Scary Mary

These giant, chewy cookies are the ultimate in comfort food. Go on, you've earned it!

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan160°C/gas 4. Lightly grease and base line a shallow 24cm loose-bottomed fluted tart tin with baking paper. Put the butter and sugars into a large bowl and cream together using an electric hand whisk until pale, light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the egg.

2. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda, then stir in a good pinch of salt. Lightly mix into the creamed mixture, along with the chocolate and toffee pieces, until just combined into a softish dough.

3. Press the dough into the prepared tart tin with your fingers. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the edges are darker and the centre is almost set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes in the tin (otherwise it will crack as you try to remove it). Remove from the tin and cool completely on a wire rack. Peel off and discard the baking paper.

4. Sift the icing sugar into a small bowl and mix to a fairly thin icing with 2 teaspoons of water. For a general occasion, drizzle lines of icing across the cookie using a metal spoon. For a special occasion such as a birthday, spoon the icing into a piping bag fitted with a small, plain nozzle, then pipe a message on to the cookie.

© delicious. magazine

Background 

...as you probably know, asparagus is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 100-150 cm tall.  What you may not know is that has been used from very early times as a vegetable and medicine, owing to its delicate flavour and diuretic properties.   Asparagus is low in calories, contains no fat or cholesterol, and is very low in sodium. It is a good source of folic acid, potassium, dietary fiber, and rutin  and used ethnomedically to treat urinary tract infections, as well as kidney and bladder stones. Asparagus is also believed to have aphrodisiac properties (this belief is at least partially due to the phallic shape of the shoots).

To Grow

They need a well drained soil that still holds water and they do not like heavy clay or acidic soils.  Asparagus can be grown in partial shade with success but the best results are achieved when they are grown in full sun.

Asparagus can be grown from seed or one year old plants (known as crowns) can be bought from your local garden centre or nursery. Growing from seed is the cheapest method but it is more time-consuming and it will take you an extra year to get a crop.

Prepare the planting area well in advance, autumn is a good time.  If planting crowns, they should be planted in mid-April.  Place crown on the top of the ridge and drape the roots either side. Cover with crumbly soil so that the crown top is 8cm (3in) below the surface.

Harvest 

Don't harvest asparagus for the first two years after the crowns are planted and harvested when it is about 15cm (6in) tall. This will allow a good root system to develop.

Cut off the shoots with a sharp knife about 2cm (1in) below the soil surface. You'll need to harvest every 3 days or so because asparagus can grow very, very quickly. In warm and moist soil they can grow 15cm (6in) in a day!

.....The radish is, because of its speed, very much a fit in crop.

Where there is a small space sow a pinch of seed thinly - about 3cm apart is ideal and rake in or cover with a centimetre of soil. As long as there is sufficient water they should develop.

 Once grown they very quickly go woody and then to seed so sow weekly in the salad season to ensure a continuous supply. Don't bother if they go over, the seed is cheap so compost and harvest the ones sown the week after. In hot summers they benefit from some shade and can be grown in the shadow of other crops. 

...not not a new Scary Mary offshoot!  But Turnips 

This versatile root can be harvested for its leafy tops as well as its crisp, white root. It also gets bonus points for making a fine green manure (simply plough the younger plants back into the soil to improve nutrients)

Provided you buy the correct varieties, turnips can be sown successionally throughout the year. Earlies should be sown under cover in March. Sow in rows 23cm apart and thin in stages to 10cm. Your maincrop can be sown from early spring to mid-summer. These roots are fast-growing so you'll need to start thinning early. Water regularly to avoid woody or split roots.

About this time of year my thoughts are on my spuds! To get a good crop of Potatoes start them into growth now, to do this place them in seed box's or in egg boxes with eye's uppermost, this is were shoots develop, ( this is known as chitting ) place the trays in a cool frost free place with plenty of light but not direct Sunlight, four weeks before planting, water the tubers at regular intervals with a diluted mix of seaweed extract. 

Black Hearts in Celery are a sign of calcium deficiency in the soil