A couple of weeks ago I had a week away in the Cotswolds (with the boyfriend), we hired a cottage in a village called Sherston and planned walking etc. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas, it rained pretty much every day and there were two days when it rained all day, don't you just love the British summer? So we had to find other entertainments to keep us amused. One of these involved a trip into Bath (I had an appointmnt for a book spa, more on that later) and according to a guide book we picked up Sally Lunn's was the place to go for buns. Well, it seemed rude not to. Sally Lunn's is famous for it's buns, they are based on a brioche recipe brought over from Frabce by Sally Lunn in the 17th century. The menu is extensive, you can have your bun with virtually anything (well, anything edible anyway) and after much umming and ahhing I went for lemon curd and the BF had a walnut and coffee paste (I had major food envy). They were really good, huge so you only get half the bun, a whole one would be too much. We then bought one to take away and had it later (back at the ranch) with bacon and melted cheese, yum.
I mentioned a book spa earlier and I'm sure you're wondering what the heck I'm going on about. Well, there is a bookshop in Bath called Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights and they offer book spa treatments. I was given one by friends for my birthday and booked it for the week we were away. So what does this entail? You are paired up with one of their booksellers and you sit and talk about the books you like and dislike etc and then they go off and come back with lots of recommendations (while you eat the lovely chocolate and cranberry cake they supplied). Then you spend some more time deciding if you like any of them and then you can buy as many as you want (part of the cost includes £40 of books). It was a dream afternoon for me and I came away with six books that I would never have found on my own. I'm reading one at the moment (Your Presence is Requested at Suvanto) and it is living up to the hype. I can't recommend it enough, the shop is great and the people are lovely and so knowledgalbe about their subject.
On our return from holidays we had the afternoon at home and I decided as an end to the week we should open a bottle of wine I had bought when we were in Milan over Easter. This was a sweet wine, slightly fizzy, that we had with a shortbread biscuit when we were there so I wanted to re-create this. I found a recipe for shortbread in my new Cakes and Slices book. And a combo of butter, sugar, flour and eggs later I had a tray of shortbread. And with the wine a fitting end to the week. I made too much, of course, so work were treated to the leftovers.
