thaumaturgist

Virginia Woolf once said that a woman must have money and a room of her own to write fiction, I feel it holds true for blogs as well in my case. I particularly need a room with a view, either a snow capped mountain or a rumbling sea full of waves.  The last month and a half had been intensely busy, to say the least, My in laws were visiting us for the first time in out 4 year marriage and it was an event of sorts. The preparations had been going on for weeks for them as well as for us. We had to get the house in order, the guest bedroom tidied up and the refrigerator stocked. The only thing we couldn't get in order was the weather, this year summer has been playing hide and seek so the in laws has to embrace the cold and wet which certainly needed some getting used to. We had certain trips planned for this period and while all this was going on I had my online course on Literary Theories going full swing. Some days I would catch up on the studies while my mother in law coo

June is supposed to bring with it the joys of Summer, unfortunately it feels like we have been put through a time machine and have landed up a few month ahead into the gloomy and wet coldness of November. The only source of comfort is in the home and the hearth. So, to keep warm I could think of nothing better that cranking up the oven and baking so the house smells warm and sweet and buttery. I ticked one other Nigella Lawson recipe today, the chocolate and walnut brownies. Apart from following the recipe to the tee I did a little temperature tweaking advised to me by my friend cum lil-sis who is a pastry chef. So here's the recipe : 375 g soft unsalted butter 375 g best quality dark chocolate 6 large eggs 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 500 g caster sugar 225 g plain flour 1 teaspoon salt 300 g chopped walnut Instructions: Preheat the oven to 180C / gas mark 4. Line your brownie pan - I think it's worth lining the sides as well as the base. Melt the butter an