Battered

It was really wet on the day of some Germany v Italy match and instead of leaving the holiday cottage Louis had been sneezing on the sofa for the last 8 hours.

I came into the cosy fire lit sitting room after washing up the dinner i'd cooked us. 

"Shall we watch the match?" Louis asked smiling. 

"Hmm that does sound like something I want to do. I'm glad that we can spend our last evening on holiday like this. "

After a quick sulk and tears and make up kiss we settled down to watch the match happily. 

The match was ending on penalties. Louis was very tense and wincing. He said breathlessly, "Oooh Aren't penalties just your favourite part of the game??"

"Hmm I'm not sure. I've never watched a match the whole way through to find out what I think of the other bits."

"Don't you find it tense?" 

"I'm just worried for them. They must be so fed up."

"Do you reckon that's the emotion they're experiencing?"

"Yeah. They just want to go and have their post match bath."


A moment later one of the teams missed a penalty and the other won and I presume the poor player was in really hot water! 


They must have felt as battered about as the elderflower I'd picked early and fried in tempura. I liked them so much I had them for two courses- starter and dessert. 


Battered elderflower heads


250 ml fizzy water, 50 g plain flour- mix and sit off the bench for half an hour. Add whisked egg white in. Then dip the heads in, and holding the stalk carefully fry a head one by one in boiling oil in a pan. 


For pudding I added a shake of caster sugar to the batter and did the same. The pudding version was the best.