Addison Embroidery
at the
Vicarage

P & C Wedding monogram with rose (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

This invitation for this June wedding came headed by the couple’s initials below which there was a red rose. As they obviously liked the font – or why would they have chosen it ?-  I looked no further for inspiration. The vicar kindly got to work with his photocopier and produced a range of enlarged images until we found one that satisfied me as a nice size to embroider. I then embroidered a rose similar to the one on the invitation.

Embroidered rose from P & C wedding monogram (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

Deep red always seems to be difficult to photograph and this is my best attempt after much faffing about on ironing boards with artificial light, on the garden table in dappled sunlight and on windowsills both with and without artificial light – I think this is window sill without artificial light. If I can produce a better image over the next few days until I’ve given it to the couple, I will add it.

The linen is light to medium weight with a bit more slub than I would like (as it sometimes plays havoc with the even outlining of the initials) but I’ve used it often so it’s not really a problem. The white thread was DMC  Anchor No 1 (Sorry, my mistake) and the reds and greens were ends of skeins waiting to be used.

Now the baby caravan has moved on to other relatives, general household tasks and backlog embroidery can be resumed. Hilary Clinton got into trouble in 1996 for writing a book whose title was paraphrased as ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ – well we in our own little extended family are certainly finding that it takes a small hamlet’s worth. To be fair to Hilary her book’s actual title was ‘It Takes a Village: and Other Lessons Children Teach us’ and her idea was to consider how children’s formative influences often came from one or two individuals or groups who by chance, character or serendipity pressed the right or wrong buttons leading to an individual’s blossoming or withering. She wanted to discuss how society could put as much good influence a child’s way as possible but controversies as to what the original Aftrican proverb meant and how much the book was ghosted meant the book as a discussion point did not receive sufficient serious attention and that can only be a shame.

Sour cherry and white chocolate biscuits

This is a variation on the Ottolenghi recipe of last week but this time I used dried sour cherries  (instead of Ottolenghi’s cranberries) and restored the oatflakes of the original recipe instead of the ground almonds which I had substituted. The texture was more crunchy but, just as with the cranberries, the fruit may as well have been sultanas as the flavour was not distinctly cherry (or as last week cranberry). V. nice but not v. special.

The tin is one of M&S’s best. It came with a very rich fruitcake which is long gone. My only complaint about the tin is that I can only see one very weak attempt at a daffodil which I find ever so slightly distressing given the plethora of roses, shamrocks and thistles and being almost half Welsh myself. Nevermind, it’s still a lovely tin.

Sour cherry and white chocolate biscuits

Ingredients

90 grams / 3 oz of flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt (or less)
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
100 grams/3 and a half oz of butter at room temperature
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
100 grams/ 3 and a half oz of brown sugar
20 grams/three quarters of an oz of caster sugar
80 grams/2 and three quarter oz  of oat flakes
75 grams / 2 and a half oz dried sour cherries
60 grams / just over 2 oz  white chocolate chopped into chip size
1 beaten egg

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C for a fan oven/190 degrees C for an oven without a fan/Gas Mark 5

Line 2-3 baking trays with baking parchment

Cream the butter with both sugars until light and creamy. Add the vanilla extract and the beaten egg, stirring until well mixed.

Now add the sifted dry ingredients beat well in. Lastly swirl in the dried sour cherries and the chopped white chocolate.

Take spoonfuls of the mixture (a walnut sized ball)  and drop them on to a baking tray, keeping them well spaced apart because they spread out quite a lot. Bake them for about 10 minutes till nice and brown and let them cool on the tray a few minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to completely cool.

Makes 25-30 biscuits