Longwinded kitchen spells

...seem to be wearing me out. I am spending ridiculous amounts of time performing menial tasks that chain me to the bench. However it does get some kind of cool results.
Above is the first silly pursuit. I read in the paper about beans dressed softly in chickpeas, it was that Alexander woman again, and we didn't have any ricotta for the beans so it was Homemade Milk Ricotta - very easy to make, as it turned out. Only my saucepan on the lowest heat was determined to do nothing less than boil, so boil away merrily it did until I (too late) remembered the simmer mat and it may have been my fault if it was slightly too hard to beat to a creamy consistency. But it was delicious.
Next was to make a porridge of chickpea flour (besan), oops, thought that said 250g, no wonder it needed so much more water than I originally put.. never mind, it will be fat, bake it anyway for a much longer time. Process the tomatoes for a vinaigrette? No, I'm hungry. Lemon/olive oil salsa it shall be.
Did I mention it was meant to be a roulade? No way that was going to happen when I had the exact sized pan (18 x 28 cm, thankyou very much) with double the amount of chickpea.. thing.. and anyway a roulade is meant to wait for an hour.
I had a sandwich, and very pretty too.

I am also having a slight teacake obsession at the moment, no photos of any of them yet. So far I have made three and am hunting around for more.. apple and custard may make an appearance somewhere in the next month or two, and the glazed Irish will definitely get a second go. Oh winter and sore throats and comforting English ideas (and puddings! lovely old stodge).

It has to be one of my favourite things to curl up - sorry for the cliché - with a good book in front of the fire (or in front of some BBC with a blanket) and a hot cup of tea. Oh tea, how I love thee.
Especially when we get winter rain, which was kind enough to drop in for a few hours this morning and may yet be back, fingers crossed.

More sweet things to come.