The past week has been a week from hell. Actually I lie, the past couple of months have been like this in our hometown.

I haven’t had running water all week, apparently our dams are running low and the valve the feeds water into our town is faulty and then there is load shedding and every time there is load shedding the substation that feeds my road blows. So guess what it decided to do today? It blew at lunch time, just after we came back on from load shedding. How fun was that? Really fun.

The good news, the power has finally been restored but the water has no time frame.

In other good news, I completed my first ever crochet blanket and it was part of the bokke blanket campaign for 67 blankets. How awesome is that. I had two boxes of wool get delivered for me. Gone are my days of online book shopping and hello online wool shopping.

My parents are not that happy, my dad is threatening to buy a sheep farm so that he can save some money with all my wool buying. As if.

Friday in our household is pot luck day, meaning its either samosas or toasted cheese or chips and bake beans. My parents are okay with this set menu, if and only if I promise to make biscuits for tea time and for a mindnight snack.

Who am I to say no. Actually I have no say in the matter, my mother hints and hints and my father hints even harder when they see it is close to tea time and no there are no biscuits in the oven.

I came across this recipe in Sam Linsell’s cookbook and although it reminded me on half moon biscuits, the texture was a bit off.

This was more of a short bread texture and my parents were a bit confused, but after I explained that it was not a half moon biscuit and that it was a vanilla biscuit they thoroughly enjoyed it.

I couldn’t be more happier, or so I thought. The biscuits didn’t even last till midnight. Tomorrow morning, I see myself making another batch of biscuits, lets just hope Eskom can keep the power on and there is some water to wash a few dishes. I am slowly running out of clean dishes. My dad caught me washing plates with the drinking bottled water and he nearly strangled me with the dish cloth. What can I say, I don’t like a sink full of dishes.

Ingredients:

• 280g x butter, room temperature.
• 340g x cake flour, sifted.
• 140g x castor sugar, sifted.
• 140g x almond nibblers.

Method:

• In a mixer, cream together the sugar and butter, till light and fluffy.
• Add the almond nibblers and mix.
• Add the sifted cake flour and mix till the dough comes together and forms a nice smooth dough.
• Using your hands, break off pieces and shape in half moon crescents.
• Place on a greased baking tray and pop into the fridge to chill for 30 minutes to and hour.
• Remove from the fridge and pop into a preheated oven and bake at 180 degrees for 15 – 20 minutes or until the bottoms are lightly brown.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes on the baking tray.
• Carefully toss the cooled biscuits in the sugar mixture, shake off the excess sugar and place on a cooling rack to cool completely.
• For the sugar mixture, whisk together 105g of castore sugar and the seeds of 1 vanilla bean pod.