Today is Guy Fawkes Day so I decided to make a parkin and have a fire in the fire pit tonight. It kept me occupied and away from Twitter for part of the day.

The recipe I chose from the Great British Bake Off was overly complicated (well, duh, Dona) and I had to think out of the box for some of the ingredients. I made my own golden syrup (OMG is that good — Delight!), ground rolled oats to make what the British call oatmeal (we call rolled oats — and steel cut oats — oatmeal in the States), and finally I had to cobble together “mixed spice” but I didn’t have any mace.

The parkin turned out well, but it should have been made a week ago to let the flavors mingle according to the recipe. Looking forward to seeing what it tastes like in a week. [edited November 13 — the parkin does not taste much different — maybe a little drier.]

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After dinner we went out back and Dean lit a small fire in the firepit. We ate our parkin and had a tiny drop of whiskey. It was delightful.

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Also, the trumpet still has not won.