A blogging friendship comes to lunch at The Trad Pad

Miss Eagle has never tried to get a decent self portrait.

Imperfect though this shot in the mirror is, Miss E thinks it is the best of the bunch.

Yester, Val came to lunch at The Trad Pad. It was a wonderful time of conversation, handmade books, and food.

The food was simple but appropriate for a chilly, welcome-rainy day. The slow cooker has come out of the bottom cupboard this week as the weather has achieved a certain bite to the breeze and, officially, winter has arrived to-day. It was pressed into service for the first course. On the menu was a thick vegetable broth and, to satisfy the sweet tooth, Polenta Orage Syrup Cake served with cream. The vegetable (with everything in it) broth came complete with the kluskies from Vicious Ange's Kluski Soup. The cake came from Billington's site. POLENTA ORANGE SYRUP CAKE

Ingredients - Cake

• 3 eggs
• 110g/4oz Caster sugar
• 110g/4oz butter - melted and cooled
• Juice of half an orange
• 225g/8oz polenta
• 1 dessertspoon baking powder
• Finely grated zest of 1 orange
• Pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

Ingredients - Syrup

• 2 oranges
• Juice of half a lemon
• 140g/5oz Caster sugar

Method

• Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius/325 degrees fahrenheit.
• Line a 20cm/8inch round cake tin with non-stick baking paper.
• Whisk the eggs and sugar until thick and mousse-like.
• Beat in the melted and cooled butter and orange juice.
• Add polenta and baking powder, followed by the orange zest, salt and vanilla, beating well.
• Pour into prepared tin.
• Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden.
• Test with a skewer. Skewer should come out clean if the cake is done.

While the cake is cooking make the syrup: put all the ingredients into a pan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved completely. Bring to the boil and simmer for five minutes.

• Remove cake from the oven and make holes in it with a skewer.
• Pour over the hot syrup
• Leave to cool
• Turn out onto a serving plate
• Serve with creme fraiche or whipped cream

THE CONVERSATION

Food is best when accompanied by good and lively conversation and the food was well accompanied. Val is marvellous company. As well as a former librarian at the Goethe Institute, her background is in German language and lit. studied in the mythological sixties at that great mythological institution, University of California at Berkeley. Pardon, Miss Eagle. She is a child of the sixties and Berkeley was a place one read about with amazement - at a time when merely sitting in a park in conservative Toowoomba to protest the Vietnam war was enough to bring down on one's head the epithet of "Communist!".

And there were Val's handmade books which she brought to show. Beautiful! Inspiring! And Miss Eagle was given a teensy-weensy beautiful one! Thank you, Val. Then we finished up with a visit to Craft Fair where Val purchased nothing but Miss Eagle found these papers irresistible. A sale on at the moment!

All in all, a beautiful blogging buddy day.