Ooo...I want to go skiing... Everyone around me is, was, or has been skiing. I've just changed my screen saver to a photo of me skiing down the slope two years ago under a clear blue sky in Japan, in Niseko to be precise, just to pretend that I'm there. There's a reason why I can't go skiing this year.
This time last year we went there. We got there around lunch time, changed, and hit the slope straight away. Then, hit the slope I did... First couple of hours I was over the moon very happily skiing up and down. We got in once to have a cup of tea (a die-hard habit after 23 years in England). I should have stopped there, considering the fact it was only the first day and also I had a cancer operation 10 months prior to this ski trip.
After the teatime we went to the top of the mountain. It was around 4pm, it was blizzard at the top, and the slope was covered with lumps of ice... This would have been fine under normal circumstances, but I wasn't fit enough. Half way down the mountain the tip of my skis crossed over each other and I went flying forward. You can imagine what happened then. I broke two of my left shinbones just above the boot. I even heard it... Some other skier told my son, who was with me, to take his skis off and make a big 'X' behind me on the slope to stop other skiers crashing into me.
...It's a long story after that... A year later...I can have a normal life now, even cycling around London, but not skiing. I'm reasonably fit, but I know that my left leg, knee, my core muscle, aren't good enough. Skiing can be an easy sport or a demanding sport (never a safe one), depending on how you go about it. I'm not a good skier at all, but what I am trying to tell you is to take it easy on the first day of the season ;)
So here I am in London, baking muffins. This is my improvisation with what I had in the fridge and on the shelf.
Ingredients (for 10 muffins):
I know that there are 12 holes in muffin tins, but I quite like to have larger and two less muffins.
200g plain flour, sifted
200ml mixture of 100ml crème fraîche and 100ml milk
about 150g apples (one and a half cox), chopped to the tip of your little finger size
a handful of raisins or sultanas
1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate soda
2 teaspoons of baking powder
80g butter
80g sugar
1 egg
Preheat the oven to about 200C.
Pour 100ml milk into a measuring jug FIRST, and then add the crème fraîche to make up to 200ml. The order of milk and then crème fraîche is important. You can't measure lumpy crème fraîche accurately.
Melt butter in a small pan and turn off the heat. Add the milk and crème fraîche mixture and crack an egg in it. Whisk everything together and set aside.
In a separate biggish bowl sift the flour, baking powder, and bicarbonate soda together from high to get a lot of air in them. Add sugar in the bowl, and pour the liquid mixture, apple bits, and raisins into the bowl. I advice not to use an electric whisk here to mix. Once the flour is in the wet mixture it's best to use a large metal spoon to mix everything gently.
Put paper muffin cases in the tin and divide the mixture into ten holes. Bake for about 20-25 minutes.