolk and vanilla extract and finally the flour and I mixed them all together and formed it into a ball. Taking small portions of the mixture and rolling it in my hand to make a small ball the size of a walnut, I placed the ball onto the baking tray and using the stamp, pushed it down firmly onto the ball of dough till it was half a centimetre thick - easy!
These were then popped into a preheated oven of 180C or 160C for fan assisted ovens and cooked for 12-15 minutes or until slightly golden.
I think these would make a lovely gift popped inside a polythene gift bag and tied with ribbon, but for now they made a great accompaniment to a good strong cup of tea and 5 minutes peace and quiet while daughter No2 continues to nap!
I'm off to find a corner of the garden with my cuppa and biscuit, while the sun is shining and enjoy the last official day of the Easter school break before it's all back to the usual routine next week - boo!!
