We recently had a spate of bank holidays, but thankfully the situation is now under control and the working week has been restored.

Am I bitter about bank holidays? A little. Having moved from Northern Ireland to England, we lost out on a holiday. The double bank holiday for the platinum jubilee made up for it slightly this year. We managed to get out for the Saturday of 1 Big Summer on Plymouth Hoe which was somewhat disappointing, although the first act (an acoustic guitar duo) were excellent and played a medley of covers of club hits.

Amaretti

I have been making amaretti for some time now after discovering the recipe online when we couldn’t get hold of the unique almond cookies for affogato locally. The recipe is from Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen and makes a delicious soft amaretti in contrast to the often overly crunchy shop bought variety. I was using three left-over egg whites so scaled the ingredients to match that. It is one of the most reliable recipes I fall back on when I need to make a big batch of something to bring into work. For an interesting pub quiz level anecdote, Disaronno doesn’t contain any almonds despite the distinctive almond taste. The flavour we associate with it is actually amygdalin, a bitter chemical found in the pits of apricots, bitter almonds and other fruits. Disaronno is an infusion made with apricot kernel oil so rather bizarrely is safe for those with nut allergies.

This week has otherwise been uneventful. We have been preparing for our first transatlantic flight with Evie, heading to Washington and Oregon for a couple of weeks, and getting our films and TV series onto the server for Plex. Oh, and I’ve been dying a lot in Stormveil Castle in Elden Ring. Progress is slow but I’m getting there.