MacHygge

I gave up on today as far as outside pursuits were concerned - by the time I might have gone out darkness was falling and I lost the will. Instead, I was seduced by a recipe in a newspaper, primarily because I thought I could rustle up all the ingredients but partly because this time of year is about the only time when I actively feel like baking. The photo is of the result - a couple of racks of Scandinavian-type ginger cookies that seemed to me redolent of that Hygge malarkey that everyone's going on about...

But it was what I found out in the course of the exercise that interested me: that old treacle has the potential to explode ( did you know that on the tin it warns you to dispose of it when it reaches its use-by date?). Mine was about 18 months past and had been sitting ignored in the cupboard, along with the baking soda (similar age) and the powdered ginger (much, much older.) I just don't bake, that's the trouble - get something for an impulse like these cookies and then never use it again. The ginger could have been more gingery, but it's discernible; the treacle was fine and hadn't exploded.

Of course, the oldest of everything I used were the animal cutters, with which my mother used to make wonderfully short shortbread biscuits when I was a small child. They're at least 70 years old, and still in the original box. I think I'll squander two extra photos on them. I always loved the little teddy bears, though there's more eating in the dog. Tonight we ate a couple of rabbits, and jolly good they were, especially when briefly dunked in the tea.

But tell me: shall I now dispose of the threatening treacle, or merely return it to the larder?